Subscriber Discussion

PTZ Preset Information Recorded By VMS?

TF
Tiago Fioreze
Mar 06, 2013

A rather technical question... I wonder whether VMS systems normally record PTZ Preset information when recording video streams. One reason I see for that would be the ability to play back certain parts of a video given a certain PTZ preset. Is that common practice in VMS systems?

JH
John Honovich
Mar 06, 2013
IPVM

It's an interesting idea. You mean, for example, show me all the video from preset 3 / front door in the last hour?

I do not know of any VMS that does this. Then again, I've never thought about this so maybe it's a low level feature that's rarely mentioned.

TF
Tiago Fioreze
Mar 07, 2013

Hi John!

Your question reflects exactly what I meant. Given that the camera can be facing different areas of interest (through the use of PTZ presets), one may be interested in reviewing the recorded video of a specific preset / area of interest only.

I am personally not aware either of any VMS that does that! That's why the question...

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Ethan Ace
Mar 07, 2013

I don't know of any that do it by default, but I think that at least some VMSs that support bookmarking could do it by adding a bookmark at each preset. Then you could search for the preset 3 bookmark, for example. That's the simplest way I could think of to do it. I'm sure there's probably a way to store it as metadata instead of a bookmark, as well, in some systems.

JH
John Honovich
Mar 07, 2013
IPVM

Ethan, I am assuming you mean create a rule to add a bookmark automatically anytime the camera moves to preset X?

MI
Matt Ion
Mar 07, 2013

In my experience, the VMS doesn't typically even control the PTZ except when it's being moved by the user or by other outside influence (alarm inputs, for example). Presets, patterns and tours are generally stored in the camera itself; the VMS might be programmed to initiate a preset, pattern or tour after a timeout, but otherwise, those things are usually self-contained.

Now if the presets are being triggered by alarm inputs, it should be possible to bookmark on those (assuming your VMS does live bookmarking). But if the PTZ is running its own internal pattern or tour, there would simply be no way for the VMS to know when the camera moves to a particular position.

Actually, now that I think about, Vigil does have an option to program a tour within the software, where it simply calls a preset, waits a pre-described period, calls the next preset, and so on... I suppose some others would do that as well. I don't think it would bookmark those though.

And just brainstorming some more here... Vigil does have a "POS" function that can receive and log text data on a serial port... if the camera was able to send back the appropriate information over its control line (assuming you've wired for TX on the camera, RX on the DVR), that could be logged in the POS section, which is designed to synchronize POS events to video... SORT OF a bookmark function.

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