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AXIS 242S IV Video Server

User’s Manual

Summary of Contents for 242

Page 1: ...AXIS 242S IV Video Server User s Manual ...

Page 2: ...nt Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause interference in which case the user at his her own expense will be required to take whatever measures may be required to correct the interference Europe This digital equipment fulfills the requirements for radiated emission according to limit B of EN55022 1998 and the requirements for immunity according to EN55024 1998 residen...

Page 3: ... Media Control AMC 12 How to stream MPEG 4 13 Other methods of accessing the video stream 13 Configuring the video server 15 Accessing the Setup tools 15 Video image settings 16 Image settings 16 Video source settings 17 Overlay Mask settings 18 Advanced MPEG 4 settings 20 Live View Config 21 Layout 21 HTML Examples 24 External Video 24 Sequence Mode 25 Intelligent Video 26 Module upload 26 Runnin...

Page 4: ...ntenance 46 Support 47 Advanced 47 Resetting to the factory default settings 48 Unit connectors 49 The D Sub connector 49 The I O terminal connector 50 Schematic diagram I O terminal connector 51 COM ports RS 232 and RS 485 51 The S Video connector 51 Troubleshooting 52 Checking the firmware 52 Upgrading the firmware 52 Support 53 Technical specifications 57 General performance considerations 60 O...

Page 5: ...multaneous viewers can be increased by using multicast MPEG 4 When using AXIS Media Control AMC to view MPEG 4 video streams each MPEG 4 viewer requires a separate MPEG 4 decoder license One licence is included and further licenses can be purchased separately from your Axis dealer If using other clients to view the MPEG 4 video stream no further MPEG 4 decoder licenses are required Video can be vi...

Page 6: ...have a recommended maximum length of 800 feet 250 meters S Video Y C input For direct connection of a Y C video source Video Output Video for debugging purposes is available on this output when the Digital Signal Processor DSP is running an Intelligent Video module Control Button Press this button to restore the factory default settings as described in Resetting to the factory default settings on ...

Page 7: ...4 digital inputs and an RS 485 interface See Unit connectors on page 49 for more information Note The I O terminal connector also provides an auxiliary connection point for DC power Network connector The AXIS 242S IV connects to the network via a standard network cable and automatically detects the speed of the local network segment 10BaseT 100BaseTX Ethernet RS 232 connector A 9 pin D SUB connect...

Page 8: ...ion Can be configured to flash green at intervals whenever the unit is accessed See the online help for more information Amber Steady during startup reset to factory default or when restoring settings Red Slow flash for failed firmware upgrade Green Normal operation Amber Flashes green amber during firmware upgrade Unlit No IV module loaded Amber Steady for no IV module Flashes during IV module up...

Page 9: ...ame and password set by the administrator 4 A video image is displayed in your browser Notes To view streaming video in Microsoft Internet Explorer you must set your web browser to allow the AXIS Media Control AMC to be installed on your computer AMC provides an MPEG 4 decoder for viewing MPEG 4 video streams This decoder is installed the first time an MPEG 4 video stream is accessed Please note t...

Page 10: ...uttons control an output directly from the Live View page These buttons are configured under Setup Live View Config Layout The IV buttons are used to configure and view the status for the currently running IV module These buttons start stop the Sequence Mode This mode is created in Setup Live View Config Sequence mode and automatically displays the view from 2 or more video sources at set interval...

Page 11: ...napshot button saves a snapshot of the video image currently being displayed The Snapshot function and the target directory for saving snapshots can be configured from the AMC Control Applet which can be opened from the Windows Control Panel or by right clicking the image in Internet Explorer Click the View Full Screen button and the video image will fill the entire screen area No other windows wi...

Page 12: ...t image settings MPEG 4 This is a video compression standard that makes good use of bandwidth and which can provide high quality video streams at less than 1 Mbit s The MPEG 4 standard provides scope for a large range of different coding tools for use by various applications in different situations and the AXIS 242S IV provides certain subsets of these tools These are represented as Video object t...

