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Alnet VideoDR-S User Manual

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VideoDR-S User's Manual
User's Manual version 1.12 (May 2003)
This manual applies to the program version 1.0.0.249
 2003 ALNET SYSTEMS INC.
The information in this manual is up-to-date at the moment of this publication. ALNET SYSTEMS, INC.. has all rights to modify the program without earlier
notification.
This manual applies only to the VideoDR-S server application.

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Summary of Contents for Alnet VideoDR-S

  • Page 1 This manual applies to the program version 1.0.0.249  2003 ALNET SYSTEMS INC. The information in this manual is up-to-date at the moment of this publication. ALNET SYSTEMS, INC.. has all rights to modify the program without earlier notification. This manual applies only to the VideoDR-S server application.

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    IDEO CAPTURE CARDS ............5 ARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS 1.3.1 Minimum requirements ................5 1.3.2 Recommended configuration ..............6 1.3.3 What hardware to avoid? ................6 INSTALLATION OF THE VIDEODR-S SYSTEM ON A PC.........8 ............8 NSTALLATION OF VIDEO CAPTURE CARDS ................8 NSTALLATION OF THE DONGLE ........9...
  • Page 3 OGIN AND LOGOUT OPTIONS DOME CONTROL ....................55 ................55 OME CONTROL SETTINGS ...................57 OME CONTROL PANEL DONGLE VALIDATION ..................58 UNINSTALLATION OF THE VIDEODR-S SYSTEM SOFTWARE ....61 FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS .............62 ADVANCED SETTINGS ..................64 ....................64 UNNELING ......................64 10 CONTACT INFO ....................66...

  • Page 4: Introduction

    VideoDR-S system. 1.1 System description The VideoDR-S is a digital video recorder designated for operation with closed-circuit television cameras. The system runs on IBM-compatible computers with Microsoft Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows XP operating system. It can record the image from a maximum of 16 cameras, supports up to 12 remote switches and 16 inputs for additional alarm inputs.

  • Page 5: Hardware And Software Requirements

    Intel chipset. NOTE!!! The VideoDR-S has been designed for continuous operation under Microsoft Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows XP operating systems. VideoDR-S will not work with other operating systems (e.g. Windows 95/98/Me, BeOS, Linux...). 1.3.1 Minimum requirements The recommended minimum is a computer with: •...

  • Page 6: Recommended Configuration

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. • Intel Celeron 1.3 - 1.4 GHz (256 kB Cache) – three cards, • Pentium IV 1.8 MHz and better – four cards. We recommend the Intel chipset of the motherboard to fully utilize the PCI bus speed.
  • Page 7 ALNET SYSTEMS INC. • Motherboards not based on the Intel chips.

  • Page 8: Installation Of The Videodr-S System On A Pc

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. 2 Installation of the VideoDR-S system on a PC. The following paragraphs outline step-by-step instructions for installation of the hardware dongle, video capture cards and VideoDR-S system software. 2.1 Installation of video capture cards Depending on the selected kit, one to four video capture cards are delivered, together with the hardware “dongle”...

  • Page 9: Connection Of Cameras, Switches And Alarm Inputs

    ALNET SYSTEMS INC. LPT port USB port Dongle connected as a transitory element to the LPT port 2.3 Connection of cameras, switches and alarm inputs Connect the cameras, plugging the BNC plugs from the cameras into the BNC sockets on the video cards in the computer. Ensure that the cameras are powered...

  • Page 10: Installation Of The Software

    (the installed video capture cards). The system will ask if you want to install drivers for the new Video Capture device in the system. Leave this window open (do not click any of the buttons) and begin the installation of the VideoDR-S software.
  • Page 11 ALNET SYSTEMS INC. After the startup, the installation program will display a welcome screen, prompting you to install the software for the VideoDR-S system. Press the Next button : The next screen will display information concerning the license to be accepted by the user.
  • Page 12 Press the Next button to proceed. In the next step you will be asked for a target folder in the Start menu of Windows system. The default folder is VideoDR-S. You may accept the default or specify another location.
  • Page 13 ALNET SYSTEMS INC. A message stating “Dongle driver installed” will confirm successful installation of the software. The last window will remind you, that it is necessary to install the video capture card drivers, providing the cards are already installed in the computer.
  • Page 14 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. An alternative method to open the Add/Remove Hardware Wizard is via Device Manager in the Control Panel. Right mouse-click Sound, video and game controllers from the device list and select the option Scan for hardware changes. Follow the steps in the Add/Remove Hardware Wizard to proceed with installation.
  • Page 15 ALNET VideoDR-S WDM Audio Capture. A shortcut to the program will be created by default on the Windows desktop. Start the VideoDR-S system, by clicking the Start DR-S shortcut on the desktop or by selecting it from the Start menu.

