Active and passive camera management
Last modified: Wednesday September 28, 2022.
When evaluating the Avigilon Alta Alta Video video management system with your existing camera infrastructure, you might not want your cameras to be to reconfigured by the Alta video security systems.
To enable you to easily use your existing cameras, either in a dedicated test environment, or to use your cameras in a parallel video management system trial, Avigilon Alta includes passive camera management (where compatible with the capabilities of the cameras you are using).
For cameras using ONVIF protocols
To connect ONVIF cameras to Alta Video, ensure you have an ONVIF Administrator profile on each camera. Refer to your camera manufacturers documentation for details.
| Passive mode | Active mode | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alta Video does not create, modify or delete any ONVIF media profiles | Alta Video attempts to clean up existing ONVIF media profiles, and creates up to five new media profiles. | ||||||||
| Alta Video only requests streams from existing profiles. The parameters for these streams are limited by the existing configurations. | Alta Video dynamically changes the resolution, FPS and GOP length of the encoders to accommodate the requested streams. | ||||||||
| The performance of Alta Video is dependent on the preconfigured streams. | Use Active mode when you are not parallel testing Alta Video against an existing VMS. This mode enables Alta Video to make the best use of the capabilities of your existing cameras. | ||||||||
| To test the Alta Video analytics, we recommend you create an appropriate ONVIF media profile, specifying: |
The accuracy of the analytics detections might be impacted if your cameras are not using optimal profiles. | ||||||||
| If the total number of streams requested by your current VMS and Alta Video exceeds the capacity of your camera, stream requests will fail: |
Alta Video requests a maximum of three streams when in passive mode. |
If you find that your third-party camera feeds intermittently stopping and starting when viewing them, it indicates the streams are stalling. This occurs if the camera does not support real-time stream changing. Please enable Passive mode for this camera.
In passive mode, make sure you have suitable media profiles for the resolution you want to store.
For cameras using VAPIX protocol
Passive and active modes do not apply to Axis cameras operating using the VAPIX protocol. Alta Video does not preconfigure the streams from these cameras, rather, Alta Video requests streams as needed.
If the total number of streams requested by your current VMS and Alta Video exceeds the capacity of your camera, stream requests will fail:
- If your existing VMS is configured for static streams, adding Alta Video does not impact your current VMS.
- If your existing VMS dynamically configures streams, then some streams to either your current VMS or to Alta Video are likely to fail as both fight for resources.
Alta Video requests a maximum of three streams when in passive mode.
Axis cameras
If you are testing your Axis cameras using Alta Video in parallel with your existing VMS, ensure that Alta Video uses the same protocol (either ONVIF or VAPIX) for communication with the cameras as your existing VMS.