Page 13: ... TCP The advantage of UDP is that it is not required to deliver all data and may drop network packets when there is e g network congestion This is suitable for live video as there is no point in re transmitting old information that will not be displayed anyway Unicasting is communication between a single sender and a single receiver over a network This means that the video stream goes independentl...

Page 14: ...equests the stream However if more and more unicast clients connect the server will at some point become overloaded There is also a maximum of 20 simultaneous viewers to be considered RTP RTSP This unicast method is RTP tunneled over RTSP This can be used to exploit the fact that it is relatively simple to configure firewalls to allow RTSP traffic RTP RTSP HTTP or RTP RTSP HTTPS These two methods ...

Page 15: ...l cases For some other clients e g QuickTime the Video Object Type must be set to Simple It may also be necessary to adjust the advanced MPEG 4 settings To access the video stream from e g QuickTime the following path can be used rtsp ip mpeg4 media amp This path is for all supported methods and the client will negotiate with the AXIS 242S IV to determine exactly which transport protocol to use No...

Page 16: ... Config Event PTZ and IV The AXIS 242S IV is configured from the Setup link in a standard web browser For more information on supported browsers see the Technical specifications on page 57 Accessing the Setup tools Follow the instructions below to access the Setup Tools from a web browser 1 Start the browser and enter the IP address or host name of the AXIS 242S IV in the location address field 2 ...

Page 17: ...Image Appearance to optimize the video images according to your requirements All configuration of images and overlays will affect the performance of the video server depending on the usage and the available bandwidth High resolution generates larger files Lower compression improves image quality but generates larger files Black White uses less bandwidth than Color Rotating the image 90 or 270 degr...

Page 18: ...hat the maximum video stream time does not apply to clients connecting via multicast To avoid bandwidth problems on the network the frame rate allowed to each viewer can also be limited Select either Unlimited or define a maximum frame rate per viewer Test For a preview of the image and overlay settings before saving click Test When you are satisfied with the settings click Save Video source setti...

Page 19: ... selected type See the online help for further information Note A privacy mask cannot be bypassed but an overlay image can be bypassed with the help of the AXIS VAPIX API Upload and use an overlay image 1 Select Uploaded image as overlay in the drop down list for Overlay Mask Type New options appear 2 In the field Upload own image click the Browse button and locate the image file on your computer ...

Page 20: ... Enter the x y coordinates of the top left hand corner of the mask and the height and width to define the masks placement and size 3 Select the privacy masks color black grey white or red 4 Click in the box beside Enable to enable one or more of the masks you have defined and click on Save Advanced MPEG 4 settings Tools for adjusting the MPEG 4 settings and for controlling the video bit rate The M...

Page 21: ...m settings modify the default page with your own col ors images etc Click the Config ure button and see the following page Own Home Page Upload and use your own custom made page as the default web page Click the Configure button and see the following page The other settings on this page concern which other features to include on the Live View page e g buttons and links See page 22 for more informa...

Page 22: ...the user level for the uploaded file Setting the user access level means that you have complete control over which pages can be viewed by which users 3 When the path is shown correctly in the text field click the Upload button Uploaded files are now shown in the list in the lower section of the page 4 To use your uploaded file click the radio button and select the file from the drop down list by O...

Page 23: ...is web site www axis com developer See also the section on PTZ on page 33 Action Buttons These buttons can be used to manually start and stop an event from the Live View page See Event configuration on page 28 The snapshot button allows you to take a snapshot of the video stream and save it to a computer Output Buttons These buttons are used to control the outputs on the AXIS 242S IV and thus the ...

Page 24: ...age Select the preferred Video Format from the drop down list The available options are Motion JPEG MPEG 4 using AMC and MPEG 4 using QuickTime If MPEG 4 using AMC is set as the video format note that a separate MPEG 4 license is required for each viewer The Motion JPEG selection has additional settings for Image Type Image size and other optional settings for configuring the video stream to suit ...

Page 25: ...sources in order or randomly PTZ preset positions can also be included Select the desired video sources and enter the time in seconds to display each source up to 59 minutes Click Save The Sequence buttons will appear on the Live View page to allow the viewer to start and stop the sequence mode Please see the online help for more information ...

