All You Wanted To Know About… ® Intellex v3.2 Digital Video Management System But didn’t know what to ask.
Contents General............................................................................................................................... 3 What’s New in Intellex v3.2? ........................................................................................... 4 Live Video .......................................................................................................................... 6 Playback Video.............................................................................................
General Intellex® v3.2 is the newest release of American Dynamics’ flagship DVR product. The operation and usability of Intellex® v3.2 is an improvement over its v3.1 predecessor. New features include enhancements to dome control and text handling. Intellex Archive Manager and Intellex Policy Manager will be of value in larger installations for data backup and Intellex security. Intellex IP is a first step in a growing demand to use IP cameras and domes.
What’s New in Intellex v3.2? For those of you who are already familiar with Intellex, this new feature summary may be all you need to know to get up to speed. Some of the changes are minor. Some are significant improvements in the product. Let’s walk through what you will run into as you work your way through the menus. Enhanced Text Capability: Improvements have been made to text handling. Text exceptions and receipt definitions are on different menu pages.
Network Client Enhancements: Network Client has been enhanced to accommodate the changes in Intellex. The Network Client database has been improved with Site Trees that make it easier to identify data from selected Intellex units in larger installations. Alarm notification has been improved to include notification when an Intellex hard drive is no longer functioning properly. The maximum “raw” video file size download from Intellex or NAS is no longer limited to 1 GB.
Live Video Live video is displayed directly on the monitor from video sources connected to the camera inputs of Intellex. This can be directly from cameras, looped through other devices in the CCTV system, or from any standard video source. Intellex v3.2 accepts video from any standard video source. NTSC and PAL versions are available with eight channel (DV8000) and sixteen channels (DV16000). Live video is displayed at 800x600-pixel full screen resolution.
immediate future. This output is rarely used since the introduction of playback capability from the VACD (live video output). The live video output (BNC connector on back of unit) displays the video portion without the GUI. You can view full screen, 2x2, 3x3 and 4x4 displays. The cameos and the full screen images update at the time divided rate. This display will also show playback video when menu-selected. This is a convenient place to provide a composite playback image to a VCR or other recording device.
Playback Video Playback video is the video that is retrieved from the hard drive and displayed on the main SVGA monitor. The played back video may also be seen on the composite duplicate of the main display and on the VACD card output when menu-selected to do so. Playback video appears to have a lower resolution than live video due to the configuration of JPEG. It may be accompanied by a single channel of recorded audio and up to four channels of recorded text.
A. Live video is processed and displayed prior to recording. It is not compressed like recorded video is. The live display pixel format is 800x600. JPEG recording limits the pixel count to 640x240 (80x30 tiles, 8x8 pixels within each tile). It is degraded even more in the lower resolution that accompanies extended record mode (320x240, DV16000 only). Although the playback video is sampled at the 800x600-pixel format for display, it is sampling the stored JPEG image. Q.
Instant Replay Instant replay is the ability to replay incidents seconds after they happen. It allows in-depth investigation of recent events without affecting the recording of current activity. This is an easy feature to overlook when touting Intellex strengths yet very few competing products can do this. Most take minutes before the recorded video is available for playback. The operator catches a glimpse of something on the monitor from the corner of his eye.
Smart Search Smart Search is the trademarked term used to describe the Intellex ability to retrieve information from an existing database via search criteria. This can be by time and date, by time span or, most importantly, by selecting a motion filter that will retrieve images with movement in the selected area. Smart Search is an available option on the DV16000 and DV8000. Smart Search was pioneered with Intellex. The importance of this feature must be stressed.
who enter after the eight o’clock start time?” “What if I want to see if anyone entered the off-limits storage room lately?” Big Brother is here. Hopefully, he is wearing a safety uniform. Q. Is Smart Search exclusive to Intellex? A. The ability to retrieve selected information based on movement in the video image is based in our proprietary compression algorithm. Few of our competitors have figured out how to do this yet. Standard compression techniques do not have this capability.
IntelleCord® IntelleCord is the trademarked term used to describe the ability of Intellex to record only when an alarm is encountered. This includes the ability to provide up to five minutes of pre-alarm video (as well as text and audio, if applicable) from the affected cameras. The general industry term for this function is event recording. Event recording is possible with VCR technology. The results, however, are not as impressive as they are with Intellex.
A. It depends on the application. If you are viewing an empty room with an alarm triggered as someone enters, the review will consist of up to five minutes of an empty room followed by someone entering the room. This is not very interesting pre-alarm information. If, however, someone puts the barrel of a gun in the face of a bank teller, you might be interested in seeing what the culprit was doing while standing in line.
