Set up investigations

Set up investigations so that people can use XProtect Web Client or XProtect Mobile to access recorded video and investigate incidents and to prepare and download video evidence.

To set up investigations, follow these steps:

1. In Management Client, click the mobile server, and then click the Investigations tab.
2. Select the Enable investigations check box. By default, the check box is selected.
3. In the Investigations folder field, specify where to store video for investigations.
4. Optional: To allow users to access investigations that other users create, select the View investigations made by other users check box. If you do not select this check box, users can see only their own investigations.
5. Select the Enable the size limit of investigations folder check box to set the maximum number of megabytes that the investigation folder can contain.
6. Select the Enable the investigation retention time check box to set a retention time for investigations. By default, the retention time is set to seven days.
7. Under Export formats, select the check box of the export format that you want to use. The available export formats are:
   • AVI format
   • XProtect format
   • MKV format

   By default, the check boxes are cleared.

8. (Optional) To include the date and time that a video was downloaded, select the Include timestamps for AVI exports check box.
9. In the Used codec for AVI exports field, select the compression format to use when preparing AVI packages for download.

   The codecs in the list can differ, depending on your operating system. If you do not see the codec you want to use, you can install it on the computer where Management Client is running, and it will display in this list.

   Additionally, codecs can use different compression rates, which can affect video quality. Higher compression rates reduce storage requirements but can also reduce quality. Lower compression rates require more storage and network capacity but can increase quality. It's a good idea to research the codecs before you select one.

10. From the Used audio bit rate for AVI exports list, select the appropriate audio bit rate when audio is included in your video export. The default is 160000 Hz.

To enable users to save investigations, you must grant the Export permission to the security role assigned to the users.

Clean up investigations

If you have investigations or video exports that you no longer need to keep, you can delete them. For example, this can be useful if you want to make more disk space available on the server.

• To delete an investigation, and all of the video exports that were created for it, select the investigation in the list and then click Delete
• To delete individual video files that were exported for an investigation, but keeping the investigation, select the investigation in the list. In the Investigation details group, click the Delete icon to the right of the XProtect, AVI, or MKV fields for exports