Page 26: ...2S IV For more information on how to configure individual IV modules see the documentation supplied with the module or see the video server s online help Module upload To use an IV application in the AXIS 242S IV the IV module must first be uploaded If your video server was supplied with an IV module preloaded this section can be skipped To upload a new IV module enter the file name and path to it...

Page 27: ...vailable settings Status opens a new window showing statistics results or other information depending on the IV module Module list The IV module list shows the currently uploaded IV modules The maximum number that can reside in the AXIS 242S IV at any one time is only limited by the amount of flash memory available To start an IV module from this list select it and click the Start button This will...

Page 28: ...fer to the online help available from each web page Note The images in pre trigger and post trigger buffers will be lost if the connection to the event server fails When the setup is complete the connection can be tested by clicking the Test button the test takes approximately 10 seconds Event type Triggered Event see page 29 Scheduled Event see page 30 Action Server type Purpose Information requi...

Page 29: ... restart reboot after e g power loss a trigger from the currently running IV module How to set up a triggered event This example describes how to set the AXIS 242S IV to upload images when the main door is opened 1 Click Add triggered on the Event types page 2 Enter a descriptive name for the event e g Main door 3 Set the priority High Normal or Low see online help files 4 Select the Video Source ...

Page 30: ...ile Continue image upload unbuffered enable the upload of images for a fixed length of time Specify the length of time for the uploaded recording in seconds minutes or hours or for as long as the trigger is active Finally set the desired image frequency to the maximum the maximum possible or to a specified frame rate The frame rate will be the best possible but might not be as high as specified es...

Page 31: ... How to set up a triggered event above Note Using the motion detection feature may decrease overall performance in the video server How to configure Motion Detection This example describes how to configure motion detection 1 Click Motion Detection in the Event Configuration menu 2 Click the Configure Included Windows radio button 3 Click New 4 Enter a descriptive name of your choice under Windows ...

Page 32: ... by selecting a high size level To trigger motion detection as long as there is activity in the area select a high history level To only detect flashing light low sensitivity can be selected In other cases a high sensitivity level is recommended Port status Under Event Configuration Port Status there is a list that shows the status for the connected inputs and outputs of the AXIS 242S IV This is f...

Page 33: ...1 for more information 2 In the setup tools go to Setup System Options Ports Devices and then select either port RS 232 or RS 485 to configure See the figure below 3 Select Pan Tilt Zoom from the Usage drop down list 4 Click Upload to install a PTZ driver PTZ drivers are available from the Axis Web site at www axis com 5 Click Port Options to modify the port settings The default values correspond ...

Page 34: ...than can be used to quickly move the camera to a specific location From Preset Position Setup use the Pan Tilt and Zoom PTZ controls to steer the camera to the required position When satisfied with the camera s position enter a descriptive name The camera position iris and focus settings are then saved as a preset position The position can be assumed at any time by selecting the preset s name from...

Page 35: ...the camera to the right and left the Tilt bar tips the camera up and down the Zoom bar zooms the view in and out Note that this is only available if the camera is fitted with a zoom lens the Iris bar adjusts the brightness of the image Clicking on the bars themselves or on the arrows at the end of the bars will move the camera to a new position The type of movement and the location of this new pos...

Page 36: ...ing in the image the camera view will center on the absolute position that was clicked Joystick mode moves the camera in the direction of the mouse pointer By clicking and holding the mouse button down in the image the PTZ device moves the camera in that direction relative to the center of the image The further from the center the image is clicked the greater the movement The camera stops moving w...

Page 37: ...g after the user has logged off or closed the browser Advanced Device Settings The device settings window is for driver specific settings so the appearance of this window can vary depending on the driver installed Options that can be configured include Driver Specific Settings for Video Source 1 Mechanical Limits for Moving Video Source 1 Light Control for Video Source 1 and Extended Driver Specif...

Page 38: ...window to enable and disable PTZ queueing This window allows you to set up a queue for viewers wanting to access the AXIS 242S IV and limits the number of viewers and the length of time each viewer can access and control the PTZ unit For more information on how to set up the control queue please see the online help Note also that a viewer who belongs to a group see Security on page 40 with a highe...

