Actions

You create set of actions that will take place when an event happens. For example, a new Action name is created called “Action - High Response" may include actions such as cameras to start recording, emails to be sent to specific people, a sound to be played, or even a PTZ camera to zoom on the event in question.

Action Sets

Process

1.      Edit or create a New Action Set and the following options appear: Properties, Alarm, and Record.

2.      In the left sidebar, select an option from the drop-down list and click Add. Use the following information to determine which actions Symphony should take when an alarm is raised.

Properties

Name of the rule.

Alarm

When an alarm is raised, it is reflected in the Timeline and in the Alarm Log.

View other cameras on alarm - Your cameras may give you various angles/views of a location. If an access alarm is raised, for instance, you may want a live view suddenly from a few cameras near that access point. Here, you select the cameras that would display video to you in case of an alarm. The result is a Video Panel automatically switches to a specific camera when an event occurs.

Record

Ensures that video is recorded from the camera, even if the default setting for the camera is No Recording as defined in the Device setup.

Start recording on other cameras - Required in cases an alarm I/O has been selected as the event. You select the camera that will be associated with this alarm for the purposes of adding the event to the camera's Timeline.

Email

You can configure Symphony to automatically send email messages whenever an alarm occurs.

•       You may specify multiple recipients.

•       Each recipient will receive an email with a picture attached of the event which caused the alarm.

•       The email will include a hyperlink to the Aimetis Symphony Web Access application that will navigate to the alarm in question.

•       The email will also include a hyperlink to the alarm's actual jpg file on the server.

FTP

You can specify Symphony to automatically send a jpg from multiple cameras to a FTP site after a Rule is broken.

The filename can be automatically generated based on the date, time, and Rule and camera information using the following symbols.

Example of filename pattern: %d 2004_06_30.jpg

Instructions (for user when alarm raised)

You can attach specific instructions to a Rule. This tells a monitoring agent or operator what to do in case of alarm. When an alarm occurs, the instructions appear in the Alarm Log of the Main Console.

OPC

Symphony can interact with OPC servers on alarm.

Relays

Use this to automatically send an electrical signal to an external device whenever an alarm occurs. This is useful in the case where you set up a Rule that detects a car has been stolen and you want Symphony to automatically close a gate or turn on a light.

Symphony has been designed to work with alarm relays (such as the QK108) to connect via the serial port of the Symphony Server.

Select a device to use from the list of hardware devices:

•       Turn Relay On/Off options allow you to set if the relay should be turned on or off.

•       Toggle Relay option allows you to set if the relay should be toggled (like an on/off switch).

•       Relay # field allows you to define which address of the relay board to control.

•       Restore state after/after motion ends check box allows you to specify how long the relay should be in its current state before being reset.

Rule

After an alarm occurs, other rules can be automatically enabled or disabled, if desired.

Run Program

This action allows Symphony to execute a 3rd party program.

Working Directory must contain the path to the program\bat file.

•       For example: C:\Program Files\Aimetis\Symphony\_bin

Executable Name must contain the path and program of cmd (for bat files at least).

•       For example: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe

Arguments must contain the batch file name and the "/C" parameter.

•       For example: /C RecordToggle.bat

SMS

Symphony can send messages via SMS as a result of the alarm by configuring the COM Port, Baud Rate and adding a Phone Number as required. The modem must support PDU mode.

TCP

Provides a generic way to communicate with any access control system or other device. Symphony opens a TCP socket to an IP address and port, and sends the specified ASCII message.

Example message for Messages field using ASCII message parameters:

•       Alarm occurred at %MM/%DD/%YYYY

Zoom

Allows you to specify actions for a dome (PTZ) camera after the current Rule Trigger is detected.

Auto-tracking check box - Camera will leave its Home Position and automatically zoom and track the object.

Force a PTZ camera to a location check box - You must specify a pre-programmed position for the camera to move to. This is useful if you want to create an alarm Rule where the trigger is a Hardware Alarm input (I/O device selected from the list of devices on the Alarm tab). For example, if a motion detector or a fixed camera caused an alarm, you could force the PTZ camera to automatically move to its location for further investigation. This will not work if the Trigger Rule element is not region specific (such as a Cord Cut alarm)