Create your Video views

Last modified: Thursday November 09, 2023.

Use a combination of the Cameras and Layouts (and, if enabled, Access control points, Sensors, and Speakers) tools in Video view to create your preferred layout to view your cameras. You can save them for your own use or share these views with other users.

Once you have created a view, you can save it as a Default view shown each time you log into Alta Video and open Video view.

Create your Video views

  1. Choose Tools Tools > Video view Video view.
  2. Expand Layouts.

    If you cannot see the left pane containing Cameras, Access control points, Sensors, Speakers, Point of sale, Layouts, and Views , click Sidebar button to display the sidebar.

    1. Select the layout to use.
      For the 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 layouts, the timelines are hidden until you select playback mode for the panes. Also, for these layouts, you can only play back four video panes at a time.
      If you have an existing View configured, when you select the new layout, any additional panes are displayed with empty panes.
  3. Assign cameras to the panes:
    • To configure a single camera per pane:
      1. Expand the Cameras area in the left-hand sidebar. Click Labels icon to filter cameras by site name and device name, or click Labels icon to filter by label.
      2. Drag the camera to be added to the pane from which to view the feed.

        To check that you have selected the correct camera, click on the camera name to open a thumbnail view from that camera.

    • To set camera rotations:
      1. Expand the Cameras area in the left-hand sidebar.
      2. To configure all cameras in a site or Device group to rotate within a pane, drag the site or Device Group into the blank pane.
      3. Alternatively, drag a site or Device group to the center position on the pane layout. This auto-populates the panes with the selected cameras. All filled panes will rotate through the selected cameras, prioritizing alarms and anomalies, and the most interesting camera views.
      4. To further customize the list of cameras that can be shown in a pane, click Rotation settings button Rotation settings.
      5. Drag all the cameras to be shown in rotation onto the relevant pane.
        To add all cameras from a site so that they rotate within a pane, drag the site onto the blank pane.
      6. Click Exit rotations settings to finish adding cameras.
  4. Optional — Set a preset view for the camera:
    1. Right-click the camera view, and click Preset views. Alternatively, select Preset view Preset views from the top-right of the camera view.
    2. Select your required view.
      • For panoramic cameras, select from the available options, choosing from Globe, Panoramic or 2x1 depending on the camera and mounting orientation.
      • For dome or bullet cameras, pan or zoom into the required area of the camera view, select Save this view and then select this, or another previously saved, view as the preset.
  5. Optional — Add Access control points:
    1. Expand the Access control points area in the left-hand sidebar.
    2. Drag the access control point of interest to the relevant pane.
  6. Optional — Add Sensors:
    1. Expand the Sensors area in the left-hand sidebar.
    2. Drag the sensor of interest to the relevant pane. The view from the associated camera is shown, along with the status information from the sensor.
      1. Alta Video displays the current values sent to it from any sensors.
      2. To see live updates from all the sources on the sensor, point-of-sale events Enable sensor info in Layers Layers.
  7. Optional — Add Speakers:
    1. Expand the Speakers area in the left-hand sidebar.
    2. Drag the speaker of interest to the relevant pane.
      If you have already added a camera that has an associated microphone, Microphone button is shown on the camera view.
      If you have associated other cameras with an added speaker, the Associated camera announcements icon icon is shown on the camera view.
  8. Optional — Add Points of Sale:
    1. Expand the Points of Sale area in the left-hand sidebar.
    2. Drag the POS device of interest to the relevant pane.
      If you have already added a camera that has been associated with a POS device, POS register button is shown on the camera view.

Save your new layout as a View

You can save multiple Views. Once saved, you can choose which view to display. If you have multiple monitors, you can view different views on each monitor.

  1. Click Save layout button Save layout.
  2. Type a name for the Video view.
  3. (Optional) To share the view with specific users, select their names from the Share drop-down. You can select multiple users.
  4. (Optional) To share the view with all users, or to use this view with devices using External viewers, toggle All users.
  5. Click Save.

Share an existing view

  1. Expand Views Views.
  2. Right-click the view to share.
  3. (Optional) To share the view with specific users, select their names from the Share drop-down. You can select multiple users.
  4. (Optional) To share the view with all users, or to use this view with devices using External viewers, toggle All users.
  5. Click Save.

Update an existing View

  1. Open the view you want to edit and make your changes.
  2. Right-click your changed view from the left-hand Views area.
  3. Select Update with current view.

Define your Default views

Define the view that is shown when you open Video view.

  1. Right-click your view from the left-hand Views area.
  2. Select Make default view | Video view <x>.

    You can create multiple default views. Once created, each new Video view you open will open the next default view in turn.

  3. (Optional) You can remove or rename previously saved default views by right clicking the default view to be changed and selecting Remove or Rename.