Page 39: ... be placed first in the queue except when an administrator is in control For more information see Triggered Event on page 29 3 Operator Same as administrator but with lower priority 4 Guard Tour A guard tour has PTZ control for an indefinite period of time It may be overridden by Operator Event or administrator Guard Tour will resume when higher priority groups leave the queue For more information...

Page 40: ...he Live View page if Pan Tilt Zoom is available IP address filtering Checking the Enable IP address filtering box enables the IP address filtering function Up to 256 IP address entries may be specified a single entry can contain multiple IP addresses Click the Add button to add new filtered addresses When the IP address filter is enabled addresses added to the list are set as allowed or denied add...

Page 41: ...e level of security as an official certificate An official certificate issued by a CA Certificate Authority A CA issues and manages security credentials and public keys for message encryption 1 Click either Create self signed certificate or Create Certificate Request and enter the required information in the provided fields 2 Click OK 3 Create self signed certificate generates and installs a certi...

Page 42: ...use a fixed IP address you must also enter the correct subnet mask and default router Notes DHCP is a protocol for automatic IP address assignment on a network IP address assignment via DHCP may lead to the situation where the IP address changes and you lose contact Configure the options for notification of IP address change under Services to receive notification from the video server when the IP ...

Page 43: ... servers enter the IP addresses of the primary and secondary DNS servers NTP Obtain NTP server address via DHCP use a DHCP server to automatically find an NTP server to synchronize clock of the AXIS 242S IV with the other devices on the network Use the following NTP server address use the host name or IP address of a specific NTP server for time synchronization Host name configuration The AXIS 242...

Page 44: ...is Unlimited Note When using MPEG 4 as the video format remember that setting a maximum bandwidth value here may create problems for individual video streams if the maximum value is less than the sum of the bit rates set for the video streams For more information please see the online help SOCKS SOCKS is a networking proxy protocol The AXIS 242S IV can be configured to use a SOCKS server to reach ...

Page 45: ...server includes support for UPnP in Windows ME and Windows XP UPnP is enabled by default Note UPnP must be installed on your workstation if running Windows XP To do this open the Control Panel from the Start Menu and select Add Remove Programs Select Add Remove Windows Components and open the Networking Services section Click Details and then select UPnP as the service to add RTP Multicast MPEG 4 ...

Page 46: ... Server See Upgrading the firmware on page 52 Backup To take a backup of all of the parameters and any user defined scripts click this button If necessary it is then possible to return to a previous configuration if set tings are changed and there is unexpected behavior Restore click the Browse button to locate the saved backup file see above and then click the Restore button The settings will be ...

Page 47: ...he destination email address Advanced Scripting is an advanced function that provides the possibility to customize and use scripts This function is a very powerful tool Caution Improper use may cause unexpected behavior or even cause loss of contact with the unit If a script does cause problems reset the unit to its factory default settings A backup file may be of use to return the unit to its lat...

Page 48: ...tings Control Button Status Indicator Using the Control Button Follow the instructions below to reset the AXIS 242S IV to the factory default settings using the Control Button 1 Switch off the AXIS 242S IV by disconnecting power 2 Press and hold the Control Button while reconnecting power 3 Keep the Control button pressed until the Status Indicator displays yellow this may take up to 15 seconds 4 ...

Page 49: ...e S Video connector on page 51 The D Sub connector The AXIS 242S IV provides one 9 pin D Sub connector providing the physical interface for an RS 232 port used for connecting accessory equipment such as standalone PTZ devices for the remote control of connected video cameras Pin assignment table and pinout of the RS 232 connector Pin Function 1 CD 2 RXD 3 TXD 4 DTR 5 GND 6 DSR 7 RTS 8 CTS 9 RI 5 4...

Page 50: ...use 2 Push the cable into the connector block and secure it by fastening the screw 3 Once all devices are connected connect the connector block to the video server s terminal connector Pin Function Description 1 Auxiliary DC Power Input 7 20 VDC min 8W Electrically connected in parallel with the power connector this provides an auxiliary connection for mains power to the unit If the product is pow...

