Publisher: |
|
---|---|
Author: |
Bernd Wilhelm |
Date: |
2014-05-09 |
Document: |
release-notes_en.html |
Confidentiality: |
public |
These Release Notes contain a short technical description of the most important changes of MOBOTIX MxControlCenter (sometimes also called MxCC for short).
Release Version |
Creation Date |
Publishing Date |
2014-03-19 |
2014-05-09 |
|
2013-04-16 |
2013-04-16 |
|
2012-07-18 |
2012-07-19 |
|
2012-02-22 |
2012-02-29 |
|
2011-07-08 |
2011-07-15 |
|
2010-07-21 |
2010-07-22 |
|
2010-03-25 |
2010-04-09 |
|
2009-12-09 |
2009-12-09 |
|
2009-07-08 |
2009-07-14 |
|
2009-02-18 |
2009-03-13 |
|
2009-01-29 |
2009-01-30 |
|
2008-07-08 |
2008-07-10 |
|
2007-12-20 |
2007-12-21 |
|
2007-09-14 |
2007-09-18 |
|
2007-05-03 |
2007-05-03 |
|
2007-01-18 |
2007-01-18 |
|
2006-09-08 |
2006-09-11 |
|
2006-09-08 |
2006-09-08 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MxViewer*.ini
configuration can be loaded, edited and saved in MxControlCenter.Depending on the intended use, the system requires different hardware to properly run MxControlCenter.
|
Thin Client |
Mini PC |
Mid-Range PC |
High-End PC |
---|---|---|---|---|
Description of Intended Use |
||||
Intended Use |
Video wall |
Video wall |
MxCC surveillance system, video wall main computer |
MxCC surveillance system, video wall main computer |
Max. Number of Displays per Computer |
1 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
Max. Display Resolution |
1280x1024 |
1920x1200 |
2560x1600 |
2560x1600 |
Max. Number of Concurrent Live Camera Streams per Computer |
41 |
121 |
401 |
601 |
Max. Resolution per Camera |
QXGA |
QXGA |
QXGA |
QXGA |
Frame Rate per Camera |
30 fps MEGA1, |
30 fps MEGA1, |
30 fps MEGA1, |
30 fps MEGA1, |
Hardware Requirements |
||||
CPU |
Intel Atom |
Intel Core i3 |
Intel Core i5 |
Intel Xeon |
Clock Rate |
1.6 GHz |
2 GHz |
3.2 GHz |
3.2 GHz |
RAM |
1 GB |
2 GB |
4 GB |
16 GB |
Video Card |
On-board |
On-board |
Video card with |
Video card with |
Display Ports |
1 x VGA/DVI |
1 x DVI |
2 x DVI |
4 x DVI |
Ethernet Interface |
100 Mbps |
100 Mbps |
1000 Mbps |
1000 Mbps |
Operating System Requirements |
||||
Operating System |
Windows XP SP3 |
Windows 7 64 Bit |
Windows 7 64 Bit |
Windows 7 64 Bit |
1 Reduced, if MxControlCenter computer runs additional tasks (e.g. image correction, display scaling, etc.)! |
Note: The maximum number of live camera streams that can be shown concurrently will decrease if the MxControlCenter computer needs to accomplish additional tasks (image correction, display scaling, etc.).
For MxControlCenter 2.3 and higher, MOBOTIX offers additional language packages. These files are named MxCC_LanguagePack_*_<language[_country]>.exe
, where "<language[_country]>
" is replaced by the corresponding language and, if required, the country code (for Italian, this would be MxCC_LanguagePack_*_it.exe
, for Chinese (China) MxCC_LanguagePack_*_zh_CN.exe
). Please make sure that the version number of the language package matches the installed version (e.g. "2.5.2
").
Caution: If you have installed the 64 bit version of MxControlCenter, make sure that you also install the 64 bit language package. The 64 bit language packages are easily identified by an additional (x64)
in the file name, e.g. MxCC_LanguagePack_(x64)_*_it.exe
.
MxCC_LanguagePack_*_<language[_country]>.exe
) from the MOBOTIX website to your computer (e.g. your Desktop).MxCC_LanguagePack_*_<language[_country]>.exe
).The setup file copies the language files into the Languages
subfolder and the file for the print templates (PrintTemplates_<language[_country]>.ts
) into the Templates
subfolder of the MxControlCenter program folder.
Upon the next launch of MxControlCenter, the application will start in the language you just installed. If you would like to select a different language, open Tools > Language and click on the desired language. After restarting MxControlCenter, the application will come up in the selected language.
In order to uninstall a language package, open Applications or Uninstall Programs in the Control Panel. Click on the MxControlCenter Language Package you would like to uninstall and follow the instructions. Upon the next launch of MxControlCenter, the application opens the language of the system locale. If the corresponding language package cannot be found, the application falls back to English.
Creation Date: 2014-03-19
Publishing Date: 2014-05-09
Filling the MxCC alarm list has been improved considerably under conditions with low bandwidth for accessing the stored event data. If reading the stored alarm images from the file server took too long due to the limited bandwidth available, the program sometimes produced errors. The application is now much more tolerant against errors of this kind.
The same restrictions as for MxControlCenter 2.5.3.1 apply.
Creation Date: 2013-04-16
Publishing Date: 2013-04-16
In order to improve the support of camera images in 16:9 format, i.e., for the resolutions HD (1280x720) and Full HD (1920x1080) the application now also supports special 16:9 formats. To change the format of a layout, activate the Layout Manager and select either 4:3 or 16:9 from the context menu of a layout. For more information, please read the MxCC User Manual for release 2.5.3.1.
Time-lapse
profile. Using this profile, you can reduce the number of images or adjust the interval between the images that are to be exported. In addition, you can also set the interval for showing the images after exporting. This feature allows exporting images with large intervals into a clip that can be shown like a time-lapse movie.Note: Due to the performance required to fill and update the event cache, you should only launch several instances and use event search on 64 bit computers with 8 GB RAM or more.
info.jpg
file.MxCC.ini
) with inconsistent or corrupt layout definitions, the application did not start properly. This release of MxControlCenter is much more tolerant in such a case and will load the configuration.%PROGRAMDATA%\boost_interprocess...
system folder.Program behavior with activated Event Cache
When the event cache contains many cameras and/or a very large number of event, the first launch of MxControlCenter as well as subsequent program starts may take up to several minutes. The same might occur when changing the configuration (INI file).
Action logs when using several program instances
If MxCC has been started several times on the same computer, the application creates different action log files for each instance. Writing to the same file is currently not supported.
Window definition on D14Di-180° models only possible in Full Image mode
Due to restrictions in the camera software, defining exposure and video motion windows does not work in the Panorama display mode. Trying to do so will prompt MxCC to show a corresponding information box.
Remote-control commands of SSL cameras to MxControlCenter require port
If a camera can only be reached via https/SSL, the remote-control commands sent to the MxControlCenter computer and which use the camera IP address need to include the camera's SSL port.
Examples:ShowInExtraWindow=$(ID.ETHERNET):443
ShowInExtraWindow=ownip:443
Post PTZ settings for exporting data
When applying post PTZ settings (including distortion correction) to exported data, you need to apply these settings in the PTZ Control section of the sidebar before you add any time ranges to the export list. Changing these settings afterwards with the export list opened will not apply the desired changes.
Creation Date: 2012-07-18
Publishing Date: 2012-07-19
All of the enhancements described in the following are included in the MxControlCenter User Manual V2.5.2, which will be available within the next couple of weeks, first in German and then in English.
With the S14D, the Hemispheric technology is now also available in a dual camera. This means that all hemispheric display modes that can be configurated and displayed for a single sensor module (e.g., the Q24M) can now be configurated and displayed simultaneously for both of the two hemispheric sensor modules of the S14D. MxControlCenter supports these settings.
Setting of the Camera Display Modes
In the Camera Display Mode section of the PTZ Controls sidebar panel, you select with the first box if the camera should deliver only the image of one sensor (e.g., with a S14M or a S14D that are used as Day/Night cameras) or if the images of both sensor modules should be displayed as a dual image. If a dual image is displayed then you have to select the right and left sensor image with "Alt-click" individually in order to set the desired display mode for each one. In the second box you then select the desired display mode just as when selecting the display mode for a single image.
Performing Post PTZ Actions in Subviews of the Camera Image
As described above, the dual image of a S14D can consist of up to 8 different subviews, namely when selecting surround view with 4 subviews for the left and right sensor each. Each of the various subviews of a single as well as a dual image in MxControlCenter can now be selected for PTZ actions and, if needed, for post PTZ image correction. In order to do that, you select the desired subview in the MxCC Display Mode section of the PTZ Controls sidebar panel. Therefore, the subviews are numbered consecutively as follows: Subview of the left sensor image line by line from left top to right button, then the subviews of the right sensor image line by line from left top to right bottom.
Selection of the Camera Loudspeaker and Microphone
More microphone features are available for S14 camera models in the Audio tab of the Camera Configuration.
With the new image analysis functions of MxAnalytics (with Camera Software Version 4.1.4.11) object movements within the camera image can be detected and analyzed. This includes the illustration of the distribution of object movements in Heatmaps and the analysis of the crossings of Counting Lines by moving objects. The data that is gathered by detection is stored camera internally on SD cards and can thus be used anytime for individual analyses. This version of MxControlCenter supports the configuration of MxAnalytics as well as the analyses of the data generated and stored by MxAnalytics in Q24 camera models. Therefore, MxAnalytics can be configured and used with MxControlCenter without any further usage of the camera web browser. The following enhancements have been implemented:
Configuration of MxAnalytics in the "Camera Configuration" dialog
When selecting a Q24M camera the new MxAnalytics section in the Camera Configuration dialog is available. This section includes the Basic Configuration tab for setting the relevant function parameter on the camera. This section also includes the Visual Configuration tab for defining the detection areas, the minimum object size for detecting, and the counting lines.
IMPORTANT:
For permanent storing of the detection results camera internally on a SD card, this card has to be formatted and set up with a specific partition for MxAnalytics first. This is done in the new MxFFS Volume Partitioning dialog that can be opened via the Set up MxAnalytics Volume... button in the Basic Configuration tab.
Analysis of the Detection Results in "Event Search & MxAnalytics"
After activating and configuring MxAnalytics on a Q24M, the generated data can be analyzed and displayed anytime in MxControlCenter. The analysis is performed with the "Event Search" in the Event Search & MxAnalytics section of the MxControlCenter side panel. In this section, a Q24M camera needs to be selected as source and MxAnalytics as search mode. After that the camera can evaluate the data and can show how many objects crossed the counting lines or can display the results of the object movements in a heatmap. The results of the counting line crossings are always displayed as a Counting Line Report in form of a table and can be exported. In addition, the heatmap (with or without the legend) and the counting lines can be displayed in the image via the Heatmap, Counting Lines and Legend icons.
IMPORTANT:
The settings for the evaluation of the data, e.g., the time range for which the evaluation should be performed, are defined in the Counting Line Report Profiles and the Heatmap Report Profiles. At the moment, these profiles cannot be edited in MxControlCenter; however, there are several pre-defined profiles that can be selected. These pre-defined profiles are part of the factory configuration of the Camera Software Version 4.1.4.11. Currently, the adjustment or definition of specific evaluation profiles can only be performed in the new MxAnalytics Control section of the camera software by using a web browser. However, the current evaluation can be adapted for evaluations with a daily, weekly or monthly range by entering a desired day or month in MxControlCenter. This is done by activating the Set Date check box and entering or selecting the desired day or month. This setting is temporary and effective only for the current evaluation in MxControlCenter – it does not change the profile defined in the camera!
Note:
Currently, the MxAnalytics data stored in the camera is updated automatically only every 15 minutes. Updating cannot be enforced by MxControlCenter and therefore, it can take up to 15 minutes for current detections by MxAnalytics to be included in the counting line reports. This will be changed with the next camera software version.
As described earlier in the section on the integration of MxAnalytics, a dialog for formatting the camera's internal SD card has been integrated. This dialog or rather its function of SD card formatting is independently available from MxAnalytics for all cameras with integrated SD card. In addition, the dialog includes the setup for encrypted data storing on the SD card. To do this, an encryption password can be entered before formatting.
For all cameras with SD card, this dialog can be opened via the MxFFS Volume Partitioning button in the External Recording dialog. The External Recording dialog can be found in Camera Configuration > External Recording > Settings button.
CAUTION:
When using MxControlCenter for directly accessing an encrypted SD card with a card reader, the password entered to encrypt the SD card has to be entered also.
The camera time and time servers to be used can now be set with MxControlCenter also. For that, the new Time Server section in the Camera Configuration dialog has been integrated. This new section is especially helpful when configuring many previously selected cameras at the same time. This dialog provides the following functions:
Setting the camera time to the time of the local computer
Setting of external time servers as time (NTP) server for the selected cameras
Selecting a camera ("master camera") to be used as time server for other cameras
Setting of the time server for a master camera
Any GPS boxes connected to the cameras are automatically displayed and also used as time server.
MxControlCenter now has a specific right, which allows controlling the access to the live images of a camera.
PTZ actions can now be triggered also by using the keyboard - this applies to PTZ actions for live PTZ control of the camera, as well as for post PTZ actions in MxControlCenter. To do this, the following commands are available:
Key Combination |
Triggered PTZ Actions |
Limitations |
Ctrl + "+" |
Zoom in (enlarge) |
|
Ctrl + "-" |
Zoom out (decrease) |
|
Ctrl + "." |
Center image (Center Pan) |
|
Ctrl + "#" |
Zoom x 1 |
|
"Arrow left" |
Pan left |
Only works, if the control in the PTZ control section has the focus |
"Arrow right" |
Pan right |
Only works, if the control in the PTZ control section has the focus |
"Arrow up" |
Tilt up |
Only works, if the control in the PTZ control section has the focus |
"Arrow down" |
Tilt down |
Only works, if the control in the PTZ control section has the focus |
Alarm sound when receiving alarm messages
When receiving alarm messages while the alarm list was hidden, no alarm sound was emitted despite previous activation.
Video search - Image storage
In the Video Search dialog, it is possible again to store a JPEG image on the desktop by right-clicking the Save current image on the desktop button.
User rights for PTZ
Users without rights for live PTZ control of the camera could not perform post PTZ actions either.
Mouse-over display in the Video Search dialog
After displaying and hiding a mouse-over window to an image of the filmstrip, the related image in the filmstrip was empty sometimes.
Editing many VM windows in MxControlCenter
When editing in the Camera Configuration dialog more than 99 VM windows that were defined in the camera, a loss of VM windows occurred after restoring to the camera.
Rights for playback of recordings
Users without playback rights could load pre-defined layouts with special display windows for playing back recordings.
MX-V4.1.4.11
MX-V4.1.4.11
, you will experience problems when trying to define windows (video motion, exposure, etc). It therefore highly recommended to upgrade these cameras to software release MX-V4.1.4.11
or higher.Event Searches not possible in additional program instances
If MxCC has been started several times on the same computer, you can only use the program instance that had been started first to execute event searches. This is not possible for all program instances started after the first one.
Program behavior with activated Event Cache
When the event cache contains many cameras and/or a very large number of event, the first launch of MxControlCenter as well as subsequent program starts may take up to several minutes. The same might occur when changing the configuration (INI file).
Action logs when using several program instances
If MxCC has been started several times on the same computer, the application creates different action log files for each instance. Writing to the same file is currently not supported.
Window definition on D14Di-180° models only possible in Full Image mode
Due to restrictions in the camera software, defining exposure and video motion windows does not work in the Panorama display mode. Trying to do so will prompt MxCC to show a corresponding information box.
Remote-control commands of SSL cameras to MxControlCenter require port
If a camera can only be reached via https/SSL, the remote-control commands sent to the MxControlCenter computer and which use the camera IP address need to include the camera's SSL port.
Examples:ShowInExtraWindow=$(ID.ETHERNET):443
ShowInExtraWindow=ownip:443
Post PTZ settings for exporting data
When applying post PTZ settings (including distortion correction) to exported data, you need to apply these settings in the PTZ Control section of the sidebar before you add any time ranges to the export list. Changing these settings afterwards with the export list opened will not apply the desired changes.
German and French translations are labeled as third-party translations
Due to a mismatch in the certification chain, the language packages for German and French are labeled as "third-party translations" in Help > About, although they are supplied by MOBOTIX and are safe to use. This can fixed by installing the corresponding language package for German or French, respectively).
Creation Date: 2012-02-22
Publishing Date: 2012-02-29
For more information on the enhancements and features described in the following, see the MxControlCenter User Manual V1.5. The translations of this manual into other languages will be available within the next couple of weeks.
