Audio
Macula is capable of receiving audio streams from cameras, recording and playing them back, as well as sending audio back to the cameras from Macula Monitor stations. It is also possible to bind an external audio source to a video channel.
There are a few conditions stipulating audio feature availability:
the target device should be capable of sending/receiving audio
relevant additional equipment should be plugged into the device (microphone and/or speakers), if necessary (if these are not built in by design)
one-way or two-way audio should be enabled and set up on the device side so that it is available via device Web interface
G.711 should be selected as audio codec on the target device side
audio should be enabled in the channel settings via Macula Console (see the description below)
feature should be supported by Macula for the target device (see the list of supported devices and features provided by GSF)
in order to send audio to the device, Macula Monitor workstation must have a microphone connected to it - either a built-in or an external one
if you plan to use an external audio source, relevant audio capturing equipment should be plugged into the server, to which the target device is connected, and enabled via Windows audio settings
Enabling Audio
If you plan to use camera-side audio and have not checked audio configuration on the camera side yet, go to the device Web interface and adjust the audio settings, then make sure that audio is operable in the browser preview (you may need to install an ActiveX control in order to get it working; please check with your device's user guide for tips and browser requirements).
In order to enable audio capabilities for your desired device, open the Configuration section and choose Channels from the menu on the left, then open your target channel for editing - either by double-clicking it or by selecting it with a single click and clicking the Edit button on the upper panel. In the channel settings' dialog box, switch to the Audio tab by selecting it on the left.
Here, you have 4 options. Depending on your selection, additional fields may appear.
None: disable audio functionality for the target channel (default), no additional settings
Internal: enable audio reception from the device side and sending the reverse audio to the device
choose an audio input from the drop-down list, if the target device has multiple ones
if there are none configured or available on the device side, the list will appear empty (this also refers to cases when audio is not supported for the selected device)
Attached: use an external audio source connected to the same server as the device, from which the target channel originates
choose an audio input device from the drop-down list, if the target server has multiple ones connected to it
all microphones recognized by Windows will appear here
External: use another channel's audio as audio for the current channel (see below for more details)
choose a channel to serve as audio source
When you have chosen your preferred option, click OK to save and close the Channel settings dialog box. You should now be able to listen to live audio, record it along with the video stream and talk back to your camera via Macula Monitor and Macula Mobile applications.
Combining Video and Audio Sources
Macula allows channels to use audio coming from a different channel in case the target channel does not have its own incoming audio or in case you wish to combine audio and video data from different channels. Such combinations are used for both live and recording. A common example of this method is to use audio from intercom channels in combination with nearby video cameras.
In order to do this, double-click the target channel (the one without audio) in the channel list to open it for editing, then choose the Audio tab on the left.
Choose External from the drop-down list, then select a channel to be used as the new audio source: click the Change button to see the list of channels and choose the one that you want audio to be coming from. Hit Apply or OK to save your changes.
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