Motion Detection Motion detection is the ability to sense movement in a video image and provide a usable output. Motion detection in Intellex can cause an idle system to begin recording and provide predetermined alarm outputs. In Intellex, it’s based on changes in the color content of the image. Differences are detected at the pixel level. Based on these changes, we make intelligent decisions as to whether we want to include these changes as motion detection.
• The further a moving object is from the camera, the harder it will be to get an alarm. • If an object is coming directly toward the camera, it is harder to get an alarm. If the same object is moving across the field of view, your alarm chances are improved. Q. Why is it harder to get an alarm if all the tiles are selected? Wouldn’t this make it easier to see motion anywhere in the image? A. No.
Motion Exception Motion exception is not motion detection. It is neither better nor worse than motion detection. It is just different and may be used as an adjunct to traditional motion detection. We like to say how our products are easy to use. However, this is only true with motion exception once you know the rules of engagement. This feature does work. It is not perfect, but it will provide a reasonable level of success if you follow the rules below.
from smaller and odd shaped objects. If this is your intent, like providing an alarm when a large truck backs up to a loading dock while ignoring people walking in the area, increase the size as appropriate. If you want to capture all objects crossing the area, leave the size at minimum. 6. Don’t increase the target speed unless there is a compelling reason to do so: If the application calls for capturing objects moving quickly while ignoring slow moving objects, increase the speed as appropriate.
Alarm Options Alarm handling describes the series of events that take place when Intellex encounters an alarm. Alarms can be generated by devices wired to the physical alarm input connectors, by motion alarms or motion exception alarms set up within Intellex, by error and warning messages produced within Intellex, by text exceptions and manually by the operator. There are 18 individual alarm inputs, one for each of the 16 camera inputs plus two others.
PAL) and the alarm speed set to 120ips NTSC (100ips PAL). When an alarm occurs, you get more recorded images of the more important camera. With no alarms, you are conserving disk space. Alarm options: You can select the alarm duration (5 seconds to 5 minutes), alarm record speed (independent of normal record speed), alarm record quality, and whether or not the alarms respond to video loss.
Record/Archive Options There are different record modes, record methods and archive methods to consider with Intellex. These methods differ depending on the application. Record mode is either linear or circular. Linear means that the Intellex will record video until the database is full, then stop. Circular means that the Intellex will not stop recording when the database is full. It will continue to record, writing over the oldest information first.
Option: Advantage: Disadvantage: Linear record mode. Stops recording when database is full, ensuring that no recorded information is lost. Stops recording when database is full. No additional recording. Circular record mode. Record all cameras all the time. Record per daily schedule. Notifies operator when nearing end of database (% selectable). Continuous recording. Good for applications where hard drive storage exceeds the required data storage time. Everything is recorded – no lost information.
Getting Video In and Out of Intellex Picture portability is the process of sharing the video information in Intellex with others, others being other Intellex units, individuals, police, courts and more. Once video is stored on the Intellex hard drive, you can retrieve information in the following ways: 1. Export to a CD or DVD: Selected video clips can be saved to a CD or DVD. Intellex Player software is saved along with the video for easy playback on any standard PC.
How does video information find its way into the Intellex? 1. Directly from security cameras: This is the most common method. The cameras may be cabled directly to Intellex, or looped through a variety of other devices used in the CCTV system. 2. From a standard 3.5” floppy diskette: Images saved on a diskette from the Tools menu on one Intellex can be loaded back into the same Intellex or another Intellex.
from Black Box: Model AC334A. The picture quality is adequate. Make that adequate plus. You even get a remote control with a built-in laser pointer and microphone capability for doing voice-overs. All Intellex v2.x units have a built-in VACD composite output. The DV16000 model also includes a composite output of the video card, which requires power up with a load attached (75 ohm resistor or monitor, for example). The VACD composite output is menu-selectable for live or playback. Q.
Enhancement Tools Enhancement tools provide the ability to enlarge and modify single images selected from the database. Enhancement tools aren’t perfect. You can’t create information. You can only enlarge and modify the existing information. JPEG is great for compressing images, allowing more video to fit in a smaller space. Because of the compression methods used, there is a limit to the amount of enhancement that can be done.
JPEG JPEG is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. This is the name of the original group that devised the JPEG standard for compressing video images. The original intent was to compress video in order to reduce file size for faster transfer of data. Our proprietary, modified JPEG delta compression scheme has three major advantages: 1. We can store more video information than other methods on the same drive space. 2. Conditional refresh provides built-in motion detection. 3.
We further enhance the compression capabilities by updating only the tiles (remember those 2,400 tiles?) that have changed since the last time the image was sampled. For instance: If you are looking at an image of the road in front of a building, there is some natural motion – trees moving, flags waving, and so on. The rest of the image remains essentially the same unless there is a car driving by.
