Equipments - Control Room Software
 

Control Room Software
20.040.1670

The major part of the surveillance system forms the main control centre. Here all available information of the surveillance sensors are collected, processed, analysed and stored. The main goal is a reliable fully automated alarming system. The PSS-20-04 system is designed to meet this challenge especially when different kind of photonic sensors are used. To process the variety of surveillance sensors like cameras, Laser light barrier and IR motion sensors a sophisticated combination of hard- and software is required. The Synoptical Panel SynOP-20-04 provides all these means for a fully automated visual control of each corner of an area under surveillance. The SynOP-20-04 consists of two major parts:
 

Synoptical Control
The visible part of the Synoptical Control is a map of the area under surveillance. In this map all kind of sensors are shown. Via an alarming bus all sensors except the cameras are connected to the microprocessor based Alarming Unit. This unit sequentially polls the surveillance sensors. In the case of an alarm the map is zoomed to the specific location of the sensor causing the alarm. Furthermore, the video control is instructed to show the image of the camera which is located closest to the sensor.
Visual tools are provided to locate the individual sensor as well as camera with respect to their actual position within the area on the map. Furthermore each sensor is provided with a unique identifier.

Video Control
The Video Control section of the SynOP-20-04 is responsible for the camera section. The cameras are connected to the video boards which are initialised and controlled by the video control software module. The image processing software module sequentially collects the camera images and performs motion detection for each image. Hereby it compares the actual with a reference image. In the case of a significant difference of both images an alarm is generated and passed to the Synoptical Control. The map is zoomed to the particular camera and the Video Control switches the display to full screen mode. Furthermore, the recording of the camera pictures starts unless stopped by the user.|
 

Video Control Panel



The visible part of the Video Control Module is the Video Control Panel which is displayed by means of a high resolution monitor (1600 x 1200). The individual images can either be displayed in a split mode as shown above or in full screen mode as shown on the next page.
In automatic mode the sequencer of the Video Processing Software Module switches from one to the next camera. In case of an alarm the rich variety of system settings as well as viewing modes is reduced for the user in order to concentrate and process the alarm.
The alarm can be issued either silently, by a siren or in spoken text.
Simultaneously with the detection of an alarm the pictures of the camera are stored in a specific file for later analysis and verification. Furthermore, the alarm event is logged in a diary database.
By the acknowledging of the alarm by the user, the audible output is terminated; however all other means are continued unless the user clears the alarm.
During the set-up of the system a variety of parameters need to be defined for proper operation of the entire system. For this task the Video Control Panel is provided with the appropriate menus as well as pre-emptive task bars.
 

Surveillance Control Panel, Full Screen View

The appearance of the task bar depends on the selected main items. The most frequently used standard Task Bar 1 provides buttons to select the specific board and individual camera. In the split screen mode the active camera is highlighted by a red frame.
If a camera is provided with a pan and tilt head as well as a motorized zoom the control buttons are enabled. By clicking the appropriate button the position or the zoom and focus can be controlled.
Acknowledge and clearing an alarm is done by clicking the particular buttons.
For ease of access the buttons for setting parameters, viewing the video archive, setting of motion detection parameters, audio properties as well as viewing the system parameters and resources are provided.

The synoptical panel software module provides the overview of the area under surveillance as well as of the installed security barriers or detectors as icons. The map can be either an aerial photo or a drawn picture converted to a bitmap file. During or after the set-up of the SynOP-20-04 software the background can be loaded. The map is divided into 16 sections, also defined as detailed maps. Each of the 16 maps needs to be provided as bitmap file and is loaded as shown on the picture on the right. Once the detailed maps are present, the security sensors are positioned by means of visual software tools to their actual places with respect to the area under surveillance as shown on the picture above. In this example a Laser Light Barrier protects the perimeter of a complex and a camera on top of a building controls the backyard. Each unit in the field is provided with a unique address which must be assigned to the respective icon or symbol within the map. In case of an alarm the synoptical panel switches to the detailed map showing the sensor or Laser line blinking which caused the alarm. Although the synoptical software module is a mighty tool, the configuration is done very easily due to the provision of well structured menus and visual tools. Users are able to select, add or delete items by clicking the respective button and position the desired item inside the detailed map.