External video viewers

Last modified: Wednesday October 19, 2022.

A common requirement, particularly in retail outlets or in healthcare facilities, is for security camera installations to be able to show the live footage from one or more cameras to members of the public.

Configuring monitors in this way serves as a reminder to the public that a security camera installation is not only fitted, but is also operational. Often located near the entrances, these monitors show anyone entering the store or facility video of themselves and others as a visual reminder of the functioning security system.

With the Alta Video video management systems, you can configure external devices to display the streams from your Video view. For larger stores or premises with multiple entrances, you can configure different external views, so, for example, each entrance could show only the people entering the store by that entrance.

External views can also be configured to show multiple camera views, or to rotate the cameras seen on the device. They can also be configured to show additional information layers such as timelines, bounding boxes, and Counts.

To set up Alta Video and your monitoring devices to show external views:

1. Create the required Video view in Alta Video.
   See: Create your Video views
2. Using your preferred Video view, created the External viewers.
   See: Create an external video viewer
3. From the external monitoring device, create a shortcut to the External viewer.
   See: Create a shortcut to your External viewers
4. From the external monitoring device, configure the External device to autostart on device startup.
   See: Configure your external video viewer to automatically start