Milestone + Axis Q35 - How Do You Use Axis Built-In * Guard Analytics To Signal Milestone Alarms/ Events?

I'm using Milestone Essential+ with some Axis Q3517s (soon to be more Q3518s).

2018 R2

I like the fence cross, motion guard, and loitering guard analytics better than the built-in motion for Milestone. The built-in motion seems to get confused on bugs, shadows/sun/lighting changes, small animals, spiders, etc, which leads to a lot of "solid red" when there really isn't any motion to speak of, in the playback view...which leads to long review times. I'd like to make things more efficient.

The motion detection on the Axis Q35 series is a bit more sophisticated than Milestone's built-in motion (as configured with automatic adjusting and ignore regions setup to the best of my ability), so I'd like to use Axis to trigger alarms in Milestone, rather than the built-in motion...I have configured alarm definitions that leverage the system motion detection and those work (though, I think alarm reviewing is disabled in this version). I have setup a record rule. I have setup pretty nice viewing options in the smart client, recording options, archiving options, etc. HOWEVER...I created alarm def'n based on Device Events --> Analytics start and that doesn't appear to work. I've tried device events --> Loitering detection start and that doesn't seen to work. (and, yes, both are configured on the camera web interface, which is pretty straight forward). I actually had the cameras writing directly to NAS, based on analytics events, before I started using Milestone. Also tried device events --> adaptivemotionstart and deviceevents --> tripwire (which I think is associated with fence guard) and device events --> motionstarteddriver. Do you have to associate the built-in analytics events with device inputs, then activate based on that?

Question 1: I must be missing something here re: analytics activation of alarms?

The only alarm events that I can get to work are system events --> motion detected.

I have installed the Axis Optimzier plug-in.

I have watched a ton of the Milestone videos, read the manuals, etc.

I do have most of my Milestone recording server, client mgmt, smart client, mobile server working pretty well (with QuickSync acceleration, I might add)...which is very nice and efficient on 5mp and 8mp video!

Question 2: What is the advantage of signaling events vs. alarms? I understand alarms are logged for review...Can I use events to color the red lines at the bottom of the playback to my liking (rather than the non-optimal Milestone VMD coloring?)

Question 3: If there are other best known methods for favorite rules in Milestone (yes, I already added the record rule), I'm interested in hearing them...

Question 4: Setting up gmail SMTP doesn't seem to work either, sigh. I don't think Milestone supports the authentication methods that Google uses. I've tried a bunch of options here and none work...

Question 5: Any other general Milestone advice would be appreciated...I do think I have things running pretty well at the basic level now.

Thanks in advance, -mark

Reactions:

Sean Patton

Mark,

I will reach out to Milestone for feedback. Have you contacted support?

Reactions:

(1)

Mark Davis

In reply to Sean Patton

Thanks Sean.

No, I haven't reached out to Milestone...not sure if "essential+" even offers any useful level of support? I did sign up for an account online w/them.

Overall, I have been extremely impressed with the video series and the eLearning that is available online...this got me 99% of the way...it's very helpful and informative and well done (kudos to Milestone).

Also kudos for quick sync video support - this 6-core i8700 Coffee Lake CPU is kicking ass with hardware video acceleration...I'm running all servers on a single, fanless, SFF custom PC that I built.

My thoughts so far:

1. Fix the email client to work with Google's gmail servers!!

2. Add tutorials covering the 10 most common rules, 10 most common alarm def'n, etc.

3. Improve server side motion detection

4. Add more analytics to the server side motion detection

5. Make it easier to leverage device motion/analytics

I'm sure I'll have more feedback soon.

-mark

Reactions:

(2)

Dave Arnould

I would be interested in your question 3 "If there are other best known methods for favorite rules in Milestone (yes, I already added the record rule)"

I use rules to move PTZ home positions back automatically to home positions or to downtown bar locations on specific nights and times but that's about as far as it goes.

