Enabling the Camera Integrity Monitor module - KiwiVision™ 4.6.1 | Security Center 5.10.4.0

KiwiVision™ User Guide for Security Center 5.10.4.0

Product
KiwiVision
Content type
Guides > User guides
Version
4.6
Release
4.6.1
Language
English
Last updated
2022-06-22

Before you can configure integrity monitoring on your cameras, you must enable the Camera Integrity Monitor module and configure the Camera Integrity Monitor role.

Before you begin

  • Your Security Center license must support camera integrity monitoring (Number of integrity-monitored cameras > 0). Both native and federated cameras are supported.
  • For large systems, prepare additional servers to host the Camera Integrity Monitor role.

What you should know

The Camera Integrity Monitor role is created when you enable the Camera Integrity Monitor module in Security Center.
CAUTION:
Disabling the module deletes the role and all camera integrity monitoring configurations. To temporarily disable this module without loosing your configuration, deactivate the role instead.
Camera integrity monitoring involves two components:
Data model
The data model is a mathematical representation of the camera view and is used for integrity monitoring. The video stream generates the data model during the camera integrity monitoring check.
Camera thumbnail
The camera thumbnail is a reference image that the maintenance technician can use to reset the camera to its original position when they fix a camera tampering issue. It is not used by the system for integrity monitoring.

Procedure

  1. From the Config Tool home page, open the Video task.
  2. Click the Modules view.
  3. Set the Camera Integrity Monitor module to ON.
  4. From the Servers list, select the server to host the Camera Integrity Monitor role.
    Best Practice: To avoid negatively impacting Archiver role performance, we recommend that you host the Camera Integrity Monitor role on a different server.
  5. If required, assign additional servers to the role.
    You can ignore the Force execution on highest priority server option. The workload is always distributed among all assigned servers.
    Best Practice: Load distribution is not load balancing. To avoid overloading servers, always assign servers with equivalent capacities.
    Following the recommended server configuration described in the Security Center System Requirements Guide, a dedicated server for the Camera Integrity Monitor role can handle the load of 16 Archiver roles managing 300 cameras each, analyzing each camera once every day.
  6. From the Event storage list, select the Archiver role used to store the camera tampering events.
  7. In the Persistence path field, enter the path to the folder where the camera integrity analysis data (CIM files) are saved.
    If multiple servers are assigned to the Camera Integrity Monitor role, you must use a network path that all servers have write access to.
  8. From the Streaming source list, select the video stream that the role should use for its analysis.
    Best Practice: Use the default Low resolution stream selection because the optimal image size for camera integrity analysis is 320 pixels wide. Higher-resolution streams are downscaled for analysis and therefore waste bandwidth, unless an existing higher-resolution multicast stream is used for analysis.
  9. In the Maximum number of simultaneous camera analysis, set the camera batch size.
    This setting (default = 10) is used to prevent load spikes at every scheduled analysis. For example, if you have 300 cameras to analyze, setting the maximum at 10 forces the role to analyze the cameras in smaller batches of 10 at a time.
  10. In the Check all cameras every field, enter the check frequency.
    The default check frequency is every hour. The Camera Integrity Monitor role builds a data model of the image (a CIM file) every time a camera is checked. Each new data model is compared to the previous one, and if the difference exceeds a certain threshold, the Camera tampered event is raised.

    If you get too many false positives because the scenes your cameras monitor change too rapidly, increase the frequency of the checks.

  11. Add the cameras you want to monitor.
    Do one of the following:
    • If you need different settings for each camera and want to set the camera thumbnail at the same time, configure integrity monitoring individually on each camera.
    • If all of your cameras use the same sensitivity preset, go to the Relationships section, click Add () and specify the cameras you want to monitor.

      If you have already set a thumbnail for a camera, you can select the camera from the list to view its thumbnail in the Thumbnail view.

  12. To update the thumbnails of all of the cameras configured for integrity monitoring, click Update thumbnails.
    The update starts at the next camera integrity check. This process only updates thumbnails for cameras that are online or have no active alarms. It does not update the associated data model.
    CAUTION:
    Depending on the size of your system, it might take some time for all of the camera thumbnails to update. If a system restart occurs while the update process is underway, the process ends without updating all of the camera thumbnails, and you must trigger another update.
  13. Click Apply.