Viewing live video

You view live video mainly on the Live tab in one of the views located in the Views pane. There are different actions available on the view items that show the live video. For example, if something catches your attention, you can zoom in to take a closer look, or start manual recording.

Live video (explained)

The video stream from the camera is not necessarily being recorded. Typically, recording takes place according to a schedule, for example, every morning from 10.00 to 11.30. Or whenever the VMSClosedShort for "Video Management Software". system detects special events, for example, motion generated by a person entering a room.

If title bars have been enabled, the title bar above the images indicates if video is being recorded. Sometimes the camera is recording for short periods only. This is because the system server may have been configured to only record when there is motion, when a door is open, or similar.

If multiple streams have been set up on the server, you can temporarily view a different stream by selecting this from the camera toolbar. On the camera toolbar, click More and then select a stream from the available list.

To investigate an incident that was recorded, go to the Playback tab. To perform advanced searches, go to the Search tab.

Camera indicators (explained)

The camera indicators show you the status of the video that is displayed in the camera view items. The camera indicators are visible only if the camera title bar is enabled in the Settings window on the Application tab.

The camera title bar in XProtect Smart Client.

You can turn the camera title bar on and off on individual view items. On the Live or Playback tab, click Setup and select the Show title bar check box in the Properties pane.

The list describes the different camera indicators that appear when:

  • motion is detected. Click inside the image to reset the motion indicator
  • the server connection to the camera is lost
  • video from the camera is being recorded
  • a connection to the camera is established. This icon is only relevant for live video
  • playing back recorded video
  • no new images have been received from the server for more than two seconds

In the camera properties, you can add sound to notify you when there is motion.

Record video manually

This feature is only available in certain XProtect VMS systems. For information about the features in your system, see Surveillance system differences.

Recording while watching live video is useful if you see something of interest.

Steps:

On the camera toolbar for the view item that you want to record, select one of the following options:

  • Start recording for # Minutes
  • Once started, recording will continue for the number of minutes determined by your system administrator. You cannot change this, and you cannot stop recording before the specified number of minutes has passed.

  • Start manual recording
  • Once started, recording will continue for the number of minutes determined by your system administrator, or you can click the icon again to stop manual recording.

    You can start recording the video stream from more than one camera simultaneously, but you must select them one by one.

Take single snapshots

As you are viewing live or recorded video, or searching for video, you can take an instant snapshotClosedAn instant capture of a frame of video at a given time. that you can share. The path to the folder, where the still image is saved, is specified in the Settings window under Application settings.

Steps:

  1. If you are on the Live or Playback tab:
    1. Hover over a view item that contains a camera, a hotspot, a carousel, or a camera navigator.
    2. In the toolbar, click . The icon momentarily turns green.
  2. If you are on the Search tab, double-click a search result and click in the camera toolbar. The icon momentarily turns green.
  3. To access the snapshots, go to the file location where the snapshots are saved. See Settings window.

If the image contains a privacy maskClosedA blurred or solid color that covers an area of the video in the camera view. The defined areas are blurred or covered in live, playback, hotspot, carousel, smart map, smart search, and export modes in the clients., this privacy mask is also applied to the snapshot image.