Extended Storage Extended Storage is an external device that connects to Intellex and allows video recording for longer periods of time. Physically, the device can be the size of a standard PC (RAID system) or it could be a 1U 19” rack mount device (like our ESM). Price-wise, a RAID system could be more expensive than Intellex, depending on the length of storage required. RAID devices are supplied by a third party. Q.
Applications An application refers to how the product is actually used. It’s how the end user uses the product to solve the problem at hand. In short, application is the use of product features to meet customer needs. Applications are often confused with vertical markets. Some examples of vertical markets are hospitals, retail stores, warehouses and casinos. These are actually places where you would attempt to sell products.
presence. The attendant, in turn, notifies staff on the floor. The customer is still wondering how that salesperson appeared out of nowhere. Alarm handling: The global alarm output alerts the attendant to important events. An employee trying to gain entry to the locked storage area triggers an alarm that activates the appropriate manager’s pager. A manually generated alarm earmarks an important event for easy later review from the alarm list.
2. Record and Archive Method: What will be recorded and what are the archive requirements? Will all cameras be recorded all the time? Will the custom camera schedule be used? What are the archive requirements? 3. Alarm Options: How will devices and events affect system interaction? What visual and sound indications are required? Will motion alarms be used to initiate recording? What are the pre-alarm requirements? Will alarms take precedence over the current live display? 4.
Text Text features have been enhanced with Intellex v3.2. The previous version of Intellex allowed you to record, play back and search text. Intellex v3.2 search capabilities allow exception conditions to trigger alarms and search the database. The ability to record text along with video in a digital recorder is still a relatively recent phenomenon. More and more is being asked of the stand-alone digital video recorder. The basic idea is to take a cash register or ATM data stream and send it to a DVR.
Audio The ability to record a single channel of audio started with Intellex v2.4. You can listen live at the Intellex and record the audio for later playback along with an associated video input. Audio will record as long as an associated camera is recording, synced together with the video. Recorded audio will be archived to a DAT tape if an optional DAT is used. It may be selected and exported to a CD or downloaded to Network Client along with the associated video. With Intellex v3.
Network Client Remote Viewing and Control Software Network Client is software installed on a PC that allows an end user to retrieve video from Intellex units connected to a network. Network Client will also work in dial-up mode over normal phone lines. What does Network Client do? Network Client has come a long way since the original version, which was a first step in making video available in a network environment.
Enhance video: The same tools screen available in Intellex is included in the Network Client software. Time synchronization: The Network Client PC may be selected as the master timekeeper for the Intellex and Network Client workstations attached to the network. The time sync can be initiated manually or performed automatically on a daily basis at a specified time. Remote Smart Search: (Included in the deluxe software package or upgraded with Smart Pack and Remote Pack).
How Long Will Intellex Record? “Why can’t you tell me exactly how long Intellex will record?” I’d bet you’ve heard that question before. The answer hasn’t changed. There are numerous variables that make it impossible to provide an exact record duration. The biggest variable is our conditional refresh format (see the “JPEG” chapter on page 27 for details); however, there are several other issues that affect the image file size and the resultant record duration.
Would you have thought that we could claim a 1,000-day record duration? Although 1ips is not practical for most applications, this is typically the mode used by competitors for quoting their longest record times.
Intellex Evolution Intellex has come a long way since version 1.2 was first introduced. Version 1.5 provided major improvements in product functionality. Version 2.0 added speed, storage capacity and enhanced features. Version 2.1 provided a major improvement in functionality. The combining of Intellex v2.1 with Network Client v2.0 provided a past, present and future “system solution”. From your desktop or laptop, you can view live video from any Intellex on the network.
Intellex Front panel buttons VGA (main) monitor Composite GUI display All monitor outs active Call/spot monitor Processor speed Storage capacity Record speed (max) Display speed (live) Playback VCR controls Playback go to feature Playback scroll bar Touch Tracker compatibility Archive to DAT Archive schedule Export to CD Export to DVD Zoom in live video Zoom in playback video Network Client capability Network Client camera control Software Option Packs Bundled versions Audio (single channel) Text (record an
What Options Are Available? There are two “trim” levels for DV8000 and DV16000: deluxe and premier. The standard software package has been eliminated with v3.2. Each has four internal drive size options: 250 GB, 500 GB or 750 GB. 750 GB only available in rack mount. All you have to consider are the number of cameras, the packaged feature level and the drive size. Can you add options later? Yes.
Intellex Strengths There once was a time when Intellex was a groundbreaking product. When it came to digital video management systems, there were few and ours was the best. Now it is hard to keep up with all the products in the market. If you lined them all up and spent a little time with each, you wouldn’t have time to do anything else.
