Sequence

The sequence explorer is an archive playback extension with additional tools for footage analysis. The whole recorded stream can be split into smaller pieces down to 2 minutes in length; each of these can be played separately or exported with a single click.

In the Macula Monitor upper panel, click the Sequence tab: the current main window will then display the sequence explorer with empty viewports.

Interface Overview

Interface elements have the following designations:

• Calendar: specify the time period to be analyzed by entering date/time boundaries, and also set the viewport layout

  • date can be entered manually or selected from calendar view

  • time can be entered manually or adjusted by mouse wheel (select the value to be changed and use mouse wheel to increase/decrease it, while keeping the mouse cursor over the field)

  • minimum time period is 120 seconds

  • available viewport layouts are: 3x4 (default), 3x5, 4x3, 4x6, 6x4, 5x5 screens

• Top panel: <> arrows enable users to browse viewing history within the channel in use; the name of the channel being used is displayed

• Main window: displays video clip sequence with corresponding controls; empty viewports mean that no footage is available for the time period selected

• Bottom panel: contains global sequence controls for the whole currently displayed period (and not the selected sequence elements)

  • the << and >> arrows on the sides enable users to load the previous/next portion of the footage sequence, with time period equal to the one set in the Calendar

  • next to the arrows, the date/time boundaries of the current video portion are shown

  • Play button in the center of the panel will open current video portion in the Playback mode

  • Video button in the center of the panel brings up the Video export dialog box

Make Sequence

Drag and drop the desired channel from resources onto the main window; the camera name will appear at the top. Note that the sequencing works with one channel at a time, so if you drag and drop another channel onto the explorer window, all previous changes will be discarded.

Select sequence timing in the calendar panel on the right and then click the Make sequence button. Video footage from selected time range will be divided between all viewports, so that all of them will contain video clips of equal duration. For instance, if the selected time range is 2 hours and a 3x4 layout is set, each viewport will contain a 10-minute video clip: (2*60)/3*4 = 120/12 = 10 minutes.

From this point onwards, you have several options for creating a new sequence:

• enter a new time period on the Calendar panel and click the Make sequence button

• select one or multiple sequence elements and click the Make sequence overlay control (see the control descriptions below)

• double-click a single sequence element to split it into a new sequence

If you choose to build a new sequence out of one or multiple sequence elements, their date/time boundaries will be set as new boundaries, and the video clip in the resulting sequence will be of shorter duration. In this way, any footage can be split into smaller and smaller chunks down to two minutes, facilitating footage analysis process and making it easy to find the scene of interest within a larger fragment of footage.

Use the << and >> arrows on the bottom panel to go back and forth along channel timeline. The size of the jumps back and forth will be equal to the base time period set in the Calendar.

Sequence Controls

Viewport overlay controls are available for each sequence element. Click any piece once to select it; click one screen once and then click another screen to select a series of fragments. Selection border style will help you control your actions: a dashed line denotes a single click, solid line appears after the second click. As a result, you will always know, which selection stage you are on when selecting multiple screens.

Once you have selected one or a set of fragments, overlay controls in the bottom right corner of the selection offer the following possible actions:

• Magnifier button: make a new sequence out of selected fragments; use the History controls <> in the upper panel to go back

• Play button: play selected footage in archive playback mode

• Video button: export video from selected time range (no additional Set time range window is displayed)

Timestamps in the top-left and in the top-right-hand corners of each viewport represent time range of the contained footage fragment. In case multiple screens are selected, the intermediate timestamps are skipped and time frames for the multi-fragment footage portion are displayed.

Playback

Click the Play button on the bottom panel to open the whole inspected footage portion in the archive playback mode. The equivalent button on each of the selected sequence fragments will open just that specific fragment for playback. Playback operation is exactly the same as for usual archive viewing and it is explained at length in the Archive Playback topic.

Video Export

Click the Video button in the bottom panel to bring up the Video Export dialog box and set your desired time range for exported footage; channel selection is limited to the one channel open at the time in the sequence explorer.

The Video button overlay control in the fragmented sequence screens will automatically export video from selected time range without additional prompts. In either case, the exported video will appear in the Library.

Sequence explorer works with the streams based on the time intervals. If you want a more intelligent archive analysis tool, go to Smart Search to base your search on motion in certain regions.