Page 51: ...ceive status data and send com mands via TCP IP Generic HTTP enables the video server to receive status data and send com mands via HTTP Pan Tilt Zoom PTZ for controlling a PTZ device A PTZ device requires a driver for its function Drivers can be obtained from www axis com Please see page 33 for information on how to connect PTZ devices The S Video connector This connector can be used to connect Y...

Page 52: ...work Note Pre configured and customized settings will be retained for use when the new firmware is running pro vided the features are available in the new firmware although this is not guaranteed by Axis Communica tions 1 Save the firmware file to your computer The latest version of the AXIS 242S IV firmware is available free of charge from the Axis Web site at www axis com techsup or from your lo...

Page 53: ...hat appears use the Browse button to select the upgrade file to use e g axis242SIV bin Then click the Load button to restart the upgrade process 4 After the upgrade has completed 1 10 minutes the unit will automatically restart and show a steady green on the Power and Status LEDs and flashing green or amber on the Network LED 5 Reinstall the AXIS 242S IV If the emergency recovery procedure does no...

Page 54: ...he unit and disable BOOTP and DHCP in the TCP IP settings Return the unit to the main network The unit now has a fixed IP address that will not change 3 As an alternative to 2 if dynamic IP address via DHCP or BOOTP is required select the required service and then configure IP address change notification from the network settings Return the unit to the main network The unit will now have a dynamic...

Page 55: ...ncorrectly configured on your workstation In Display Properties configure your display to show at least 65000 colors i e at least 16 bit Using only 16 or 256 colors on your display will produce dithering artifacts in the image Incorrect exposure in images Incorrect line termination If the AXIS 242S IV is to be connected in loop through with other equipment disable the input termination by turning ...

Page 56: ...lays are blurred or if there are other rendering problems you may need to enable Advanced Video Rendering This is done on the MPEG 4 tab in the AMC control panel applet Ensure that your graphics card is using the latest device driver The latest drivers can usually be downloaded from the manufacturer s web site Color saturation is different in MPEG 4 and Motion JPEG Modify the settings for your gra...

Page 57: ...orrection Color and black white Overlays time date text image Security Multiple user levels with password protection IP address filtering HTTPS encryption Users 20 simultaneous viewers for Motion JPEG and or unicast MPEG 4 More than 20 viewers possible when using MPEG 4 multicast Alarm and event management Events triggered by built in multi window motion detection external inputs or according to s...

Page 58: ...deo stream Embedded scripting Access to serial port peripherals via HTTP TCP Embedded operating system Linux 2 4 Minimum web browsing requirements Pentium III 500 MHz or higher or equivalent AMD 128 MB RAM AGP graphics card DirectDraw 32 MB video RAM Windows XP Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 DirectX 9 0 or later Internet Explorer I E 6 x or later For other operating systems and web browsers s...

Page 59: ...tware required for Microsoft Internet Explorer installed automatically on first use Optional AXIS IP Utility Windows application for small installations Optional AXIS Camera Management Windows application for large installations MPEG 4 licensing License for one MPEG 4 encoder and one MPEG 4 decoder included Additional licenses available from Axis dealers Item Specification ...

Page 60: ...cted Accessing both Motion JPEG and MPEG 4 video streams simultaneously Frame rate and bandwidth affected Heavy usage of event settings affects the CPU load Frame rate affected Enabled motion detection Frame rate and bandwidth affected Heavy network utilization due to poor infrastructure Bandwidth affected Viewing on poorly performing client PC lowers perceived performance Frame rate affected Acce...

Page 61: ...ion JPEG streams from the AXIS 242S IV using a compression level of 50 Note that these values are guidelines only actual values may vary Frame rates MPEG 4 The following test results show the frame rates in frames second fps for MPEG 4 streams from the AXIS 242S IV Note that these values are guidelines only actual values may vary The MPEG 4 test conditions Compression level 50 Video Object Type Ad...

Page 62: ...e video server There are also factors in the monitored scene that will affect the bandwidth These are the amount of motion the image s complexity the lighting conditions For MPEG 4 if there is only limited bandwidth available and if this is more important than the image quality using a constant bit rate CBR is recommended Use a variable bit rate VBR if the image quality needs to be maintained at a...