  • Page 16: Startup And Configuration Of The Videodr-S System

    3 Startup and configuration of the VideoDR-S system To start the program, click the Start DR-S icon on the Windows desktop or select the program from the Start menu, Start / Applications / ALNET or the alternative location chosen during installation. By default the VideoDR-S starts automatically with Windows.

  • Page 17: First Configuration - Step By Step

    Here you select archive files size and disk space thresholds and locations. Description in Chapter 3.9. 4. If you want to configure the VideoDR-S as a video server, in order for the client application to connect to it through a network, you have to activate the video server.

  • Page 18: Main Program View

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. 3.3 Main program view The toolbar at the top of the screen contains a drop-down menus giving access to the most important options of the system. • Program menu: o Minimize – minimize the window to an icon in the taskbar o Login –...
  • Page 19 • About o About VideoDR-S – displays information about the manufacturer and program version. o Enter license data – appears only if you haven’t registered your copy yet. It will open the window where you can enter the license number.
  • Page 20 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. On the left side there are icons allowing direct access to desired configuration functions of the program, and to switch the camera views. Turn the recording on / off. Camera Settings. Browse the video archives. Settings of the video cards.
  • Page 21 ALNET SYSTEMS INC. Settings: • Name of the output. • Active state – determines which output state will be the active state upon switch activation (NC – Normal Closed, NO – Normal Open). Event switching: • Triggered – the switch will be activated for the duration of the input signal associated with this switch (as configured in the Scheduler).

  • Page 22: Screen Display Modes, Bookmarks, Saving A Frame Features

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. In the input settings you can specify the Name of the input, and which state is the Active state, i.e. alarm activation. It is also possible to associate a .WAV sound file with a particular input (a suitable computer soundcard must be installed).

  • Page 23: Window Display Modes (Full Screen, Window, Normal)

    ALNET SYSTEMS INC. Use Save frame to save the currently captured frame to JPG file format on disk. 3.4.2 Window display modes (full screen, window, normal) There is a variety of different window display modes available. Program starts in a Normal mode by default.
  • Page 24 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. • Picture quality – determines the quality of archived images. o Frames – quality of the key frame. Increasing this value increases the image quality but decreases compression. The key frame is used as a background for picture fragments – delta. In the Program Settings (Chapter 3.7) window you can set up the rate the key frame will be...
  • Page 25 ALNET SYSTEMS INC. o Sensitivity – recommended setting for optimal quality: 63 – 65, for optimal record time set this up below 30. This parameter is used to scale the program response to the changes of the image. When the Show delta areas button is pressed, dots appear on the camera image, representing the replaced areas (deltas).
  • Page 26 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. o The last icon inverts the mask selection, i.e. the areas that have been selected as the mask will be unselected, and the areas that have not been covered by the mask will be “masked”. o Enabled button turns on the selected mask.
  • Page 27 ALNET SYSTEMS INC. connected and 4 cards in the computer). In high motion area, the frame per second rate decreases due to high processor load. o Oscillation stabilizer – this function stabilizes vertical oscillations of the camera. o Compression preview button turns on the preview of quality of the recorded image.
  • Page 28 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. sensor placed above allows adjustment of the Alarm threshold setting. The threshold should be adjusted when the image is still. The purpose of this option is to eliminate recording of noises such as leaves in the wind. It is necessary to press the Show motion detection areas button on the required frame.

  • Page 29: Configuration Of The Video Capture Card

    ALNET SYSTEMS INC. o Camera name button – displays camera name on the image. o Frames per second button – displays current number of frames captured per second. o Current time button – displays current time and date. o Text color button – changes the color of texts displayed on the screen.

  • Page 30: Configuration Of Program Settings

    This is used for checking the authenticity of the cards. Press the OK button at the bottom of the window in order to confirm the entered changes. The new settings will apply after the VideoDR-S system is restarted. 3.7 Configuration of program settings...

  • Page 31: Configuration Of Network Settings - Video Server

    • Language – selection of the interface language. After a change you need to restart the VideoDR-S application. • Recording – Options allows you to adjust the rate the key frame is recorded. In other words the option means that, the entire frame is recorded every XX delta frames, where XX –...

