Events and alarms

Events

An event in XProtect VMS is a predefined incident that can be set up to trigger an alarm. Events are either predefined system incidents or user-defined events, for example analytics events or generic events. Events are not necessarily linked to an alarm, but they can be.

Typically, events are activated automatically and in the background, for example, through detected motion or by data from other applications. You can also manually activate events. The VMS uses events to trigger actions, such as starting or stopping recording, changing video settings, activating output Data going out of a computer. On IP surveillance systems, output is frequently used for activating devices such as gates, sirens, strobe lights, and more., or combinations of actions.

When you activate an event from your XProtect Smart Client, it automatically triggers actions on the VMS system, for example recording on a particular camera with a particular frame rate A measure indicating the amount of information contained in motion video. Typically measured in FPS (Frames Per second). for a particular period of time. Your system administrator determines what happens when you manually activate an event.

Alarms

On the XProtect VMS server, virtually any kind of incident or technical problem - events - can be set up to trigger an alarm. Alarms and events can all be viewed on the Alarm Manager tab, which provides a central overview of your VMS incidents, status, and possible technical problems.

You cannot set up alarm triggers yourself in the XProtect Smart Client. Your system administrator sets up alarm triggers when they configure the XProtect VMS system. The Alarm Manager tab is either displayed or hidden depending on the settings defined by your system administrator.

The Alarm Manager tab provides a dedicated view for your alarm or event handling. The tab itself displays the number of active alarms. More than nine alarms are shown with a . The Alarm Manager tab includes an alarm list, an alarm preview for previewing video associated with individual alarms or events, and possibly also a map that displays the geographical location of the camera associated with the alarm.

The relationship between events and alarms

Incidents or technical problems that occur in your XProtect system are known as events. The term event refer to any occurrence or activity captured by the surveillance system that may require user attention or action. For example, if you have motion detection enabled on your cameras and motion is detected that detects motion, this is an event.

For example, if you have motion detected enabled on cameras in your system and movement is detected on a camera where motion detection is set up, this is an event.

To respond to events, your system administrator sets up alarms in XProtect. When an event is activated, an alarm is triggered and displayed in XProtect Smart Client.

For example, when the motion detection event is triggered, a corresponding alarm is shown in XProtect Smart Client to indicate that motion was detected.

You can view alarms and events on the Alarm Manager tab, which provides a central overview of your incidents, statuses, and possible technical problems. Users of XProtect Smart Client cannot set up alarm triggers directly. The system administrators can set up alarm triggers when they configure the XProtect VMS system.

Your system administrator defines whether to display or hide the Alarm Manager tab.

The Alarm Manager tab provides users with a dedicated view for alarm or event handling. The tab itself displays the number of active alarms. When more than nine alarms have been triggered, they are indicated with a notification button that says (9+) .

The Alarm Manager tab also includes an alarm list, an alarm preview for previewing video associated with individual alarms or events, and possibly also a map that displays the geographical location of the camera associated with the alarm.

Manually activate events

You can manually activate an event. There is no confirmation when you have activated an event. The list of events A predefined incident occurring on the surveillance system; used by the surveillance system for triggering actions. Depending on surveillance system configuration, events may be caused by input from external sensors, by detected motion, by data received from other applications, or manually through user input. The occurrence of an event could, for example, be used for making a camera record with a particular frame rate, for activating outputs, for sending e-mails, or for a combination thereof. you can select is grouped by event server, and the camera or device that the event is associated with.

• In live mode, expand the Event pane, then click Activate.

Global events appear under the relevant event server. If an event server is listed with a red icon, it is unavailable and you cannot activate events on it.

Using the Alarm list

The Alarm List displays incoming alarms. The most recent alarms are displayed at the top of the list. The alarm list can display several different types of alarms, including those triggered by MIP Short for "Milestone Integration Platform". plug-in and analytic events coming from, for example, access control or license plate recognition.

Alarms or events with associated video are displayed with an icon that indicates there is video attached ().

• To preview a still image from the time of the alarm or event, place your mouse over the icon.

• To preview recorded video from the camera or cameras associated with the alarm or event, select the alarm or event in the list.

• To stop a repeating alarm sound, select the alarm associated with the sound in the list.

