Viewport Overlay
Each grid cell n live view can be thought of as a 'slot' - a rectangular part of the layout - and it is called a viewport. Every viewport can accept channel video, user buttons on top of the video, and maps/geo maps.
In addition to the picture itself, every viewport contains detailed information about the video stream, as well as several quick controls and toggle buttons, including PTZ controls. These elements overlay the video stream, meaning that the actual video does not contain them and they only exist as a part or GUI for enhanced user interaction.
The main overlay items are briefly explained below. Also, you will find some more details on some of the controls in the Application settings and in the Video overlay sections.
Live View
The main view with live streams. Video streams will have the most overlay controls; some of them will also be available for maps and webpages.
The following overlay controls are available in live view:
Upper-left: general viewport controls
X - close live stream and free viewport - available with or without viewport selection
viewport lock status: unlocked (default) or locked; unlocked means that the viewport can be used for map/camera pop-up
camera name
user button, if assigned
Upper-right: current time on the server from which the device originates (you can change this by going to the main menu View > Time Presentation)
Lower-left: stream details
recording status: X = not recording, yellow arrow = recording
motion detector status: running = motion present, standing still = no motion detected
video codec of the stream
picture resolution, abbreviated
stream frame rate, FPS
stream bitrate, KBit/s or MBit/s
Lower-right: controls; enabled items are highlighted yellow
instant playback (not available if there are no recordings)
PTZ toggle: PTZ HUD and bottom panel ON/OFF
DPTZ toggle
motion grid ON/OFF
incoming audio ON/OFF (if enabled and supported by camera/software integration)
audio OUT: press and hold the microphone to speak (control is present only if the feature supported by camera/software integration)
substream: auto/main/substream
aspect ratio (auto/stretch to fill viewport/original)
notification panel toggle
snapshot export to library
send channel to sequence explorer (overlay disabled by default)
send channel to smart search (overlay disabled by default; will not appear for channels without motion data)
Bottom: PTZ controls
Presets
Tours
HUD (Heads Up Display) ON/OFF
Centre: PTZ HUD controls
Pan and tilt arrows
Zoom slider
Iris slider
Focus slider
You can choose which ones appear by going to the application settings. Some of the controls may not appear because the related functionality is not available or not supported by the integration (e.g., audio, PTZ); the controls are also subject to the user permissions. For instance, if you do not have permissions to access the channel's archive, the instant playback button will not appear.
Overlay elements can be modified in Application Settings, which are reachable via main menu by clicking Edit -> Settings. Note that overlay parameters are defined for the whole application and cannot be set separately for the application windows and/or individual displays.
Notification Pane
Live view has its own notification panel for each channel, which can be turned ON and OFF by using the notification panel toggle control in the bottom-right-hand corner of each viewport. It contains:
live events from E&A and from external services, e.g., LPR and facial recognition results, and
recent stream errors, e.g., PTZ related errors, which have occurred since the time the channel was opened for live view.
You can change the size and position of the notification pane. To do this, long press your left mouse key on the panel (in any place): a header and a pencil icon will appear on top of the panel. Click the pencil icon to enter to editing mode.
You have several adjustments to make here:
click and drag the yellow frame to change the panel size
drag and drop the panel to move it within the viewport
change the Scale setting to make the pane contents smaller or larger
The status below will show if the panel is currently in its original state (default) or has been customized (modified). Click Done to save the changes, or click Reset to revert the changes to the default appearance. Double-clicking outside the panel will also apply the changes (similar to Done button).
The notification panel is only available in the live view. If you keep it in the ON state while saving a layout, the panel will pop up automatically for the target channel next time you open the layout, i.e., the panel state is saved with the layout.
Viewport switching in Live view and Playback modes
You can switch between expanded Viewports or in a Single Viewport Layout by moving mouse to the left or right part of the Viewport until the Arrow overlay button appears. By clicking the Arrow button you will switch between the next or the previous Channel, so there is no need to return to the multi-viewport layout. You can disable the Arrow button overlay with the right mouse click.
Instant Playback
Overlay elements in the instant playback mode are different from those in live view.
The following overlay controls are available in the instant playback mode:
Upper left:
X - close live stream and free viewport
viewport lock status: unlocked (default) or locked; unlocked means that the viewport can be used for map/camera pop-up and may therefore be replaced by other camera at any moment
camera name
Upper right:
timestamp (its appearance can be configured via application settings)
Centre: play/pause
click to play
click again or drag to the centre of the line to pause
drag right to go fast forward
drag left to rewind fast
click and hold on the left/right side to change the playback direction
release from dragging to continue normal playback
Bottom right: controls
switch to multichannel playback
go to specific time
toggle motion grid
switch to advanced playback (off by default)
take control (for interactive channels)
create a bookmark with current timestamp
take a snapshot
automatically export current piece of the footage
Bottom: timeline
click any place of the timeline to switch to that point in time
use the <> arrows to adjust the loaded footage time boundaries (which, by default, are the last five minutes)
drag right to go forward in time
drag left to go backwards in time
the vertical yellow line indicates current playback moment, drag it anywhere or click to move along the timeline
Sequence Explorer
Once you have selected a fragment or a set of fragments, the 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 the selected time range (no additional Set time range window is displayed)
More detailed control and operation descriptions for the sequence explorer can be found here.
Text Overlay From Data Sources
Textual data from external data sources, if configured, will appear embedded with the live video stream.
Metadata Overlay
Bounding boxes with object properties will appear in the video if video analytics is enabled for the target channel. This may be server-side video analytics (VA) or Open VCA. Also, VCA metadata are supported for some of the cameras.
You can change the metadata overlay via Application settings.
Channel Shortcuts aka Portals
Channel shortcuts, if pre-configured in Macula Console, appear in live view and in playback as video overlay elements. Single-clicking these will pop up the target video channel in the same viewport.
Read more about visual links in the Video overlay section.
Maps
Maps and geo maps have general overlay controls in the upper left corner:
X - close the map and free viewport - available with or without viewport selection
viewport lock status: unlocked (default) or locked; unlocked means that the viewport can be used for map/camera pop-up
map name
Every map also has interactive markers (per-configured in Macula Console):
double-clicking channels* makes them pop-up in the first available viewport (either empty or the first non-locked one)
maps* links will make the target map pop up in the same viewport
layouts* will also pop up and replace the current layout or layout sequence
double-clicking user buttons will trigger actions, which are associated with them
click a door marker to see the list of available actions
*Remember that every Macula Monitor window can be set to accept either individual map/channel pop-ups or layout pop-ups, but not both. This can be changed in the multidisplay setup. Also, you can change the interaction mode from double-click to single-click in the Application settings.
Watermark Video Overlays
The Macula system supports visible video watermarking to help ensure data protection. If your system administrator has enabled the watermark, you will see a watermark overlay over all viewports with the video streams in both Live View and Playback modes. The watermark is based on the unique user ID, and can only be disabled by the Macula server administrator.
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