Introduction

This section deals with the settings associated with positioning and configuring a camera for automatic control.

Contents

Open

Standard Settings

Camera Details

Name: The labelled name of the camera in the UI.

Manufacturer: The camera's manufacturer.

Model: The camera model.

User ID: A user friendly ID that can be used for external control, associated with whomever added the camera.

Asset Code: Insert your asset code if applicable.

Enabled: Select for the camera to be active.

Relay ID: The relay that is activated whenever the camera is activated (most often used to prompt a DVR to begin recording the video feed). Choose ‘0’ to disable.

Operating Mode:

Automatic: The camera will be controlled automatically by Witness based on the camera and camera group configuration. The automatic following of targets is controlled through the use of rules.

Mirror: This setting allows the camera to mirror a master camera in either automatic or manual mode.

Manual: The camera can only be controlled and moved by the operator.

Inactive: The camera will be inactive, i.e. it cannot be controlled by the operator (except via the use of relative viewer commands including the Home button), and will not automatically follow (latching) tracks. This mode will typically be applied to non-thermal cameras at night and this option can be set via a schedule rule.

Zoom Mode:

Automatic: The camera zoom will be controlled automatically by Witness based on the range of the target. The automatic following of targets is controlled through the use of rules. In auto mode you can still override the zoom but it will reset on the next target and revert to automatic zoom based on the range of the target.

Manual: This setting stops the automatic zoom that is calculated when a camera follows a target and keeps the last manual zoom setting that the operator has set, regardless of how far away the target is.

Enable Viewer Popup: This toggle enables or disables the video viewer popups.

Allow Latching: This per camera option allows the camera to be used in latching.

Layer: The layer the camera is placed on, e.g. S/A Layer.

Label Visibility: How the camera label appears on the PPI:

Use System

Auto Hide

Visible

Hidden

Colour: The colour of the camera icon on the PPI.

Invert Pan: When selected, all pan controls for the camera will be reversed. Used for cameras that are mounted in an inverted position.

Invert Tilt: When selected, all tilt controls for the camera will be reversed. Used for cameras that are mounted in an inverted position. 

Range: Defines the maximum zoom distance (in metres) that the camera should be taken to when tracking distant objects. When tracking moving targets at long zoom levels it is possible to miss the target altogether. By reducing the zoom level, a larger field of view provides greater opportunity to keep the target within the frame. 

Min Range (m): Defines the minimum zoom distance (in metres) that the camera should be set to.

Zoom Factor (%): The percentage of the camera's maximum zoom capability used when following a track.

Home Zoom Factor (%): The percentage of the camera's maximum zoom capability used when at rest at the Home Position.

Display FOV: These are the Field of View (FOV) visibility options for Static Cameras:

Automatic: When a target that has been selected for automatic tracking (latched), the FOV outline will appear when the camera is active and disappear when the camera is inactive.

Show: This setting always shows the FOV of the camera.

Hide: This setting always hides the FOV of the camera.

Open

Field of View: The size of the FOV in degrees for Static Cameras.

Default Viewer: Select the desired Viewer from those available in the drop down list.

Default Stream: Select the desired Stream from those available in the drop down list.

Height Offset Mode: Choose between the options; None, Terrain, Local and Combined.

Camera Control: There is a drop down option to select Direct Control (ONVIF) or another configured connection, e.g. Milestone connection.

Position

X/Y/Z (m): The relative position of the camera to the origin, within the PPI Display, measured by an X/Y/Z octant.

Latitude/Longitude (°): The true geographical position of the camera.

Home Position

X/Y (m): the relative position of the Home Position (camera direction at rest) to the origin, within the PPI Display, measured by an X/Y quadrant.

Latitude/Longitude (°): the true geographical position of the Home Position.

Offset

This value determines the change in camera position necessary to go from the factory rest direction to the Home Position rest direction.

Pan: The degree value the camera needs to move left or right.

Pan Delta: The numeric interval between each click of the left-right direction controls.

Tilt: The degree value the camera needs to move up or down.

Tilt Delta: The numeric interval between each click of the up-down direction controls.

Areas

Please see Camera Areas. 

