Nx Witness Desktop Client User Interface Overview

What is the Nx Witness Desktop Client interface?

The Nx Witness Desktop Client user interface is a rich media Client application that allows users to connect to, manage, and view live or recorded video from Nx Witness Systems.

The Nx Witness user interface has 6 major components:

1. Main Menu Button
2. Navigation Panel
3. Resource Panel
4. Timeline Panel
5. Notification Panel
6. Viewing Grid

1. Main Menu Button

• The Main Menu button (located on the top left of the Nx Desktop client) gives the user the ability to connect to servers, logout, create new tabs, windows, users or video walls, open files or folders, enter the local settings dialog, merge systems, find out about their software version, and exit the program.

2. Navigation Panel

• The Navigation Panel (located at the top of the Nx Desktop client) allows the user to fluidly navigate layouts (add, remove, select), start and stop screen capture (Windows & Linux only), connect to Systems, use contextual-help, maximize/minimize the client, or exit the program.

3. Resource Panel

• The Nx Witness Resource Panel (located on the left side of the Nx Desktop client) gives the user a quick ability to monitor, configure and interact with a System's devices, Users, Video Walls, Local files, and Other Systems.
• As with all 4 panels in the Nx Witness UI the Resource Panel can be hidden or revealed at any time by clicking on the small arrow located in the center of the panel.

System

• A System is made up of a group of Nx Witness Media Servers with a unique system name and administrator. A System includes common devices (e.g. IP Video cameras), Users, and Video Walls.
• Each instance of the Nx Witness Client can only connect to one (1) Nx Witness System at a time. If an Nx Witness user needs to connect to multiple Systems they can open a new Window and connect to a second system..and so on.
• The System section shows Servers, IP video devices (IP Cameras, Encoders) connected to those servers, their status (offline, online, online with errors), and IP Address. 

Users

• Nx Witness Users are users with roles that are defined by the Nx Witness system administrator. Roles include Administrator, Advanced Viewer, Viewer, Live Viewer, and Custom.
• Layouts that are created and saved by a user, or assigned by higher-level users, can be viewed under each user name.

Video Wall

• The Video Wall section of the Nx Witness Resource Panel shows all configured Video Walls in the connected system.

Local

• The Local section of the Resource Panel shows files on the local machine which have been viewed or imported using the Nx Witness client. The Local section also automatically shows all videos exported by the Nx Witness client.

Other Systems

• Other Systems shows additional Nx Witness Systems that have been detected on the same network(s) the Nx Witness Client is currently connected to. Most of the time users will not see Other Systems.
• Other Systems, however, is useful when merging or joining systems. For example, if a user has recently added a new server to their network which was not configured with the same System Name and Administrator (username + password) as their currently connected system they can use the Other Systems section of the Resource Panel to Join/Merge that system into their currently connected system.

4. Timeline Panel

• The Timeline Panel (located at the bottom of the Nx Desktop Client) allows the user to navigate live or archived video - either from local files or connected IP Video devices. 
• The Timeline Panel includes visible controls for archived video playback speed (up to 16x) and direction (fast-forward, fast-backward), live playback, stream synchronization (applied in instances where multiple streams are playing in the Viewing Grid), thumbnail display, and calendar search.
• The Timeline Panel is adaptive and responds to mouse clicks, scrolls, and keyboard commands.

5. Notification Panel

• The Notification Panel (located on the right side of the Nx Desktop client) is meant to be a quick, easy way for users to be notified of system events. The Notifications Panel can be configured to show as many or as few events as a user prefers.  

6. Viewing Grid

• The Viewing Grid allows users to create and interact with custom layouts for viewing live and recorded video - and even images. It also allows users to view real-time health monitoring of server hardware performance. 
• Inside the Viewing Grid cameras are shown in Panels according to their aspect ratio and number of image sensors. For example, a typical 1080p camera will use a 16:9 ratio and take up a single panel. An Arecontvision 180 or 360-degree camera - with 4 sensors - will be stitched into a 4-panel view. Inside each camera Panel users are then given additional icons for features available on that camera - including auto-enhance, zoom-windows, motion search, camera snapshot, rotate, stream info, PTZ controls, Dewarping controls, and close-camera.
• The Viewing Grid supports a maximum of 64 items on a single Layout.

Questions

If you have any questions related to this topic, or you want to share your experience with other community members or our team, please visit and engage in our support community or reach out to your local reseller.