Push-to-talk (explained)

The push-to-talk feature enables you to communicate from a PC microphone through the VMS system with people near one camera or to start broadcasting audio to multiple video cameras with audio equipment. You can also listen to the recorded conversations in playback mode or include the two-way audio recordings in the audio package when preparing video exports.

XProtect Web Client supports the push-to-talk (PTT) feature:

You must allow your internet browser to have access to your PC microphones (see Requirements for using push-to-talk).

When the push-to-talk (PTT) feature is available for use, you will see the Push-to-talk button on the camera toolbar. Its icon has the following states:

Icon Description
(Available) In live mode, it shows that the push-to-talk (PTT) feature is available and that you fulfilled the necessary requirements for using it. Click and hold to start using push-to-talk. Release the button to end transmitting audio.
(Active) In live mode, it shows that you are currently using the push-to-talk (PTT) feature. The PC microphone and the speaker of the video camera are in an active state. The blue pulsating circle indicates the sound level.
(Disabled)

In live mode, it shows that:

  • The push-to-talk (PTT) feature is available, but you did not fulfill the necessary requirements for using it (see Requirements for using push-to-talk).

  • The camera speaker is disabled.
  • The hardware device is disabled.
In playback mode, it shows that you can listen to two-way audio while playing back a video recording and that you can select the audio source that you want to listen to (see Playing back audio in video recordings (explained)).

Rules for interrupting push-to-talk in live mode

Based on the level of your user permissions (Administrators or Operators), there are two rules for interrupting a push-to-talk session in live mode:

  • Users with the same level of user permissions cannot interrupt each other.
  • Users with a lower level of user permissions (Operators) cannot interrupt users with a higher level of user permissions (Administrators).