IONODES ION-R200 Secure Display Station Plug In for Milestone XProtect User Manual

IONODES ION-R200 Secure Display Station Plug In for Milestone XProtect User Manual

No part of this documentation may be reproduced in any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, except as expressed in the Software License Agreement. IONODES shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. The information in this document is subject to change without notice.

The information in this publication is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind. The entire risk arising out of the use of this information remains with recipient. In no event shall IONODES be liable for any direct, consequential, incidental, special, punitive, or other damages whatsoever (including without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption or loss of business information), even if IONODES has been advised of the possibility of such damages and whether in an action or contract or tort, including negligence.

This software and documentation are copyrighted. All other rights, including ownership of the software, are reserved to IONODES Inc. XProtect is registered trademark of Milestone Systems. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective owners.

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Warning: Text set off in this manner indicates that failure to follow directions could result in damage to persons or equipment.

Note: Text set off in this manner indicates special instructions which should be paid attention to.

Introduction

The Secure Display Station Plug-in for Milestone® XProtect allows for seamless integration of the Secure Display Station (SDS) appliances within the Milestone XProtect® VMS solution. It allows for user control of the views, layouts and cameras displayed on the SDS from within the XProtect® Smart Client application.

The diagram below shows the elements involved with this integration.

Milestone Open Network Bridge extends the capabilities of the Milestone XProtect® server and provides ONVIF services required for integration with an IONODES Secure Display Station. The plug-in adds a set of user interfaces within the XProtect® Management Client and Smart Client allowing users to configure and control various aspects of the integration.

Requirements

Integration is supported as of IONODES SDS firmware 6.7.1.0 and Milestone XProtect® 2021 R2. This integration requires the Milestone Open Network Bridge and the IONODES SDS Plug-in for Milestone XProtect, which are currently supported on the following editions of the Milestone XProtect® VMS: Express+, Professional+, Expert and Corporate.

As of the Milestone XProtect® release 2021 R2, the Milestone Open Network Bridge (ONB) has the following known limitations:

• Automatic Codec detection does not work for some devices and drivers. When settings cannot be detected from a camera, the bridge uses its default codec configured in XProtect® Management Client:
  
  This can result in ‘Connection Lost…’ messages being displayed on the SDS. When cameras using different codecs are not being automatically detected, it is not possible to set a default codec that works for all cameras. Until this limitation is resolved in the ONB, the workaround is to use the same codec (H.264 or H.265) for all camera live streams and set this codec as the bridge’s default.

• The ONB cannot stream videos from devices that have Privacy Masking enabled.

Installing the Secure Display Station Plug-in for Milestone® XProtect

Refer to Milestone’s documentation for most up-to-date instructions on how to install and configure the Milestone Open Network Bridge.

1. At this time, the documentation is found at https://doc.milestonesys.com/latest/enUS/index.htm
2. Third-Party Integration header
3. Milestone Open Network Bridge menu item

Follow Milestone’s ONB installation and configuration instructions. Pay attention to the section that details user settings for ONVIF client (security controls). SDS integration requires a ‘Basic User’ configured as an ONVIF client (Windows User is not supported by the SDS). Credentials for this ONVIF client user will be required later in the plug-in configuration.
Once Milestone ONB is installed, follow these steps to install the IONODES SDS Milestone Plug-in.

Installing the plug-in

1. Shutdown all Milestone XProtect® client applications, such as the Smart Client, Management Client or any other client application

2. Stop all Milestone XProtect® server components and services

3. Run the IONODES SDS Plug-in for Milestone XProtect installer on the Milestone XProtect® Management server, and on any computer where the XProtect® Smart Client and Management Client will be used to configure SDS integration.
   Milestone requires plug-ins to be installed in a specific folder relative to its own installation location (C:\Program Files\Milestone\MIPPlugins by default). If your installation location is different, adjust the plug-in installation path accordingly

4. Restart all Milestone XProtect® server components and services

Configuring the plug-in

1. Once the plug-in is installed, open the XProtect® Management Client. The new IONODES menu item will be available from the Site Navigation pane

2. From the Tools toolbar menu

3. Select Options…
   
   

4. In the Options window, select the IONODES tab

5. Enter the Open Network Bridge Settings configured during installation of the ONB. If unsure, these settings can be verified in the Site Navigation pane, under Servers >Open Network Bridge Servers

6. Set the Default Credentials for SDS ONVIF client connection (ONVIF client user configured during installation of the ONB)

7. Click OK

Adding a Secure Display Station to Milestone XProtect®

Once the IONODES SDS Plug-in is installed and configured, follow these steps to add a new Secure Display Station (SDS) device to your Milestone system.

1. From the XProtect® Management Client Site Navigation pane, expand the IONODES item and rightclick on IONODES Secure Display Station from either the left or center pane.

2. Click Add New…
   

3. In the Add IONODES Secure Display Station window, enter the name under which the SDS will appear in XProtect® Smart Client

4. Enter an optional description

5. Enter the SDS IP Address and select HTTP or HTTPS protocol for communication between the IONODES MIP Plug-in and the SDS (HTTPS recommended)

6. Enter the SDS login credentials

7. In the Open Video Bridge Connectivity , check Use Default Bridge Credentials to use the default ONVIF client credentials set for the IONODES SDS Milestone Plug-in

8. Click OK
   
   

9. Upon successful addition, the SDS will be added with information such as the serial number and firmware version. Click on the Save toolbar icon.

Note: The steps above show a simple deployment, where a single ONVIF client user is configured and all SDS connect with that user (Default Bridge credentials). It is possible to add any number of ONVIF client users to the ONB and set different credentials for individual SDS. This could be warranted to limit SDS access to specific video streams.

Configuring Secure Display Station Views

Follow these steps to configure live views on an SDS.

1. From the XProtect® Smart Client, select the Live tab

2. Click on Setup to toggle it ON

3. Select or create a View with the desired layout you wish to display in the SDS
   

4. Drag and drop cameras into tiles to configure the desired view layout and camera assignments.
   Note that only live camera streams can be displayed. No other types of sources (static image, web content, analytics, etc.) are supported.

5. Once the view configuration is completed, toggle the Setup mode to OFF
   

6. From the MIP Plug-ins > IONODES Secure Display Stations section’s drop-down menu, select the SDS display output where the configured view shall be displayed.

7. Click on Copy view to SDS , this will copy the view configuration to the selected SDS.

Note: Secure Display Stations support a maximum of 16 tiles per view. Attempting to send a view with more than 16 tiles will return an error message.

Viewing the Secure Display Station Video Output

Once the SDS is added to Milestone XProtect® and live view layout(s) are configured, your SDS Video Output Preview(s) and actual monitoring display should reflect what has been set.

The screenshot below shows how the Video Output preview in the SDS Web GUI looks like after configuring the view from XProtect® Smart Client in the previous section.

The screenshot below shows the actual Video Output on video wall.

To later change the SDS view, repeat steps described in the previous section.

Licensing

When installing the plug-in, it will activate a demo license for ten (10) Secure Display Stations. The demo license has no feature limitation, is valid for 30 days, and followed by a 30-day grace period. Production licenses can be obtained by contacting the IONODES sales team (sales@ionodes.com) or your authorized reseller. Licenses are activated following the same process as Milestone XProtect licensing.

1. From XProtect Management Client’s Site Navigation, expand the Basics menu item and open License Information
2. Note your system’s Software License Code. This code is required when purchasing an IONODES plug-in license from IONODES or from an authorized reseller.
3. Upon purchase, licenses will be assigned to this system and available through the Milestone Customer Dashboard. Automatic, manual online and manual offline license activation are supported by the plug-in. Refer to Milestone documentation web page, under the Milestone Customer Dashboard header for detailed instructions: https://doc.milestonesys.com/latest/enUS/index.htm

Annex A – Troubleshooting Guide

• Video Tiles show “Connection Lost” on the SDS

  • Logon to the SDS web UI and enable the Video Output Stream Details to display troubleshooting information overlays.

  • An RTSP error code 401 Unauthorized on all video tiles indicates the SDS Milestone Plug-in is configured with invalid Milestone Open Network Bridge credentials (either the default credentials for the plug-in or the individual credentials for a specific SDS).
    

  • A Connection failed error on all video tiles indicates the SDS cannot connect to the Milestone Open Network Bridge’s (ONB) RTSP server.
    

  • Verify that the ONB is running.

  • Verify the ONB’s ONVIF client user has a corresponding Basic User in Milestone XProtect® Management Client. Basic User shall have a Role where Overall Security allows camera Read and View live.

  • Verify the ONB IP address and RTSP port in the SDS Milestone Plug-in options

  • A Connection failed error on a single video tile likely indicates the Milestone® Recording server lost connection with that camera.

• Cannot add SDS to Milestone

  • Verify the SDS is connected, and its network settings are properly configured.
  • SDS Milestone Plug-in requires credentials for an SDS user with Poweruser or higher role.

Note: Milestone XProtect® Management Server, Smart Client and/or Open Network Bridge services may need to be restarted when settings are changed for troubleshooting.

References

• IONODES | Video innovations that work for you.
• Milestone Documentation
• Milestone Documentation | Milestone Systems 2023 R3

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