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1. Monitor Multiple Locations Simultaneously
2. Setting up a Multi-Station Surveillance System
3. Avoid False Alarms with Masking
4. Selecting a Security Camera
   
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  Security Monitor Pro v2.30
   
   
  Avoid False Alarms with Masking
   
     
  You have set up a video surveillance system to protect your property.  So far, so good!  Now you’re getting dozens of alerts every day, because birds fly past a window.  How can you avoid having your motion detection software alert you whenever a car drives past your front door or the building air conditioner turns on and blows on some curtains?  
     
  An effective remedy is to order for Security Monitor Pro.  Using the “Masking” feature, you can tell the program to ignore part of the view from a camera.  Motion in the masked area is ignored.  Motion detection alerts are triggered only if there is motion in the unmasked part of the video feed.  Each camera can have its own individual mask, so you can block out the window seen by one camera and the bird cage seen by another.  
     
  Here’s an example: You are using security cameras to protect your business by monitoring key locations like file cabinets, the entrances to restricted access areas, vital equipment, the supply room, etc.  
     
  When you are away, you want to monitor your desk area.  It’s OK if people enter the room, but you want an alert to be triggered if someone invades your personal space.  The problem is that there are trees just outside your window that constantly move in the wind.  Placing a mask over the trees solves the problem.  Moving tree limbs won’t trigger an alert, but Security Monitor Pro will still detect motion everywhere else in the camera image.  
     
   
 

 

 
  The second camera monitors the entrance to the conference room.  You want to know who uses it and participates in important client meetings.  The digital clock should be masked because the moving display can trigger false alarms.  
     
  To use the Masking feature in Security Monitor Pro:  
     
  1. Select the camera by clicking on its preview.  In this case we will add a mask to Panasonic BL-C10 (camera “1”).  
  2. Click on the Tools menu and then Mask Panasonic BL-C10 (1), or the mask icon on the control bar of the Preview window .  
  3. A window appears that explains how to use masking.  Click OK to close it.  The mask icon on the control bar changes to the Unmask icon .  
  4. A rectangle outlined with red dotted lines appears in the Preview. You can resize it by dragging any of its edges or corners with the mouse, and move it by dragging anywhere inside the box. Move it to the part of the image that you want to mask and size it to cover the area that would trigger false alarms. You can only activate or deactivate masking, or move and resize the mask rectangle, when monitoring is turned off.  
     
   
     
  The same methods can be used to mask the digital clock for the camera that monitors the conference room.  
     
  To unmask a camera, select it, open the Tools menu and click Unmask (name-of-camera), or click on the unmask icon in the camera’s Preview window.  
     
  Mask settings do not change when you switch between camera views, close the program, or when scheduled monitoring starts or stops.  
     
  By not detecting the motion of your fireplace, curtains, flags, or aquarium fish, you can drastically reduce the number of false alarms in Security Monitor Pro.  Masking can save storage space for recordings and snaps, reduce unnecessary e-mail traffic, and avoid wasting your time responding to an alert caused by a dog walking past your window.  By letting you focus your attention only on real problems, it creates a more effective, more reliable surveillance system.  
     
 
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