When defining defining exposure and Video Motion windows on Dual camera models in the Camera Configuration dialog, you do not need to switch to either the left or the right image sensor. Instead, you can define the windows directly in the dual image delivered by the camera. When defining exposure windows or video motion windows, you need to select the portion of the dual image you would like to edit by clicking on that part of the image. You can draw new and edit existing windows for Video Motion events directly in the left or the right portion of the image. In addition, you can now adapt the size of the Camera Configuration dialog to your needs. When doing so, the display windows used for defining the different window types are scaled with the dialog.
In order to support the D14Di-180° camera models, MxControlCenter now basically treats D14Di-180° cameras like 6 megapixel mono cameras.
Note: In order to be able to use the functions described above, the camera needs to run software release 4.1.1.20
or higher.
If you have defined groups and users in MxControlCenter, you can now automatically login specific users when launching the application. if you would like to use this feature, you need to activate the Auto Login checkbox of the corresponding user in the Users & Groups dialog.
On the contrary, the application can automatically log out the current user to protect the system against misuse if it detects inactivity for a specific amount of time. if you would like to use this feature, activate the new Logout user checkbox in the Dead Man's Switch section of Tools > Options > Monitoring. Note that you need to activate the Apply dead man settings right for the corresponding user groups (Tools > Users & groups, Group Rights tab, Application section).
MxControlCenter's handling (i.e., saving and loading) of its configuration files (*.ini
) has been changed as follows:
<old name> V<MxCC version used to store the file> Backup.ini
".MxCC.ini
" file, which had been created using version 2.5.0.2, the application creates the file "MxCC 2.5.0.2 Backup.ini
" when saving the configuration.In contrast to earlier versions it is now possible to use blanks in file names when automatically loading configuration files as a command line argument. Note that the sequence of the start parameters is not important any more. The last parameter of the comma-separated argument list is interpreted as a file name (provided it does not match a start parameter). Enter the corresponding command line in the shortcut properties in the Target field (do not use quotes).
Syntax:
<Path to programm folder>\MxCC.exe <comma-separated arguments>,<path to configuration file>
Example:
"C:\Program Files\MOBOTIX\MxCC\MxCC.exe" MxNoSave,C:\MxCC Configuration\MxCC Gate Guards.ini
The MxNoSave
argument prohibits saving the configuration file. In case you do not need any command line arguments, enter the file name without a comma after the program call:
"C:\Program Files\MOBOTIX\MxCC\MxCC.exe" C:\MxCC Configuration\MxCC Gate Guards.ini
.erdinfo
file improved.erdinfo
file. MxCC now can handle this situation much better. If the file is found to be corrupt, MxCC creates its own .erdinfo
file more reliably in the RAM and without user notification.4.1.0.x
, e.g. version 4.1.0.8
for D14 models, could be searched by the Event Search but all images were displayed with a wrong time stamp ("01.01.1970
").MxCC Alarm
type to a list of MxCC instances and waited for the first correct alarm acknowledgement, this acknowledgement was never sent by MxCC. This happened regardless of whether the user acknowledged the alarm or not.MX-V4.1.4.11
MX-V4.1.4.11
, you will experience problems when trying to define windows (video motion, exposure, etc). It therefore highly recommended to upgrade MxControlCenter to release 2.5.2 or higher.ShowInExtraWindow=$(ID.ETHERNET):443
ShowInExtraWindow=ownip:443
full=0
" or "hidecontrols=0
".Creation Date: 2010-07-08
Publishing Date: 2010-07-15
With the Event Searches it is now possible to predefine individual search requests for specific cameras, events, and periods of time (e.g., all motion sensor alarms of the previous night in the parking lot) and execute them at the touch of a button. For this purpose, a new section, named Event Searches has been included in the Navigator of the Sidebar. In this section, new event searches can be defined and existing search definitions can be selected for execution. After executing an event search, the event images that have been located on the individual cameras are shown in the display area of MxCC together with the parameters of this event search. The selected search can also be easily modified by changing any of the search parameters and immediately re-executed with the new settings – provided that the user is authorized to do so. The following parameters can be changed:
Video sources (Cameras, File Server Paths)
Event types (e.g. VM, VM2, MI, etc)
Time span to be searched
Sort order and criteria of the search result
The search result displays all event images of all camera recordings that match the search parameters in the defined order. Individual events can then be investigated by double-clicking the desired event image to activate the player in the lower half of the display area.
It is now possible to subsequently search existing video recordings of a MOBOTIX camera and look for image changes via the definition of so-called Video Motion (VM) windows and the execution of a search (which will then look for video motion changes within those windows). For example, if your camera was recording images of a building with a door, you could "draw" a video motion window per click-and-drag over the section of the image where the door is, and when the search is executed, all video motion changes that occurred within that doorway, within the specified timespan would then be displayed in the results as the search executed. These new Post video motion searches are defined essentially the same way as event searches are. The only differences are, (1) the option "Offline search for motion (Post VM)" has to be set as the "Search mode" and (2) only one camera or file server path can be searched at one time.
Attention:
Post VM Searches
require recordings in MxPEG format which have been saved with a
camera software version 4.0.4.18 or above!
The camera's recording storage is
organized as a ring buffer, which when completely filled, will then
overwrite the oldest events with newer ones. The new Local Archive
allows you to use any folder you wish on your local computer as a
sort of manual backup to archive events that shall not be
overwritten. Archiving is accomplished by defining the folder (or
folders) where you want to store events you want to save permanently
and you then add events to the archive simply by clicking the events
and drag them to that (or those) folder(s). Currently, any event
displayed in a search result, be it a regular Event search or
a Post Video Motion Search can be added to the Local Archive
via this method. The clips created via the Live Recording function
(explained in the next section) can also be archived in the same
manner.
Data in Local Archive folders can only be deleted by
users; they can and will not be deleted automatically by the
MxControlCenter. The location of the Local Archive is configured in
the General tab of the Options dialog. Any desired
folder structure can be created within the Local Archive and the
entire structure of the archive can be examined via click the LOCAL
ARCHIVE section in the Navigator of the Sidebar.
Data stored in the Local Archive can, just like like any other camera
recording, also be exported.
Independent of what the camera is currently configured to record, what you see the camera displaying as a live video stream in a layout's display window of the MxControlCenter can be directly recorded simply by selecting the desired camera and clicking a button. This Live Recording will then continue indefinitely, until the user either explicitly stops it by re-clicking the button (so long as the same layout is displayed). Selecting a new camera in the same layout with the button depressed continues the recording using the live stream of the newly selected camera. So it's now possible, for example, for the department store detective to record the complete path of a suspicious person as he/she walks through the store and in the process moves out of the field of view of one camera and into the field of view of the next camera. The recording of these live streams is stored as an MxPEG clip in a subfolder of the Local Archive named Live Recordings and that same detective (from our example) can then export this clip to be used as evidence for prosecution of the criminal.
With this release of MxControlCenter several improvements and enhancements for exporting recorded video have been implemented:
Improved Export with
Application Files - "MxViewer"
The result of
exporting data in the format MxPEG Clip or File Server
Structure with the option Copy application files
activated, makes it a lot easier now to examine the exported data.
Besides the exported data, the target folder contains the file
PlayVideo.cmd. By double clicking this file a version of the
MxViewer of the MxCC is started and the exported data can be played
directly out of the target folder. In addition to this, it is also
possible to export the data into a password protected zip file.
Simplified
Export - Player with "Marker Mode"
The
player has been expanded with a Marker Mode button.
When this button is activated, whatever timespan is played back from
the camera recording is automatically marked. This marked timespan
can then be added to the export list simply clicking the Add
to Export button and be
exported from there.
Additional
Container and Video Codec Formats
The
container formats AVI (.avi), MxPEG (.mxg), and Quicktime (.mov) are
now available for exporting data. Depending on the chosen container
format, additional video codec formats are available also
Export of MxPEG clips to
AVI
MxPEG-clips
can now, just like the camera recordings, be exported as an .avi
file.
With this release of MxControlCenter several improvements and enhancements for exporting recorded video have been implemented:
Time synchronous playback has
been simplified
Synchronous playback of all cameras in a
layout can now be executed via a new button directly in the Player
section of the Sidebar. Clicking the button one time switches all
live video channels in the complete layout to playback mode.
Clicking that same button again switches them all back again to live
mode. In addition to this, the functioning of the former (v2.4 and
before) separate dialog with the synchronous playback slider and go
to button have been incorporated into the player control in the
sidebar.
Global player time
The
last time selected (or played to) in the player is saved as a
"Global Player Time". This means that if one camera is
switched to playback mode, playing for a bit, and stopped, when the
next live video channel (camera) is switch to playback mode, it will
automatically attempt to position it's player time to the one
before. This feature makes it possible to successively switch
selected live channels to playback mode to "follow" a
person from one surveillance area to another during playback of the
recorded data.
Instead of using the stored original images, it is now possible to use smaller preview images to search and display recorded data. Since the preview images are much smaller and need less bandwidth for transmission to MxControlCenter, a search and display of the recorded data is now also possible with low bandwidth. With this version of MxCC preview images can be generated with the software component MxRemotePreview as well as with the camera. To activate and configure preview images, open the dialog Properties for <camera name>, select the Access Data tab and click on Change.
Up until this release, it was only possible to define program logons and access rights for specific functions at the group (role) level and there were only four groups. With Version 2.5, it is now possible to define program logons and access rights for as many users and user groups as desired. Access rights are still assigned on the group level. The access rights for individual functions, however, can be defined more precisely. In addition, a two man control function has been implemented for some functions. This guarantees that those functions, e.g., a video search or data export, can only be carried out in the presence of an additional user such as a Data Privacy Officer. To define program logons and access rights, select Tools -> Users & groups.
With this version, MxControlCenter now logs automatically all user activities and system messages in a "Action Log". To configure the log, select Tools -> Options and open the Action Log tab. In order to display the log, select Tools -> Show Action Log. The entries in the log can be filtered, exported to XML files, and printed.
The Navigator Section was added to the Sidebar and contains the following items (trees):
Layouts
Video Sources
Event Searches
Locale Archive
All sections that contained the different user added MxControlCenter objects and do not have their own controls are now grouped in the Navigator panel.
You can now store the current program window configuration and the display settings as Saved Views. In addition to several predefined Views, you can define as many Views as you wish. User- and pre-defined Saved views are saved and loaded via the menu item View -> Saved views.
The camera Softbuttons section of the sidebar can now be shown or hidden via the menu item View just like the other sections in the sidebar.
When using dual sensor cameras, such as the M12, you can choose a dual image for the display of video streams, which is defined in the camera. The dual image depicted in MxControlCenter could not be altered up until now. From this version on you can choose to display only the left or the right part of the dual image in MxControlCenter. This does not affect the camera live image. For this purpose, additional drop down option menus to select the desired display mode have been included in the subsections Camera Display Mode" and MxCC Display Mode in the PTZ Control section of the Sidebar.
The dialog Add Camera now includes the addition of a Generic IP camera selection for the camera Type. This now makes it possible to add any foreign make cameras, without adding specific support for a particular camera manufacturer, a method, which heretofore (and still does) necessitated a change to the MxControlCenter. The dialog has been expanded to provide fields for the purpose of entering the necessary URLs for (important!) M-JPEG streaming and PTZ control via HTTP requests. To insert a foreign make camera as Generic IP camera is a two step process: First, it is inserted via the Add Camera as previous described and then the Properties dialog must be opened to enter the necessary URLs for streaming and PTZ control.
Notes:
It is highly probably that a camera inserted as a "Generic IP camera" will not display it's live stream immediately after insertion, although it might, so do not assume there is an error in the MxControlCenter when the live video does not appear. In this case, the correct URL for M-JPEG streaming must first be determined and entered in the appropriate field.
The current version of the MxServer does not yet support the Generic IP camera, so that while you will be able to display the live video from cameras of this type in the MxControlCenter you will not be able to store, playback and export stored video from these camera. This assumes, of course, that the camera make and model is not one which the MxServer already supports.
To send an audio announcement over the loudspeaker of a MX camera in the current layout it is now no longer necessary to select exactly this camera beforehand in the layout. Several cameras often survey the same area (e.g. a parking lot), these are usually also grouped together into one layout, and only one of the cameras is to be used for an audio announcement, because it may, for example have an Ext IO connected. In this particular case it is often difficult to remember to click on precisely that particular camera before and then click on the Activate Audio announcement to camera button in time. Now, though, with the ability to configure redirection of the audio path, all cameras in the layout can individually be configured to send (redirect) the audio announcement to a particular camera. And, if desired, you can, naturally, select the camera itself as it's redirection path. Afterwards, any one of the cameras can then be clicked to send the audio announcement and the announcement will issue from the desired camera. Configuration of this is via the Properties dialog in the Display tab.
High CPU
load when certain Layouts were selected
A
disproportionately high CPU load was sometimes observed when layouts
containing live cameras were selected and with particular
configuration settings (e.g. large values for the "Local
Recorder")
PTZ
message displayed in error when missing PTZ rights
A
PTZ error message was displayed, in error if the joystick was moved
and the user did not have the right for PTZ operation.
Error
when the program was started via a shortcut in the Startup
folder
The program would
often crash when the user attempted to start the program on log on
via a shortcut created in the Startup folder.
Extra-Windows
do not begin restreaming live video after a camera reboot
If
the live image (stream) of camera was opened in an extra windows and
that camera was restarted, the live video stream in that extra
window would not restart once the camera came back online.
Layout-Manager
could not be exited in certain cases
If
a layout was switched to edit mode when the sidebar, menu, and
toolbar was hidden, there was now way to exit this mode because the
appropriate command was missing from the layout context menu.
New
gateway address not saved to camera
The
gateway address when entered during the reconfiguration of the
camera's network address would not be saved to the camera's
permanent configuration.
Image
flicker during the display of very large resolution images via the
"mouse-over" feature
If
the mouse-over view feature was used to display the original sized
image of a camera and that image caused the display of the
scrollbars the image would flicker strongly.
Program
error during the use of the Layout Sequencer in combination with
MxControlCenter image correction (post processing deskew).
A
program error would sometimes occur during the use of the
Layout Sequencer in combination with certain Layout elements such as
Foreign make IP cameras and post processing image deskew.
Program error when saving rotor
head position when using the Pelco-D protocol.
A camera that
is mounted (and connected) to a rotor head, which is controlled via
the Pelco-D protocol would sometimes cause a program error when the
user attempted to store the PTZ position via a click-and-hold mouse
click on any one of the 16 buttons used for this purpose in the PTZ
control of the sidebar.
AVI-Export not available for
Windows Server systems
The
data export to AVI was not available if the MxCC was running on a
Windows Server 2003 or 2008 system.
The configuration of Network
Messages on certain camera models was not possible.
It was
not possible to use the MxControlCenter to configure Network
Messages (for alarm purposes) on cameras using software version
4.0.4.18 and higher.
Problems
with display of dual-images from D14 cameras at higher
resolutions
The display of
dual-images from the D14 camera at the resolution of double-MEGA (2
x 1280x960) or double-QXGA (2 x 2048x1536) can sometimes result in
image errors and a disconnection of the live stream.
Configuration
of network messaging not possible on cameras using software version
4.1.x
This release of the
MxControlCenter currently does not support configuration of network
messaging on cameras running software version 4.1.0.2 and higher.
Event
Searches in 2nd Program Instance
Event
searches are currently not possible in a second (or more)
instance(s) of the program started on the same computer.
Action
Log in 2nd Program Instance
Multiple
instances of the program started on the same computer cannot
currently write to the same action log. In the event that a second
instance of the program is started, it will create an action log,
but it will not be the same action log file the 1st instance of the
program is writing to.
Sending
remote control commands of SSL cameras to MxControlCenter require
port numbers
If a
camera can only be reached via https/SSL, the remote commands sent
from the camera to the MxControlCenter computer and which use the
camera IP address, need to include the SSL
port.
Examples:ShowInExtraWindow=$(ID.ETHERNET)
:443
ShowInExtraWindow=ownip
:443
Camera Configuration – window
definition not possible in all video modes and automatic
switching
The definition of exposure and video motion windows
on the Exposure and Events pages of the Camera
Configuration is not yet fully compatible with the different
display modes of the individual camera models. For Dual models, you
need to switch the camera to the corresponding image sensor (left or
right) before you can define these windows. For Q22M/Q24M models,
defining the windows always uses the default view mode (Area
Corrected) . Note that you cannot use the Surround or Panorama video
modes for this purpose.
Post PTZ settings for exporting data
When applying
post PTZ settings (including distortion correction) to corrected
data, you need to apply these settings in the PTZ Control
section of the sidebar before you add any time ranges
to the export list. Changing these settings afterwards with the
export list opened will not apply the desired changes.
Missing GUI refresh after
Remote Control commands
Sidebar,
menu, title bar, toolbar and status bar will not re-display as they
should for remote control commands "full=0" and
"hidecontrols=0".
