Camera Recording Tracker

VIEW VIDEO (Using the Camera Recording Tracker)

The Camera Recording Tracker provides users with Administrator privileges an at-a-glance view of the of the cameras connected to the Detect Appliance that are reporting less than 24-hour coverage.

Every day at 12:20 am the Detect Appliance sends an email to a predefined email address. Each camera-NVR is listed with the camera name and the NVR that records that camera, and is sorted into one of four categories:

•Recording status WITHOUT Notes  This is a list of camera-NVRs that are no longer recorded by the system. Each camera-NVR listed contains the number of days that the camera-NVR has not been recorded by the system.

•Camera-NVRs with gaps in video with EXCESSIVE down time  This is a list of camera-NVRs that have been recorded at least once during the day, but the time when they are not recorded is excessive. Any camera-NVR that is not recorded for more than an hour is considered down for an excessive amount of time. The camera-NVRs listed here have information about the number of gaps, how many minutes they have not recorded and how many minutes they have recorded during the day.

•Recording status with notes   This is a list of camera-NVRs that are no longer recorded by the system—however, the camera-NVRs in this list have a note that an administrator has added to the camera-NVR. This is a documented acknowledgment that this camera-NVR is down and is generally the result of a planned maintenance project.

•Camera-NVRs with gaps in video with short down time   This is a list of camera-NVRs that have been recorded at least once during the day, but the time when they are not recorded is not excessive—these camera-NVRs have not been down for more than an hour.

Whenever an NVR stops recording and then starts recording again it is considered a gap in recording. In a perfect system, gaps should never happen. They occur because of interruptions in communication that cause the NVR to have to restart its recording stream—often a result of a wireless network transmission being interrupted from some kind of interference. When the gaps become excessive and compromise recording time, they should be looked at more closely to determine how to correct the problem.

To access the Camera Recording Tracker, navigate to the main Detect Map View toolbar, and Select Administrator > Camera Recording Tracker.

This brings up a Camera Recording Tracker window. As soon as the form is displayed, a request is sent to the Detect Appliance to fetch a real-time report of the same information that would be sent in the device health report email at 12:20 am.

1 The top field is the device health status report.

2 The lower field contains a list of all the camera-NVRs that are in the system. 

3 Use the search toolbar in the center of the window to perform a context-sensitive search to find a specific camera-NVR. This is helpful in large systems with a large number of assets. In our example search, the list underneath the search bar is limited to only cameras with the word “warehouse” in the name.

To add a note, click on a camera in the list and click the Add Note button.

Type a note and click the OK button. The note will be attached to the camera and it will be moved to the ‘Recording Status WITH Notes’ list, above. To clear a note, delete the text in the box and click OK.

4 Press the Refresh button to submit a new request to the Detect Appliance to update the information.

5 To verify that the daily health status email is being delivered to the correct address, click Send Test Email. To change the email address, go to the System Settings window > Folders tab.

Sample email report

This text is an example of the device health report that is emailed at 12:20 every morning. This is a daily snapshot of the same information that can be retrieved using the Camera Recording Tracker.

Recording status WITHOUT notes:

    Camera: East Parking Garage PTZ, NVR: CPD-NVR-1, NOT recording for 1 days.

    Camera: Holding Cells, NVR: CPD-NVR-1, NOT recording for 1 days.

    Camera: Citrus/San Bernardino PTZ, NVR: CPD-NVR-1, NOT recording for 1 days.

    Camera: Parking Garage Elevator, NVR: CPD-NVR-1, NOT recording for 1 days.

    Camera: West Parking Garage PTZ, NVR: CPD-NVR-1, NOT recording for 1 days.

    Camera: FD Front Lot, NVR: CPD-NVR-1, NOT recording for 1 days.

Cameras with gaps in video with EXCESSIVE down time:

    Camera: Sixth/E.Grand EB, NVR: TMC-WINVR2,  DOWN 819 and UP 621 minutes with 2 gaps.  Currently NOT recording.

    Camera: Cajalco/SR15 NB PTZ, NVR: TMC-WINVR2,  DOWN 715 and UP 725 minutes with 2 gaps.  Currently recording.

    Camera: Sixth/E.Grand SB, NVR: TMC-WINVR2,  DOWN 819 and UP 621 minutes with 2 gaps.  Currently NOT recording.

Recording status with notes:

    Camera: Lincoln/D PTZ, NVR: TMC-WINVR3, NOT recording for 81 days.  NOTES: Down due to 91-FW.

    Camera: ElCamino/Carly EB, NVR: TMC-WINVR2, NOT recording for 81 days.  NOTES: Traffic Switch Issue (Dennis).

    Camera: PD Lobby Exterior Entrance East, NVR: CPD-CORPYARD-WINVR, NOT recording for 81 days.  NOTES: Removed Vivotek.

Cameras with gaps in video with short down time:

    Camera: East Parking Garage PTZ, NVR: CPD-NVR-1,  DOWN 8 and UP 1170 minutes with 1 gaps.  Currently NOT recording.

    Camera: Outdoor Evidence Room, NVR: CPD-NVR-1,  DOWN 1 and UP 1171 minutes with 1 gaps.  Currently recording.

    Camera: Cell Block B Hallway, NVR: CPD-NVR-1,  DOWN 1 and UP 1171 minutes with 1 gaps.  Currently recording.

    Camera: Holding Cells, NVR: CPD-NVR-1,  DOWN 1 and UP 1170 minutes with 1 gaps.  Currently NOT recording.

All records retrieved ok.