By Toby Prescott, Director of Development
(This is the 3rd in a series of blogs about the upcoming update to ManitouNEO, and what new features and improvements will be included.)
ManitouNEO was released to customers at the beginning of 2017, and since then, I’ve enjoyed talking to our early adopters to get feedback on both the features they find the most useful and the improvements we can make. From that feedback, the Bold development team has been diligently working on version 2.1, and we are excited about the new features that will be offered in the very near future! I’m presenting this blog series to highlight these features and improvements. Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen the Alarm Handling Improvements and Information Improvements that will be included in the update. This week, I will delve into the Video Improvements that have been made:
Record Video and Store in Activity
The Video Control Center (VCC) will now allow recorded video to be saved either to disk or to the activity log. This provides a way to preserve a record of what was observed in the manner most convenient for the central station.
Playback Video in Reverse
This allows recorded video to be played in reverse so that it is possible to start from a known event time and then watch from that point backward. It prevents having to jump back in time and then watch forward to see if anything of interest occurs. This is dependent on integrations that support this functionality through their API.
Video Scrubbing in :15, :20, and :30 second Increments
Preset increments can be used to jump forward and backward when watching recorded video. This allows the operator to quickly move through and analyze an incident.
Create a Snapshot Image from Video Stream
Still-image snapshots can be saved to disk or the activity log.
Watch Sub-Stream Video
To aid in faster video retrieval, an option can be set that will use the sub-stream (lower resolution) feed during live and recorded playback. This is dependent on the integration supporting these API calls.
Activity Log Information for Actions
A history of actions taken in the VCC for video and audio commands is written into the activity log. This provides a way to look back at an alarm and see what the operator did with respect to the video functions.
Flexible Video Matrix
A setting in the VCC specifies how many cameras will open in a single tab. Additional cameras over this limit will automatically open on a new tab.
Synchronized Playback Control
Pause/Play/Navigate controls will affect all displayed recorded video simultaneously. This is dependent on recorded data being available in a given time frame. The VCC will attempt to ensure that frame will play in-sync if there is recorded data for that time slice. Individual cameras will pause/play automatically to achieve this synchronization.
Container Devices
A new device type of Container has been created. This allows adding individual cameras into one grouped object. This Container can then be launched for a given alarm as a whole instead of devices one-by-one.
Persist Video While Switching Users
This will allow operators to log out/in with an active alarm video session running in the VCC. When an alarm is deferred in ManitouNEO, it will prompt the operator to exit video. Answering no will leave the video running, which will allow one user to log out and the next to log in. They can then resume the deferred alarm.
Suspend Playback on Videos in Background
When a VCC tab is in the background, it is not visible and just consumes bandwidth if the video continues playing. Now the recorded video playback will be paused automatically when the tab is in the background and will be resumed when brought back in focus.
Next week, we wrap up the series with information about a variety of improvements and features that aren’t specific to any of the previous categories, including new reports, schedule improvements, and other enhancements!