Availability of Language
Packages
The Language
Packages for the following languages are not yet available but will
be uploaded as soon as they are finished: Chinese (ZH), Italian,
Japanese, Dutch, Russian and Spanish
Creation Date: 2010-07-21
Publishing Date: 2010-07-22
The configuration options for adding cameras to MxControlCenter have been improved in several locations.
Menu and dialog structure
In order to display and modify the camera properties, the new Edit MOBOTIX Camera dialog provides the following tabs:
Access Data
Information
Display
PTZ/Rotor
In this context, the camera properties do not refer to the camera configuration, but rather how the camera is integrated into MxControlCenter, e.g. the data required for accessing the camera (IP address, user name and password). This dialog replaces the camera tabs in the Options dialog, which served the purpose of storing the access information, display options and the settings of the PTZ/rotor control for all cameras in the current layout. To open the dialog, click on the Properties menu item, which is available in the following menus:
Context menu of a display window in a layout
Video Source menu, if a display window has been selected in a layout
Context menu of the Video Sources area in the sidebar
Besides the Properties item, these menus contain two more menu items for modifying the camera configuration itself:
Configure
This menu
item opens the Camera Configuration dialog, which allows
changing the most important parameters of the camera configuration.
Browser
This submenu
allows modifying the camera configuration or displaying the camera
information in a web browser. This menu item is currently not
available in the context menu of the sidebar.
Multiple selection for changing the camera properties
If you would like to change the settings of several cameras, you can select the cameras in the Video Sources section of the sidebar using the mouse while keeping the Ctrl or Shift keys pressed. If several cameras have been selected, you can use the following context menu items:
User & password
This
context menu item opens a dialog, which allows entering common
access data (user name and password) for all selected cameras.
Properties
Opens a
Properties dialog for each selected camera, e.g. for
comparing the configuration.
Configure
Opens the
Camera Configuration dialog and highlights the first camera
in the camera list.
Internationalizable camera name
The Edit MOBOTIX Camera dialog (see above) now allows
changing the camera name. From this version on, you can use all
Unicode characters in a camera name, i.e. there are no more
restrictions in that respect. However, this name is not stored in
the camera, but is only visible in this MxControlCenter
configuration (and thus, in the MxCC.ini
file).
MxControlCenter will use and display this name in all instances
where the original camera name had been used before. (Note that the
camera support of this feature is in the making.)
When using PTZ (pan/tilt/zoom) heads via a MOBOTIX camera, you can now also use the Pelco D protocol. To use this protocol, set Type to Pelco D on the PTZ/Rotor tab of the Edit MOBOTIX Camera dialog.
Note, that when using the Pelco D protocol, you can also activate the Mechanical zoom checkbox (this is not possible when using the other protocols). If this checkbox is activated, the zoom commands from a joystick or the MxPEG ActiveX control are not used to control the camera's digital zoom, but the camera instead transfers the commands to the control unit of the PTZ head using the Pelco D protocol. Note that you should only activate this option if the control unit can also actuate a mechanical zoom (besides controlling the pan/tilt movements). Using this approach, you can control the CS Mount lens with motor zoom of a MOBOTIX camera via the external control unit.
If the Mechanical zoom checkbox has been activated, the PTZ Controls section of the sidebar gets an additional Focus slider, which allows adjusting the focus of the lens. The focusing itself is also accomplished by the PTZ head control unit using the Pelco D protocol.
Version 2.4 of MxControlCenter has been improved and enhanced in these areas:
Improved "Camera
Configuration" dialog
In the Recording and
Network Messages sections, you can only activate events that
can be configured using MxControlCenter. Furthermore,
MxControlCenter now properly shows the current activation status of
these events in the camera. Selecting All does not
automatically activate all events. Note, that the page for
activating events has been removed.
Improved behavior of extra
windows
The freely movable/scalable "extra" windows
have been enhanced. To open an extra window, you can now
double-click on a display window or on an entry in the Video
Sources section of the sidebar or you can send a network
message. Extra windows now store modified position and size for each
video source. To reset the stored positions and sizes, select the
View > Reset extra window positions menu command.
Buttons for sending
commands
You can now add the new 'Command' button
element type to background layouts. Such a command button gets a
name and a URL (http://...
) that is called when a user
clicks on this button. This button allows executing camera features
using API calls or remote-controlling other MxControlCenter
computers, for example.
Expanded possibilities for remote-controlling MxControlCenter
When remote-controlling MxControlCenter using special network messages, you can now use these additional commands:
showMessage
Upon receiving this
command, MxControlCenter shows a window with a given message. The
MxControlCenter users need to acknowledge this message. The message
can contain UTF-8 characters, which need to be encoded as in a URL
(e.g. "ê" → UTF-8 "c3 aa
" →
URL-encoded "%c3%aa
").
For additional information on URL-encoding of special characters, open en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8. To find a complete list of special characters and their URL-encoding, open www.utf8-chartable.de/.
showInExtraWindow
Shows
an extra window of the given camera (IP address or host name).
showInAlarmWindow
Shows the image of
the given camera (IP address or host name) in an alarm window.
Example for a network message with all three new
parameters:http://127.0.0.1:8001/?showInAlarmWindow=10.3.0.31&showInExtraWindow=10.3.0.31&showMessage=Caution
- door is open!
Expanded PTZ user rights for end-user configuration
The PTZ user rights in the Tools > Access Control dialog has been expanded and restructured. These additional rights are available:
Live PTZ configuration
This
right allows configuring the camera display modes and defining PTZ
positions.
Live PTZ
This right
allows executing camera PTZ actions and loading pre-defined PTZ
positions.
Post PTZ configuration
This
right allows using the subsequent image correction mechanisms. This
right is mainly used for correcting the "distorted" full
image of a Hemispheric camera.
Post PTZ
This right
allows using subsequent PTZ actions within MxControlCenter with the
defined display mode.
Image post-processing
This right allows changing
the displayed images (brightness, color saturation, sharpness and
contrast) using MxControlCenter image post-processing.
Using these rights, a system administrator can configure the MxControlCenter computer in such a way that users cannot modify the camera display (Live PTZ configuration is deactivated), but can execute the standard PTZ actions in the current display mode (Live PTZ is activated) for example. MxControlCenter deactivates the controls in the PTZ Control section of the sidebar that cannot be used because of missing rights. Users thus see exactly, which functions are available and which not.
Alarm window with "Sequencer
feature"
If you add several alarm windows to a layout,
the first alarm window always shows the live stream of the camera
with the most recent alarm and the last alarm window shows the live
stream of the camera with the nth alarm. Upon a new
alarm, the live streams of all other cameras are pushed back by one
window. If you have five alarm windows in one layout, for example,
you will always see the live streams of the last five cameras that
have triggered an alarm.
Improved "About MxControlCenter" dialog
The
About MxControlCenter dialog (Help > About
menu) has been improved.
Problems when simultaneously
using alarm list and alarm windows
If the alarm list was
active while the current layout contained an integrated alarm
window, frequent alarms sometimes produced an application error.
Deactivated PTZ controls after
network messages
After receiving network messages for
remote-controlling MxControlCenter, the application sometimes
deactivated the controls in the PTZ Controls section of the
sidebar or changes the values of these controls.
Problems when switching between
display modes with 4:3 and 8:3 aspect ratios
When switching
from the Panorama display mode (8:3) to a display mode with an
aspect ratio of 4:3 (Full Image, Area Corrected), MxControlCenter
sometimes continued to show the (distorted) image with an aspect
ratio of 8:3.
Program error when exiting
immediately after changing camera view
If the live view mode
of a camera had been changed in the PTZ Control section of
the sidebar and you had been exiting MxControlCenter before this
change had been saved, an application error occurred after
confirming the corresponding prompt.
Maximum size of the recording
limited to 1 TByte when using "External Recording"
The
maximum size in the External Recording dialog was limited to
1 TByte. Applying these values overwrote the maximum storage
size even if the camera configuration had been set to a higher size
before.
AVI export of stored data from third-party cameras with
faulty file names
When exporting data from third-party
cameras that had been stored using MxServer, the resulting AVI files
had been stored without the ".avi
" extension.
Application error when using
the Layout Sequencer with post PTZ functions for distortion
correction in MxControlCenter
When using the Layout
Sequencer, certain combinations of layout contents (e.g. third-party
cameras and post PTZ image correction) can result in an application
error.
Application error when storing
positions of a PTZ head controlled via Pelco D protocol
If
you are trying to store the current position of a camera (long click
on one of the position buttons 1 to 16 in the PTZ Controls
section of the sidebar) that is mounted to a PTZ head and that is
using the Pelco D protocol, an application error may occur.
Sending emote control commands
of SSL cameras to MxControlCenter required port numbers
If a
camera can only be reached via https/SSL, the remote commands sent
from the camera to the MxControlCenter computer and which use the
camera IP address, need to include the SSL
port.
Examples:ShowInExtraWindow=$(ID.ETHERNET)
:443
ShowInExtraWindow=ownip
:443
Camera Configuration – window
definition not possible in all video modes and automatic
switching
The definition of exposure and video motion windows
on the Exposure and Events pages of the Camera
Configuration is not yet fully compatible with the different
display modes of the individual camera models. For Dual models, you
need to switch the camera to the corresponding image sensor (left or
right) before you can define these windows. For Q22M/Q24M models,
defining the windows always uses the default view mode (Area
Corrected). Note that you cannot use the Surround or Panorama video
modes for this purpose.
Post PTZ settings for exporting
data
When applying post PTZ settings (including distortion
correction) to corrected data, you need to apply these settings in
the PTZ Control section of the sidebar before
you add any time ranges to the export list. Changing these settings
afterwards with the export list opened will not apply the desired
changes.
Network messages cannot be
configured using MxControlCenter
From camera software version
4.0.4.18
on, you cannot use MxControlCenter to
configure network messages from the camera for alerting an
MxControlCenter application or a different recipient. This
limitation is valid for all MxControlCenter versions up to 2.4 and
will be fixed in version 2.5.
Manual available for version
2.0
This version does not have a current manual. Currently,
there is a manual for MxControlCenter version 2.0 available.
Language packages for Chinese (China), Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish:
The language selection of the External Recording dialog does not work for the languages mentioned above.
A few dialogs contain minor translation errors or have not been translated.
Creation Date: 2010-03-25
Publishing Date: 2010-04-09
MxRemotePreview is a software component that provides improved access for MxControlCenter to file servers when using low-bandwidth connections (e.g. via the Internet or VPN connections). MxRemotePreview is installed as a CGI module in a web server environment of a Windows computer. Note that this computer needs a fast connection with high bandwidth to access the file server recordings of the MOBOTIX cameras.
When using MxRemotePreview, MxControlCenter does not get the original audio/video data from the file server. MxControlCenter instead sends a request to the web server, which in turn calls MxRemotePreview for specific file types. MxRemotePreview reads the original (large) files, reduces their size by recoding the video contents with a reduce frame rate, resolution and JEP quality and sends the reduced data to the MxControlCenter computer. Instead of the original data, the application only gets the much smaller data back over the network. Thanks to this approach, MxControlCenter gets the data fast enough to build an event list and to play back the video sequences.
For additional information on this component and the system requirements, see MxRemotePreview in the MxControlCenter download section.
In MxControlCenter, you have two ways of using an MxRemotePreview component:
Options > Connection Defaults dialog
The
MxRemotePreview Defaults section allows setting the web
server access data as well as the desired reduction methods (JPEG
quality, frame rate, resolution, audio). In the individual camera
registers of the Options dialog, you can click on the Change
button within the Connection Data section. This opens the
Recording Target dialog, where you can activate the Use
MxRemotePreview for playback and Video Search checkbox.
Activating this checkbox will use the globally defined
MxRemotePreview component with the settings for data reduction on
the tab mentioned above. In addition, you can click on the Settings
button in the same Recording Target dialog to set a custom
MxRemotePreview component.
CAUTION:
When exporting
recordings, the application will not use the reduced
audio/video data provided by MxRemotePreview, but the original data
with the resolution, quality and frame rate settings, which had been
used at the time of recording.
When displaying grid layouts, you can use the View > Free Scaling menu entry to expand the display to the entire display area. In conjunction with the free scaling of the entire MxControlCenter application window, you can adjust the display of the layout to best fit your monitor.
Free scaling of a grid layout to any size of the display area also means that the individual display windows within the layout will be scaled freely – as opposed to the fixed grid sizes (CIF, VGA, etc.) used before. This re-scaling can be achieved using different interpolation methods. To set these methods, activate the Layout Manager and select the desired method from the context menu for each display window. Beginning with the first method, each subsequent method listed below delivers higher quality while also requiring more computing power (i.e. creates higher CPU load) on the computer running MxControlCenter.
Standard
Delivers the
lowest quality and creates the lowest CPU load. As the quality is
rather low, this setting will not be offered when using free
scaling.
Linear (default when using
free scaling)
This setting is a good compromise between the
achieved image quality and the required computing time. This is
usually sufficient for most of the application scenarios. If no
other interpolation method than Standard has been set for
individual display windows, activating free scaling will
automatically switch to this method.
Lanczos
This method
delivers images with higher sharpness than Linear,
anti-aliasing is not performed as well as when using the
Super-Sampling setting.
Super-Sampling
This method delivers the best
results when scaling down images, but it also creates the highest
CPU loads. When scaling up, this setting will automatically apply
the Lanczos method. This method should only be used for special,
single display windows.
Centered grid layouts
When
using grid layouts, you can now use a centered display when using a
larger display area. This setting is applied in the Tools >
Options > View dialog.
Audio can be switched off for
individual display windows
In order to reduce the required
bandwidth, you can deactivate the audio data for individual live
display windows. Activate the Layout Manager and select the
corresponding option from the context menu of the display window.
Full screen mode
The
entire monitor area can now be used to display grid layouts. To
activate this display mode, select the View > Full Screen
menu entry or the corresponding option in the drop-down menu of the
Change Scaling of the Display Windows button on the toolbar.
This full screen mode only shows the layout without any other
program elements while using the entire monitor. Press the [Esc] key
on your keyboard to return to the standard view.
Activating/deactivating the connections to all cameras in
a layout
By default, the Activate Camera Connections
button now applies to all live cameras in the current layout. In
addition, you can use the drop-down menu of this button or the Video
Source > Connected menu entry to explicitly
activate/deactivate the live connections to the currently selected
camera.
The Options dialog has been restructured and expanded. It now contains the following tabs:
General
This tab
contains general settings to control the application behavior such
as start layout, log file, automatic bandwidth reduction, etc.
Connection Defaults
Use
this tab to set the default connection parameters, the default file
server and the new MxRemotePreview component for all cameras.
View
This tab controls
all settings regarding the mouse, the display of the layouts and the
application window.
Alarm Handling
This tab
is used to configure the behavior when receiving camera alarms via
live images or alarm messages (TCP/IP messages).
Remote Control
Using the
options on this tab, you can set up MxControlCenter to receive
remote-control commands via network messages from other
applications.
Monitoring
This tab
contains the settings for monitoring cameras and displaying camera
failures, latency timeouts and the parameters of the dead-man's
switch.
Camera tabs
These tabs allow setting individual
connection parameters for each camera – including MxRemotePreview
settings, preferred layouts as well as PTZ control parameters.
Version 2.3 of MxControlCenter has been improved and enhanced in these areas:
Alarm list without alarms from
the live streams in the current layout, if desired
This
feature provides for filling the alarm list only with alarms
generated from cameras sending network messages. In the Tools >
Options dialog and on the Alarm Handling tab, deactivate
the Add live stream events option to exclude alarms detected
in the live streams of the cameras displayed in the current layout.
Additional alarm list
filter
The Filter button above the alarm list has an
additional state, which only adds images with camera connection
errors (of all cameras) to the alarm list. The button thus has the
following states for the selected camera. Click on the button
repeatedly to cycle through the states:
No filter
Alarm images of the selected camera – locked
Alarm images of the selected camera – unlocked
Only images of camera connection errors (all cameras)
Post PTZ control in the sidebar
when using Video Search
The Post PTZ features in the Video
Search dialog are now controlled using the elements of the PTZ
Control section of the sidebar.
Disconnect live stream upon video search
The
Disconnect Stream upon Event Search setting on the Tools >
Options > General tab automatically disconnects the live
stream of a camera when running a Video Search. This is a very
helpful option when using a low-bandwidth connection to the camera,
since this leaves more bandwidth to the search and playback
features. Once the video search has been closed, the live connection
is automatically re-established.
Crash when detecting problems
with audio device (Windows 7)
This problem mainly
appeared on Windows 7 computers if MxControlCenter could not
properly access the computer's audio system. The crashes happened
when searching for cameras, configuring cameras, in the export
progress dialog and the Update Wizard.
Opening the video search from
the alarm list had problems with cameras not in the current
layout
MxControlCenter had been unable to open the Video
Search dialog (by double-clicking or using the context menu) if the
corresponding camera was not part of the current layout. In some of
these cases, the application crashed.
