barox Kommunikation AG, the manufacturer of IT switches designed specifically for the video surveillance market, has released ‘Smart-barox’, a DMS SNMP plug-in that greatly extends Milestone XProtect Video Management Software usability.
Allowing installers and operators to manage their security network and connected devices via the XProtect Smart Client, Smart-barox provides a live graphical overview of network topology, with invaluable network information available at your fingertips. With Smart-barox, VMS system diagnostic data showing the status of cameras and switches allows the fast pinpointing of network and device issues.
Smart-barox enables network switches to act as health centres, to assess edge devices such as cameras or access units
For example, if a network camera is failing to respond, Smart-barox enables any device to be selected and a re-boot command sent. Smart-barox tools include PoE monitoring, cable diagnostics and remote switch traffic monitoring, where live data traffic is shown on a graphical chart. Being able to see the traffic on each port makes it easier to diagnose errors and outages remotely.
Assessing cameras or access units
Smart-barox also enables network switches to act as health centres, to assess edge devices such as cameras or access units, automatically generating a tree diagram with all devices in the network shown, so operators will always have sight of which cameras are connected and operational. For easier recognition, it can also display camera names via ONVIF.
Smart-barox also helps users to track camera power consumption. This is particularly useful as surveillance cameras behave differently to other types of IP device, with changing power demands due to shutter activation, pan & tilt motor drives, heaters or IR illuminators.
Identify and respond to camera degeneration
Other essential Smart-barox user benefits include cyber security features, such as authentication certificate loginIn short, Smart-barox helps installers and system operators to proactively identify and respond to camera degeneration, or automatically reset frozen cameras by interrupting their PoE, to force a reboot. When Smart-barox Active Camera Tracking automatically pings a camera that fails to respond to its PoE being taken away for reboot, fault logging flags-up the issue, allowing the proactive pinpointing of network and device issues.
With regard to PoE consumption control, trigger points can be set to raise flags if consumption is increasing, and in the case of mains power outage, on power up, Smart-barox automatically manages the Coordinate Power Up procedure with Port by Port power activation, to avoid peak current surge damage.
Other essential Smart-barox user benefits include cyber security features, such as authentication certificate login, 100Mbits - 1000Mbits Jumbo Frames to ensure camera frames are not lost, and periodic auto camera ‘ping’ to check and report their status.
Action Buttons to switch-off camera
Action Buttons allow users to switch-off a camera if required, either to enable a camera re-boot or for a situation where privacy is requiredA particularly useful feature, Action Buttons allow users to switch-off a camera if required, either to enable a camera re-boot if a camera has frozen (by removing its PoE for 15 seconds), or perhaps for a situation where privacy is required in a particular camera scene, such as a lawyer talking to his client in a prison.
“barox designs all of its products to address the specialist requirements of video surveillance networks,” says Rudolf Rohr, barox Co-founder & Managing partner.
“Smart-barox continues that tradition by supplying a Milestone DMS SNMP plug-in that allows installers to reduce their equipment replacement costs and keep network downtime to a minimum - saving costs by minimising network set-up time and avoidable journeys to site.”
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