Page 63: ...specific application as opposed to a general purpose circuit such as a microprocessor Aspect ratio A ratio of width to height in images A common aspect ratio used for television screens and computer monitors is 4 3 High definition television HDTV uses an aspect ratio of 9 16 Autoiris DC Iris This special type of iris is electrically controlled by the camera to automatically regulate the amount of ...

Page 64: ... codec is usually a coder decoder Codecs are used in integrated circuits or chips that convert e g analog video and audio signals into a digital format for transmission The codec also converts received digital signals back into analog format A codec uses analog to digital conversion and digital to analog conversion in the same chip Codec can also mean compression decompression in which case it is ...

Page 65: ...exchange files between computers devices on networks Frame A frame is a complete video image In the 2 1 interlaced scanning format of the RS 170 and CCIR formats a frame is made up of two separate fields of 262 5 or 312 5 lines interlaced at 60 or 50 Hz to form a complete frame which appears at 30 or 25 Hz In video cameras with a progressive scan each frame is scanned line by line and not interlac...

Page 66: ...he sender s address and the receiver s address The Internet Protocol ensures that the data packets all arrive at the intended address As IP is a connectionless protocol which means that there is no established connection between the communication end points packets can be sent via different routes and do not need to arrive at the destination in the correct order Once the data packets have arrived ...

Page 67: ... an evolving series each designed for a different purpose MPEG 2 The designation for a group of audio and video coding standards and is typically used to encode audio and video for broadcast signals including digital satellite and Cable TV MPEG 2 with some modifications is also the coding format used by standard commercial DVD movies MPEG 4 MPEG 4 is a group of audio and video coding standards and...

Page 68: ...before and after an alarm These images are stored in a buffer for later retrieval Progressive scan Progressive scan as opposed to interlaced video scans the entire picture line by line every sixteenth of a second In other words captured images are not split into separate fields as in interlaced scanning Computer monitors do not need interlace to show the picture on the screen but instead show them...

Page 69: ...twork video s advanced functionality makes it highly suited to the applications involved in security surveillance The flexibility of digital technology enhances security personnel s ability to protect people property and assets Such systems are therefore an especially attractive option for companies currently using CCTV Server In general a server is a computer program tha provides services to othe...

Page 70: ...n analog video UDP User Datagram Protocol UDP is a communications protocol that offers limited service for exchanging data in a network that uses the Internet Protocol IP UDP is an alternative to the Transmission Control Protocol TCP The advantage of UDP is that it is not required to deliver all data and may drop network packets when there is e g network congestion This is suitable for live video ...

Page 71: ... its operation See also Network camera Web server A program that allows web browsers to retrieve files from computers connected to the Internet The Web server listens for requests from browsers and upon receiving a request for a file sends it back to the browser The primary function of a Web server is to serve pages to other remote computers WEP Wireless Equivalent Privacy A wireless security prot...

Page 72: ...0 Default video format 23 Default Viewer 23 Digital input 50 DIP switch 7 DNS configuration 43 E Email server 44 Emergency recovery 53 Event servers 28 Event types 28 External video 24 F Factory default settings 48 Frame rates 17 61 FTP server 28 G Generic HTTP 51 Generic TCP IP 51 H Host name 43 HTML examples 24 HTTP API 36 HTTP API requests 23 HTTP port number 43 44 HTTP server 28 HTTPS 41 I I O...

Page 73: ... Q Quad stream 21 R Recovery 53 Referrals 40 Relative and absolute PTZ drivers 35 Restart 46 Restore 46 RS 232 connector 7 RS 485 50 RTP 12 45 RTSP 12 44 S Scheduled event 28 Security 40 Sequence mode 9 25 Services 42 SMTP settings 44 Snapshot 10 SOCKS server 44 Specifications 57 Streaming MPEG 4 13 Support 47 System options 40 T TCP server 28 TCP IP settings 42 Transistor output 50 Trigger button...

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Axis 242, User Manual

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