Audio state of live cameras got
lost
When switching layouts, the state of the audio output of
live cameras got lost and the audio stream had to be restarted
manually. The state is now maintained properly and is also stored in
the INI file.
Display mode setting of
MxControlCenter got lost
When switching layouts, the current
display mode of MxControlCenter (Post PTZ) got lost and had to be
activated again manually. The state is now maintained properly and
is also stored in the INI file.
Export problems
The AVI export sometimes did not
include the audio stream. In addition, exporting images with custom
image sizes resulted in corrupt images and exporting time ranges
from different cameras into one MxPEG clip presented problems, too.
Note that it is now possible to export recording from analog cameras
that are connected via an MxServer.
Manual available for version
2.0
This version does not have a current manual. Currently,
there is a manual for MxControlCenter version 2.0 available.
Camera Configuration – window
definition not possible in all video modes and automatic
switching
The definition of exposure and video motion windows
on the Exposure and Events pages of the Camera
Configuration is not yet fully compatible with the different
display modes of the individual camera models. For Dual models, you
need to switch the camera to the corresponding image sensor (left or
right) before you can define these windows. For Q22M/Q24M models,
defining the windows always uses the default view mode (Area
Corrected). Note that you cannot use the Surround or Panorama video
modes for this purpose.
Program error when exiting
immediately after changing camera view
If the live view mode
of a camera has been changed in the PTZ Control section of
the sidebar and you are exiting MxControlCenter before this change
has been saved, the application will crash after confirming the
corresponding prompt.
Post PTZ settings for exporting
data
When applying post PTZ settings (including distortion
correction) to corrected data, you need to apply these settings in
the PTZ Control section of the sidebar before
you add any time ranges to the export list. Changing these settings
afterwards with the export list opened will not apply the desired
changes.
Language packages for Chinese (China), Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish:
The language selection of the External Recording dialog does not work for the languages mentioned above.
A few dialogs contain minor translation errors or have not been translated.
Creation Date: 2009-12-08
Publishing Date: 2009-12-08
Primary languages
These
are the languages English, German and French. Every new
MxControlCenter version will be released with these languages. They
are an integral part of the release. To switch between these
languages, open the Tools > Language menu and select
the desired language.
Secondary languages
These
languages (currently Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Russian and
Spanish) will be provided by MOBOTIX in the form of additional
language packages after the software itself has been released. These
language packages are easily added to an existing MxControlCenter
installation. Once a language has been installed, it can be selected
in MxControlCenter from the Tools > Language menu. To
add a language, download and execute the installer for the
corresponding language. This setup process will install the language
files in the MxControlCenter program folder.
Additional languages using the translation package
If
you would like to translate MxControlCenter into other languages
besides the ones listed above, you can obtain a so-called
"translation package". This package is provided for
MOBOTIX partners who would like to provide translations into
languages not supported by MOBOTIX. In order to translate the
language files in the package, you need to buy a license for Alchemy
Catalyst, Translator/Pro Edition (version 8.x or higher). The
translation package consists of one file, which is to be translated.
Once the translation has been completed, the files within the
project will be exported. A batch file then creates the final format
of the language files. After the language files have been copied to
the correct locations within the MxControlCenter program folder, the
new language can be selected in the application. The translation
package also contains documentation, which describes the translation
process in detail. Advantage of this process: The translations of
older program versions can be re-used in the current package. The
translation package is available upon request by sending an e-mail
to translation-package@mobotix.com.
CAUTION:
The provider of the translation is
solely responsible for the completeness and correctness of the
translations generated on the basis of the translation package.
MOBOTIX does not assume any responsibility and does not warrant for
erroneous translations or program errors, which result from using
such a translation!
Release 2.2 of MxControlCenter supports Overland Storage Snap Server NAS devices with more recent production dates. These devices need to run on a firmware (GOS) version 5.2.056 or higher! Just like when adding MOBOTIX cameras as new video sources, Snap Servers with a corresponding GOS version will be shown in the Video Sources list with the type, name and the GOS version. In addition, you can change the network data of a Snap Server in this list (just like for MOBOTIX cameras).
Regardless of whether the Snap Servers have been added with or without cameras, Snap Servers will appear in the Storage Devices folder of the Video Sources section in the sidebar. In order to change the settings of a Snap Server, open its context menu and select the Configure command. This will open the Configure Snap Server dialog. This dialog allows modifying the most important settings of the Snap Server, which are relevant for using it as a storage target of MOBOTIX cameras.
The dialog offers three different methods for configuring a Snap Server:
Quick Setup
This is the
fastest method for configuring a Snap Server so that MOBOTIX cameras
can use it as a storage target. You only need to enter two
passwords; MxControlCenter will preset the remaining settings
automatically. Open the tabs of the Expert Setup to see the
settings preset by MxCC (see next section).
Expert Setup
This
section contains different tabs for setting the most important
parameters of a Snap Server (General Settings, Users,
Shares, UPS and Time Server). In contrast to
Quick Setup, you can use this section for adjusting the Snap
Server more precisely to the current application scenario. If this
is still insufficient, you should use the Snap Server's web
interface (see next section).
Browser
If using the Expert Setup described
above is still insufficient, you should use the Snap Server's web
interface to modify the settings (see next section).
Once the Snap Server has been added to MxControlCenter and configured properly, it can be used immediately as a file server for camera recordings. Open the Camera Configuration dialog, select the Recording section and open the External Recording dialog. Select the server from the list box according to its name and set it as a storage target for the cameras selected before. The same dialog also offers to use the shares and users, which are defined on the Snap Server.
The export of stored recordings has been enhanced and improved in various ways. No changes have been made to how the export itself is started and how camera recordings are exported.
Checking the digital signature
In order to prevent
manipulation of the stored data, MxControlCenter can verify the
digital signature of the stored data, to see if the data integrity
has been kept. To do so, activate the new Check digital signature
option in the Export dialog.
The Check button also
allows checking the data integrity later and independent of an
export. Either way, MxControlCenter will show the results of the
check in the integrated dialog.
CAUTION:
To properly check
the data, the exported sequences need to contain a digital
signature. In addition, MxControlCenter needs to be able to
establish a connection to the camera, which had created the
sequences. If one of these prerequisites has not been met,
MxControlCenter will alert the user with a corresponding message.
Data export including post PTZ
actions
MxControlCenter now offers to store the recorded data
not only in its original format, but also with applied vPTZ actions.
This means that you can export the original (distorted) full images
of a Hemispheric camera as Panorama images or with a zoomed and
corrected image section. The export applies the vPTZ settings of
MxCC used during playback or in the event search, i.e. it uses the
settings of the MxCC menu in the Mode section of the
PTZ Controls in the sidebar. The new Apply image
post-processing incl. PTZ option in the Export dialog
allows activating/deactivating the PTZ settings for the exported
video data.
AVI export improvements
By
default, MxControlCenter now uses the Windows Media Video 8
video codec when exporting to AVI format. The export now uses the
PCM (16 bit mono) audio codec (was A-Law (8 bit mono)
before). If the default audio and video codecs are used, you can
play back the exported AVI files in Windows Media Player without
having to install additional codecs.
Improved progress bar and preview while exporting
While
MxControlCenter is exporting the data, it displays a more precise
progress bar. At the same time, the application shows one image for
each recorded sequence in a preview window.
This section presents functions for improved monitoring of camera failures and also features, which allow "monitoring" the alertness of MxControlCenter users.
Camera monitoring in the
background
Before, MxControlCenter was able to detect camera
failures only if that camera had been included in the currently
displayed layout. The new camera failure detection now monitors all
cameras known to the current MxCC configuration, even if they are
currently not displayed. A detected camera failure will also prompt
a special entry in the MxCC alarm list. This entry consists of an
error image (if defined) together with a system message with the
camera information. It is stored as an alarm image in the alarm
list. In addition, you can also play a sound when MxCC detects a
failed camera. In order to activate the camera failure detection,
open the Options > Monitoring dialog and activate one
(or both) of the Sound on lost camera or Error display on
lost camera options.
Dead Man's Switch
The Options dialog now
also contains a Dead Man's Switch in the Monitoring
section. Activating this switch will trigger an alarm in
MxControlCenter if the defined number of minutes have passed without
detecting any user activity. User activity in this sense are mouse
clicks into the program window and clicking on the Reset Dead
Man's Switch button. This button is located in the lower left
corner of the application if the Dead Man's Switch has been
activated. This switch will ensure that the user is actually
fulfilling his/her surveillance tasks in MxControlCenter and that
the system is not ignored. MxControlCenter will play back a specific
sound if such an alert occurs. In addition, you can specify an
e-mail message in the Monitoring tab, which will be sent
automatically in such a case.
Automatic updates of the software (Software Update) for cameras as well as the MxControlCenter and MxEasy applications have been improved. MxControlCenter can now check for new software versions, download new software and also install it automatically. To start a manual search for new software, click on Tools > Software Downloads in the menu. Click on the Settings button in the Software Downloads dialog to activate the automatic check for new software every time MxControlCenter starts.
Besides the Software Downloads dialog, the Update Assistant now also includes an additional section for showing and applying new software versions. This new panel is displayed in the top right corner of the Update Assistant. Click on Tools > Downloads in the menu to activate/deactivate this panel.
The new Network Messages section has been added to the Camera Configuration dialog. This section allows sending network messages to an MxControlCenter computer or other recipients if triggered by specific events on one or more cameras. By default, the IP address of the MxControlCenter computer has been set as Alarm Target for these network messages. This dialog also allows activating the events, which will trigger such a message. You can also activate an acknowledgement action of such a network message. If acknowledgement has been activated, the user needs to acknowledge a network message within 60 seconds. If this is not the case, the cameras will send the network message to the next Alarm Target defined in this dialog. To acknowledge such a message, the user needs to click on the corresponding alarm image in the alarm list. Opening the Admin Menu > IP Notify Profiles dialog in the browser interface of the cameras is not required for this application scenario any more!
When setting up network messages for one or more cameras, MxControlCenter will also be configured automatically to accept these network messages. Note that MxControlCenter will automatically use the port defined in the Network Messages section for the cameras, if no other port had been set up before. Note that you can verify and change these automatic settings in the Options > Alarm Settings > Alarm Messages dialog. This section also allows fine-tuning the MxControlCenter behavior when receiving alarm messages.
In order to improve the grouping of the different settings in the Options dialog and to make it more user-friendly, additional tabs have been added to this dialog and some sections of the General tab have been moved to these new tabs.
"General" Tab
The
sections Sound on error, Sound on lost camera, Error
display on lost camera and Error display on latency timeout
have been moved to the new Monitoring tab.
"Remote Settings"
Tab
The settings of this section are only used to configure
the remote control features of MxControlCenter using http requests.
Note that the Alarm Settings tab contains all settings for
receiving TCP/IP network messages as alarm messages.
"Monitoring" Tab
This
new tab contains the sections for monitoring actions previously
found on the General tab and one new section for controlling
the Dead Man's Switch.
"Alarm Settings" Tab
Note that the Alarm
Settings tab contains all settings for receiving TCP/IP network
messages and use them as alarm messages. This includes the settings
for receiving and processing of camera network messages.
Only German manual for version
2.0 available
This version does not have a current manual.
There is only a German manual for version 2.0 available. The English
manual for version 2.0 will be published shortly.
Camera Configuration – window definition not possible in
all video modes and automatic switching
The definition of
exposure and video motion windows on the Exposure and Events
pages of the Camera Configuration is not yet fully compatible
with the different display modes of the individual camera models.
For Dual models, you need to switch the camera to the corresponding
image sensor (left or right) before you can define these windows.
For Q22/Q24 models, defining the windows always uses the default
view mode (Area Corrected). Note that you cannot use the Surround or
Panorama video modes for this purpose.
Creation Date: 2009-07-08
Publishing Date: 2009-07-14
MxControlCenter now supports four user groups, which allow
assigning specific rights for executing the individual functions:
Guest, User, Owner, Administrator. Open
the File > Authentication dialog to set individual
passwords for every one of these user groups. The passwords for these
user groups are also stored in the MxCC.ini
configuration file. Once you have assigned a password to all user
groups and have stored the settings, you will have to select a user
group and enter the corresponding password upon the next launch of
MxControlCenter. If you have not set passwords for one or more user
groups, MxControlCenter will automatically use the highest group
without password upon the next launch.
To switch to a different user group while running the application, open the File > Authentication dialog. Any user can open this dialog anytime while the application is running. Note that you need to be logged in as Administrator to change the passwords.
By default, every user group can execute specific functions. You can open the Tools > Access control dialog anytime and change the function matrix for the individual user groups according to your needs. If a user group does not have the rights to execute specific functions, the buttons for these functions are removed from the toolbar. The corresponding menu commands and elements of the sidebar are visible, but deactivated (grey).
The softbuttons defined in the MultiView screen of a camera are automatically displayed in the new Softbuttons section of the sidebar. Like the other sections, this sidebar section is also context-sensitive and always shows the softbuttons of the selected camera in the current layout. In addition, you can show and hide this section.
MxControlCenter version 2.1 can load and export the audio/video data either directly from an external file server or via the camera. Apart from the File Server Structure and MxPEG Clips, MxControlCenter can also export the audio/video data as AVI Clips. As in version 2.0, you can start the export either from the Player or the Event Search dialogs.
AVI export
When
exporting audio/video data as AVI clips, you can select specific
settings for file size, resolution, video codec, audio, image rates,
etc. in the Export Format Settings dialog. Click on the
Settings button in the Export dialog to open this
dialog.
Flexible export list
The
events or recording ranges selected for exporting can now come from
different cameras and do not have to be in the proper chronological
order. You can thus create and export a freely defined export list
in the Export dialog.
Export log
In order to log all export features, you
can now select any given file. Note, that you can specifically use a
file, which cannot be edited/deleted by the current user, but only
by authorized persons. To set such a file, open the Options >
General dialog and enter the Windows access information (user
and password) for this file in the Export log section. This
procedure guarantees that a log file automatically created by
MxControlCenter cannot be manipulated by unauthorized persons. In
addition, MxControlCenter encrypts all information in the log file
since it contains information on export functions executed by
different users. Only MxControlCenter users with the right
Application settings (usually only Administrators) can access
this file.
The Camera Configuration now offers additional features for displaying and changing the camera settings without having to open a web browser.
"Overview" Page
This
page of the dialog has been enlarged to show these additional
columns and changing the camera settings in a comfortable manner:
Codec: Displays the current video codec and allows changing it (MxPEG or M-JPEG)
Resolution: Displays the current image resolution and allows changing it
Quality: Displays the current JPEG quality and allows changing it
fps: Displays the current camera image rate and allows changing it
Speaker: Displays the current speaker status
Microphone: Displays the current microphone status
"Exposure" Page
(new!)
This page allows defining exposure times and custom
exposure windows. To define custom exposure windows, simply draw a
frame over the image with your mouse.
CAUTION:
The
exposure settings for dual cameras are valid for either the right or
the left image sensor. By default, this dialog activates the right
sensor and you can switch to the left sensor. Note that this is not
a temporary setting, but this actually switches the current
sensor of the camera. If you had been using a different
setting before, such as Both or Automatic, you will
have to manually set this parameter to its old value afterwards!
"Audio" Page
(new!)
This page displays the status of the speaker and the
microphone of a camera; you can activate and deactivate these audio
features.
"Events" Page (new!)
You can define the
video motion (VM) windows and activate/deactivate other events on
this page. To define custom video motion windows, simply draw a
frame over the image with your mouse.
CAUTION:
The
definitions of VM windows for dual cameras are valid for either the
right or the left image sensor. By default, this dialog activates
the right sensor and you can switch to the left sensor. Note that
this is not a temporary setting, but this actually switches
the current sensor of the camera. If you had been using a
different setting before, such as Both or Automatic,
you will have to manually set this parameter to its old value
afterwards!
The creation and management of layouts has been greatly improved in several ways:
Structured list of all video
sources
The list of video cameras in the sidebar of the
activated Layout Manager is now grouped in cameras, recording
folders and clips. You can sort the list of video sources within
these groups in ascending or descending order by simply clicking on
the Name and Address column heads. Since the video sources used in
the current layout are highlighted by a colored background, they are
easily recognized. The context menu also allows showing a small
preview image for cameras and MxPEG clips.
Creating new layouts by
dragging&dropping cameras and clips
When creating a new
or editing an existing layout, you can simply drag&drop several
cameras or clips to the current layout at once. This is possible for
both grid and background layouts. If the current layout is a
background layout, MxControlCenter will offer to show the cameras
either as live cameras or as status icons. If a camera or clips is
already part of the layout, MxControlCenter will ask you if it is OK
to overwrite identical elements.
Improved editing of existing
layout elements
The Edit display element dialog
(context menu of the display area with activated Layout Manager) has
been improved. The video source selected for the current display
element stays selected even though the element type has changed. In
addition, the list of video sources has two columns (Name and Video
source), which can be used for sorting the list. Note that the
Preview element type allows setting the sensor as well as the
desired frame rate and the resolution.
