The NiagaraAX Video Driver module (videoDriver) provides the foundation for integration to selected commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) video surveillance and recording systems so that all normal daily operations can be performed from a NiagaraAX application interface. This integration is accomplished by modeling the commonly used video functions in the NiagaraAX Framework and using specific drivers for the different manufacturers video video products.
While each video driver has some of its own particular capabilities and requirements, each video driver uses a common set of components and characteristics that is the same among all video drivers. This chapter describes some of the concepts, components, and functions that are common to most video drivers that are developed for integrations using NiagaraAX-3.2 or later. Refer to the manufacturer documentation for system-specific video device capabilities and requirements. Some of the basic common video features include the following:
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Real-time camera control
Camera control capabilities include: controlling pan, tilt, zoom, focus and iris settings. You can create camera presets to be used in association with alarm events or for activation during live video display.
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Alarm generation
Some video devices (such as intelligent IP Cameras, DVRs, and NVRs) have the ability to provide motion-detection alarms. These types of alarms can be routed to a NiagaraAX application where they are presented in the alarm console with a link to the recorded video.
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Alarm configuration
NiagaraAX alarms can be routed to the video device to initiate actions based on those alarms. For example, a NiagaraAX alarm may initiate an action to direct a camera to move and start recording one of several pre-configured targets. DVRs can identify and store alarm-related footage for review.
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Enterprise Web Supervisor Video (NiagaraAX-3.4 and later)
Starting in NiagaraAX-3.4, the “Remote Video” feature adds new capabilities to the video framework. The remote video feature includes the following remote support capacities:
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Supervisor Station Alarms
A Web Supervisor alarm console can display video associated with an alarm that was generated at a remote station.
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Supervisor Station Graphics
A Supervisor station can support video graphics (using Px widgets) and have them served by cameras that are assigned to remote stations associated with the Web Supervisor.
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Remote Video Playback
The Playback Viewer component
displays live or recorded video from any recording device that is configured on a remote station communicating over the Niagara
Network.
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Remote Video Surveillance
The Video Surveillance Viewer component
displays live or recorded video from any recording device that is configured on a remote station communicating over the Niagara
Network
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Remote Video Recording
Video recording devices on local stations may start recording as a result of an alarm event that occurs at a remote station communicating over the NiagaraNetwork. These alarms can be archived to a supervisor station and associated video viewed from the supervisor.
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Video drivers have some properties and extensions in common with other “field bus” type network drivers. However, there are several distinctive Video Driver characteristics that are described in the following sections:
