Multicamera bookmark
Answered
Is there a way to create a bookmark for all open cameras?
I need to be able to save complete scenes (multicamera), using the “Backup”, “Bookmarks” Option
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Hi Lucas Fonzalida,
Thank you for your question. You want to bookmark the same moment on several cameras at once and keep that footage on backup storage.
When you create a bookmark by hand in the Desktop Client (selecting a range on the timeline and choosing Add Bookmark), it applies only to the selected camera. There’s no built-in option to bookmark all open cameras in one step. You can get the same result in a few ways. The simplest is a Soft Trigger rule that bookmarks a group of cameras together.
Step 1: Create a Soft Trigger that bookmarks multiple cameras
- In the Desktop Client, open the Main Menu and select Event Rules.
- Select Add to create a new rule.
- For the event, select Soft Trigger. Give it a clear name, such as “Bookmark scene”, and pick an icon.
- Under the event’s cameras, choose the camera(s) where the trigger button should appear. This is usually the camera you watch most often, or all cameras in the scene.
- Choose which users can see and use the trigger.
- For the action, select Bookmark.
- Under the action’s cameras, select every camera that belongs to the scene. These are the cameras that will get a bookmark.
- Set the bookmark duration, the time before and after the event to include, and any tags. For example, add a tag such as “scene” so you can find these bookmarks quickly later.
- Select Apply.
When something happens, select the Soft Trigger button on the camera tile. The system creates a bookmark with the same time range on every camera you selected in the action. If your scenes cover different groups of cameras, create one rule for each group.
Other options: scripts and Generic Events
If a fixed group of cameras in a rule doesn’t fit your workflow, there are two other options.
- Script using the API: You can write a script that reads the cameras on a saved layout and creates a bookmark on each of them through the Media Server API. When you change the cameras on the layout, the script picks up the change automatically. You can run the script from a Soft Trigger (with an Internal HTTPS request action that calls it) or from any other action or external system.
- Generic Events: An external system, such as an access control system, an alarm panel, or your own application, can send a Generic Event to the server through the API. A rule then turns that event into bookmarks on the cameras you choose. This works well when the “scene” starts with something that happens outside the VMS.
API documentation is available in the Desktop Client and on your server’s web interface.
Which method works best depends on your use case: who starts the bookmark, whether it’s started by hand or by another system, and how often the camera groups change. If you tell us a bit more about how you plan to use this, we can suggest the best fit.
Step 2: Keep the bookmarked footage on backup storage
Backup can be set to copy only bookmarked footage. This keeps your scenes after the main archive overwrites them. Here’s how to set it up:
- Add a drive or partition for backup on the server. It needs at least 50 GB and must be at least 10% of the size of the largest drive on the server.
- Open Server Settings, go to the Storage Management tab, and enable Backup for that drive.
- Open the Backup tab and select the cameras that are part of your scenes.
- Under What to back up, select Bookmarks.
- Select OK.
For more details, see this article: https://support.networkoptix.com/hc/en-us/articles/16239668954263-How-to-preserve-bookmarks
Tip: To share a complete scene with someone else, open the cameras on one layout, select the time range on the timeline, and export it with Export Video as a multi-video export. The export plays back all the cameras in sync.
Let me know if any step works differently in your version.
Kind regards.
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