Deleting video sources (cameras, recording folders, MxPEG
clips) from the system
When activating the Layout Manager,
you can easily delete existing video sources from the Video
Sources list. To do so, select the unwanted video sources and
select Delete Video Sources from the context menu.
Extra window – movable and
scalable
Double-clicking a live window opens an additional
("extra") live window for this camera. Double-clicking a
window in Player mode opens an additional window, which plays back
the recording. This extra window can be freely moved and scaled.
Alignment of images with
different aspect ratio (height to width)
If the displayed
camera image has a different aspect ratio (width to height) than the
display window within the layout, you can now select how
MxControlCenter should display the camera image. Activate the Layout
Manager and right-click the display window to open the context menu.
The Alignment command has two values: Top left and
Center. For example, selecting Alignment >
Center for a Panorama image with an aspect ratio of 8:4 will
vertically center this image in a standard VGA display window with
an aspect ratio of 4:3.
"Better rendering"
feature
When showing a camera image in a display window with
a resolution that is no whole-number multiple or whole-number
divider of the actual camera resolution, the rounding error produces
images with slightly reduced quality. The same applies when
displaying one camera in the full MxCC display area or in
full-screen mode. If this is the case, you can now activate the
Layout Manager, right-click the display window to open the context
menu and select Better rendering. This improves the image
quality of an "odd scaling", but also increases the load
on the MxControlCenter computer.
Recording and search of incomplete
recordings
MxControlCenter can also access file server
recordings with a missing or corrupted .erdinfo
file in
the root folder of the file server path. In such a case,
MxControlCenter will prompt the user whether it should recreate the
file. Note, that such a recreated .erdinfo
file has
reduced contents and *cannot* be used by the camera!
Improved "Upload Settings"
feature
When uploading an existing configuration to MOBOTIX
cameras, the configuration sections are now treated as a "white
list". You now have to select the sections you would like to
overwrite rather than the sections you would like to protect.
In
addition, you can now exclude the Time Tables in the Time Tasks
section from being overwritten by the uploaded configuration.
Creating and restoring a system backup
The File >
System Backup menu command allows creating a zip file with the
configuration files (*.cfg
) of all cameras shown in the
Update Assistant. The File > Restore System Backup
menu command restores the configurations of these cameras again.
When loading such a file, the configuration files of the cameras are
automatically uploaded and stored in the individual cameras. These
commands basically automate the Camera > Save Settings
and Camera > Upload Settings menu commands for all
cameras. They can thus be used to comfortably backup and restore the
complete set of camera configurations of the MxControlCenter system!
Version 2.1 of MxControlCenter has been improved and enhanced in these areas:
Improved menu commands and menu
structure
The menu commands have been revised and improved
compared to version 2.0. Among other things, you will now find the
commands for saving and loading the configuration file (MxCC.ini
)
in the File menu. The Camera menu has been renamed to
Video Sources, the Edit menu has been dropped.
Likewise, the commands of the Tools menu have been revised.
Selecting a configuration
(MxCC.ini
) at runtime
The File >
Configuration > Load menu command allows loading a
different configuration file (MxCC.ini
). The
application automatically restarts afterwards, using the selected
configuration file.
Selecting a different language
at runtime
To switch between the installed languages at
runtime, open the Tools > Language menu and select
one of the languages. Currently, only English, German and French are
available. The application automatically restarts after selecting a
different language.
Support of Provitek PT4 PTZ
heads
Besides the Provitek pan/tilt heads PT2 and PT3, this
version now also supports the Provitek PT4 models.
Number of layouts increased to
500
You can now define and manage 500 instead of only 50
different layouts in an MxControlCenter configuration file
(MxCC.ini
).
Support of the 3Dconnexion Space Navigator
For easy
use of the PTZ features, you can now also use the 3D joysticks Space
Navigator and Space Pilot from 3Dconnexion instead of the MEGATRON
joystick. Note that you will have to install and activate the driver
for the joystick on the MxControlCenter computer before you launch
the application. After launching MxControlCenter, you can
immediately use the joysticks. Turning the joystick zooms the image,
tilting it sideways pans the image (right - left) and tilting it
forwards and backwards tilts the camera down or up, respectively.
Depending on the hardware used, it is recommended to adjust the
joystick settings afterwards, especially the speed of the movements.
Wrong speed settings may lead to very slow reactions or to no
reactions at all.
Only German manual for version
2.0 available
This version does not have a current manual.
There is only a German manual for version 2.0 available. The English
manual for version 2.0 will be published shortly.
Not all supported languages
available
Version 2.1 currently only supports English, German
and French.
Directly accessing
MxFFS-formatted USB harddrives is not possible
Recordings of
MOBOTIX cameras on USB harddrives cannot be read directly on the
computer (possible for a file server path, for example) for playing
back recordings and searching events. Currently, these recordings
can only be accessed via the camera.
Display of camera mode in the
"PTZ Controls" section of the sidebar
If the live
display mode or other PTZ settings of a camera are changed from
somewhere else and not from the running MxControlCenter, the PTZ
Controls section may show wrong values and settings.
Mouse-over in Alarm List not
working properly
When hovering the mouse over an image of the
alarm list, the application can stop unexpectedly.
Camera Configuration –
"Exposure" page for Q24 models
When selecting the
Exposure page of a Q24 model, the application may stop
unexpectedly.
Camera Configuration – window
definition not possible in all video modes and automatic
switching
The definition of exposure and video motion windows
on the Exposure and Events pages is not yet fully
compatible with the different display modes of the individual camera
models. For Dual models, you can only define these windows for
either the right or the left image sensor and you need to switch the
camera to this image sensor. For Q22/Q24 models, defining the
windows always uses the default view mode (Area Corrected). Note
that you cannot use the Surround or Panorama video modes for this
purpose.
Canceling an AVI export may not
work properly
Once an AVI export has been started, the
application may not be able to stop it cleanly. If this happens, the
system may crash.
Update Assistant – problems
loading an mpl
file over the network
When
loading an mpl
file over the network and high network
loads delay the loading process, the Update Assistant may crash.
Switching a layout stops
automatically rotating Q22/Q24 models
If a Q22/Q24 camera in
an MxControlCenter layout has been set to automatically show a
rotating image using its virtual PTZ, switching to a different
layout will stop the automatic rotation.
Exporting data from MxPEG clips
does not work
Although the application allows exporting data
from a loaded MxPEG clip file, selecting this option will not export
anything! Note, that you will not be informed about this.
No direct reading of SD Cards possible
SD cards
written by MOBOTIX cameras with software version 4.0.1.x or higher
cannot be read directly on a computer running this version of
MxControlCenter. This will be possible with version 2.2 of
MxControlCenter.
Creation Date: 2009-02-18
Publishing Date: 2009-03-13
Integration of Panasonic and
Sony IP cameras
This version can use the following additional
IP cameras:
Panasonic WV-NS202AE
Sony SNC-RZ30N
To add such a camera, open the Add Video Sources dialog from the Add Cameras - Search and Selection by clicking on the Camera button.
Manually editing of grid
layouts improved
Manually editing the grid of a grid layout
has been improved in several aspects.
Latency time check improved
To set the latency
time, which has to expire before MxCC recognizes an error, open the
Options dialog and set the Maximum overdue time in the
Error display on latency timeout group field. In addition,
MxCC now also detects negative latency times, which may occur if the
MxCC computer's time is out of sync with the cameras.
PTZ control deactivated if a
layout only contains one camera
After opening a layout that
only contains one camera, some controls of the PTZ Controls
area in the sidebar had been disabled. Among other things, the live
image mode of the camera could not be switched.
Camera configuration: Storage on an external file server
without limits did not work properly
If no limits had been
set for storage size, time to keep and the maximum number of
sequences in the External Recording dialog, MxControlCenter
had set 0
as value for the limits, prompting the camera
to delete all recordings!
Please see version 2.0!
Creation Date: 2009-01-29
Publishing Date: 2009-01-30
This version has a completely redesigned Windows-compliant user interface, including menu bar, toolbar and the new sidebar with context-sensitive function areas (layout list, playback controls, vPTZ controls). The features of the predecessor versions up to version 1.8 have been migrated to MxControlCenter (MxCC) 2.0 for the most part. The most important features required for using MxControlCenter can now be executed using toolbar buttons, all of which also have tool tips (bubble help). Note that you can execute all functions of the new toolbar using menu commands. In addition, some new features can only be executed using the corresponding commands of the new sidebar: layout selection, playback of recordings, vPTZ control.
IMPORTANT:
Note that you can load, edit and save all
existing MxCC configuration files (MxCC.ini
) in MxCC
2.0. Stored layouts containing both a grid and a background
definition are automatically converted to two separate layouts when
loading the INI file. Note that MxCC 2.0 always maintains and stores
grid and background layouts as separate definitions.
The new sidebar on the left side of the main window contains several context-sensitive areas for executing different functions. The contents of the sidebar changes depending on wether the main window is in standard mode or the Layout Manager has been activated. To activate the Layout Manager, execute either the View > Layout Manager, the Layout > New or the Layout > Edit menu command. Both view modes allow opening/closing the function areas in the sidebar independent from one another. To open and close the function areas, you can either click on the little arrows on the header bars above the areas, using the View menu or the context menu that opens after right-clicking on the corresponding area.
When in standard mode, the MxCC sidebar contains these three function areas:
Hierarchical Layout Lists
This
area displays all layouts that have been defined in the current
configuration (MxCC.ini
). Click on any layout or use
the arrow keys on the computer keyboard to select the desired
layout. In order to change a layout or the structure of the layout
list, make sure that you activate the Layout Manager (see
below).
Player
This area
contains the functions for playing back recorded video sequences.
The functions of this area always act on the currently selected
display window in the layout (yellow frame). Note that the playback
functions are only active if the selected display window is in
Player mode. To activate/deactivate the Player mode, click on
the Toggle Player Mode button, on the Recording >
Player mode menu command or the corresponding command of the
context menu. As an improvement over MxCC 1.x, this area always
shows a slider for easy browsing of the sequences and a time
selector for searching sequences at or around a specific date and
time. This area also allows setting a time range for exporting video
sequences (see below).
PTZ Controls
The functions of this area allow
executing virtual (digital) Pan/Tilt/Zoom actions on the current
display window. These functions are active both when viewing live
cameras and when playing back recorded video sequences in a display
window. The difference is that the vPTZ commands are executed by the
camera when viewing live video and by MxCC when playing back
recorded data.
When the Layout Manager has been activated, the sidebar contains these three function areas:
Hierarchical Layout Lists
This
area displays all layouts that have been defined in the current
configuration (MxCC.ini
). Click on any layout or use
the arrow keys on the computer keyboard to select the desired
layout. When the Layout Manager has been activated, you can edit the
layout list and create a tree structure with a virtually unlimited
number of nested layouts. Simply drag&drop the desired
layout onto the "parent layout" or use the commands of the
context menu (right-click on the layout list) to create the
hierarchical structure. This context menu also allows creating new
layouts and editing existing ones.
Cameras and devices
This
area lists all cameras, MxPEG clips and included file server paths
that are used in the different layouts of the current configuration.
To use one of these elements in the current layout, simply drag&drop
the desired element to any display window in the current layout.
The contents of the third area is context-sensitive, it depends on the type of layout that is currently active.
Grid (grid layouts)
When using a grid layout, you
can select one of the predefined grids or define a new one here. If
a layout has been opened in the Layout Manager, the current grid
will be replaced when you select a new one.
CAUTION:
If the new grid has fewer display windows
than the current one, MxCC will not display all cameras of the old
layout any more! In addition, the Edit Grids button opens a
new dialog, which allows changing the existing grids or defining
new grids (see below).
Background images (background layouts)
This area
allows selecting different background images or defining new
background images after clicking on the Add Image button.
Apart from the new hierarchical layout list already mentioned above, defining and using layouts has been improved in several other ways.
Separate grid and background
layouts
Every layout can only have one type; it is either a
grid layout or a background layout. You can see this in the layout
list as the two types of layouts carry different icons. When loading
MxCC INI files that had been created by MxCC 1.x, layouts containing
both a grid and a background definition are automatically converted
to two separate definitions, one with a "(Grid)
"
suffix and one with a "(Background)
" suffix
at the end of the name.
New Autogrid type
When
defining new grid layouts, you can select the new "Autogrid",
which appears as the first layout above the other predefined layouts
in the graphical layout list of the Layout Manager. A layout based
on the Autogrid automatically grows with the number of elements that
are to be displayed. To do so, right-click in the Layout Manager and
use the Insert and Add commands of the context menu.
The entire display area is divided up according to the following
rules:
All display windows have the same size.
When adding a display window, the number of windows will be increased to create the next larger rectangle or square of windows. Rectangles will be filled from left to right first, then from top to bottom.
Manually editing and creating layout grids
If the
Layout Manager is active, you can click on the Edit Grids
button to edit existing and to create new grids. The grid
definitions consist of a simple description language that is
explained in the dialog. The results of manipulating the definition
are directly visible in the preview window of the dialog, making it
easy to achieve the desired results.
Once a MOBOTIX camera has been added to MxCC, you can immediately use the virtual Pan/Tilt/Zoom features of the camera with a MEGATRON joystick (if attached to the computer) or the PTZ Controls area of the new sidebar. The controls and their functions are also context-sensitive, i.e. they depend on the contents of the currently selected display window (yellow frame). This area has four sub areas:
Mode
The Camera Live Image field allows
selecting different PTZ views directly on the camera. The MxCC
Display field, on the other hand, allows selecting vPTZ views
for the vPTZ actions that are applied by MxCC on recorded video
sequences.
CAUTION:
As long as the MxCC Display field has been set to Unchanged, all vPTZ commands will be sent to the camera and executed by this camera.
If a different value has been selected, the vPTZ actions are executed by MxCC and its post-processing features. For example, you can select Surround to show the recorded (and distorted) full image of a Q22M in the same Surround view as if the camera itself would have created this view in live mode.
Note that the availability and the contents of the two selection boxes Camera Live Image and MxCC Display always depend on the contents of the currently selected display window (yellow frame). As a result, you can select Q22M-specific view modes, such as Surround, Panorama, etc. only if the display window contains a Q22M.
PTZ control
This control
simulates the behavior of a joystick: Movements to the right or left
move the camera in horizontal direction while movements up and down
tilt the camera in vertical direction. Turning the ring or moving
the slider will zoom in or zoom out of the image, i.e. this will
change the zoom level. These features are especially interesting
when using the new Q22M models with hemispherical 180° lens and
integrated distortion correction on stored full image video.
PTZ Views
The features
1x Zoom, Center Pan and the option to store/load the
positions from 1 to 16 (to store a position, press a button for at
least three seconds) are activated when seeing the live images of
all camera models, while the special features in the Auto Move
can only be applied to Q22M cameras in live mode.
Installation
This area is only active for Q22M
cameras. You can use this area to set the type of installation for
wall-mounted or ceiling-mounted cameras; for the latter installation
type, you can also set the North Direction.
Note: |
In order to use the full vPTZ functionality, you need to make sure that tall cameras are using at least software version MX-V3.4.5.4 (see www.mobotix.com/eng_GB/Support/Software-Downloads/). |
---|
The Player area in the sidebar also allows playing back
several cameras simultaneously in synchronized manner. The
synchronous playback applies to all display windows in a layout that
are currently in Player mode. You can switch individual display
windows (yellow frame) using the Toggle Player Mode button in
the toolbar or for all windows in the layout at once using the All
button in the Player area.
Selecting a value in the Synch. Mode
box opens a dialog for setting the start time. To control the
playback functions, use the buttons in the Player area. The
two selectable synchronization modes are working as follows:
Real Time
Use this option to play back all selected
display windows synchronized and in real time. Note that MxCC has to
able to load all required data fast enough for this to work. When
playing back synchronized data of many recordings from the same file
server or via individual cameras, this sometimes cannot be
guaranteed!
CAUTION:
If MxCC cannot read the data fast enough in order to
play back in real time, MxCC will drop (i.e. leave out) individual
images. This may lead to moving objects making "jumpy"
movements. If this should be the case, you should select the second
option, which is improved notably: Reduced Speed (see next
item).
Reduced Speed
This mode plays back the video data
in synchronized manner, but does not enforce real-time playback in
case the data cannot be read fast enough. In this case, MxCC plays
back the data with slightly reduced speed. In addition,
synchronization is handled less strictly as an offset of up to 600
milliseconds is still considered acceptable. Both measures applied
together allow playing back considerably more cameras in "almost
synchronized" manner. When applying the Standard System
Configuration presented below, the recorded data of up to 16
cameras in one layout can be played back for 10 minutes in
synchronized fashion, with an offset from realtime of about two
seconds at the end.
In order to achieve the playback performance mentioned above, the following settings have been combined with the hardware as listed below:
Continuous Recording
MxPEG format
VGA resolution
Recording frame rate 12 to 16 fps
Hardware
Server type: NAS (N)etwork (A)ttached (S)torage
Manufacturer: Overland Storage (Adaptec)
Model: Snap Server 410, 1 TB harddisk capacity, 2 GB RAM
Hard disks: 4 x 250 GB SATA, used as one RAID 5 volume
Operating system: GuardianOS 5.0 133 SP1
Configuration
Ethernet 1: 1000 Mbps
Ethernet 2: 1000 Mbps
Server type: CIFS, configured as standalone workgroup server
Volumes: One volume with 692 GB, 47% used
Quotas: None
HP Compaq dc7800p
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU with 2.66 GHz
2 GB RAM
Windows Vista 32Bit
Video card NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
This version contains a new dialog for exporting recorded video data. At present, this dialog allows reading the recordings via a camera and exporting the video data as MOBOTIX file server structure or as MxPEG clips. This also means that you can use this dialog to export data from internal SD/CF cards of the MOBOTIX cameras. Note that the dialog does not support exporting into AVI format or reading directly from a file server. At the moment, the export dialog from MxCC 1.8 is still used to read the data from a directly accessed file server path, but this dialog only allows exporting individual images and MxPEG clips (see also below under Known Limitations).
There are two possibilities for exporting the data:
Export using the Player
First,
select the Player mode for the display window of a camera.
Next, use the slider in the Player area of the sidebar to set
the start and end position for the range you would like to export.
Us the Set start position and Set end position
commands of the context menu in the Player area to define the
range. Click on the Export button to open to the
corresponding dialog and to carry over the range you just defined.
If no time range has been set for exporting, MxCC automatically sets
the entire time range in the Export dialog. You can repeat this
procedure for different cameras and time ranges and thus create an
export list. To delete a line item in the list of the Export
dialog, select it and press the [Del] key on the computer keyboard.
Export using the Event Search
To open the Export
dialog from the Video Search dialog, click on the Export
or Add to export list buttons (the latter button add the
selected events/time ranges to the export list. To add a single
event, highlight it in the event list and click on the Add to
export list button. To define a time range, search the desired
time in the player and execute the Set start position command
in the context menu of the Player area. Now search the last
scene you would like to include in the exported video and execute
the Set end position command in the context menu.
Remarks
The time range defined in this manner can contain any number of events.
If you have not defined a time range for exporting, MxCC also carries over the entire time range into the Export dialog.
Enhanced features of the
preview windows
When defining a preview window in the Layout
Manager, you can now set further parameters such as the frame rate
and the resolution of this window.
Improvements of the Camera Sequencer
The Camera Sequencer can also display cameras, which are only included as icons in the corresponding layout.
You can also set the order in which the cameras are displayed in the Sequencer window.
Improvements of the Layout Sequencer
MxCC can now start the Layout Sequencer automatically after program launch, if you select the Layout Sequencer option in the On startup list (Options > General dialog).
The Layout Sequencer does not switch to the next alarm any more if an alarm has not yet been acknowledged.
Improvements of the camera status icons
The camera
status icons now use these colors to show the following states:
Green: Camera is displayed live, it is "monitored".
Yellow: Camera is connected, but not monitored live.
Gray with red dot (*new*): Camera has sent an alarm (e.g. using a network message), but it is not monitored live anywhere.
Red: No connection to the camera.
Advanced Video Search: EL and
EL2 as Event Filters
You can now use the EL and EL2 events in
the event filter when searching specific events.
Improvements of the alarm list
Double.clicking on an image of the alarm list opens the Video Search for the corresponding camera even if the camera is not part of the current layout.
MxCC stores the alarm list at regular intervals in the background.
Visualization of connection errors
The Options >
General dialog allows specifying a JPG graphics file in the
Error display on lost camera group box, which will be shown
in the corresponding display window if MxCC loses the connection to
a camera.
Visualization of latency timeouts
The Options >
General dialog also allows specifying a JPG graphics file in the
Error display on latency timeout group box, which will be
shown in the corresponding display window if the latency of the
camera is too high. This group box also allows setting the maximum
latency time to use. "Latency time" in this context means
the time difference between the generation time if an individual
image in the camera and the time when MxCC displays the image.
No manual and no online
help
This version does not yet have a current manual nor does
it have an online help.
Incomplete translations
In
version 2.0, only the texts of the German and the English versions
are up-to-date. All other translations may be missing some texts,
which appear in English in the other languages.
Two different export dialogs and AVI export not
possible
Depending on the video source, MxCC opens two
different export dialogs:
When exporting video data that are loaded via the camera, the new export dialog of MxCC 2.0 appears. This dialog allows exporting the data as file server structure or as MxPEG clips. This dialog does not yet allow exporting into AVI files.
When exporting video data that are loaded directly from a file server, MxCC shows the old export dialog of MxCC 1.x, but without the possibility to create AVI exports.
Post PTZ not possible on dual
images
When showing dual images of Dual cameras, MxCC at
present cannot execute PTZ actions as the two images cannot be
processed independent from one another.
PTZ control deactivated if a
layout only contains one camera
After opening a layout that
only contains one camera, some controls of the PTZ Controls
area in the sidebar had been disabled. Click on the lock icon in
this area to unlock and lock the live views will activate the
disabled elements again.
Cameras cannot be deleted from
the configuration
Once cameras, MxPEG clips or file server
paths have been added to the MxCC configuration, they cannot be
removed from the configuration using user interface options. You
will have to manually delete these elements from the INI file (with
MxCC not running).
JPG files from Photoshop cannot
be used for visualizing error conditions
JPG files created in
the Photoshop graphics application cannot be used to visualize the
connection and latency time errors as outlined above.
No direct reading of SD Cards possible
SD cards
written by MOBOTIX cameras with software version 4.0.1.x or higher
cannot be read directly on a computer running this version of
MxControlCenter. This will be possible with version 2.2 of
MxControlCenter.
Creation Date: 2008-07-08
Publishing Date: 2008-07-10
This new dialog offers flexible options for printing single camera images from the main window or the video search dialog. To open this dialog, right-click into the main window and select Print... from the context menu or click on the Print current and post-processed image button in the Video Search dialog. You can change the following settings (among others):
Page format (portrait/landscape, size, page margins)
Export as a PDF file
Image size on printed page
Direct video search on Flash devices (SD cards, USB devices) without camera.
A Flash device (SD card, USB stick, USB harddisk) on which a MOBOTIX camera has recorded using the MxFFS file system, can be attached directly to a computer for examination and in-depth video search. To do so, simply insert an SD card into a card reader or attach a USB device to the computer running MxCC. Next, add the logical drive of the USB device or SD card reader as a File Server Path in MxCC.
CAUTION:
If the MxFFS driver has not been installed yet, Windows will not recognize MxFFS-formatted storage media. Instead, Windows will show a message box prompting you format the device. Never answer Yes when asked to format the device, since this will destroy the stored data without any chance of recovery!
Without installed MxFFS driver, MxCC will offer installing the MxFFS driver when you first access a Flash device that has been used in a MOBOTIX camera. Please note that installing this driver is only possible if you have the rights required for installing software on the Windows system!
Search time preselection in Video Search
When closing the Video Search dialog, MxCC stores the last position played back for each camera. Upon reopening the Video Search dialog, MxCC automatically tries to load the stored positions.
Time-synchronized playback with additional overload option
When playing back recorded video data for several cameras in synchronized fashion, you may experience problems (i.e. choppy movements, lost images) when handling many cameras at once. The number of cameras that can be handled for time-synchronized playback greatly depends on the file server and the computer running MxCC; determining an exact figure is nearly impossible. If the number of cameras that can be handled is too low for a specific application, the time-synchronized playback can be instructed to manage the cameras in a different manner, which significantly enhances the number of cameras that show smooth live video. If MxCC detects delays when receiving or displaying the files from the cameras, it reduces the playback speed dynamically to ensure that the video sequences are played back smoothly. To do so, activate the new Reduce on overload option in the Synchronous Player dialog.
CAUTION:
Note that when using his option, MxCC cannot play
back the events in real time any more and time synchronization
between the different cameras may not be 100 percent exact.
Current time of the slider below the event list
When moving the slider control below the event list, MxCC displays the time/date information of the current slider position. This feature provides for better positioning of the slider control.
Once a MOBOTIX camera has been added to MxCC, you can immediately use the virtual Pan/Tilt/Zoom features of the camera if a MEGATRON joystick is attached to the computer.
Joystick navigation
Turning the joystick controls the zoom, moving the joystick to the right/left pans the camera accordingly and moving the joystick forward/backward tilts the camera down or up. These features are especially interesting when using a new Q22M model with hemispherical 180° lens and integrated distortion correction.
Setting and loading preset positions:
Similar to mechanical pan/tilt heads, you can activate the Rotor option, the Set button and the selection box to set and load individual "presets", i.e. virtual (digital) PTZ positions (pan/tilt position and zoom level). When using a MEGATRON joystick, you can also use the function keys on the joystick housing to set and load preset positions: Pressing a function key for at least 2 seconds will set a preset, briefly pressing the key will load the corresponding preset.
Function buttons for Q22M:
When using the new Q22M with hemispherical lens and 360° surround view, pressing one of the two function keys on the joystick itself will execute these operations: The left key rotates the camera by 180° (like looking back over your shoulder), the right key cycles through the different display modes of the Q22M, Normal (corrected image), Full Image (uncorrected image of the full image sensor), Surround (image from four virtual cameras that cover the entire room).
Export path stored in Video Search
When again loading the Export dialog, it will reopen the
directory that had been selected when last closing the dialog. This
path will remain stored when restarting MxCC, provided you saved the
configuration file (MxCC.ini
) when closing the
application.
Easier saving of layouts
When saving a layout, a new dialog prompts the user to save the layout and the changed MxCC configuration in either the current or a different configuration file. Consequently, the application will not prompt the user any more to save the changes when closing the Layout Editor or the application (provided no other parameters have been changed in the meantime).
Improved reconfiguring of cameras via Bonjour
This dialog allowed entering IP addresses, which ended in '.000
';
this is not possible any more.
Playing back MxPEG clips with up to 1 GB size
When playing back MxPEG clips, MxCC played back clips up to a maximum of 128 GB. This limit has been increased to 1 GB.
Saving and printing single images of an MxPEG video clip
It is now possible to print single images of MxPEG clips or to
store them as .jpg
or .bmp
file.
Improved Player stability when encountering missing files
When playing back recording in Snapshot mode (pre-alarm, alarm, and post-alarm images), the MxCC player could hang if files in the folder were missing, e.g. because the camera was not able to store all pre- and post-alarm images due to overload. This problem has been solved as MxCC only plays back the files that are actually there.
MxCC can play back contents of exported .tar
archives
MxCC now allows using the uncompressed contents of tar files that have been exported from a camera by adding these contents as a File server path. This means that you can play back the contents of such a file and also use the full Video Search features in MxCC.
Loading file server paths now also works using UNC paths
Up until now, file server paths required a logical drive name.
You can now also use UNC paths for this purpose. This allows using
paths like '\\Server1\MX-Data\10_xx_yy_zz
' besides
'z:\10_xx_yy_zz
'.
Sequential Live display mode for limited bandwidths
This display mode has been added especially for situations in
which only limited bandwidth is available for retrieving the camera
images. Once the Sequential mode check box has been activated
in Options > General, MxCC will do the following:
It
will not try to get all live streams from the cameras of the current
layout at once, but will try to get the pictures in sequential mode,
i.e. one image of camera A, one image of camera B, etc. Once an
image has been obtained, MxCC waits for the specified Update time
before it tries to get the image from the next camera: If this
parameter has been set to 0, MxCC tries to get the images as
fast as possible and waits for the selected time otherwise.
Layout Editor, background mode: Crash after changing window to camera icon
After changing the live window of a camera to an icon, the application could crash when clicking on the icon.
Distorted display of custom resolutions in Player
If a camera had been recording using a custom image format (e.g. 1280x752), playing back these recordings in the Player did not show the proper resolution, but a distorted image.
Faulty display in preview windows of images rotated by 180°
Camera images rotated by 180° were sometimes displayed improperly in the preview window.
Crash when exporting snapshot recordings
When exporting time ranges in which the camera had been recording the images in Snapshot recording mode, the application sometimes crashed.
Errors sending remote commands
When using the remote command string 'GET ip="layout"&active=0&speaker=1
', the camera speaker was
not activated as instructed.
Error in automatic alarm acknowledgement
If automatic alarm acknowledgement had been set to a value of 60 minutes or higher, the alarms were acknowledged immediately.
Error playing back MxPEG clips in fast forward
When playing back in fast forward, the application sometimes skipped single images (frames).
Faulty Hide camera controls command
This command did not only hide the camera controls, but also the MxCC controls.
Camera access data in Update Assistant faulty
When starting the Update Assistant, the access data of the individual cameras (user name, password) were sometimes not copied properly and had to be defined again in the Update Assistant. Likewise, storing these access data in a camera list of the Update Assistant was sometime faulty.
Problems in Video Search when files on the file server were missing
The stability of the Video Search feature has been improved,
where the application could crash if the '.erdinfo
' or
'info.jpg
' files had been missing.
Creation Date: 2007-12-20
Publishing Date: 2007-12-21
Player with time-synchronized playback
MxControlCenter can now play back all camera windows of a layout, which are in Player mode, in a time-synchronized manner. This means that you can follow an incident recorded by several cameras in the correct sequence of events. To activate this feature, click on the new Time-synchronized playback button in the main window. Enter a start time in the Time-Synchronous Player dialog and set all cameras to the desired time by clicking on Goto. Leave the Time-Synchronous Player dialog open and use the player buttons of the main window to start and stop the playback.
Enhanced Event Search Also For M1 Cameras
The enhanced video search now also processes file server contents that have been recorded using M1 cameras.
Logging of all executed export actions
MxControlCenter automatically logs all executed export functions in an encrypted file, which can be opened in MxControlCenter for viewing. Exporting and viewing the log file requires user rights within MxControlCenter. To see the export log file, open the Export dialog and click on the Open Log button.
Axis Video Server and Toshiba IP cameras integrated
MxControlCenter can now integrate Axis Video Server and Toshiba IP cameras. This allows showing live MJPEG video streams in MxControlCenter and also provides a method for storing the video stream in the MOBOTIX folder structure when using an MxServer. To add a video channel of an Axis Video Server or a Toshiba IP camera, open the Search/open video sources dialog or use the Layout Editor.
Export of Bitmaps in the "Video Search" Dialog
When trying to export bitmaps (.bmp) in the Video Search dialog, this feature did not work.
Contents of the "Configure Element" dialog
The contents of the Configure Element dialog did not show the last settings even though the Remember last settings checkbox had been checked.
Missing time ranges when playing back MxPEG clips
When playing back MxPEG clips, MxControlCenter sometimes missed certain time ranges.
Scrollbars of mouse-over windows overlapping the alarm list did not work
The scrollbars of camera windows, which had been enlarged using mouse-over and overlapped the alarm list, did not work.
Audio activation was lost
When switching between several camera windows or after loosing a camera connection (e.g. due to a network failure), the audio channel of the camera was not transmitted any more.
Display of MOBOTIX cameras, which only support SSL/https connections
It was not possible to add MX camera using the https protocol. It is now possible to activate SSL when adding a camera.
Integration of analog cameras using MxServer
Setting different ports of MxServer when integrating analog cameras had errors.
Creation Date: 2007-09-14
Publishing Date: 2007-09-18
Version also Available for Windows 2000
For this version, a separate installation package for Windows 2000 is supplied.
Redesigned Buttons and Icons
Buttons and icons of the MxCC main window have been completely redesigned and display improved popup help.
Video Search Dialog with Additional and Freely Scalable Player Window
The Video Search dialog now features a separate, freely moveable and scalable window for displaying the stored camera videos. When opening the window, MxCC will open it in its original size (camera resolution) and will position it directly above the Player buttons. You can open this window by double-clicking into the Player window or by clicking on the new Open/close search window button. Double-clicking into the window or clicking the new Open/close search window button will close this window again.
Improved Handling when Playing Back Recorded Clips in the Main Window
When playing back stored MxPEG files in the Main window, the Loading clip... notification does not show any more and the display does not pause any more when MxCC is loading a new video sequence.
New Dialog for Adding Layout Elements
When right-clicking a display element in the Layout Editor, selecting Insert or Configure in the context menu will open a dialog which allows adding/configuring a display element from the list of available elements.
