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AXIS Camera Explorer - ACE
User’s Guide
Contents
Licensing Information
What is ACE and What Can it Do?
Installing ACE
Adding a Camera
Adding an Album
Adding a Quad View Object
Camera Switching
Recording a Movie
Saving a Snapshot
Working with Movies
Creating an AVI-movie
Live Video Sites
Other Settings and Functions
Licensing Information
ACE is provided as licensed software. The installation procedure will give you the opportunity to
enter a valid license code during install
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Installing ACE Before You Start Before installing your new software you must first set your camera’s IP-address. Please refer to the Installation Guide for your camera for more information. Installation Click the setup file for the program. You will be asked where you want to install the program. Restart your computer if you are asked to. Check the Installation After the successful installation of ACE you will find a new icon in the folder list on the left side of Windows Explorer - Net
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Adding a Camera Click on Add. The right hand side of Explorer will now show a further five options – Add Album, Add Camera, Add Camera Switching, Add Live Video Site and Add Quad View. Click Add Camera and a Wizard guiding you through the installation will start. Enter the IP-address or DNS name of your camera and then click Next.
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You will then see a window containing information about the camera found at that address. The resolution can be changed by clicking the drop-down arrow, as can the camera number. If for some reason you have changed the HTTP port address in the camera itself, you must specify the new port in the field provided.
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If identification fails, click Choose to manually provide the information for the camera. You can now rename your camera to anything you like. This name will appear in Windows Explorer. Click Finish.
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Your camera now appears in Windows Explorer. Click the icon for your camera and a live feed from it will be presented in the right hand window. Note: If you experience problems adding a camera, please refer to the documentation supplied with your camera for more information about installing and setting the camera’s IP-address.
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Adding an Album An album is a “virtual directory” that allows you to easily view and manage your images and movies. Back in the Explorer window, Click Add and then on Add Album. Complete the dialogs, specifying which folder will contain your images and finally, give your album a name. Click Finish and you will then see your album in Explorer.
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Adding a Quad View Object ACE includes a feature that allows you to view the live feeds from up to 4 video sources simultaneously. This is called a Quad View object, and it is added in the same way as a camera or an album. Simply specify the cameras that will be included in the Quad View and give the view a name. Click the Add button and then click on Add Quad View. This dialog appears: Click Next. In the next dialog window you are given the option of specifying a user n
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By right-clicking on the image you will see a context menu, from which you can choose to Display Names or not, and whether or not to use a Limited Frame Rate. This last option is useful if you are experiencing bandwidth problems and need to decrease the frame rate in the images. The other two options available in the context menu are Retain Image Size and Size to fit. These are described in Other Settings and Functions below. To change the properties for the Quad View, right-click on th
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Camera Switching Camera Switching is when you let ACE alternate between the camera feeds it displays. To do this you need to add a SwitchCam object, which is done in the same way as for cameras, albums, etc. Click the Add button and then click on Add Camera Switching. The following dialog appears: Select the cameras you want to display the images from. The 2 buttons at the lower right of the dialog allow you to Select All or Deselect All. Then specify the length of time in seconds
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Recording a Movie Click on your camera to open the image in the right hand window. Now right-click on the image and a short menu will appear. Click Record to record a movie. The resulting dialog asks you where you want to save your recordings, which frame rate you want to use, and for how long you want to record. Specify the folder you used earlier for your Album by clicking the Browse button, or alternatively, specify the Album directly, by clicking the Album button. Note: To save r
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When setting the frame rate and recording period, remember that recording for long periods and at high frame rates will create very large numbers of files and take up a lot of disk space. The file prefix “sequence” is used to save images as movies. Click OK. A new recording window now appears and the recording starts. When the set period for recording has ended the window will go blank. To stop recording before the set time has expired, click the flashing red button. Your images
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Working with Movies Movie files created with ACE are saved with the extension .sqj. These files only represent a group of image files and they will not affect your individual images in any way. Sqj-files may be viewed in the Album you created earlier. Although you will initially only see the sqj movie file presented in the window, it is also possible to split the movie file into the JPEG images that make up the movie. Do this by right-clicking the movie and then selecting Split Sequence. Th
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Other Settings and Functions Shortcuts If you click on Network Cameras in the left hand window of Explorer you will then see all the installed cameras and Albums on the right hand side. Right-click and drag any item onto your desktop and create a shortcut to it. Right-click Menu Right clicking on a Camera, Album or Live Video Site in Explorer will display a menu containing the following items: • Explore – opens a new Explorer window showing the Camera, Album or Live Video Site • Open –
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Pan/Tilt/Zoom If you have a Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) device connected to your camera, this can be controlled directly from the image display in Windows Explorer. The mouse is used to perform the following operations: • To center the image, click anywhere in the image. • To return “Home” double- click the wheel or middle (third) button on the mouse. Alternatively, right-click and select PTZ Home from the context menu. • To zoom in or out, scroll with the mouse wheel. • To go to maximum zoom
