About the Camera device

Cameras may be supported by a DVR or they may be installed and configured as “standalone” cameras on the network. If they are DVR-supported, then the camera device typically is located in the Cameras folder under the DVR video device, which in turn is under the specific Video Network for that DVR manufacturer Driver network. You can add a camera to the network by using the Add or Discover function from the Camera Manager view. If the camera is already on the network, it is usually easiest to use the Discover method to find it.

In a properly licensed and configured station, remote cameras are available under the remote station’s NiagaraNetwork representation. Remote cameras must be discovered and added to a station using the Niagara Camera Mgr view. See the About the “remoteVideo” feature (NiagaraAX-3.4 and later) section for more information.

The Camera component represents a single Video Camera device. One or more Camera components may be added using the Camera Manager view. Camera devices vary, according to model and video driver. If a DVR device supports cameras, then the DVR device configuration needs to include information to allow communication between the DVR device and the camera device. DVR and Camera properties and actions may vary based on the DVR and Camera type. In addition to the common properties (mentioned in About the Video Driver hierarchy) the following properties are common to most Camera devices, for properties unique to a specific camera and driver, refer to the individual driver descriptions (listed as Appendix sections in this document):

Device ID

This property contains two text strings that describe the camera: Description and Camera Id. Camera Id is the number of the camera as it is configured on the DVR . Description is a name that you can use to identify the camera as it appears in other views (such as the Camera Manager view).
PTZ Support

This property contains the following parameters that specify the features available on the associated camera. Select or clear each option box to specify that the camera does or does not support the listed pan, tilt and zoom feature.
If these properties are not enabled, PTZ functions do not work. This means that any widgets that use PTZ controls do not work.
- Enable All
  
  When selected, this option enables all of the PTZ options.
- Pan/Tilt
  
  When selected, this option enables the pan and tilt feature.
- Iris
  
  When selected, this option enables the camera iris controls.
- Focus
  
  When selected, this option enables the camera focus controls.
- Zoom
  
  When selected, this option enables the camera zoom controls.
- Move to Preset
  
  When selected, this option enables the move to preset position controls.
- Store Preset
  
  When selected, this option enables the ability to create and save preset values.
Control Timing

These properties represent Timeout and Interval settings for a set of camera control parameters. These settings affect how long a camera continues to respond to control communications after a control message is received. The reason for these limits is to prevent a camera from being left in a state of continual movement or adjustment (iris, focus, or zoom) in case communication with the device is lost.
- Watchdog Timeouts
  
  This is the maximum amount of time that a control continues to be active after the last “control message”. For example, with the Move Watchdog Timeout property set to 5 seconds, if a “Move” control message directs a camera to “pan right” and communication is immediately lost, the camera continues to pan right for 5 seconds and stops.
- Intervals
  
  If the Move Interval property is set to 1 second and the camera does not receive a control communication after 1 second, communication is assumed to be “lost” and the “Watchdog” timer begins.
You can adjust the camera controls on each of the parameters by setting and saving the time values for each of the following properties:
- Move Watchdog Timeout
- Move Interval
- Zoom Watchdog Timeout
- Zoom Interval
- Iris Watchdog Timeout
- Iris Interval
- Focus Watchdog Timeout
- Focus Interval
Video Preferences

The following properties allow you to configure video quality and transmission options:
- Preferred Resolution
  
  Choose High, Medium, or Low. These options specify the pixel resolution of each transmitted frame. The actual pixel values for these three relative settings are defined in the video device.
- Preferred Frame Rate
  
  Choose Low, Medium, or High. These options are defined by the Lo Frame Rate, Med Frame Rate, and Hi Frame Rate properties.
- Preferred Compression
  
  Choose None, Low, Medium, or High. These options specify what level of compression is used during live video streaming. The actual compression values for these relative settings are defined in the video device. Higher compression uses less bandwidth but negatively affects image quality.
- Fox Video Stream Preferred
  
  This property allows you to select or decline the use of Fox Streaming. The following paragraphs describe the effects of these two options.
  - inherit
    
    When selected, the inherit option causes a camera to use the value for this property that is set at it’s parent component (whether the parent is a DVR or a Network component).
    
    For example, if the parent component’s Fox Video Stream Preferred property is set to true, then the camera component also uses the value of true. In this example, if the parent is a DVR device, the DVR device may also have an inherit option set. If so, the value from the Network Device’s Fox Video Stream Preferred property is used.
  - true
    
    The true option enables Fox Streaming. This means that the video stream is sent from the video camera to the station (Controller) and then forwarded to the WorkbenchAX interface through the standard Fox connection. This overcomes firewall issues in the event that the video surveillance system is not exposed to the outside world on its network
    
    This assumes that the controller is exposed - otherwise you could not even connect to the station.
    
    If this option is selected, then you should consider setting the resolution and frame Rate to Low and the compression to High in order to preserve CPU usage in the station (controller).
    Empirical analysis on the Dedicated Micros driver revealed that CPU utilization on a JACE 6 while streaming one low frame rate Fox Video Stream is 5 to 10 percent. Utilization for one high frame rate fox video stream is around 40 percent!
  - false
    
    If false, then the video stream is sent directly from the video camera to the WorkbenchAX interface. Using this setting allows you to set the resolution and Frame Rate to High without having to worry about reducing the station (Jace) CPU - the station is removed from the equation. In either case, the client-side computer expends some of its CPU utilization to render the video on the screen.
    CPU usage varies greatly depending on the capabilities of the client-side PC. During testing, even an 800 Mhz Pentium III PC with 256 MB RAM running Windows 2000 with Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer was able to easily render at least one video feed. Typically this method can only be used when the client browser or WorkbenchAX interface is accessed through a VPN connection. In this configuration, both the NiagaraAX station and the remote client must connect to the video device using the same IP address.
- Timestamp Preferred
  
  Set this property to true to display and record a timestamp on the video.
Fast, Medium, Slow Speed

These three properties define the “Fast”, “Medium”, and “Slow” Resolution settings that are selected under the Video Preferences property. Type in a numeric text string between 0 (slowest) and 15 (fastest) to specify each of the three speeds. These speeds affect the rate of movement for pan, tilt, and zoom functions, as described in Types of Video View controls and indicators
Frame Rates: Lo, Med, Hi

These parameters allow you to define the frame rate between 1 and 15 frames per second (fps) for each of the three frame rate selections.
Preset Text

This property provides a means for adding and naming preset options using the Enum dialog box. The options, once defined here, are available from the Presets option list, which is available from the camera Live Video view or Video Playback view.
Events

The Event Camera Ext contains the properties that allow you to view, configure, and tune all aspects of video events. See About Video Events.
Fox Video Source

This property is present to allow for Fox Tunneling. It must exist under the video camera in the station in order for the WorkbenchAX (or Wb applet) to access camera video stream through Fox networking. The first time any camera uses Fox Video streaming, this property is added to the video camera device, where it subsequently remains.