Live
Preview
Player
Video clip
File server path
Player window
Alarm window
Sequencer window (see New Sequencer window Element Type for Grid and Background Layouts)
Focus window (only for background layouts, see Focus window)
Status symbol (only for background layouts, see Status Symbol and 'MxStatus.exe' Application)
Layout button (only for background layouts)
Configure Sequencer button (only for background layouts, see New "'Configure Sequencer' button" Element Type)
Close windows button (only for background layouts)
New Status symbol and Focus window Display Element Types for Background Layouts
When using the new Insert dialog in the Layout Editor with background image, you can now add Status symbols and Focus windows to background layouts. Using these two new display elements, you can comfortably create overview layouts with all or some cameras shows as small status icons. When needed, you can add one or more focus windows for several cameras or live windows to display individual cameras. You can combine these two display elements as follows:
Status Symbol and 'MxStatus.exe' Application
First, add a Status symbol and connect it to the camera (IP address). The symbol is then displayed as a colored circle with fans that indicate the directing of viewing and the angle of the lens, for cameras with one or two lenses. The colors have the following meanings:
Red: the connection to the camera is not working
Yellow: the connection to the camera is working properly, but this camera is not displayed live in any of the connected MxControlCenter instances!
Green: this camera is displayed live in one of the connected MxControlCenter instances.
IMPORTANT: Please also read the description of the MxStatus application in New 'MxStatus.exe' Application for Updating the Status Symbols!
In addition to the status symbols, you can add one or more Focus windows to the layout. When clicking on a status symbol, the corresponding camera will be shown live in the focus window, if only one focus window exists. If several focus windows are present in the layout, simply click into the desired focus window, then click on the camera.
New 'MxStatus.exe' Application for Updating the Status Symbols
The MxStatus.exe Windows application should run on a Windows computer that is already running MxControlCenter. MxStatus is used to update the displayed status of the camera symbols of all connected MxControlCenter instances and to send the status to the connected MxControlCenter instances, i.e. the other computers running MxControlCenter. (Please also see the description of the status symbols in the Status Symbol and 'MxStatus.exe' Application section.)
Starting the Application:
You can start MxStatus.exe by double-clicking or
right-click > Open without any parameters. In this
case, the application opens the default port 8080 for other
computers running MxControlCenter. If required, you can start
MxStatus at the command prompt with an IP address and a port
number.
Example:
C:\Program Files\MOBOTIX\MxCC\MxStatus 127.0.0.1 8100
Connecting MxControlCenter and MxStatus:
The connected MxControlCenter instances are all computers with a running MxControlCenter in the network, which also have a connection to one single computer running MxStatus. In order to connect an MxControlCenter computer to an MxStatus computer, make sure that MxStatus is properly running on the computer. In addition, you need to configure all MxControlCenter computers in Options > General > MxStatus IP by entering the IP address (and the port number if different from 8080) of the Windows computer running MxStatus. It is not required to enter the port in MxControlCenter if you are using the default port 8080.
New Sequencer window Element Type for Grid and Background Layouts
When using the new Insert dialog in the Layout Editor with background image, you can now add Sequencer windows to grid and background layouts. A window of this type does display one camera (IP address). This window cycles through all live cameras and MxPEG clips of the current layout. You can set the interval for showing the individual cameras and select the cameras to show (IP addresses/names) in the Configure dialog.
New 'Configure Sequencer' button Element Type
This element type allows adding a button to background layouts, which opens the dialog for configuring the Layout Sequencer window of the layout. This button allows users without administration rights to configure the Sequencer window in the running application.
New 'Close Window' button Element Type
This element type allows adding a button to background layouts, which closes all open and freely moveable live camera windows of the layout.
Layout Sequencer Feature
Clicking on a Sequencer button in a layout will start the Layout Sequencer. If the Layout Sequencer is running, MxControlCenter will cycle through the defined layouts using the interval defined in the Options > General dialog, Sequencer time. You can activate the Layout Sequencer by Ctrl-clicking on the Sequencer button of the main window.
Improved Open Video Sources Dialog
If you click on the Search/open video sources button in the main window and the Open Video Sources dialog opens, this dialog will contain the video sources of the current layout. This dialog will only start searching for cameras automatically, if you start MxControlCenter for the first time or without INI file.
Simplified Definition of the Camera File Server Paths
The definition of the file server paths for the video search features has been improved. Every camera tab in the Options dialog now has three settings for Get Player images:
Via camera
Global file server path (subfolder with camera factory IP is appended automatically)
Camera file server path
Improved Bonjour Search and Changes of Camera Network Configuration
If a camera has been found via Bonjour you can change not only the network settings, but also the standard gateway.
Merit Li-Lin IP PTZ Cameras Integrated
When clicking on the Search/open video sources you can now add Merit Li-Lin IP PTZ dome cameras. For now, the current model PIH-7625IP has been integrated.
CAUTION:
In order to store the Merit Li-Lin video
stream as M-JPEG in the MOBOTIX files structure, you need to use
MxServer version 1.0.34 or higher.
Provitek PT3 Pan/Tilt Head Integrated
Besides the Provitek pan/tilt heads PT and PT2, MxControlCenter now also supports the PT3 models. You can select the model in the Options dialog on the tab of the camera that is mounted on the pan/tilt head.
Inverted Control Commands for Pan/Tilt Heads and Analog PTZ Dome Cameras
When using pan/tilt heads and analog PTZ dome cameras, you can now invert the X and Y control commands. This provides for proper control of pan/tilt heads, which have been mounted upside-down. You can also set these options in the Options dialog on the tab of the camera mounted on the pan/tilt head or the PTZ camera.
Sending Audio from PC Microphone to Camera did not work
When trying to make an announcement, the audio signal recorded by the computer's microphone was not transmitted to the camera (audio announcement).
Wrong Days Displayed in Video Search
In the event list of the Video Search dialog, the weekday always showed Fri, while the date itself was displayed properly.
German/English Language Mixed in Print Output
When printing images in the Video Search dialog, some texts in the print layout still appeared in German.
Missing Files When Saving MxCC Configuration Completely
When saving the MxControlCenter configuration (including the runtime files), the DLL files were missing.
Automatic Language Selection of GUI Did Not Work
When opening MxControlCenter on Windows versions other than German, some dialogs appeared in different languages.
Camera Network Configuration Not Saved When Using Bonjour
When changing the camera network settings for IP address and network mask in MxControlCenter, these changes did not get saved in the camera.
Application Errors in Player Mode and in the "Open Video Sources" Dialog
When clicking on the Select all channels button and the Player mode had been pressed, the application could hang. The same could happen, when clicking on the Automatic search button in the Open Video Sources dialog.
Camera Configuration - Error When Accessing M1 or M10/D10 Cameras
When trying to open the configuration dialog for M1 cameras or M10/D10 cameras with older software versions, the application could hang.
New Export Dialog and AVI Generation
The Export dialog (click on the Export button in either the main MxControlCenter window or in the Video Search dialog) has been completely redesigned. Selecting the export format and setting the time span for exporting has been combined into one dialog. In addition, this dialog also allows selecting different codecs for generating AVI files, either with or without audio channel from the camera.
Icons Redesigned
All icons of MxControlCenter have been completely redesigned.
Language Versions
This version is available only in English and German. The other languages (French, Spanish and Italian) will be added in a later version.
When starting MxControlCenter without a default layout, the application automatically searches the network for MOBOTIX cameras. Apart from the broadcast search, which only found cameras on the same subnet, MxControlCenter now uses the recently integrated Bonjour service. The application thus automatically finds Bonjour-enabled MOBOTIX cameras (software version >= 3.0.8.7) in other subnets, as long as they are using the same physical network and are not blocked off by firewalls. In addition, the MOBOTIX cameras found using Bonjour can be reconfigured directly from MxControlCenter either to use the specified IP addresses or to use DHCP to obtain their network addresses. Opening the Admin Menu > Ethernet Interface dialog in the browser interface of the cameras to reconfigure the network address is not required any more. The same search is also conducted every time you open the Open Video Sources dialog later on.
Clicking on the Camera Configuration button opens a new dialog, which allows to conveniently change various parameters in different sections of the camera settings. The following sections are currently available:
Overview
This tab lists the most important settings of the cameras in a table that can be accessed using the default password (arming, recording, events, etc.).
Image Setup
This tab allows changing the most relevant image settings. Currently, it is only possible to change one camera at a time.
Hint:
Exposure windows cannot be managed using this
dialog – yet, but this will supported in a future version of
MxControlCenter.
Recording
This tab allows changing the most important recording settings for one or more selected cameras. If the cameras are running software versions 3.1.x or higher, you can also use this tab to setup recording to an external file server. This means that you can create a Windows share on the computer running MxControlCenter that is also used by the camera as an external file server. If the camera is supposed to use the MxControlCenter computer for recording, you do not have to use the Windows dialogs to set up a corresponding shared folder.
CAUTION:
All changes to the settings in the Camera
Configuration dialog will always be stored in the camera's permanent
memory!
The Update Assistant is the tool for simultaneously updating the system software of one or more cameras. It automatically finds all MOBOTIX cameras using the Bonjour service (activated by default on the cameras), even if they are on a different subnet. You can also add and remove cameras manually and you can also store and load the compiled camera list.
In addition, you can store the configuration of one or more cameras for backup purposes and load the configuration back into the cameras.
Video Search (Event Search) via the camera – without direct file server access
The Video Search dialog (formerly named Event Search) now allows searching for stored events or a specific time when using continuous recording. In this case, MxControlCenter uses the MOBOTIX camera, which in turn has to have a properly working connection to the file server used for external storage. In order to search via the camera, make sure that Options > <camera tab>, option Get Player images has been set to Via camera.
Video Search on continuous recording even without real events
The Video Search dialog features a new button named Show real events only in the Search Parameters group. If this button is pressed, it is only relevant when searching for data stored using Continuous Recording. The button has an effect only in the following cases:
Files stored by MOBOTIX cameras using continuous recording, either with or without true events.
Video data of other manufacturer's cameras (analog or IP-based), which have been stored using MxServer, currently only if the data do not contain true events.
Activating the Show real events only option (button) on continuously recorded video data only makes sense when using MOBOTIX cameras. In this case, the event list contains only the additional real events (such as VM, IL, UC, ...) and not the minute clips recorded on a continuous basis. If this has not been activated (default setting), the event list contains the real events and the minute clips, which are stored every minute, allowing you to search the continuously recorded video data.
Improved print feature
When printing the original image together with an image changed by PTZ/PP, both images will be printed in a redesigned layout.
Export feature available in Video Search
The export feature in the Export dialog already described above can now also be started in the video search by clicking on the Export button.
The performance of the Software Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) and Image Post Processing (PP) features has been improved considerably.
Windows language version not determined correctly and wrong language displayed
If MxControlCenter had been started on a computer with a Windows language version other than German, the application nonetheless displayed the German user interface. This behavior could only be remedied by moving the language DLLs to a different folder or by simply deleting the DLLs.
Zoom features automatically activated the Sequencer mode
When playing back events recorded in Snapshot mode, the Player could only show a maximum of 10 pre-alarm and 10 post-alarm images. This number has been increased to 20 pre- and post-alarm images.
Flickering of the PTZ function on still images
When activating the PTZ function on still images, the images started flickering.
Unnecessary input box to save a changed layout
When switching between different layouts in the MxControlCenter main window, the application asked whether to store the changed layout, even though the layout had not been changed.
Frame rate of alarm window dropped to 1 fps
If a layout contained an alarm window, the triggering camera was correctly displayed in the alarm window, but its frame rate dropped to 1 frame per second.
Dual images distorted in Video Search dialog
If a dual camera with dual image (Camera selection: Both) was displayed in the Video Search (Event Search) dialog to search for events, the images in the film strip and in the preview had not been scaled proportionally, but were distorted.
Event search did not work on cameras set to a different port than 80
Events from cameras were not displayed in the Video Search (Event Search) dialog if these cameras had been set to a port that was different from the default port 80 and the images were collected via the camera (and not directly from a file server).
Note:
Starting with release 1.3.6, MxViewer
has been renamed to MxControlCenter.
The renaming does not have any influence on existing layouts, which
had been created and managed using MxViewer. All existing
MxViewer*.ini
configuration can be loaded, edited and
saved in MxControlCenter.
The basic functionality and the user interface have not changed a lot
from MxViewer.
Integrated software PTZ functions, including distortion correction
MxControlCenter now
allows using the Pan/Tilt/Zoom features even on recorded clips,
which have been added for evaluation/presentation purposes. Using
these features, you can also pan to a certain spot in the live image
of a camera and zoom into the image. This feature works for any
window in MxControlCenter,
regardless of the type of displayed video source!
This means that
the PTZ features can be used on live streams, MxPEG clips and on the
files stored on a file server; even still images (e.g. paused
streams) can be examined using these features. Another strong point
is the automatic correction of distorted images that are delivered
by cameras with Super Wide-Angle and Ultra Wide-Angle lenses (360°).
Once the lens type and camera mount type have been set,
MxControlCenter automatically calculates the corresponding
distortion correction. You can control the PTZ features of any
camera window using a joystick or the mouse.
Integrated image Post Processing (PP)
Besides the PTZ features with automatic distortion correction, you can also correct images in post-processing mode, i.e. you can change image color contrast, brightness, contrast and sharpness even after the video has been recorded by a camera. Again, this feature works for any window containing live streams, recorded video and still images, regardless of the type of displayed video source.
Three additional buttons for controlling the PTZ and PP features have been added to the toolbar:
Show PTZ/PP dialog
Toggle Pan Tilt Zoom
Toggle Post Processing
Download the MxControlCenter Manual from www.mobotix.com, in the Support > Manuals section for more information on these functions.
New Dialog for extended event search with direct file server access
If a file server path has been set for a MOBOTIX camera (either in Options > General or in Options > <camera tab>), MxControlCenter will open the new Event Search dialog when clicking on the Show Eventlist button instead of the browser-based event list. The following functions have been added by the enhanced event search feature; for a more detailed information, please consult the MxControlCenter manual.
Selecting and switching between all cameras of the current layout when searching for events.
Display of all event images of a camera and navigation within the event images using a storyboard.
Manual and automatic setting of a reference time, which can be used when searching for events while switching between two or more cameras.
Integrated event player with audio channel.
Creating and playing back the contents of the Playlist, which consists of events and event sequences of any camera in the current layout.
Note:
The enhanced event search is currently only
supported when directly accessing a file server on which a MOBOTIX
camera has been recording its video data. One of the next releases
of MxControlCenter will
also support indirect access to the stored video and audio data,
i.e. the files are accessed via the cameras and not on the file
server.
PTZ and image post processing also in event search
The new dialog for enhanced event search with direct file server access also allows using the integrated PTZ and image post-processing (PP) features. This means that you can use the same PTZ and PP operations within event search as in the MxControlCenter main window. Use the PTZ and PP buttons on the additional toolbar above the event player in order to adjust the lens and image post-processing parameters.
Adding two different image channels of a Dual camera (second image channel)
In addition to showing the live images of a Dual camera's current
image sensor (left, right, both), MxControlCenter can display the
images of the sensor that is currently not shown. Select the Set
image link options command from the context menu of a camera
window and set the desired parameters.
Note:
When
using this option, the frame rate is restricted to max. 1 F/s!
Improvements of the Live window
Toggle audio on/off:
Using the context menu of a
live window, you can also switch the audio channel for this window
on or off.
Double-click to open the Live window:
Double-click any
camera window to open the video in a detached window, regardless of
whether it contains a live stream, a second image channel or camera
events.
Integration of Axis IP cameras
This version of MxControlCenter
can also get the M-JPEG stream from Axis IP cameras. To do so,
simply add the string :TA
after the camera's IP
address. When using an Axis dome camera, such as the Axis 232 dome,
MxControlCenter automatically activates PTZ control using a
joystick.
Example: 192.168.1.173:TA
Changing camera image settings from MxControlCenter
Right-click a live window and click on the Camera Control command to open a dialog for directly setting the most important exposure and image settings of the corresponding camera. Using this dialog, you can control MOPBOTIX cameras just like the cameras of other manufacturers (currently only Axis).
Opening Live Windows Using Camnotify
Upon receiving a network message from a camera, MxControlCenter can be instructed to open the video stream of the sending camera in a detached Live window. To do so, activate the Open live window checkbox on the Options dialog, Remote Control tab.
New Dialog for Extended Event Search—BETA
If a File server path has been set for a MOBOTIX camera (either in Options->General or in Options-><camera tab>), MxControlCenter will open the new Event Search search dialog instead of the browser-based event list. This dialog allows searching one (or more) events according to specific criteria and can play back the corresponding video sequences.
Note: This dialog is not quite finished, i.e. not all visible features are usable!
New dialog for storing the current configuration
The Save configuration button opens a dialog, which allows storing the current configuration of MxViewer at a specific location. The dialog offers three options:
Configuration only (INI file)
Configuration and resources
Complete package (configuration, resources, MxViewer program
files)
This allows creating a complete MxViewer installation
at any location on your network.
In addition, this dialog also
allows setting the target directory as the global folder. If
MxViewer is started in a folder without local configuration file
(INI), the configuration will be taken from the global folder.