Reactions:

(1)

Mark Davis

In reply to Dave Arnould

We all know about

1. 24/7 record.

You've suggested some PTZ setting optimizations, which makes sense.

I need to config the patrol window in the client to switch automatically when there is motion detected - that is another rule that makes sense to me.

Others?

-mark

Reactions:

Alexander Bakke

Configuring Axis Camera Events in XProtect

Have you had a look at this knowledge article?

Reactions:

(1)

Mark Davis

Thanks Alex.

I'm still not entirely sure about essential+ mapping here, but I did try some things:

0. I did config the HW events - In the management client, under devices --> cameras --> events, you can add a bunch of events. I configured it for all 4 motion indexes now.

1. I created a user defined event for camera motion

2a. I created a couple of new rules that look like this - one of them is triggered on a device --> configurable events, the other device --> user defined events. For now, just from window "1" - I can do this for all 4 motion windows if necessary.

(nice interface to allow me to post screen shots)

2b. I can also config alarms to output events - I am using both 'device events --> adaptivemotionstart and device events --> motionstarteddriver'.

Not sure which method is better - 2a or 2b?

3. Now I will try to trigger an alarm based on the user defined events above. Using alarm --> external events --> motion detected on camera.

If either method above starts working, I guess I will then disable server-side motion detection and hope that the user events from the camera motion/analytics will show up as dark red on the review timelines.

-mark

Reactions:

Mark Davis

Something is still broken here - alarms are not triggering from this...

Is there an easy way to see if events are getting triggered? Didn't see anything in any of the logs.

-mark

Reactions:

Mark Davis

More info:

In the management client, under devices --> cameras --> events, you can add a bunch of events...I did that previously...however, one thing I noticed, after reading that knowledge base article above (thanks Alex), was that there are "indexes" associated with motion start and stop (4 each) and analytics start and stop (3 each). I only added index = 1 previously, but now I've added them all...Will experiment tonight to see if I can get them to trigger alarms/events/anything...I don't see a way to look at events in the alarm manager - just alarms.

Thanks, -mark

Reactions:

Alexander Bakke

Hi Mark.

Alarm features are not included in Essential+.

I would test the functionality you want without having it trigger an alarm.

If you originally wanted to use this to record, try disabling the built-in record on motion rule, and create your own rule that triggers recording with the help of your events.

Reactions:

Mark Davis

•Aug 01, 2018

Hi Alex-

Wasn't actually using this to trigger a record - I use a 24/7 record rule. I was hoping to use this to allow me to review video quicker - the light red/dark red indications based on the Milestone Motion Detection Algorithm are not very good - they are easily fooled by shadows, bugs, birds, small animals, wind, etc...

Thanks, -mark

PS. Q3518s are still not available from my preferred source. Ugh.

Reactions:

Alexander Bakke

Hi Mark.

I understand.

You could try making a bookmark when the camera detects motion.

I believe you can filter by bookmark when searching in the Smart Client.

Reactions:

Kestutis Nagys

Rule based bookmarking is not available in Essential+:

https://content.milestonesys.com/l/6a0734c310dcd321/

Reactions:

(2)

Mark Davis

Right. No bookmarks for me in essential+...unless someone wants to sell me a better version ot 2018 R2 for cheap ;).

Reactions:

Kestutis Nagys

Alarms are available in Essential+, Alarm management is not. It is possible to set up Alarm preview as ordinary layout in Smart Client. You can change review mode from Alarms to Events in Set up mode, please read manual or Help (F1) carefully.

Reactions:

(1)

Mark Davis

Right, I have alarms working and views in the client setup for them. No management though - at one point management appeared to work on my mobile interface however.

Also finally found the selector to change from alarms to events as well. thanks.

