FingerTec Newsletter Vol: 10 Year: 2013 | Integrating EpiCamera with Ingress to Monitor Doors

Application Series

Integrating EpiCamera with Ingress to Monitor Doors

An Internet protocol camera, or IP cam, is a digital video camera that sends and receives data via a computer network or the Internet. Primarily used for surveillance, the rise in available & affordable IP cams has been a major boost to the security industry as it makes implementations more feasible and accessible to all markets. As such, an increasing segment of the consumers are already implementing these cameras or planning to do so to improve the comprehensiveness of their security systems. Ingress, the Advanced Access Control System, recognizes this shift in consumer behavior and currently supports integration with the Cloud Surveillance System provider, EpiCamera, and Milestones’ XProtect Series.

Inside the Ingress software, it is possible to pair a monitored door with an IP cam that is connected to either EpiCamera or Milestones’ XProtect Series to increase security at said door. This will be especially useful when the administrator needs to view footage of an event when there is an abnormality reported. The Ingress system will automatically start recording these abnormal events (such as door forced open) under its Monitoring tab, and administrators can access the footage for viewing. The recording can also be exported into various image or video formats such as AVI, MKV, BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF and TIFF.

All a user needs is an IP cam that is connected with either EpiCamera or Milestones to start using this feature in Ingress, all with just a few simple steps. For the example below, we will use an IP cam that is connected to EpiCamera.

STEP 1

Firstly, add the IP cam by going to the System Settings tab, and clicking on EpiCamera under Network Camera Integration.

STEP 2

When prompted with a window containing Network Camera Integration Information, click Edit and fill in the necessary information. Remember to also click Test Connection to ensure it is established. Click OK when done to save your settings.

STEP 3

In Ingress, click on the Door tab and click Add Camera.

STEP 4

When prompted with the Add Camera window, select EpiCamera and choose the IP cam that was previously added. After clicking OK and saving your progress, the IP cam will then be displayed at the left panel under its paired door.

STEP 5

Voila! You can now view real-time footage from the IP cam simply by selecting it and clicking Show Live View, while abnormal activities will automatically be recorded under the Monitoring tab. Enjoy the features!