CAUTION: To be able to store the configuration, a user needs to have Administrator privileges in MxViewer!
In order to store JPEG and MxPEG clip files, simply click on the Export to file button (to the right of the Stop button).
MxViewer with French User Interface
Depending on the current country setting in Windows, MxViewer will be launched with a an English, German or French user interface. For all other country settings, the English user interface will be used.
New camera live window and double-click behavior
The behavior of double-clicking a camera window can be changed on the General options tab: You can either switch between the two image sensors (only for MOBOTIX Dual models) or MxControlCenter can pop up a Live window. A new window with a regular Windows title bar opens, which shows the live stream of the selected camera. This window can be positioned freely anywhere on the desktop.
Exporting an event time range from an external together with MxViewer Program files
When exporting (i.e. storing) a time range of events that has been stored on an external file server, the MxViewer program files will be automatically copied to the target folder. Likewise, a new configuration file (INI) will be created in the target folder, which will be loaded automatically when starting the MxViewer in the target folder, prompting MxControlCenter to play back the stored clips. This makes for easy creation of a CD with MxPEG clips, which can be viewed without having to install MxViewer.
Number of layouts increased to 50
The number of layouts has been increased from 20 to 50.
Currently active layout in the softbutton bar is bold
MxViewer displays the currently active layout in the softbutton bar in bold print.
Zoom factor is stored for every layout
The zoom factor can be set and stored individually for each layout (and not only globally, as was the case before). This means that the mx2 camera window could be 640 pixels wide in Layout1, 1280 pixels in Layout2 and 320 pixels in Layout3.
Scroll bars in MxControlCenter and mouse-over windows
If the camera windows do not fit into MxControlCenter or a mouse-over window, MxControlCenter will display vertical and horizontal scroll bars to see the hidden parts of the camera images.
Added relative time difference to date/time indicator
The large date/time display in the top right corner of MxViewer shows the relative time to the first image when playing back clips of when in Loop mode.
Icon for closing icon alarm windows
The windows that are popping up from the camera icons of a background layout can now be closed using the small X icon in the title bar of these windows.
Layout editor Grid mode: single VGA window definable
In the Grid mode of the Layout editor, an additional grid is available, which consists of one VGA-size window (mx26).
Number of pre- and post-alarm images visible in the Player limited to 10
When playing back events recorded in Snapshot mode, the Player could only show a maximum of 10 pre-alarm and 10 post-alarm images. This number has been increased to 20 pre- and post-alarm images.
Several smaller bugfixes
New Dialog for Extended Event Search
If a File server path has been set for a MOBOTIX camera (either in Options->General or in Options-><camera tab>), MxControlCenter will open the new Event Search search dialog instead of the browser-based event list. This dialog allows searching one (or more) events according to specific criteria and can play back the corresponding video sequences.
In order to find a more concise name for this MOBOTIX client application, MxPEG Viewer has been renamed to MxViewer.
New Launch Dialog for Automatic or Manual Camera Search
If no Start Layout has been set on the current computer, MxViewer will show the new MxViewer Video Sources dialog. This dialog allows automatically searching for MOBOTIX cameras and also manually selecting cameras and stored MxPEG video clips. Moreover, MxViewer can automatically generate a default layout using the defined video sources.
New Dialog Scan Network for MOBOTIX Cameras
MxViewer can now search the networks of this computer for MOBOTIX cameras and will create a list of the discovered cameras. After scanning, you can click on the cameras, check the images in the preview window and edit the list to your liking. Once you have accepted the list, MxViewer can automatically generate a default layout with all highlighted cameras.
This new dialog for opening video sources allows entering IP addresses or DNS names of MOBOTIX cameras and also allows selecting MxPEG video clip files. These video sources are then added to the existing list of video sources of this MxViewer installation. This list can also be filled by adding the path of a file server, which is used by the MOBOTIX cameras as an external ring buffer storage. This dialog also allows starting the automatic scan for MOBOTIX cameras to find new cameras.
"Watchdog" Feature
MxViewer now has an integrated "watchdog" feature, which will restart MxViewer automatically if it has ceased operating for unknown reasons.
Language DLLs
MxViewer is not released in the form of several translated executables any more. MxViewer will now search the application folder for a language DLL that corresponds to the operating system language. If it does not find such a DLL, MxControlCenter launches the English (default) user interface.
Automatically Playing Back Stored Alarms in a Player Window
Each layout can now take one Player window. If such a window has been defined and the user clicks on an event in the alarm list, MxViewer automatically displays the stored alarms of the corresponding camera. All other windows (especially the live windows) will continue operating as before.
Extended Layout Editor
The Layout Editor has been extended by the Camera List, which contains all cameras that are present in one of the layouts. If you would like to update the list, simply open the Open Video Sources dialog and scan the network for new cameras, for example.
Demo Mode for Presentations
If Options->Demo mode has been activated and the user does not move the mouse, MxViewer will move the mouse by itself and will stop at each camera window of the layout. If the Mouse-Over option has been activated, the corresponding image will be enlarged accordingly.
Camera Settings Stored with IP Address and Port
MxViewer now uses the camera's IP address and its port number to store the camera's settings. This approach allows configuring several cameras, which are situated behind a router, and thus have only one IP address as seen from the outside.
Cameras Displayed as Icons
In order to avoid a crowded impression in background mode, you can show individual video sources as icons (right-click->Icon) while MxControlCenter continues to monitor the camera's live stream. If you hold the mouse pointer over such an icon (mouse-over) or an event occurs, MxControlCenter will automatically revert to the previous size.
Name of the Highlighted Camera is Displayed in MxViewer Title Bar
The title bar of MxViewer will now display the name or the IP address of the selected video source (yellow frame) in the layout.
Standard IP Notify Network Message
A new protocol has been established between the cameras and MxViewer: the Standard IP Network message (Standard IPN). The camera only needs to know the IP address of the computer, which is running MxViewer. Upon an event, the camera will send a message to MxViewer, prompting it to acquire the corresponding event image from the camera and to display this image in its alarm list. MxControlCenter does not need to monitor the full live stream to detect events. Additionally, you may prompt the user to acknowledge this alarm within the specified duration. Failing to do so will prompt the camera to send the message to another computer running MxViewer.
Displaying Other Manufacturer's Cameras
The decoder of MxViewer can now display the cameras of other manufacturers. Simply enter the corresponding camera as a video source, e.g. "http://<IP address>/axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cgi".
Saving a Section of a Video as Clip or JPEG Sequence
Live video recordings and clip files defined as video sources do not have to be stored as full video clip or JPEG sequence any more. In Local Recorder mode, the slider's context menu allows setting the start and end points of the video clip. MxControlCenter shows the selected range in gray and will store this section only when clicking on Save to disk->MxPEG Clip or Sequence of JPEGs.
Date/Time of Current Camera Window Displayed in Tool Bar
The date and time of the selected camera (yellow frame) are displayed at the right border of the tool bar, provided that enough space is available (you may have to enlarge the application window's width to see this button). If the video source is a live camera and its time differs by more than ten seconds from the time of the computer, MxControlCenter will show the date/time information in red.
Return to Start Layout
MxViewer can automatically return from any other layout to the Start Layout, if no mouse action has been detected for the specified duration (Options->Return to Start Layout after).
Dynamic Buttons of the Camera Player Mode Directly in the Image
When viewing a camera in Player mode, you may either use the |<, <<, etc. Player buttons from the toolbar to navigate between the stored events or the dynamic mouse buttons that are displayed when moving the mouse over the active zone at the bottom of the image. If the mouse enters the active zone at the bottom of a camera window in Player mode, the Player buttons from the toolbar will be displayed dynamically, depending on the mouse position. Clicking will execute the action of the currently displayed button.
The feature is available for regular camera windows in Layout
mode and in mouse-over windows. Make sure to deactivate the Small
area
option, since the mouse-over window will be closed
before the mouse pointer reaches the active zone at the bottom of
the image otherwise.
Configuration can Only be Changed by MxViewer Administrators
A user logged in as user
of MxViewer cannot save the
configuration when exiting MxControlCenter. Administration users
(admin
) of MxControlCenter will be given a choice where
to save the configuration (locally or globally) when exiting
MxControlCenter.
Selection Dialog for Storing the Configuration for MxViewer Administrators
Administrators can select where to store the configuration—locally (working directory of MxViewer) or globally (if defined and activated).
Improved "Global Folder" Handling
MxControlCenter will not enforce setting a global folder when starting; this folder can be set separately (and activated) later in the Options dialog.
Unless a global folder has been set, MxControlCenter will ask you to do so every time when starting; this dialog may be switched off using the Do not show this message again option at the bottom.
The Options dialog now displays the location of the current configuration at the bottom: Windows registry, local or global folder (folders with path).
File Checks in the Options Dialog
MxControlCenter will test if the files or folders actually exist that have been specified in the corresponding text fields of the Options dialog.
Saving MxPEG Clips From Cameras in Player Mode
It is now possible to save an MxPEG clip file (.mxg
)
of a camera window in Player mode by clicking on the Save to disk
button of MxControlCenter. To be able to do so, the camera has to
run in MxPEG mode.
Irritating Mouse Pointer Icons in Layout Editor Have Been Removed
In Layout Editor mode, the form of the mouse pointer will only be changed to signal states that are specific to the Layout Editor itself.
Same Title Bar in Layout Mode and Mouse-Over Images
The title bars in both image windows now have the same buttons with the same functionality.
Clicking on Title Bar Buttons Will Show an Error if Files are Missing
If an Instruction file or a Reference image are not available or cannot be accessed for any reason, MxControlCenter will issue an error message if an icon on the title bar is clicked (in Layout mode or in the mouse-over image).
Information on Space Requirements When Storing Video Clips or Images
When saving video clips or images, the format selection dialog will display the estimated storage space this will clip or file will require.
Camnotify Will Switch MxControlCenter Even With Deactivated Alarm List
If a camera sends the camnotify command that prompts MxViewer to get the images of one or more cameras and display them in the alarm list, this command will fill the alarm list even though it has been deactivated.
Problems When Accessing Cameras With Guest Access
When accessing cameras (mostly not on the local network) with guest access using slow network connections, MxViewer had problems connecting to the cameras.
Crashes Receiving Many Camnotify Actions
MxViewer crashed when receiving many camnotify remote control commands from cameras.
Preemptive Password Requests
If a user had been using MxViewer in guest mode, and moved the mouse over the title bar of a live stream in Layout mode, the Password dialog popped up.
Saving an Image From the Alarm List
When tying to Save (context menu) an image from the alarm list of the selected camera (yellow frame), MxControlCenter saved the current live image of the selected camera instead.
Error Saving a JPEG Snapshot
When playing back an MxPEG clip stored by a camera, Save to disk->JPEG Snapshot always saved the last image of the clip and not the currently displayed image.
Wrong Tab Order in the Password Dialog
The order of the fields in the Password dialog when pressing the Tab key did not match the logical order.
Help Question Mark (?) Next to About
The question mark ? next to About did not disappear when hiding the controls of MxControlCenter.
Wrong text of the bubble help (tool tip) has been corrected.
Global Configuration (Default Folder)
When closing, MxViewer can store the current configuration
settings and all files specified in the layouts in one Default
Folder. A folder stored in this manner can be set as Global
Default Folder in the Windows Registry. This folder provides the
same settings and Layout definitions to all users running MxViewer
on the same computer. Changed configuration settings of MxViewer can
only be saved in the global default folder if the user has
Admin access rights for MxControlCenter. Depending on where the
MXPEG_Viewer.ini
file is located when starting
MxViewer, the settings will be loaded from the global default
folder or from the current location of MxControlCenter when
starting, or —if this does not exist—from the Windows Registry.
Updated Options Dialog
All Registers of the Options dialog have been completely restructured and updated. Options that have become superfluous have been removed.
Freely Definable Sounds
When MxControlCenter detects camera alarms, missing cameras or
application errors, it can play back specific sound files (*.wav
)
from the computer.
Hiding / Showing Controls
All camera controls of MxViewer are hidden when starting the application for the first time, but can be displayed again using the corresponding option in the context menu or in the Options dialog.
New Softbutton Functions
MxViewer has its own softbutton bar that can be used to switch between the defined layouts. When activating a camera (yellow frame), you can also copy the camera's softbuttons to its own softbutton bar. The context menu also provides an option for hiding the softbutton bar.
New User Access Level
Users may work with MxViewer, but they cannot open the Options dialog and manipulate its options and parameters.
Camera Settings are Stored in the Layout
The settings of all cameras (image resolution, quality, etc.) are stored together with the information of the corresponding layout. If differences are detected, MxViewer offers to reset all cameras to the stored settings of the layout.
Pause Mode When Minimizing MxViewer
MxViewer can be set to pause all defined video streams when minimizing the application. MxViewer automatically resumes showing the streams again once it is brought up again. Pausing will not require starting the live cameras again, which requires at least user-level access rights.
Updated Online Help
Version 1.0 Beta features an updated online help, which currently is not yet context-sensitive.
Offline Mode for Cameras
Activated cameras (yellow frame) can be switched Offline and Online using the Live button to help reduce network load, especially when viewing many cameras at once.
Setting the Camera Default Start Mode
You can set a default start mode for all cameras defined in a layout: Live or Player.
Command For Setting Resolution and Frame Rate for all Cameras
The context menu allows setting the image resolution and image quality with one command for all live cameras displayed by MxControlCenter.
Camera-Specific Instruction File
The camera options allow setting any information file that can be displayed using the buttons of the title bar of the camera windows. This file may display floor plans or information on emergency procedures.
Setting Preferred Layouts for Alarm Cameras
The camera options allow setting a so-called Preferred/alarm layout. The preferred/alarm layout of a camera will be displayed automatically if this camera sends an IP Notify (network) message. It may also be activated manually using the corresponding button in the title bar of the camera window.
Definition of Camera-Specific Reference Images
You may save the current image of the camera as so-called "reference image". Using the corresponding icon on the title bar of the camera window, you may compare the camera image to the stored reference image.
Enhanced Title Bar of the Camera Windows
The title bar of the camera windows contains additional buttons for activating the camera instruction file, to view the stored reference image and to activate the preferred layout for this camera.
Automatic Alarms for Missing Cameras
MxViewer monitors the connection to all displayed live cameras at regular intervals. If the connection to a camera fails, an alarm sound may be played back and an error message is always displayed in the camera image.
Filtering Feature for Alarm List
The Filter button on the Alarm List allows showing only the images of the selected camera (yellow frame). This feature has two different settings:
The filter remains active even if alarms from other cameras are added to the alarm list.
The filter will be deactivated automatically if alarms from other cameras are added to the alarm list.
Alarm Cameras Automatically Activate Preferred Layouts Using Network Messages
If MxViewer receives a network message (IP Notify) from one of the displayed cameras, MxControlCenter will automatically switch to the camera's preferred layout, if a preferred layout has been set. This will happen for the first time a preferred layout is called after starting MxViewer or if the application has been minimized. If MxViewer is not minimized, a preferred layout is active and another network message triggers another preferred layout, MxControlCenter will ask before switching to the new layout.
Alarm Windows in Layouts
Any window in one of the layouts can be set to act as an alarm window. An alarm window will always show the newest alarm image, even if the alarm list is not visible at the moment. The alarm window also allows acknowledging alarms.
Automatic Alarm Acknowledgement
Instead of acknowledging all camera alarms at once, the administrator may now set a time after which all alarms will be acknowledged automatically.
Entering http://...
as IP
Address
The IP Address input field will now also take addresses beginning
with http://...
. Example: http://10.1.10.111
Only First Alarm Shown
Sometimes, only the first alarm of a camera was shown in the alarm list, the following alarms were suppressed.
Events Every Minute When Recording Continuously
MOBOTIX cameras with software version >= 2.2.0.x recording MxPEG streams in continuous mode triggered an alarm every minute, even though the camera did not trigger an alarm.
No Sound When Receiving Camera Network Messages
If a camera was displayed in MxViewer and another camera was sending a network message, this camera's alarm image was stored in the alarm list, but MxControlCenter did not play a sound.
Added the Layout Editor, which allows defining MultiView layouts with numerous possibilities for arranging the camera images.
Added Background Images, which allows to easily set up building plans or the like with the camera images.
Storing a snapshot image of the selected camera (yellow frame) in the alarm list is now possible using the corresponding button.
Added the Remote Control tab for actions of MxViewer that are triggered by cameras sending specific network commands.
Alarms in the alarm list can be acknowledged by clicking on the corresponding alarm.
Number of individual layouts increased from four to ten.
MxControlCenter can now save encrypted passwords.
Double-clicking a camera in the live image will now switch from one lens to the other, if possible.
The last events in a mouse-over image can be displayed by clicking again into the mouse-over image and moving the mouse over the title bar of the image.
Stored events can be displayed not only from the camera, but also from the file server, if it has been specified.