  • Page 32: Configuration Of Archive Files

    The button is used to switch the web server on or off. 3.9 Configuration of archive files A critical part of the VideoDR-S system configuration is to specify a physical data location, i.e. hard disk space where the program will save the video image archives.

  • Page 33: Configuration Of Server Access Accounts

    The window below is used to configure access to the VideoDR-S system. It allows creation of accounts for users with different access rights. In the upper part of the window a list of user accounts is...

  • Page 34: Editing An Account

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. 3.10.1 Editing an account When you select an account from the list and press the Edit user button, a new window will be displayed where you can freely change User details and rights. The OK button confirms changes.
  • Page 35 In the Rights panel you can specify the rights granted to the user. If the Administrator button is pressed, the user has the administrator rights, and will have full administrative control of the VideoDR-S program. In addition, the Automatic logon button will be available. Pressing this button will automatically log this user into the system after program startup, skipping password authentication.
  • Page 36 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. • Time restrictions The window is divided into three columns. The first column specifies whether the user will have access to the application on a particular day of the week, the next column specifies times of the day access are available to this user.

  • Page 37: Adding A New Account

    Regardless of any change to your assigned IP address. This process only involves your initial input the first time you register your dynamic IP with us. The rest is done automatically by Alnet VDRS and our dedicated VDR-S.com server.
  • Page 38 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. Dynamic D.N.S. It will open new registering window where you can enter all required parameters: You have to fill out this form and following fields: Domain name – enter the subdomain you would like to have. Interface – select the network adapter that is connected to Internet (there could be more than one network adapter so you will have to select the right one) Name –...

  • Page 39: Using The Videodr-S System

    To go to the archive view, press the icon in the icon bar on the left side of the main view of the VideoDR-S system, or select the Archive submenu from the Tools menu on the toolbar at the top of the screen.

  • Page 40: Control Panel Of The Archive

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. 4.1.1 Control panel of the archive On the left side of the screen there is a control panel of the archive: The following is a description of the image control playback buttons. icon plays the recording in real-time forward. The 2x icon plays at twice real-time speed.

  • Page 41: Searching For Motion In Image Archives

    Next press the icon to begin the process of motion searching in the archive. The VideoDR-S system will rewind the archive to the point where a motion was detected in any of the selected areas. The...

  • Page 42: Exporting Archive To Avi File

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. video playback will be stopped and you will hear sound signal (where available). Click the icon again in order to continue motion searching. Below you can see an example of motion searching in the selected areas: You can specify the motion searching sensitivity in the archive for each of the cameras separately.

  • Page 43: Inserting The Bookmark Into The Video Archive

    ALNET SYSTEMS INC. First, select the camera to export video from, time span, fps rate and the file name. After clicking OK button you have to select the codec to encode the file. 4.1.4 Inserting the bookmark into the video archive Using the bookmarks you can quickly browse the archive to the previous set up positions.

  • Page 44: Setting The Archive Image Parameters And Motion Detection Sensitivity

    4.1.8 Browsing recordings from a given day – using the calendar The VideoDR-S system allows browsing the archives using a handy calendar. It is called up by clicking the Calendar button in the archive control panel. A calendar window will be displayed, dates in bold indicate recordings made on that day.

  • Page 45: Scheduler

    ALNET SYSTEMS INC. 4.2 Scheduler The VideoDR-S system allows creating a schedule for camera operation. Depending on the occurrence of an event connected with a particular camera, an input or the system at a particular moment in time, you can program a desired system response.
  • Page 46 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. Event name – the name of the programmed task (e.g. night guard). Date – pressing this button activates the options below (Start:, End:), where you can specify time parameters for the task to be executed. Time – specify the days of week and the time of day when the task should be executed.

  • Page 47: Input Operation Schedule

    ALNET SYSTEMS INC. on selected outputs (Set outputs) (e.g. an alarm buzzer connected to the relay output, or a buzzer in the guard room), or generating a sound previously assigned to a particular camera in the camera settings, using speakers connected to the computer.

  • Page 48: System Alerts

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. Date – this button activates the options below (Start: End:), where you can where you can specify time parameters for the task to be executed. Time – specify the days of week and the time of day when the task should be executed.

  • Page 49: Selecting And Adding New Email Addresses

    ALNET SYSTEMS INC. In the upper part of the window there is a list of defined tasks. Initially there are no tasks listed. Tasks added will appear in this list. In order to edit a task, select it from this list, modify the desired parameters and press the Change button (the Add button changes its name to the Change button).
  • Page 50 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. assign an address to a specific event, mark it on the left side by the address. In the Address book tab you can define different addresses and add them to the list of addresses notification is to be sent to.

