MOBOTIX Camera Overview
This page is also accessible from the online help index. To open the help index, click on the 
symbol.
Available options depend on the camera model. For additional information on the different MOBOTIX camera models, see www.mobotix.com.
Remarks on this page:
- highlights new camera features.
- highlights camera features, which have been expanded or improved significantly.
Screens of the Camera
- Live screen: Live images with access to certain control features and pre-defined softbuttons. Button for saving the current image to the local computer.
- PDA screen: Live images on a screen that has been adapted for PDAs, smart phones and similar devices.
- Player screen: Video management system with access to stored images and event stories recorded by this and by other cameras. Button for saving the current image to the local computer.
- MultiView screen Multiple display of live/event images from this and from other cameras with softbuttons for accessing pre-defined and custom settings.
- Multiwatcher: Displays the live/event images and the alarm list of this and other MOBOTIX cameras via a "proxy camera". This means that only one camera needs to be accessible from outside of the network and this camera allows you to see live images and event lists of this and other cameras within the network.
- Guest screen: Live images without the possibility of influencing camera features.
- Preview mode displays the camera's images as small preview images and uses a lot less bandwidth than the regular images.
Camera Operation
- Controlling the camera using the freely configurable softbuttons.
- Easier camera operation using the camera wizards:
- Arm & Record softbutton: Arms the camera, activates event recording, MxPEG video codec, microphone, a video motion detector and the User Click event.
- Audio on softbutton: Activates the camera microphone and audio output on the computer (only when using Internet Explorer on Windows computers).
- Image Program Quick Control: Use this wizard to quickly adjust the MOBOTIX camera to the current application scenario. The image programs (Fast, Security Application, Quality, High Quality, Webcam) perform a number of steps each and – if desired – store the new configuration in the permanent storage of the camera.
- Image Size > Custom Size Quick Control: Uses a rectangle created in the live image by [Shift] click, click to create a custom image area.
- Zoom > Zoom to Rectangle Quick Control: Uses a rectangle in the live image created by [Shift]-click, click to zoom into the selected image area until it fills the current size of the image.
- Focusing Aid: This feature greatly facilitates the focal adjustment of cameras with exchangeable lenses.
Functional Overview
This version of the camera software has the following main features:
Image Processing
- Live Images at 2048x1536 pixels resolution (QXGA, 3 megapixels) via network, ISDN, GSM, WLAN with up to 30 fps, also adapted for PDAs.
- To set a custom resolution and image size, first draw a rectangle ([Shift]-click, then click) in the camera's live image and then click on the Image Size > Define Custom Image Size Quick Control; you can also use the parameters of the General Image Settings dialog for this purpose.
- Picture in Zoom and Event in Picture display modes besides the regular Full Image display mode.
- Preview images with 160×120 pixels resolution (320×120 pixels resolution on dual camera models) for image transmission with reduced network bandwidths.
- Automatic switching from day lens (color) to the eight times more light-sensitive night lens (B/W, Secure Day/Night models only).
- Digital zoom with zoom buttons (Zoom +, Zoom -, and integrated virtual pan/tilt feature (from zoom level 1.1x); can be configured individually for each image sensor. The camera will move the zoomed image section when click anywhere but the center of the image.
- Obscure Image Area (OA) feature for privacy protection at the workplace or other areas (only Secure models).
- Object Tracing for analyzing the paths of objects that are moving in the image.
- Exposure control using pre-set or freely definable exposure measurement windows and the possibility to exclude certain areas within these windows (e.g. street lamps).
- The exposure programs of the MOBOTIX camera influence the balance between an exposure time that is as short as possible and hardware amplification that is as low as possible. The objective is to reach a fair compromise between clear images of moving objects (short exposure time, high amplification) and as little image noise as possible (long exposure time, low amplification).
Event Control and Detection
- Use the Event Logic dialog to create a logic event only if other events occur in a certain sequence and within the specified time frame. This allows detecting direction of motion when using the video motion detectors VM and VM2 ()Event Settings, for example.
- Video motion detector with freely definable detection windows recognizes movements depending on the
a= (% changed area) and am= (% maximum changed area) as well as s= (sensitivity) parameters. Reference windows, which must not change, for avoiding false alarms.
- The
$generate= parameter provides a method for automatically generating a set of video motion windows of the same size that cover the entire image area (see the Video Motion Detection help page for more information).
- Event sensors recognize and process the following events: PIR sensor, video motion detector, microphone, Signal Input, three additional signal inputs, periodic event, time tasks, user click, recording start, recording end, history image recording, recording terminate, camera buttons, network message, RS232 message, temperature, illumination, random event.
- Event filtering using the Event Counter, which will only process an alarm, if e.g. more than five events are detected within 10 seconds.
- Time Tables with handling of custom days for holidays and vacations. The time tables are used to control the camera's arming, messaging, logo, obscure image and other features.
- The Master/Slave mode allows arming state and custom signals of a master camera to be distributed throughout a set of slave cameras that can then use this information to control their own arming.
Messaging and Actions
- Full-fledged VoIP integration using the SIP protocol for all features that were only available with ISDN: Manage Audio Messages, Phone Profiles, Phone Call-In and Camera Phone as well as Messaging and Messaging 2 for phone calls by the camera upon recognizing the specified events.
