Introduction to maps

The map feature is only available for selected surveillance systems. A map position does not display live video, a map is always a still image.

With a map, you get a physical overview of your surveillance system. You can instantly see which cameras are placed where, and in what direction they are pointing. You can use maps for navigation. Maps can be grouped into hierarchies, so you can drill down through hot zones, from large perspectives to detailed perspectives, for example, from city level to street level, or from building level to room level.

Maps may contain elements representing cameras, microphones and similar technology. You can view recorded video from cameras in a preview window when you move your mouse over a camera icon on the map. The status information in playback mode is not based on recorded data, but retrieved from the elements' current status, as displayed in live mode.

Maps do not have to be geographical maps, although they often are. Depending on your organization's needs, photos and other kinds of image files can also be used as maps.

You can use map elements to interact with the actual devices in the following ways:

Place your mouse pointer over a camera on a map to see a live preview from the camera. Click the title bar of the preview to display it as a separate floating window. You can resize the floating window by pulling its corners. To start recording, right-click the required camera and select Start Recording for # Minutes. Particular user rights may be required to use this feature.

A fixed camera is displayed on the map with an associated view zone that shows the camera's angle of view. Note that the angle on the map is very likely to need adjustment to match the camera's angle of view. To adjust the angle, simply drag it to a suitable size and position.

A PTZ camera is displayed on the map with any PTZ presets defined for the camera on the surveillance system. The presets are illustrated as colored angles that radiate from the PTZ camera icon. Each angle represents a particular preset. Note that the angles are very likely to need adjustment to match the camera's preset angles. To adjust an angle, simply drag it to a suitable size and position. If a camera has more than 25 presets, no angles are initially displayed since the angles would be too small to be useful. In such cases, you can add required angles individually by dragging the presets from the required camera from the Element Selector window onto the map. To go to one of a PTZ camera's presets, simply click the preset on the map. This works in the floating preview window, on the map itself, as well as in hotspot positions. Alternatively, right-click the camera, select PTZ Presets, then select the required preset.

Place your mouse over a microphone; press and hold the left mouse button to listen to incoming audio from a microphone, or right-click the microphone and select Listen to Microphone. You cannot use microphones in map views in playback mode.

Place your mouse over a speaker; press and hold the left mouse button to talk through the speaker. You cannot use speakers in map views in playback mode.

Click an event on the map to activate it, or right-click the event and select Activate Event. When left-clicking an event, the mouse pointer briefly changes to a lightning symbol to indicate that the event is being activated.

Click an alarm on the map to view it, or right-click the alarm and select Activate Alarm. Right-click to acknowledge the alarm.

Click an output on the map to activate it, or right-click the output and select Activate Output. When you click an output, the mouse pointer briefly changes to a lightning symbol to indicate that the output is being activated.

A hot zone is usually colored, so it is easy to recognize. Click a hot zone to go to the sub-map associated with the hot zone, or right-click the required hot zone and select Go to Sub-map.

If the hot zone appears with a dotted outline, no map is associated with the hot zone.

On some surveillance systems, maps from several different servers may be in a map hierarchy. This can mean that when you click a hot zone, the sub-map is unavailable because its server is unavailable. Servers can become unavailable because of scheduled maintenance or network problems. Contact your surveillance system administrator if the problem persists.

A hot zone can point to a map that you do not have access rights to and the XProtect Smart Client will inform you about this. Because user rights can be time-based, you might not be able to access a map that you could previously. This can be because you do not have access during certain hours of the day or certain days of the week. Contact your surveillance system administrator if in doubt about your user rights.

Plug-in elements are available only if used on your surveillance system. Examples of plug-in elements: access control systems, fire detection systems, etc.

Because interconnected hardware that is part of a Milestone Interconnect system is offline at times, you may often see error statuses on the interconnected hardware element on a map.

Status visualization is a feature that graphically displays the status of elements added to a map. When a map is fully operational and in the normal state, no visual status indication is presented. The Status Visualization window lets you define the visual appearance of maps' status indication.

The status of a map mirrors the status of all elements on the map. Up to four names of affected servers can be listed in the map title bar. In cases where an unavailable server causes disabled elements on the map, but the server itself is not included on the map, the map is displayed in the not operational state, even though the map only contains disabled elements. If the unavailable server is included on the map, the map is simply displayed with the disabled/status unknown. Status information is also available in the Map Overview.

	Attention needed—when an element requires attention, but is still working; for instance when a server is running out of disk space. Note that the device in question is not necessarily included on the map. The default display color is yellow.
	Not operational—when there is an error on the element, for example if a server cannot connect to a microphone or speaker. The default display color is orange.
	Alarms—when an element has an alarm attached to it. The default display color is red.
	Disabled/status unknown—when an element has been disabled on the surveillance server, or when it is not possible to obtain status information from a server. The default color is purple.
	Ignore status—when an element has a status that does not need attention, for example, if you are already aware of what the issue is. The default color is blue.