Avigilon Plugin
Introduction
Witness supports integration with many different types of external systems through the use of plugins. These are stand-alone software libraries which are dynamically loaded by the Management Server and have the ability to pass data and events to and from the external system. This page covers the process of setting up the Avigilon plugin which enables integration with generic events, e.g. alarms and devices to provide the operator with comprehensive incident management.
Witness Requirements
The Witness installation needs an authorization token to use the Avigilon Plugin
The Avigilon Plugin needs to be configured
At least one camera must be configured to generate bookmarks
Avigilon Requirements
Avigilon Control Centre 7 (ACC 7) Server installed. Minimum v7.14.40.12. This is available here: https://www.avigilon.com/software-downloads?searchQuery=ACC.
Configuring the Avigilon Plugin in Witness
To configure the Avigilon plugin:
The Avigilon Plugin will appear as a node under the Integration Configurations folder within the Configuration Tree.
Selecting the Avigilon Plugin will display the following screen in the Configuration Control:
You can Edit the pane and then enable the plugin and update the fields:
Plugin Enabled: Select to enable the Avigilon Plugin.
Name: The unique name of the plugin.
User Name: User name to login to the Avigilon Control Centre.
Password: Password to login to the Avigilon Control Centre.
Client Name: Client name to login to the Avigilon Control Centre.
Server Address: The Avigilon server IP address.
Server Port: The Port for the server connection.
User Token: To use the Avigilon Web Endpoint API, you must generate an authorization token. This is obtained by entering a User Token (referred to as a userNonce by Avigilon) and a User Key which can be obtained from Avigilon.
User Key: To use the Avigilon Web Endpoint API, you must generate an authorization token. Once you enter a User Token and User Key, the system will automatically generate an authorization token which is valid for an hour.
Protect Bookmark Data: Enabling this option will set the bookmark as private. Clear the option for the bookmark to be public.
Camera: The name of the camera configured in Witness.
Avigilon Camera Name: The name of the camera configured in the Avigilon Control Centre.
Device Mapping within the Avigilon Control Centre Server
Open and start the Avigilon Control Centre Server. Once the server is running, click Launch Control Center Client:
The Site Login screen will open. Enter your username and password which is configured in the Witness Avigilon Plugin:
Go to the Site, Setup tab and click Connect/Disconnect Devices:
Click Find Device to add a new camera and connect:
Open the camera view; you can drag the camera to a pane on the right to display the live camera view:
Select the Recorded button and you can search the records by bookmarks:
Here is list of bookmarks created by Avigilon Plugin on the left hand side, and the bookmark details are below the camera view:
The Description field will show the Witness notification message when the rule has been broken.
Device Mapping within Witness
The next step is to map the cameras within Witness. The mapping configuration is required to map each of the cameras configured in Witness to the corresponding devices in Avigilon. This process ensures that Witness creates bookmarks for the correct camera in response to an alarm or bookmark in Witness.
Select Edit on the plugin configuration:
Click the + icon to add a device to be mapped:
Click the camera drop down list:
Select the appropriate camera and add the Avigilon Camera Name which is used in Avigilon Control Centre:
Select Save when complete.
The camera will be configured. Repeat the process to add more cameras if required.
Example Bookmark
Here is a short animation showing how to create bookmarks using the Avigilon Plugin: