Interface Overview

Macula Monitor is a dedicated application for viewing live and browsing recorded contents of connected Macula servers; it also includes advanced features such as video and snapshot export, alert monitoring, PTZ and digital PTZ control, among others. As Macula Monitor is a unified interface for all Macula editions, some of the features described in this document may only be present if you are connected to Macula Enterprise server and are not available for other server types (for example, the video wall feature).

We recommend that end users and CCTV station operators become acquainted with this document in order to understand application interface and work out some personal usage strategies.

Macula server and Macula Monitor application major versions must match. Example: Macula Monitor having version 1.3.0 will be unable to connect to servers having versions 1.2.0 or 1.4.0.

Maintenance versions within the same major version (e.g., 1.3.0 and 1.3.1) are compatible but we still recommend that you match the software versions strictly for best performance.

For best user experience, the display resolution of 1280x720 pixels or higher is recommended for Macula Monitor application, alongside with 512MB onboard video memory per display.

General

The Macula Monitor interface is mostly intuitive. Elements are manipulated using left mouse button (click, drag and drop) and mouse wheel (zoom IN and OUT); right clicks (pop-up menus of all sorts) have been eliminated to accommodate the Macula Monitor application for usage with touch displays.

The application appearance can be changed to accommodate individual users' needs and preferences. Overlay elements are adjusted in the Application settings, and component colours - using the Themes tool. These settings, alongside with local resources (layouts and sequences) and the list of servers can be saved into a file for further import on other workstations.

The main application functionalities are available via tabs. Visibility of tabs and certain interface elements can be controlled for each Macula Monitor application instance using the Macula Monitor Administration Tool, which is available via main menu Tools -> Administration Tool.

The Macula Monitor application window title displays window name, display number, computer station name, and also video wall title and display number.

Most elements (buttons, menu items, overlay elements) have tooltips - text hints that appear when you position the mouse cursor over the item and hold it for a moment. Tooltips are enabled by default and can be turned OFF via application settings.

Also, many user interface controls have hotkeys - keyboard shortcuts. Some useful key commands: use ESC (Escape) to deselect a viewport in live or playback (remove yellow frame); CTRL+Shirt+U will unmap all current viewports (comes handy on remote connections), and CTRL+Shift+A will map all empty viewports with channels, filling the layout automatically. Go to the main application menu Edit > Command Mapping to change the hotkey combinations from the defaults, and define keyboard commands for less popular commands (unassigned by default).

Application Windows

The main (primary) application window displays contents provided by server or servers in different modes, depending on the tab selected. All secondary windows only display live channels, without any supplementary tabs, menus or panels. Please refer to the Interface Elements section of this document for detailed information about all Macula Monitor panels, buttons and other controls.

The Macula Monitor application is always running in the single instance mode, meaning that it should only be launched once. Additional (secondary) windows can be opened on all additional displays.

Upper panel: tabs

The upper panel contains tabs that allow you to quickly switch between the main software functionalities. Some tabs (e.g., Live, Playback) are always present while other ones (Access Control, Reports etc.) only appear when the related feature or contents is available on one of the connected servers. Tabs are only present for the main application window.

Upper right: main menu

The Connection button opens a dialog box with the server list. Next to it, there is the main application menu, which contains items for the Macula Monitor tune-up and additional wizards.

Below the main menu, there is a button for multi-display setup and another one for managing the current display contents.

Left menu: resources

This section displays resources from connected servers: layouts (including layout templates and sequences), channels, maps, and user buttons. The resources panel can be hidden by clicking the << arrows in its upper right corner to free up more display space for the contents.