How the Ivideon video surveillance system is arranged: a review of PC software
It is believed that video surveillance systems are too complex for a simple user. Today we will show that this is not the case with the example of Ivideon applications: we’ll tell you about their capabilities, interface and our software infrastructure.
One of the main problems faced by users of most video surveillance systems is the clutter and confusion of the interface . This situation gave rise to the opinion that such systems are complex and inaccessible to the average user. We at Ivideon are fighting this myth.
Our system allows you to organize video surveillance over the Internet in a few minutes, using only a computer with a webcam. We tried to make the interface as friendly as possible so that anyone could deal with it without special instructions and help. But if any difficulties arise, technical support works around the clock.
Another problem is the segmentation of the market for video surveillance systems. Today there is no one solution.which would be suitable both for business, and for the house. For example, solutions of Chinese companies that are popular for home video surveillance are not suitable for business users. Even such a simple function as grouping cameras into various objects is still not a de facto standard in many applications.
Our team has always sought to create a “universal combine”, which would combine the best practices and some fresh approaches that competitors did not think of. An example would be the full-fledged camera layout editor, which allows you to build arbitrary grids (stretch or shrink) with video channels. Similar solutions for the most part simply provide a set of predefined templates that are not always adjustable.
We also note that many of the video surveillance systems on the market are poorly adapted for our country . In fact, this is a big problem of international solutions - not all functions have a translation, and where it is, there are questions about its adequacy (especially in the case of some Chinese applications). Ivideon is made by Russian developers, so all menu items are signed in Russian (and support another 13 languages).
The Ivideon Client application (as well as the web application) is used to view the video online or from the archive of video recordings from cameras attached to the Ivideon Server (we will discuss more about it later), or cameras with the integrated Ivideon service (which are sold in our online store) ).
Cameras with firmware Ivideon have one advantage - to work with our service, you only need an Internet channel. All other cameras need a computer with Ivideon Server.
The first thing that the user sees when starting the application (and after logging in to the account) is the screen, divided into several cells. In these cells are the video streams from the cameras.
As we already said, these cells can be dragged and scaled in an arbitrary way (within the grid: from 1x1 to 6x6).
Of course, there are pre-installed templates. You can display up to 36 cameras in one window. All user-created layouts of cells and other settings are stored in our cloud, so they will not need to be re-created every time you start the application from another computer or smartphone.
On the left side of the screen is a column with the main functions. They are divided into subsections - a list of cameras, layouts, groups and other tools. At the same time, in Ivideon Client, cameras can be quickly searched by name, MAC- or IP-address, as well as distribute them into groups, which is convenient for monitoring several observation points.
The system allows you to configure access rights to individual cameras or their groups. For example, you can give managers the opportunity to watch a broadcast, and the security service can also control pivoting functions and digital zoom.
All recordings from cameras can be stored both in the cloud (by subscription) and locally. In the first case, the records are on our servers. Storage time depends on the chosen tariff plan. In the second case, the video is written to the selected folder on the PC or on the SD card of the camera.
You can view records from the archive at any time in the player window. It has a classic timeline that is familiar to us in most video players. The gray segments on it highlight the saved videos - to start playback, just click on the desired segment. In the same menu, you can export video to a computer.
You can view several records from the archive in one window. If any of the cameras did not work during the specified time interval, then the inscription "No recordings" will appear on the screen.
We pay special attention to performance and quality of reproduction, therefore, to work with Ivideon, the user does not need to have heavy-duty iron. This year we completely reworked the video playback subsystem in the Ivideon Client: this solution improves the quality of broadcasts and protects against the problem of lags.
While Ivideon Client is the "facade" of the video surveillance system, Ivideon Server is responsible for the "technical part":
With the help of Ivideon Server, you can build a complete video surveillance system from IP cameras (with a resolution of 640x480 and a frame rate of 25 frames / s), webcams, laptop cameras, etc. Of course, the server also works with Ivideon service devices from our store.
The only cameras that cannot be connected are smartphones cameras. But for them there is a third-party solution - IPWebcam - which turns the phone into a network camera that works with the Ivideon service.
The wide range of supported devices is due to the fact that motion sensors are software. Cameras begin to write a few seconds before the event on the detector due to the built-in short image buffering.
In the settings, you can set the sensitivity of the detector, specify a dead zone in which movement will be ignored (highlighted in red in the screenshot above). Yellow areas are segmented movement. At a high level of sensitivity, the camera will respond to the fluctuation of the curtains. At the minimum - only if the person crosses the room.
Another sensor that is implemented at the software level is a sound detector. Of course, it only works if there is a microphone in the camera. In the settings of this detector, you can set its sensitivity and set the schedule. You can select the days and hours when the recording is ongoing, activate recording only when the detector is triggered, or completely disable the sensor. The recording time when the sensor is triggered is 15 minutes, half an hour or an hour.
The program can adjust the volume of outgoing traffic and image quality for webcams and maintain the best balance for the user.
Ivideon Server automatically finds and connects most ONVIF-compatible cameras and receives advanced information on motion detection and sub-streams from them. This significantly reduces the load on the server's processor and allows you to connect more cameras.
Some users on Habré asked - and we did: implemented support for Linux Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, and also added the ability to restore video server configurations from the command line without using the GUI.
The current version of Ivideon Server is always available here .
As we said earlier, Ivideon Server is responsible for storing the archive of videos in the cloud. Our cloud form 15 data centers.
All user data is encrypted and stored in a “disassembled form” - that is, it is divided into blocks and distributed between different servers. The keys for their decryption are also placed separately. All employees who have access to servers with keys do not have access to servers with data.
Data transfer occurs via TLS-channels, which protects them from viewing at intermediate nodes. Protecting video from employees of the company is organizational and technical methods.
In addition, using Ivideon Server, data can be stored in Edge Storage mode. This mode is available for the Nobelic camera series ., Dahua, Hikvision and several models of Oco Pro cameras. It allows you to work with a local archive located on board a video surveillance device connected to the Ivideon Server. This allows you to install Ivideon Server on inexpensive devices without a hard disk.
You can also create several independent local video archives, including on different disks, with their own settings. It more effectively distributes the load when writing and reading data in a system with a large number of cameras and several disks for storage.
When developing Ivideon solutions, we tried to make the UX as understandable and convenient as possible so that the user could always quickly accomplish his task - to get a piece of the record he needed or open the broadcast from the camera. At the same time, we wanted to make our application multifunctional and ready to work both at home and at industrial enterprises, combining the best functional solutions in the industry and improving them.
In addition to the presented Ivideon Server and Desktop Client, we also have mobile applications for iOS and Android . "Excursion" on them we will spend in our next article.
Why you can not just take and run video surveillance
One of the main problems faced by users of most video surveillance systems is the clutter and confusion of the interface . This situation gave rise to the opinion that such systems are complex and inaccessible to the average user. We at Ivideon are fighting this myth.
Our system allows you to organize video surveillance over the Internet in a few minutes, using only a computer with a webcam. We tried to make the interface as friendly as possible so that anyone could deal with it without special instructions and help. But if any difficulties arise, technical support works around the clock.
Another problem is the segmentation of the market for video surveillance systems. Today there is no one solution.which would be suitable both for business, and for the house. For example, solutions of Chinese companies that are popular for home video surveillance are not suitable for business users. Even such a simple function as grouping cameras into various objects is still not a de facto standard in many applications.
Our team has always sought to create a “universal combine”, which would combine the best practices and some fresh approaches that competitors did not think of. An example would be the full-fledged camera layout editor, which allows you to build arbitrary grids (stretch or shrink) with video channels. Similar solutions for the most part simply provide a set of predefined templates that are not always adjustable.
We also note that many of the video surveillance systems on the market are poorly adapted for our country . In fact, this is a big problem of international solutions - not all functions have a translation, and where it is, there are questions about its adequacy (especially in the case of some Chinese applications). Ivideon is made by Russian developers, so all menu items are signed in Russian (and support another 13 languages).
Ivideon Client - the face of the system for the desktop
The Ivideon Client application (as well as the web application) is used to view the video online or from the archive of video recordings from cameras attached to the Ivideon Server (we will discuss more about it later), or cameras with the integrated Ivideon service (which are sold in our online store) ).
Cameras with firmware Ivideon have one advantage - to work with our service, you only need an Internet channel. All other cameras need a computer with Ivideon Server.
Layouts and tool menus
The first thing that the user sees when starting the application (and after logging in to the account) is the screen, divided into several cells. In these cells are the video streams from the cameras.
As we already said, these cells can be dragged and scaled in an arbitrary way (within the grid: from 1x1 to 6x6).
Of course, there are pre-installed templates. You can display up to 36 cameras in one window. All user-created layouts of cells and other settings are stored in our cloud, so they will not need to be re-created every time you start the application from another computer or smartphone.
On the left side of the screen is a column with the main functions. They are divided into subsections - a list of cameras, layouts, groups and other tools. At the same time, in Ivideon Client, cameras can be quickly searched by name, MAC- or IP-address, as well as distribute them into groups, which is convenient for monitoring several observation points.
The system allows you to configure access rights to individual cameras or their groups. For example, you can give managers the opportunity to watch a broadcast, and the security service can also control pivoting functions and digital zoom.
View archive records
All recordings from cameras can be stored both in the cloud (by subscription) and locally. In the first case, the records are on our servers. Storage time depends on the chosen tariff plan. In the second case, the video is written to the selected folder on the PC or on the SD card of the camera.
You can view records from the archive at any time in the player window. It has a classic timeline that is familiar to us in most video players. The gray segments on it highlight the saved videos - to start playback, just click on the desired segment. In the same menu, you can export video to a computer.
You can view several records from the archive in one window. If any of the cameras did not work during the specified time interval, then the inscription "No recordings" will appear on the screen.
We pay special attention to performance and quality of reproduction, therefore, to work with Ivideon, the user does not need to have heavy-duty iron. This year we completely reworked the video playback subsystem in the Ivideon Client: this solution improves the quality of broadcasts and protects against the problem of lags.
Ivideon Server - workhorse
While Ivideon Client is the "facade" of the video surveillance system, Ivideon Server is responsible for the "technical part":
- Storing a video archive in the cloud, locally or in a hybrid way;
- Video recording setup: continuously, according to the schedule, upon the occurrence of any events (various sensors are used - sound or movement);
- Creating a configuration of cameras, as well as copying and its restoration;
- Manage picture quality and control traffic volumes;
With the help of Ivideon Server, you can build a complete video surveillance system from IP cameras (with a resolution of 640x480 and a frame rate of 25 frames / s), webcams, laptop cameras, etc. Of course, the server also works with Ivideon service devices from our store.
The only cameras that cannot be connected are smartphones cameras. But for them there is a third-party solution - IPWebcam - which turns the phone into a network camera that works with the Ivideon service.
Ivideon Server is free for all users. To launch it, a machine with a 1.6 GHz dual-core processor and SSE 2 instruction set, as well as 512 megabytes of RAM, is enough. In part, this is possible thanks to the support of GPU for video transcoding, which significantly reduced the load on the server.
Software motion sensors
The wide range of supported devices is due to the fact that motion sensors are software. Cameras begin to write a few seconds before the event on the detector due to the built-in short image buffering.
In the settings, you can set the sensitivity of the detector, specify a dead zone in which movement will be ignored (highlighted in red in the screenshot above). Yellow areas are segmented movement. At a high level of sensitivity, the camera will respond to the fluctuation of the curtains. At the minimum - only if the person crosses the room.
Another sensor that is implemented at the software level is a sound detector. Of course, it only works if there is a microphone in the camera. In the settings of this detector, you can set its sensitivity and set the schedule. You can select the days and hours when the recording is ongoing, activate recording only when the detector is triggered, or completely disable the sensor. The recording time when the sensor is triggered is 15 minutes, half an hour or an hour.
The program can adjust the volume of outgoing traffic and image quality for webcams and maintain the best balance for the user.
Ivideon Server supports ONVIF protocol . As a result, users have the opportunity to connect any ONVIF-events, including video analytics events.
Ivideon Server automatically finds and connects most ONVIF-compatible cameras and receives advanced information on motion detection and sub-streams from them. This significantly reduces the load on the server's processor and allows you to connect more cameras.
Some users on Habré asked - and we did: implemented support for Linux Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, and also added the ability to restore video server configurations from the command line without using the GUI.
The current version of Ivideon Server is always available here .
How data is stored
As we said earlier, Ivideon Server is responsible for storing the archive of videos in the cloud. Our cloud form 15 data centers.
All user data is encrypted and stored in a “disassembled form” - that is, it is divided into blocks and distributed between different servers. The keys for their decryption are also placed separately. All employees who have access to servers with keys do not have access to servers with data.
Data transfer occurs via TLS-channels, which protects them from viewing at intermediate nodes. Protecting video from employees of the company is organizational and technical methods.
In addition, using Ivideon Server, data can be stored in Edge Storage mode. This mode is available for the Nobelic camera series ., Dahua, Hikvision and several models of Oco Pro cameras. It allows you to work with a local archive located on board a video surveillance device connected to the Ivideon Server. This allows you to install Ivideon Server on inexpensive devices without a hard disk.
You can also create several independent local video archives, including on different disks, with their own settings. It more effectively distributes the load when writing and reading data in a system with a large number of cameras and several disks for storage.
When developing Ivideon solutions, we tried to make the UX as understandable and convenient as possible so that the user could always quickly accomplish his task - to get a piece of the record he needed or open the broadcast from the camera. At the same time, we wanted to make our application multifunctional and ready to work both at home and at industrial enterprises, combining the best functional solutions in the industry and improving them.
In addition to the presented Ivideon Server and Desktop Client, we also have mobile applications for iOS and Android . "Excursion" on them we will spend in our next article.