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WebCam Monitor
v4.30 |
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Using Multiple
Cameras to Monitor Effectively |
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Different environments
have different surveillance requirements. A large facility
like a parking lot, store, residence, or hall cannot
be monitored efficiently by a single camera. Traditionally, CCTV
(Closed Circuit TV) based Surveillance Systems were used for multi
camera monitoring. This solution was expensive due to
the huge hardware costs. |
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Advances in PC based surveillance
software now allow anyone with a webcam to setup
a robust, effective and inexpensive surveillance system. |
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Today, all you need for
securing your assets is a PC, a couple of webcams and
software like WebCam Monitor. |
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Setting up your cameras |
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The first step is to
evaluate
the objectives of your surveillance setup. Start by answering the
obvious, yet important question, “Which is the most
important thing to be monitored?”. It could be
anything: your front porch, a store, a parking lot, your
home, children, pets or even your prize roses. |
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The next step would be
to identify the entry, exit and other vulnerable points
present around your subject. Once you identify
these points, you can determine the number
of cameras required to fill in the gaps. WebCam
Monitor can be used with either cameras directly
connected to the computer (using USB or FireWire ports),
or networked (IP) cameras. One PC with WebCam Monitor
can control 4 or more cameras in rotation. (Security
Monitor Pro can monitor and record from multiple
cameras simultaneously.) |
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When a camera is
connected to the PC using USB or FireWire, WebCam
Monitor will detect it automatically. IP (networked) cameras can be
installed using WebCam Monitor’s
Add Camera Wizard. You can then use the
Preview window to position the cameras to cover the
vulnerable points you had identified. Spend
some time on this step: the effectiveness of your
surveillance will depend upon the camera positions.
To use your cameras efficiently, make sure the views from two cameras
do not overlap and cover the same area. However, you should also
try to minimize the number of blind spots. |
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Cycling Through Multiple
Devices With WebCam Monitor |
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Once the physical setup
is complete, WebCam Monitor can be scheduled to cycle
through the feeds from different cameras automatically. As it monitors the feeds, it can
be configured to send different types of alerts,
either periodically
or whenever motion or noise is detected. These alerts
include: Audio & Video recordings, Snaps, E-mail
notifications and playing an audible sound alarm over
the PC’s speakers. |
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To schedule multiple
devices to monitor in a cycle: |
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Start WebCam Monitor. From the camera and microphone
drop down lists on the main screen, confirm that
all the cameras have been detected. If you don’t
see a camera listed, click on Refresh
Device List on the
File
menu. |
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Click on the
Schedule Devices link
under Quick Settings. |
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Check
'Enable
Scheduler'. Click on Setup. |
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In the Schedule Device Pairs in Cycle
dialog, click Add. |
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Use the
Add Camera Wizard that
will open to add a
device pair in the schedule. |
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To add more devices to the cycle,
repeat the steps 4 and 5. |
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The complete list of device pairs you added to the
schedule will be displayed in the Schedule
Device Pairs in Cycle dialog. To change an
entry, select it and click on Edit. To delete an entry, select it and click on Remove. Use the Move Up
and Move Down
buttons to change the order of the device pairs
in the cycle. |
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| 8. |
Each device pair
will keep running for 60 seconds before switching
to the next device in the cycle. |
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Click OK
to save the
settings and return to the Scheduler
dialog. |
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Under Specify Scheduler Timings for Monitoring,
you can select:
Once, Daily, Weekly or On
Application Start Up. Click OK. |
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Now that you know how to
schedule multiple devices to monitor in a cycle, you can
configure different alerts to be triggered periodically
or when motion or noise is detected. The article
on Setting
up a PC video surveillance system discuses the process
of configuring periodic alerts or motion and noise detected
alerts. |
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When an event occurs, you can be informed
through different alerts like Video
and Audio Recordings, Take Snap, E-mail notification,
PC sound alarms and Launch Program. To specify the different settings
for these alerts, click on the Configure
link, which is present adjacent to each alert in the
Quick Settings panel in the main application
window. |
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Depending upon the Start
Time you had specified, monitoring through the various
devices will start automatically. Whenever an event
occurs, alerts will be triggered. |
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Securing your assets was
never so simple, effective and inexpensive. |
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