The Media Server SDK includes two example analytics plugins in the plugins_optional directory:

• Sample Analytics Plugin: A simple plugin designed to verify that your system works.

• Stub Analytics Plugin: A comprehensive plugin designed to test advanced SDK features.

Sample Analytics Plugin

The Sample Analytics Plugin is the simplest available plugin. It receives video frames from the Media Server, ignores their contents, and generates a "detected object" (a rectangle moving diagonally) on each frame.

Use this plugin to test whether your VMS plugin and analytics subsystems work, or as a starting point for developing simple plugins.

File locations

A pre-built version of the plugin comes with the server distribution.

Windows: 

C:\Program Files\Network Optix\Nx Meta\MediaServer\plugins_optional\sample_analytics_plugin.dll

Linux: 

/opt/networkoptix/mediaserver/bin/plugins_optional/libsample_analytics_plugin.so

Activate the Sample Analytics Plugin

Because the plugin resides in the plugins_optional directory, the Media Server does not load it by default. To activate the plugin, perform the following steps:

1. Move or copy the plugin file (sample_analytics_plugin.dll on Windows or libsample_analytics_plugin.so on Linux) from the plugins_optional directory to the plugins directory.

2. Restart the Nx Meta Media Server.

3. Open Nx Meta Desktop, place a camera onto your layout, and verify that the video plays.

4. Right-click the camera video feed and select Camera Settings.

5. Click the Integrations tab, select Sample Analytics Plugin, and toggle the switch to On.

6. In the Notification Panel, click right icon to open the Objects tab.

7. Verify that the rectangle moves across the video and that corresponding object tiles appear in the right panel.

Use a custom-built Sample Analytics Plugin

To test a version of the plugin that you built yourself from the SDK, copy your custom binary to the plugins directory and follow the activation steps starting from step 3.

Troubleshooting with the sample plugin

If your custom plugin does not appear in the Plugins tab during development, activate the default Sample Analytics Plugin to isolate the issue. If the sample plugin works, compare its implementation against your custom project to find the root cause.

Stub Analytics Plugin

The Stub Analytics Plugin resides in the /stub_analytics_plugin directory. It utilizes almost all features available in the SDK. It does not analyze actual video data, but it generates various metadata types and offers extensive configuration options.

Use this plugin to test advanced SDK features or as a starting template for complex plugins by stripping out the features you do not need.

Activate the stub plugin

Because the plugin resides in the plugins_optional directory, the Media Server does not load it by default. To activate the plugin, perform the following steps:

1. Move or copy the plugin folder (sample_analytics_plugin) from the plugins_optional directory to the plugins directory.

2. Restart the Nx Meta Media Server.

3. Open Nx Meta Desktop, place a camera onto your layout, and verify that the video plays.

4. Right-click the camera video feed and select Camera Settings.

5. Click the Integrations tab, select the desired Stub Analytics type, and toggle the switch to On.

6. In the Notification Panel, click right icon to open the Objects tab.

7. Verify that the selected Analytics Type is applied to the video and that corresponding object tiles appear in the right panel.

Understand the stub settings

When you view the plugin in the Plugins tab of the Camera Settings dialog, you will see numerous device agent (camera-specific) settings. These options fall into two categories:

• Real settings: Options that control plugin behavior, such as metadata generation types and frequency.

• Example settings: Various dummy settings used exclusively to test the UI and settings framework itself.