Connection Details (ONVIF)

Address: Defines the IP address of the camera.

User Name: User details to access connection.

Password: Security password to access connection.

Security Mode: The security protocols available for the camera connection. 

None.

Username Token: An authentication technique that lets users enter their username and password once and receive a uniquely-generated encrypted token in exchange, which in turn identifies the user to the camera.

Digest: Confirms the identity of a user before sending sensitive information. It applies a hash function to the username and password as a form of encryption before sending them over the network. 

Auto: Uses both digest and username token authentication.

Advanced

Camera Details

Dwell Timeout (s): Defines a time period for which the camera will remain on a view before moving to the next position. The default setting is 10 seconds.

Target Lost Dwell Timeout (s): Defines a time period for which the camera will remain fixed on a view after losing a target it was following. During this period, the operator can take manual control, but all automatic controls will be ignored (unless the setting is set to the default setting of 0 seconds). Once the period has elapsed, if the lost target has not been located, then the camera will move to the next target or home position.

Dwell Zoom Factor (%): The percentage of the camera's maximum zoom capability used when dwelling.

Large Pan (°): The angle the camera rotates during a Large Pan.

Large Pan Zoom Factor (%): The percentage of the camera's maximum zoom capability used when performing a Large Pan.

Dynamic Zoom: The dynamic zoom automatically adjusts the zoom of the camera based on the speed of the target being followed. As the target increases in speed the camera will zoom out proportionally to ensure the target remains in frame and conversely as it slows down the camera will zoom back in to adopt the normal zoom settings for the range of the target.

Classification Zoom Factors

Select / to add/remove Classification Zoom Factors. To create a Classification Zoom Factor, select and then input the Classification and Zoom Factor values below. To edit an existing Classification Zoom Factor, select a previous entry in the list, and then change the value in the fields underneath.

Classification: Choose the classification to create a zoom factor for.

Zoom Factor (%): Define the zoom factor; the amount the camera will zoom in on a target of that classification when identified.

Connection Details (ONVIF)

Port: Defines the port number used by the camera.

Use TLS: Transport Layer Security is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network.

Connection Limit: The maximum number of connections possible to this camera.

Media Profile Token: A unique token identifier which applies a media profile. A media profile consists of a set of media configurations. Media profiles are used to configure properties of a media stream from a device.

Available Tokens: This allows you to select an available token from the dropdown list.

Driver Details 

Show Range: Show the camera range on the PPI. By default, this appears as a green, dashed-line perimeter.

External ID: External ID of the driver.

Small Move Delta (m): The minimum amount of movement of a target before tasking the camera. The distance is calculated from its last position to its current position, and only if this threshold is breached will the camera be moved.

Zoom Coefficient A, B, C: These three values are derived from the model number of the camera and define the manner in which the zoom reacts to changing distance. These values are generally not altered.

Max. Zoom Range (m): The maximum distance to which the camera will zoom to (if technically capable). 

Engineering

Tilt Offsets

Min / Max Tilt: These settings are the minimum and maximum tilts that the camera can mechanically support. Typically these are the angle below and and above the horizon.

Tilt Offset: This is a fixed offset for the camera. For example, some cameras may treat a tilt of zero degrees as pointing at the ground, however, the normal convention is for zero degrees to point horizontally.

Mechanical Details

Tilt Speed: The speed at which the camera moves left and right in degrees per second.

Pan Speed: The speed at which the camera moves left and right in degrees per second.

Mechanical Delay (s): This is the length of time that the camera hardware takes to respond to commands.

Minimum Delay (s): This is a throttling mechanism to prevent us sending out messages faster than a camera can process them. The value represents the time that must elapse before we send another command to the camera.

Camera Mode Change

The camera mode change in the Camera Mini Control is an operators feature that is available once the camera is created and in operation:

It allows the user to switch between Automatic and Manual camera modes. This option means that an operator can quickly take manual control of a camera to follow a target and then, once they have finished their task, can return the camera to the Automatic settings, without having to change the Operating Mode within Camera Details.

To enable the feature for the operator:

1. Edit their User Group.

2. Select the Allow Camera Mode Change option and Save.

Related Information