Using the Dallmeier Plugin

SMAVIA is a popular VMS system developed by Dallmeier. Navtech is an official Dallmeier partner and supports a Dallmeier Integration Plugin for the Witness software system. This plugin manages a connection to the Dallmeier SMAVIA recording server and toggles recording and bookmarks on SMAVIA cameras when Witness detects an alarm. Further information on Dallmeier and their solution can be found on their website.

This document describes the process of setting up this integration.

The Dallmeier Plugin

Witness Canary 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 Canary and contain code which knows how to convert the Witness data into the required format for the external system.

The Dallmeier plugin file is entitled Witness.Plugin.Dallmeier.dll and must be present in the Witness Plugin folder which is inside the main application folder.

The plugin can be selected during setup and will automatically be installed in the correct location.

On this page:

Dallmeier System Requirements

Supports Dallmeier DaVid protocol 5.60.01 and higher
A user with rights to start and stop recording and add marks must be configured for Witness system use
Cameras intented to be recorded through Witness should use either "Permanent" or "Contract - Start" recording method. Link for details.

To check the protocol version, open Dallmeier SMAVIA Recording Server configurator → System → Info → Version tab

Configuring the Dallmeier Plugin

When the plugin is installed and Canary starts, the plugin configuration settings are saved to the PluginConfiguration.xml file. This file is located in the Witness main application folder. To change the settings this file should be opened in a text editor, such as Notepad, however we would recommend an editor which is XML aware, such as Notepad++.

Once the file is open, locate the Dallmeier section, as illustrated below:

Example of Dallmeier Plugin Configuration

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Config>
  <Plugins>
    <Dallmeier>
      <PluginConfig>
        <VMSServer RemoteIPAddress="localhost" Enabled="True" Port="30000" />
        <TimerTick>1000</TimerTick>
        <HeartbeatInterval>10</HeartbeatInterval>
        <Retries>2</Retries>
        <Username>username</Username>
        <Password>password</Password>
        <AlarmTimeout>10</AlarmTimeout>
        <StopOnConnect>True</StopOnConnect>
      </PluginConfig>
    </Dallmeier>
  </Plugins>
</Config>

Once you have made changes to the plugin configuration file then you must restart the Canary application / service for the new settings to be applied. No other modules need to be restarted.

The setting options are as follows:

VMSServer

Connction to the Dallmeier SMAVIA recording server is set here.

RemoteIPAddress - should be the IP address of the server hosting the Dallmeier SMAVIA recording service
Enabled - if the connection should be attempted.
Port - port for connecting to the SMAVIA recording service. By default this is 30000.

TimerTick

Timer used to control connection checks and cleaning up buffers in milliseconds. Health of the TCP connection to the Dallmeier SMAVIA recording server is checked and reestablished if required at this interval.

HeartbeatInterval

Not currently used.

Retries

If a TCP message times out without reply, retries controls the number of retries we should do for the same message.

Username

Username to use for connecting to the Dallmeier SMAVIA service. This needs to be configured on the Dallmeier server.

If using "local group" login method, this should be set to empty.

Password

Password to use for connecting to the Dallmeier SMAVIA service. This needs to be configured on the Dallmeier server.

If using "local group" login method, the Canary user needs to have a login group that does not require 2nd password.

AlarmTimeout

If an alarm does not provide any updates for this period of time, consider the alarm as timed out.

StopOnConnect

If true, we will stop all existing recordings when the plugin connects to the Dallmeier SMAVIA recording server.

Configuring Cameras

Configuring Cameras in Dallmeier SMAVIA Recording Server:

To be able to use the Dallmeier integration for a camera, settings need to be set on Dallmeier SMAVIA recording server depending on if the recording will be permanent (recommended) or on contact.

Permanent recording:

Set marker on Camera Contact must be selected
Recording Active must be selected

Contact recording:

Options must be "Start"
Recording Active must be selected

Configuring Cameras in Witness:

Cameras in Witness must use Dallmeier camera number as their External System ID to be able to use the integration plugin.

Searching for Bookmarks

To search for a recorded bookmark in the Dallmeier SMAVIA system, use a SMAVIA ViewingClient to connect to the recording server.

Select long playback for the desired camera and open Extended Search tab from search (binocular icon)

Set a start and stop time to search between.
Set Ext. criterion 1 as Benutzertext2 (UserText 2) and insert the text "Alarm: 17" without quotes where 17 is the alarm number. Replace this with desired alarm number.
Click the tick to apply the search criteria.
Click the next button to find a bookmark that meets these criteria.
The VMS will automatically scroll through all bookmarks that match the entered criteria.

When it has found one that you wish to view, you could click the play button from the bottom bar to commence video playback from that point.

If you wish to search by Track ID instead of alarm id, at step 2 set Ext. criterion 1 as Benutzertext3 (UserText 3) instead and insert text "Track: 104" without quotes where you should replace 104 with the desired track number.

Change Search Text

Use Dallmeier SMAVIA configurator to change the "Benutzertext2" display in Ext. criterion 1.

1) Open Recording → Search Criteria → Search Items menu

2) Click to select the text you wish to replace, enter the new text in Name section and click OK to save.

Witness 3.0