Configuring ACAP Analytics

2022-03-03Last updated

Before you can use Axis camera applications within a federated Stratocast™ environment you must enable and configure the Axis Camera Application Platform (ACAP) for Stratocast™.

Before you begin

If you plan on using people counting or occupancy estimator, contact Genetec™ sales at sales@genetec.com for more information.

What you should know

  • While most first-party ACAPs will work on Stratocast™, some will not.
  • Most event-based analytics such as trip-line detection or loitering detection should work out-of-the-box.
Best Practice: Ensure that you test out your specific configuration in a lab or demo environment before deploying at scale because the specifics of your configuration can have unexpected results that could affect your system performance, availability, or infrastructure. For example, unexpected results could include generating false positive events.

Procedure

  1. Enable custom events on the Security Center Federation™ role.
    1. In Config Tool, launch the System task.
    2. Click General settings > Roles and select your Federation™ role.
    3. Click the Properties tab and in the Federated events section select Custom events.
      Note: Custom events are not enabled by default. Enabling custom events ensures that you receive the events correctly in Security Center.
    4. Click Apply.
      Important: If custom events are not correctly enabled, the events are not displayed in Security Desk.
  2. Install the Axis Camera Application Platform (ACAP) apps on a camera in a federated Stratocast™ environment.
    Note: It does not matter if the Federation™ role is configured before or after the ACAP is installed or configured.
    1. Open the camera’s local web page and click Settings > Apps .
      For example, <camera IP address>/aca/index.html#settings/apps/.
    2. From the Apps tab, click Add to add the ACAP apps that you require.
    3. Click Browse and select the file that you require.
      Note: There are different versions of the files depending on the model or generation of the camera.
    4. Click Open to select the file, then click Install to upload and install the analytics package onto the camera.
      • A green dot indicates the app is running (enabled).
      • A red dot indicates the app is stopped (disabled).
    5. When the app is installed and visible in the Apps tab, click the app icon to select it.
    6. In the app dialog, move the Start toggle to the enabled position.
      If the app starts successfully, the Status changes to Status: Running, the dot on the icon turns green, and a mouse hover over the icon displays Running.
      Tip: To adjust the analytic settings, click Open and make the changes that you require. For more information, refer to the manufacturers documentation.
  3. Check your events in Security Center.
    1. In Config Tool, launch the System task.
    2. Click General settings > Events .
    3. In Security Desk, click Monitoring > Events .
      Note: Any user with the required permissions can view the camera events.
    4. With event monitoring enabled for the camera, select the 3 dots below the taskbar and pull down.
      As the ACAP events are received by the federated system, they are displayed in the custom events list. The ACAP events that are displayed vary depending on the ACAP apps that you are using and the events list will look similar to the following example:
      Note: ACAP events are received primarily as custom events and not system events.
      Important: What if I dont see events in the list?
      1. If you do not see your events appear in the custom events list, first ensure that they are being generated by the camera. Many ACAPs have the ability to trigger a test event, so try that first.
      2. If the events still do not appear, verify that you are able to see them populate in real time as they are generated. If they still do not appear in Security Center, it is possible that the ACAP is not supported, or not functioning correctly. Contact the ACAP manufacturer for more information.
  4. Monitor your events in Security Desk.
    1. Open the Security Desk Monitoring task and select your camera.
    2. Click Monitoring on the taskbar, or right-click on the camera tile, then enable Event monitoring to monitor events on the camera running the ACAPs.
    3. Click then in the Select an entity to monitor dialog, select the camera you require and click Add.
      Best Practice: In the Event monitoring dialog Tile column, specify that the camera populate in one specific tile. Otherwise performance issues might be encountered if too many events are received too quickly.
      After the events have been configured, they should begin to appear in the Monitoring task as they are generated.
      As events are received on the designated cameras, they will begin to play video on the specified tile. You can also monitor the raw events by expanding the events pane in Security Desk. This pane can be expanded by clicking and dragging down the 4 dots in the top center of the video canvas:
      If you see events populating, the configuration has been completed. Events continue to be received for as long as the camera is being monitored.

After you finish

You could use these events in conjunction with an Event-To-Action to trigger an outcome. For example, an Event-To-Action configured to play an alarm sound whenever the FenceGuard ACAP is triggered on Profile 1 as shown here:
There are many other more complex configurations that are possible, from triggering an alarm, to arming a zone, to setting a threat level, and so on. The settings that you need to configure in Config Tool vary depending on the Event-To-Action outcome that you require.