One of the added features in the lastest version (v6.5) of Milestone’s XProtect Basis+ and XProtect Professional recording software is hourly archiving.
Why do we need hourly archiving?
The reason behind multiple archiving slots is down to the constraints for daily recording which will only allow 600000 records or 40GB worth of data to be stored per camera, per day. This is normally sufficient for most cameras and uses but due to the increasing popularity of megapixel cameras you can find this limit running out quickly when storing a lot of high-resolution images. If the total amount of data goes beyond 40GB in one day then recording for that camera stops and won’t start again until the images have been archived. This leads to gaps in your archives.
Having multiple archiving slots alleviates this problem. You can now set the software to archive more than once per day and here’s how…
(more…)
Milestone have recently launched an update to their XProtect Basis+ and XProtect Professional software. This takes the version number from 6.0 to 6.5.
We blogged about this at the end of last month detailing the key list of updates found on V6.5 but we wanted to also include a more comprehensive cheat sheet to make the comparison between the two a little easier to understand:
| |
 |
 |
| Patrolling and scanning |
NO |
YES |
| Maximum number of clients |
1 |
Unlimited |
| Evidence export formats |
JPEG,AVI,WAV |
JPEG,AVI,WAV, Native Database |
| Mobile client |
NO |
YES |
| Virtual matrix |
NO |
YES |
| XProtect central support |
NO |
YES |
| XProtect Analytics Framework |
NO |
YES |
| Maximum number of cameras |
25 |
64 |
| Device license packages |
4, 6, 9, 16, 25 |
4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 50, 64 |
| Product maintenance agreement |
NO |
YES |
| PDA Client |
NO |
YES |
| Bandwidth optimised multi-streaming |
NO |
YES |
| Two-way audio support |
NO |
YES |
| Supported audio channels |
1 |
Multiple |
| Number of preset positions |
25 |
50 |
| Preset patrolling |
NO |
YES |
| Multiple patrol schemes |
NO |
YES |
| Preset scanning |
NO |
YES |
| Preset patrolling |
NO |
YES |
| Selectable archive retention time per device |
NO |
YES |
| Archiving to network drives |
NO |
YES |
| Dynamic archiving (disk spanning) |
NO |
YES |
| SMS Notification |
NO |
YES |
For more information see Milestone’s comparison chart:
Milestone XProtect Comparison Chart August 2008
Milestone is an open platform IP video recording application with support for over 400 different IP camera models and is reliable, flexible, with limitless integration possibilities. We actually consider Milestone to be the leading third-party IP camera recording software that you can use today and what’s more, you can download a 1-camera version of Xprotect Professional for free.
What this guide will show you is how to download the Free 1-camera license for Xprotect Professional, install it to your system and add your camera. In part 2 we will cover live video, recording and camera settings.
This software is suitable for the following operating systems:
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
- Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server
- Windows Server 2003 (32 and 64 bit)
- Windows XP Professional (32 and 64 bit)
- Windows Vista Business (32 bit)
- Windows Vista Enterprise (32 bit)
- Windows Vista Ultimate (32 bit)
HOWTO:
STEP 1 - Check compatibility
Milestone supports a huge amount of IP camera models from a wide range of different manufacturers but before you go through the registration process and download the software it would be wise to check if the camera you are planning to use is supported.
Go to the following page on the Milestone website and make sure your IP camera is on the supported list of devices:
http://milestonesys.com/Support/Questions_and_Answers/Supported_Hardware/Enterprise
STEP 2 - Registration Process
Go to the following URL:
http://milestonesys.com/Downloads/Free_XProtect_License
To be able to download the free 1-camera license you have to register with the Milestone website. Click the link ‘Continue to Registration’ to being the registration process. You will be presented with the following screen:
Most of the fields on this page are self explanatory. Just enter your name, address and company details as you would for any other form. The interesting field is at the bottom of the page. This field asks you for a ‘Camera MAC address’.
Device License Keys (DLKs)
Security in Milestone comprises of two main license. The license key for the software (Software License Code or SLC) and the license for every camera you add to your system (Device License Key or DLK).
When you register for your free 1-channel version of the software you also have to register the camera you intend to use with it by entering the camera’s MAC address in the field provided. The camera’s MAC address will be printed on the camera (or you may be able to find it in the camera’s system menu or printed on the box the camera shipped in).
Once complete you should recieve the message:
Registration Successfully Completed.
You will soon receive an email from Milestone Systems with your free Software License Code (SLC) and a Device License Key (DLK) for your camera, together with installation instructions.
Step 3 - Download Software
Go to your email inbox and open the registration email you should have just recieved from Milestone. In this email, under the ‘Installation Instructions’ heading you will find a link to your software. Click this link to download the software, it will be approximately: 100MB in size.
Once downloaded, double-click the icon to run the setup wizard:
Click ‘Next >’
Click ‘Yes’ to agree to the license agreement if you are happy to proceed.
Select your required language and click ‘Next >’
Select ‘Licensed Version’ and click ‘Next >’
Enter your name, company name and the Software License code which you will find in the registration email sent to you at the registration process (see STEP 2). Select to install the application for ‘Anyone’ and click ‘Next >’
You are then presented with two choices. To install as a Windows service or as an application. The normal installation method is to install as an application as this will give you live images to monitor. Installing as a Windows service allows the system to be set up for recording and playback but there will be no live viewing monitor application. This is generally suited for underpowered PCs which cannot handle the display of live images on-screen. Select which you prefer and click the ‘Next >’ button.
Select which language you want the remote client to run in and click the ‘Next >’
Then answer the remaining questions about hard disk location and whether you would like a desktop icon etc. and after which your Milestone XProtect Professional 1-camera license should be installed.
To confirm your installation you should now have 3 new desktop icons:
Administrator - where you configure all your recording, playback and camera settings
Image Server Administrator - where you configure remote access
Monitor - application which allows live image monitoring and playback of recordings
STEP 4 - Adding your camera
Before you add your camera we will assume that you have configured it with a suitable IP address to work on your local network.
To begin, click the ‘Administrator’ icon to load the admin console. You should see a dialog box similar to the one below:
Click the ‘Add Device’ button at the top right to add your camera.
Enter the local IP address of your camera in the box provided (or if you are using a host name, first check the ‘Use DNS host names’ button and enter your host name). If your camera is using a non-standard port for either HTTP access (default 80) or FTP (default 21) then click the port setup button and enter your ports, otherwise click the ‘Next >’ button.
Next enter the administration password for your camera. Note that you cannot input a username for the camera as the Milestone software expects a default username for each camera type (’root’ for Axis, ‘admin1′ for Panasonic etc.) Check with the Milestone website what username is expected for your camera type.
In the dropdown box you can select your camera model (quicker) or let the software auto-detect.
After a short while the software will display a dialog box similar to the one above confirming the connection of the camera (we’re using a Panasonic camera as an example).
Enter the DLK (device license key) in the area provided and click the ‘Next >’ button to proceed. The DLK was sent in your registration email (see STEP 2).
Once you have entered the DLK the final step is to give the camera a name. This will be the name which is displayed on the live monitor page. Don’t worry about what you call it, this can be changed later if you want to rename it. To finish adding your camera enter a name and click the ‘Finish’ button.
FINISH
And that’s the end of Part 1. We have covered registering, downloading, installing and adding a camera to the Milestone Free 1-camera License version. In the next part we will look at the live monitor, recording and camera settings.
