While the Events Element defines what causes an alarm, the Actions Element specifies what Symphony should do as a result. By default, the Alarm tab is shown.
Alarm Tab
If Raise Alarm checkbox is selected, the Timeline and Alarm Log will reflect an alarm has occurred. When this is unchecked the opposite is true. However, all other actions specified will still occur. This is useful in the case of zooming with PTZ cameras since it may be unnecessary to show an alarm every time the camera automatically zooms. The Record checkbox will ensure video recording for this camera occurred, even if the default setting for the camera is No Recording as defined in the Device Setup. Choose a camera is required in cases an alarm IO event has been selected as the event, and here it is required to define with camera will be associated with this alarm, for the purposes of adding the event to the camera's Timeline.
Relays
Use this to automatically send an electrical signal to an external device whenever an alarm occurs. This would be useful if you setup a Rule that detected when cars were stolen and you wanted 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. The Trigger Relay dialog enables you to set if the relay should be turned on, off, or toggled, and the Relay # field allows you to define which address of the relay board to control. The Restore state after field allows you to specify how long the relay should be in its current state before being reset. For more information, visit the Aimetis Knowledge Base article on configuring Alarm Relays.
FTP
You can specify Symphony to automatically send a jpg to a FTP site after a Rule is broken. The jpg features and filenames can be configured in this dialog. The filename can be automatically generated based on the date, time, Rule and camera information using the symbols shown in the FTP tab. Examples of filename patterns are shown here:
%d 2004_06_30.jpg
%t 14_01_45_050.jpg
%d-%t 2004_06_30-14_01_45_050.jpg
%m-%a-%h 05-30-14.jpg
%h_%i_%s_%l_%p 14_01_45_050_My_Rule.jpg
In the Email Tab, 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. Symphony runs its own internal SMTP server, so you do not need to configure Symphony with another external mail server.
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.
Blackberry
You can configure Symphony to send alerts to Blackberry devices when a Rule is broken. Symphony sends an email to the Blackberry device which includes a hyperlink. After clicking the hyperlink, it loads a specially formatted web page for the Blackberry and displays the Alarm information.
TCP
It opens a TCP socket to some IP & port, and sends the specified ASCII message. This is a generic way to interface with any access control system or other device.
Run Program
By configuring this, Symphony can execute another 3rd party program.
Sounds
In this tab you can configure Symphony to play a pre-recorded sound when a Rule is broken. You can upload files to Symphony and select which sound file (such as a .wav file) to play when the current Rule is broken. This might be useful to automatically warn trespassers that the property is under surveillance.
Zoom
The Zoom tab allows you to specify actions for a dome (PTZ) camera after the current Rule Trigger is detected. By selecting the Zoom radio, the camera will leave its Home Position and automatically zoom and track the object. If you select the Force a PTZ camera to a location radio, 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 (specified in the Alarm on section). For example, perhaps a motion detector or even 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).
See Using Dome or PTZ cameras for instructions
on how to manually zoom.
Instructions
You can bind specific instructions to a Rule. This tells a monitoring agent or operator what to do in case of alarm. When an alarm occurs it appears in the alarm log of the main console. If the user right clicks on the alarm in this log, there is an option for viewing the alarm instructions. If there are any instructions set for the Rule that caused the alarm, it will be shown there. Otherwise the default instructions from the Server Instructions will be displayed.
Rule
After an alarm occurs, one of the Actions can be to automatically enable or disable other Rules
OPC
Symphony can interact with OPC servers on alarm by configuring this dialog.
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.