  • Page 51: Creating A Backup Copy Of The Video Image Archive

    ALNET SYSTEMS INC. Sending SMS messages to mobile phones/PDA will work in a similar manner (SMS features depends on your local cellular phone company). 4.4 Creating a backup copy of the video image archive To create a backup copy of the archive, select the Backup submenu from the upper Tools menu.

  • Page 52: Updating The Program

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. • Backup settings – in this window you specify: o Destination folder (it is possible to select an already existing folder on the disk, using the Browse button. o Single file size (in MB) – the size selected from the drop-down menu corresponds to popular capacities of CD-R and CD-RW disks.

  • Page 53: About" Window

    Then you can start the application that updates the VideoDR-S system. 2. Use the Program update function available in the menu of the VideoDR-S program. This function is described below. NOTE! This function is not implemented in the current version of the program.

  • Page 54: Exiting The Program

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. 4.7 Exiting the program When you exit the program for the first time, you will be asked for the location and name for the server configuration file. In the future, each time you exit the program, this question is changed to the confirmation of saving of the new configuration. If the No button is pressed, all the changes in configuration, introduced since the last program execution will be lost.

  • Page 55: Dome Control

    5 Dome control Note! Dome control is only implemented in a Professional and Real-Time version of the VideoDR-S program. It is not implemented in Home Edition version. 5.1 Dome control settings The dome control settings window is called up by clicking the icon in the icon bar on the left hand side.
  • Page 56 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. Select the protocol from the list in the window above that will be assigned to the specific serial port. The keyboard, the joystick, and the mouse icons are used to define program behavior depending on pressing of a particular key or joystick movement.

  • Page 57: Dome Control Panel

    ALNET SYSTEMS INC. 5.2 Dome control panel Select the icon from the icon bar on the left hand side to open the window of the screen joystick. This is useful if the analogue USB joystick is not present. The arrows indicate directions, zoom in and zoom out options are located underneath.

  • Page 58: Dongle Validation

    To update the key, you need to select the folder from the Windows Start menu, specified during installation (by default it is Start / Applications / ALNET), and select the Dongle update item from the drop-down menu. Select the first option Whole or partial update of dongle's memory contents to update the dongle memory (e.g.
  • Page 59 ALNET SYSTEMS INC. NOTE!!! Usually the update is processed within a few minutes, but in particular cases it may take up to 3 days. Therefore it is advisable to obtain an extension of validity well in advance of the expiry of the hardware dongle.
  • Page 60 VideoDR-S User’s Manual. 5. This time select the Process number-answer 6. Enter the received code in the window and received from software vendor option. press the Next button. A window will appear with a message about the update of the user’s validity...

  • Page 61: Uninstallation Of The Videodr-S System Software

    7 Uninstallation of the VideoDR-S system software In order to uninstall the software go to Start – Settings – Control Panel. In the control panel select the Add/Remove Programs icon. Find the VideoDR-S item and press the Change/Remove button. An InstallShield Wizard window will appear. Select the Remove option and click the...

  • Page 62: Faq - Frequently Asked Questions

    Next button. Some matching drivers might be displayed. Select ALNET VideoDR-S WDM Video Capture or ALNET VideoDR-S WDM Audio Capture from the list and press the Next button to update the driver. Reboot the computer when update is completed.
  • Page 63 ALNET SYSTEMS INC. 5) Question: One or more cameras are not displaying any image. Answer: Check if the camera is operational, e.g. connect it to another input on the card. Ensure that the selected camera is active in the Camera settings (the Connect camera button in the Global frame under the camera image preview is highlighted).

  • Page 64: Advanced Settings

    The network server has the external IP 212.244.103.44 and the internal IP 192.168.1.1 From the Internet level the VideoDR-S is to be available under the public IP address of our network server at the address 555. The tunnel should have the following form: 212.244.103.44:555 ->...
  • Page 65 ALNET SYSTEMS INC. • Enter the name of the master computer, user name and password • Send the command ping 1.1.1.1, in case of success run the VideoDR-C client application and connect to 1.1.1.1...

  • Page 66: Contact Info

    VideoDR-S User’s Manual. 10 Contact info ALNET SYSTEMS INC. 6567 CONSTANCE ST LAKE WORTH, FL 33467 Tel.: 561-967-9665 Fax: 561-967-9670 Office: alnet@alnetsystems.com Sales and marketing: richard@alnetsystems.com Technical support: tomgal@alnetsystems.com http://www.alnetsystems.com/...

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