[KBA-00923] Customizing automatic stream selection in Security Center - Security Center 5.7

About automatic stream selection

Automatic stream selection (also known as the Automatic stream) is a Security Center feature that dynamically switches the video stream shown in a tile depending on the tile size.

A low resolution stream is displayed on smaller tiles and a higher resolution stream is displayed on larger tiles. Automatically switching the video streams reduces the load on the network and maximizes the resources of your Security Desk workstation.

The following three video streams are used by the automatic stream selection feature:

Low resolution
Live
High resolution

The video stream switches when the number of diagonal pixels on a tile exceeds certain thresholds, as shown in the following image.

Configuring the Automatic stream

To use the Automatic stream in Security Center, you must configure three different video streams to represent low, medium, and high video quality.

The following table shows which video streams are usually assigned to represent the three video quality settings.

Video quality	Video stream
Low resolution	Low resolution
Medium resolution	Live
High resolution	High resolution

To configure the Automatic stream:

On each camera you want to use the automatic stream with, configure the three video streams:
1. From the home page in Config Tool, open the Video task.
2. Select the camera to configure and click the Video tab.
3. Configure the Low resolution, Live, and High resolution streams.
On each workstation from which you monitor the cameras you configured, set the workstation to use the Automatic stream by default:
1. From the home page in Security Desk, click Options > Video.
2. Set the Default live stream option to Automatic and click Save.
3. Close and re-open Security Desk.

The Automatic stream is now configured. As you change tile layouts in the canvas and the tiles get bigger or smaller, the most appropriate video stream out of the three you configured is displayed in the tile.

Customizing thresholds for the Automatic stream

If you have specific monitoring requirements or tile sizes on some of your workstations, you can customize the thresholds for the Automatic stream on each workstation.

To set thresholds for the Automatic stream:

On the workstation you want to configure, back up the SecurityDesk.exe.gconfig file by copying it to another folder.
The file is found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Genetec Security Center 5.x on a 64-bit computer and in C:\Program Files\Genetec Security Center 5.x on a 32-bit computer.

CAUTION:
Only modify a .gconfig file if you are sure that the changes are valid. Incorrect code in a .gconfig file can cause issues on your system or cause your system to go offline.
Open the SecurityDesk.exe.gconfig file in Notepad.
Add the following command line inside the <configuration> section of code:
```
<configuration>
    <automaticResolutionSettings highResolutionX="480" highResolutionY="320" lowResolutionX="240" lowResolutionY="160" />
</configuration>
```
The X axis is the width of the tile in pixels and the Y axis is the height of the tile in pixels. Based on values provided in this example, the behavior for the Automatic stream is as follows:
- If the tile size is smaller than 240 pixels wide and 160 pixels high, the Low Resolution stream is displayed.
- If the tile size is 241 to 479 pixels wide and 161 to 319 pixels high, the Live stream is displayed.
- If the tile size is larger than 480 pixels wide and 320 pixels high, the High Resolution stream is displayed.
Save the file.
Close and re-open Security Desk.

To see the dimensions of a tile in Security Desk, select the tile in the canvas and press Ctrl+Shift+A. The View dimensions field shows the tile size in pixels. In the following example, the Live stream is displayed because the tile size is 362 pixels wide and 238 pixels high.