Subscriber Discussion

VMS Must Support Single Seat Or Window Administration

UE
Undisclosed End User #1
May 14, 2015

On VMS capabilities, what is the meaning of "Must support single seat or window administration" and what is the advantage?

JH
John Honovich
May 14, 2015
IPVM

Can you give us some context for this? Is this from a VMS manufacturer document? If so, who? If not, what?

UE
Undisclosed End User #1
May 15, 2015

An administrator must be able to perform all user-related and administrator-related actions inside a single VMS client application window. This will avoid use of other application (like web interface ) other than vms.

TC
Trisha (Chris' wife) Dearing
May 15, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Sounds like an RFP.

Single seat and single window are slightly different.

  1. Single seat means from one workstation
  2. Single window generally means from one application

The Single seat requirement comes from the fact that sometimes multi-level, geographically disparate networked systems have had limitations in what can be done from any one terminal. Note that this type of limitation is not due to lack of administrative rights, but rather a consequence of the system architecture or topology. Depending on how severe the limitation, this can be a source of delay and added training costs, as well a just plain old grief.

Salient, for instance, defines single seat as

Designed to support single-seat administration. This allows an administrator to monitor server status, configure servers, and update server software - all from a single location.

Therefore it is a natural request to have all functions available at at least one, most likely top-level, location. This is obviously a question for the VMS manufacturer, but is likely doable, even if only by using Remote Desktop software etc.

The Single window stipulation adds the requirement of one application being able to perform all functions in the system from one application. This helps reduce complexity and training. For VMSes this, depending how strict the bid writer is, may often be largely met. Most camera parameters for instance, but not all, are available in the top line VMS.

Sometimes, things like manufacturer specific discovery tools have to be used outside of the VMS, so strictly speaking there may be an infrequent need to use apps outside of the VMS. Again, check with the VMS vendor(s) you are considering.

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