- Event Notification by e-mail, SMS (using a provider), phone calls (voice), sounds and by visual means using two separate messaging paths (Messaging and Messaging 2).
- Actions, Messaging and Messaging 2 now have their own activation switches and can be controlled using different Time Table profiles.
- Enhanced network (IP) messages with transmission of text, image data (MxPEG clip of JPEG files), image information or system messages, as raw TCP/IP data or with HTTP header.
- When sending an alarm using Phone Profiles, the camera can call several numbers using VoIP or ISDN until the alarm has been acknowledged.
Recording Features
- Open the Storage on External File Server / Flash Device dialog to set the camera's storage options on the different recording targets:
- File servers (Windows, Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X).
- Internal or external Flash storage devices (e.g. factory-installed Flash devices on R models or USB sticks).
- Internal video storage of the camera.
- Event-controlled Recording in the camera or on file servers up to the Terabyte range. Efficient storage of image data as MxPEG clips with audio or JPEG files.
- Continuous Recording with reduced frame (down to one image every five seconds), automatically increasing frame rate on events and permanent sound recording.
- Player for playing back the recorded images/event stories (up to 50 pre- and post-alarm images for Secure models) of the integrated video management system.
- Recording history images allows creating time-lapse images at chosen intervals.
- Storage Failure Detection can monitor a recording target (file server or Flash device) and use one or more of the defined messaging options for error notification.
- When using Storage on External File Server / Flash Device, the camera can periodically copy the logfile for event storage, the web server logfile and the system messages to the recording target (file server or Flash device).
Image and Sound Transmission
- Transfer profiles for improved handling of FTP, E-Mail and IP Notify transfers.
- MxPEG video compression using the free MxControlCenter for Windows. The ActiveX plug-in for Internet Explorer users brings all advantages of MxPEG (including the camera's audio stream) to the browser-based user interface.
- Lip-synchronous transmission of the camera microphone's sound using MxControlCenter or the integrated ActiveX plug-in for Internet Explorer on Windows computers.
Telephony (ISDN and VoIP)
- Speaker Phone with speak, listen and intercom modes using the microphone and speaker, now also possible using VoIP and SIP telephony.
- Phone Call-In to remotely control the camera using a touchtone telephone (retrieve camera information, establish Internet connection, announcement of retrieved IP address, intercom feature, etc.), now also possible using VoIP and SIP telephony..
- VoIP (VoIP Settings) has been expanded to include video telephony.
Security
- User management with predefined groups admins, users and guests; other groups can be created in the Group Access Control Lists dialog.
- Access to screens and functions can be permitted to groups of users in the Group Access Control Lists dialog.
- The Web Server Logfile logs all accesses to the camera and thus allows detecting unauthorized access attempts.
- The web server now features SSL, providing for encrypted connections (SSL/TLS) when accessing the camera in the browser. The camera can either use the certificate generated by the camera itself or a certificate created by a certificate authority for this purpose.
- A Supervisor can define scheduled access control for restricting access to a camera to a specific user group or control organs in highly regulated work environments, for instance. To activate the supervisor, open the Users and Passwords dialog.
- IP-Level Access Control can restrict access based on the IP address of the device that is trying to access the camera by allowing or denying access for specific IP addresses or address ranges.
- Intrusion Detection can send notifications via E-Mail, make phone calls and send IP Notify (network) messages if the camera detects several failed access attempts from the same IP address. If IP-Level Access Control has been set up, the camera can automatically block the IP address, from which the unsuccessful logins had been attempted (until the next camera reboot).
Network Features
- Test Current Network Configuration for testing the interfaces, all defined messaging, network and selection profiles.
- Error Notification can use one of the following methods for alerting in case the camera detects error messages: Live Image, Camera LEDs, Audio Message (camera speaker), image transfer via FTP, sending the error messages via E-Mail, placing a Phone Call or sending an IP Notify network message. Likewise, the camera can execute a notification every time the camera has rebooted.
- Routing allows using other connections besides the default connection. This feature provides ways and means to use different gateways and ISDN data connections for different tasks.
- DynDNS client for accessing the camera using a symbolic name (e.g.
mymobotixcam.dyndns.org) although the provider is assigning a new IP address every time the camera connects to the Internet.
- Enhanced startup options for the camera (obtain IP address via DHCP, announcement of IP address and other network data, reset to factory default settings) using the blue R and L keys on the camera's front.
- Using Zeroconf/Bonjour (see Ethernet Interface), the camera itself (see the Multiwatcher help page) or MxControlCenter can find and configure other MOBOTIX cameras on the subnet.
- The options in the IEEE 802.1X section of the Ethernet Interface dialog allow using a certificate for the camera to authenticate itself at a switch or authentication server before it is allowed to use the network.
Web Features
- Logo generator for displaying logos in the camera's image with the following dialogs: Manage Image Files, Image Profiles and Logo Profiles for controlling logo display.
- Logos can have transparent areas and can be displayed partially transparent (watermark effect), banner rotation and animations are also possible.
- FTP Profiles have been expanded by Streaming FTP, providing for shorter update intervals of images on web sites.
Other Functions
Additional Information
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