In the alarm list, you can:

• decide how you want the list to appear

• filter the columns

• drag the columns to different positions

• right-click to show or hide certain columns.

The event list does not display system- or user-generated events, such as motion detection or archive failure.

The list is updated every three (3) seconds.

To see a list of events, enter setup mode and select Event in the Properties pane. See also Alarm list settings.

Servers in alarm list

On the left-hand side of the alarm list, you can view the event servers that the alarms originate from.

Many XProtect VMS systems only have a single event server, but some systems consist of several event servers in a hierarchy. All the event servers you have access to are listed, and you can filter alarms by event servers.

Alarm states

Alarms can be in one of the following states:

New, In progress, On hold, or Closed.

You can see the state of each alarm in the Alarm List, in the State Name column. Use the Filters pane to filter according to certain criteria. Initially, all alarms are in the New state, but its state is updated when an alarm is being handled.

Filter alarms

There are several ways you can filter the alarm list, so it displays just the alarms or events that you are interested in.

1. In the toolbar of the alarm list, click the Custom (filter applied) or No filter text. The text may be different, depending on the filter you've selected.
   

   

2. Enter the filter criteria on any of the columns you want to filter on. For example, if you enter a user ID in the ID field, the list only displays alarms assigned to that particular user.
3. You can combine filters, for example State name and Owner (assigned to).
4. To return to the unfiltered alarm list, click the Clear filter button.
5. To sort the content of the alarm list, click the title of the column.

If your alarm handling views contain map content, you can also filter the alarm list by right-clicking an element (camera, event server, or similar) on the map, then selecting Show alarms. This makes the alarm list show only alarms from the selected element.

Responding to alarms

Print alarm reports

You can print a report with information about the alarm, including the alarm history and, if available, a still image from the time of the alarm. However, you cannot use this feature if you have selected multiple alarms in the alarm list. To comply with GDPR rules, by default, the name of the report creator is not shown in the printed report, while the name of the person who printed the report is. To display all names connected to the report, select the Display names button.

1. In the alarm list, right-click the alarm.
2. Select Print. A window appears.
3. To add a note, enter the text in the Note field.
4. Click the Print button.

Get statistics on alarms

Get statistical data about the alarms triggered in your XProtect VMS system over the:

• Last 24 hours
• Last 7 days
• Last 30 days
• Last 6 months
• Last year

The Alarm Report window shows two graphs that display the number of alarms filtered by categories, for example Priority or State, allowing you to compare the two graphs side by side.

Steps:

1. In the Alarm List, click the Reports button. A window appears.
2. Above the graphs, select the timespan, for example Last 24 hours.
3. In the Select report list, select one of these categories:
   • Category
   • State
   • Priority
   • Reasons for closing
   • Site
   • Response time
4. For each graph, select a sub-filter. For example if you selected State, you can select New in the first graph and In progress in the second. The graphs are populated.
5. To print the graphs as a PDF report, click .

Alarms on maps

If your alarm handling view contains one or more map positions, you can view alarms on the maps too. Maps display alarms based on the geographical location of the camera, event server or other device triggering the alarms, so you can instantly see where the alarm originates from. You can right-click and acknowledge, disable, or suppress the alarm directly from the map.

Camera elements display video in thumbnail format when you move your mouse over it. When used together with alarms, the graphical elements on maps display red circles around them if alarms occur. For example, if an alarm associated with a particular camera occurs, the graphical element representing that camera will immediately get a red circle around it, and you can then click the camera element and not only view video from the camera, but also handle the alarm through a menu that appears.

If red is not an ideal color for signifying alarms on your maps, you can change this color.

Now, say the camera which has an alarm associated with it, is located on a street level map, but you are viewing a city level map. How will you then notice the alarm? No problem, thanks to hot zones—graphical representations linking different map hierarchy levels together. If an alarm is detected on the street level map, the hot zone on the city level map will then turn red, indicating that there is an alarm on a lower level map—even if there are map levels in between.

To return to an alarm list mode where you can see alarms from more than just the one element, click the required event server, priority or state in the alarm list.

Alarms on smart maps

If a device triggers an alarm and the device is added to your smart map, the alarm will appear as a red circle around the device or the icon for the cluster with the device inside. See Adding, deleting, or editing devices on smart map.