-mark

Reactions:

Kestutis Nagys

Hi Mark,

Just a brief idea which can help you:

1. Set up your preferred analytics on Axis camera;

2. In camera Events section, specify receiver for camera TCP/IP notifications - Milestone Event server;

2. In camera Events section set up Rule, triggering notification to Milestone based on Analytics detector;

3. In Milestone Management Client - Options set up Generic event source (s) - your Axis camera (s);

4. In Milestone Management Client set up Generic event (s) based on camera notification (s);

5. Test it;

6. In case of success - you can use created events for rules, alarms, notifications etc.

Regards,

Reactions:

(2)

Amos Wipf

I did similar to this to get Axis VMD working with Milestone before the device packs were updated so that you can get VMD triggers in Milestone without setting anything up camera side.

Reactions:

(1)

Mark Davis

In reply to Amos Wipf

Sorry, can you be more specific on how you configured VMD triggers from camera with the new device packs?

Reactions:

Amos Wipf

So I guess it's not technically correct that you don't have to set up anything camera side because you do have to start the VMD application in the camera.

To add VMD events in Milestone you add a "Hardware Input Events" and select the appropriate camera. Once you have selected a camera you will get a list of events in the camera, select the one you want (in the case of VMD the ones labeled "Motion started on camera 1, window 1, alert event" are the ones you want)

I re-labeled the events on this cam to Shop Furnace Record and Shop Furnace Stop Record so that it is actually meaningful. (Maybe those analytics events would work for you)

I think you already understand how to use an event as an alarm trigger in Milestone but if you are interested I could get some screenshots of a setup where I have a TCP message (using the method described in hyperlinked post in my first post) from an Axis cam running Cross Line Detection application to trigger an "Alarm" in Milestone.

Now that I am done typing this it occurs to me that all the above is on a Professional system...

Reactions:

(1)

Mark Davis

In reply to Amos Wipf

Thanks Amos. I added all the HW events in the Management Client --> Devices --> Cameras --> events area for all of the following, but I was never able to make them actionable in the alarm config. What trigger did you use in the alarm def'n config to leverage one of these - I tried a bunch of stuff under 'device events' and none worked or ever triggered any alarms.

(note: multiples due to different motion window enumerations)

With all this said, I finally got the old school method working using TCP messages on port 1234 with manual config of recipients and actions in the Axis config and generic event config in Milestone. Takes a lot of config/setup, but it is working.

-mark

Reactions:

Amos Wipf

Looks like you figured this out but I made an event "actionable" in the alarm config by setting the event as the "Triggering event:" in the Trigger section of the Alarm Definition.

I agree it would be pretty clever if you could make the TCP events color the timeline red in playback.

Reactions:

Mark Davis

I will play with this method tonight as well, thanks!

Reactions:

Mark Davis

This "old school" method finally worked for me...

Steps:

1. management client --> options --> analytics events --> enabled (though, never really got the port 9090 stuff working....but I know that the event server is now accepting TCP messages from the cameras to 9090 if I ever figure out why/how this is different from generic events.

2. management client --> options --> generic events --> enabled ***this was the stupid mistake I had made...which was causing 'connection refused' errors during test to the Milestone event server.

Then on the Axis cams:
3. Added the Milestone recipient from the Axis event config, port 1234. I also added an analytics 9090 recipient, but didn't end up using it.
4. Added action rules from the Axis config to send a message with a specific string on various analytics events (Motion Guard, Fence Guard, Loitering Guard)

Then back to the management client
5. configured 'generic events' (analytics events didn't work) for each specific string above

Then to the smart client

6. Configured a playback view with the alarm list, changed it to events.

Now I can click on the analytics camera events and that takes me to the point it time on the video to review...So now I effectively have bookmarks. I record 24/7, so I don't use these events for that...I just want a more efficient way to review video.

NOW, final thing: would be great if I could get the camera TCP events to color the red timeline like the internal VMS motion did in the past - it went from light red to dark red when motion was detected...Any ideas on that??

Thanks, -mark

Reactions:

Brian Elias