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What’s new in Security Center

Published Date

Enhanced Body Wearable Camera Support, New System Health Monitoring Tool, and More Added to the Latest Security Center Release!

After a successful limited availability period, and early preview at ISC West 2015, Security Center 5.3 was released for general availability in May. The launch included a breadth of new enhancements to the platform across all core modules, including new video management, access control, and automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) features.

If you haven't had a chance to see the Security Center 5.3 release, these resources provide an overview of new features:

This blog provides a summary of the some of the must-see features available in the Security Center 5.3 SR1 release. Alongside new device integrations (over 100 models from 19 manufacturers) and integration enhancements, Security Center 5.3 SR1 offers new functionality to address body-worn cameras and transit applications. Find out more about the new Video Import Tool, the System Availability Monitor, and the Network Usage and Priority Settings features below!

1.       Import Recordings from Body Wearable Cameras and Other Video Devices

The Video Import Tool is a new feature that allows users to ingest offline video recordings from devices outside of their traditional IP video surveillance system, and index them natively within Security Center. As more and more law enforcement and security departments must manage video captured by smartphones and body wearable cameras when conducting investigations, this new tool allows them to unify archives from disparate systems within Security Center, rather than maintaining separate applications and databases to review video. For existing Security Center users, this allows them to share a common infrastructure to manage all their video, and manage user access from a single system.

The tool has been designed to import video in MP4, MOV, and AVI formats, and it provides the flexibility to work with a wide range of devices. Genetec has currently validated support for video recorded on a number of body wearable cameras (B-CAM, GoPro, Vievue, and Zepcam) and mobile devices (iPad and iPhone). The current list of validated devices can be found on the Genetec Supported Device List (use the "Offline Device" filter, within the "Device Type" category).

Genetec Supported Device List: Offline Device List

Create & Share Incident Clips

With recordings from both traditional IP and body wearable cameras available in Security Center, operators can create incident reports that include video captured from all devices in their system, and add further case details, such as notes, incident/case numbers, suspect information, and more. Incident reports are saved within Security Center and can be shared with other operators, while incident recordings can be exported as a consolidated video clip, allowing investigators to review evidence using the Genetec Video Player.

Creating an Incident Report

Protect Video Archives in the Cloud

In situations where evidence must be retained over long periods, Genetec's Cloud Archives service can be used to seamlessly transfer video archives of interest to the cloud. Rather than maintaining offline copies of evidence on DVDs, video stored using Cloud Archives can rapidly be retrieved by Security Center operators whenever additional review is required. Furthermore, the service ensures that video is stored redundantly, at an off-site location, providing greater protection of critical incidents.

2.       Remotely Monitor Your Security Center System Health

Genetec Channel Partners can now remotely monitor the health of Security Center systems under their care using Genetec's new System Availability Monitor. Available to all customers with an active Genetec Software Maintenance Agreement and Security Center 5.2 systems (SR10 CU2 and above), the tool provides a global view of system role and unit status information, offerings technicians increased visibility of health issues requiring their attention.

As a web-based system, the System Availability Monitor can be accessed via the Genetec Technical Assistance Portal (GTAP), making it easy to centrally track health metrics and events of multiple systems.

Health Monitor

3.       Easily Configure Network Usage and Priority Settings

Added in Security Center 5.3, the Archive Transfer feature, allows organizations to transfer video from an Archiver to another within their system or through Federation. Although the feature was designed to address a number of use cases, a key consideration was to enable transit customers to offload archives recorded on-board buses or trains to fixed storage equipment located at wayside stations or vehicle depots.

The new Network Usage and Priority Settings option adds further flexibility to this feature by allowing organizations to prioritize what network is used when offloading video, as well as restrict video streaming on specified networks to dedicate their use to other essential applications. In a transit system, customers can thus confine video transfers to when a wireless connection is available, ensuring a cellular network is only used to stream live video in case of an emergency, and for other critical operations.

Define Network Usage and Priority for Live, Playback, and Video Transfer

Quick Overview - Video Unit Integration Enhancements

In total, Security Center 5.3 SR1 adds support for 135 video devices from 19 different manufacturers. Below is a quick overview of some of the significant integration enhancements we've added in the release.

Axis Enhancements

  • Added support for Axis Zipstream
  • Added the ability to configure Axis Camera Application Platform (ACAP) events directly from Security Center

Bosch Enhancements

  • Support for Bosch 360 camera-side dewarping

Panasonic Enhancements

  • Support for Panasonic 360ⷪ camera-side dewarping
  • Samsung Enhancements
  • Security Center now supports Line Cross and Object Detection on compatible Samsung devices (in addition to Audio and Face Detection, which were previously supported)
  • Edge Recording is now supported on compatible Samsung cameras
  • It is now possible to configure motion detection for Samsung cameras directly from Security Center

 For any questions related to the above topics, please ask within the comments section!