CCTV viewing software

[Whiskers]

A venue that I look after as a good cause insists that it is a "technical job" to review hours of raw cctv footage when there has been or might have been an incident. The one technician is overwhelmed by these requests , "all eleven cameras for the last week please" There is always a good reason for the request

 

Anyone know of a package that uses movement detection preferably with defined areas to semi automate viewing the CCTV files ,

 

[gyro_gearloose]

Are you looking for software to analyse existing video, or do you want to only record when a camera detects movement? Many CCTV systems can be set to record only when they detect movement, but I’m not sure if any can process video that you’ve already recorded. Have a look at Xeoma. It has many modules that can do all sorts of video analysis so it may be able to process your video for you.

[Jivemaster]

11 x 168 hours is an awful lot of time for them to pay for. For future use why not add another recorder doing only record on movement in the existing video chain.

[J Pearce]

Zoneminder or MotionEye are cheap open-source candidates, assuming you have a suitable server with storage etc.

[emsgeorge]

Was going to say, most cameras operate only on movement, saves lots of hard drive space.

 

Check the settings ……….

[bruce]

The firmware on my 100 quid eBay system (4 cameras, HD, 1Tb drive) does this - it even allows you to highlight parts of an image and shows time when there’s movement in that area

[Whiskers]

Are you looking for software to analyse existing video, or do you want to only record when a camera detects movement? Many CCTV systems can be set to record only when they detect movement, but I'm not sure if any can process video that you've already recorded. Have a look at Xeoma. It has many modules that can do all sorts of video analysis so it may be able to process your video for you.

 

analyze existing video, Although viewing is deemed a technical activity admin are in charge of the system, yes I know that is unfair!

[Robin D]

Try Handysaw DS which is a particularly sensitive scene detector. Most video editor software has scene detection, some of which you can set the sensitivity of. It would give you a scene to play everytime there was a 'change' in the image, so you may find you already have something. I uses some old specialist software, plus Nero for quick stuff. Both allow you to set the sensitivity of the scene detection.

[andy™]

depending on the recorder & software it may flag up motion on the timeline so you can easily skip periods of inactivity. at least blue iris does, cant say for other manufacturers or software

 

if youre looking for big changes, I.e a door has been left open or something removed then you can easily skip days, hours etc looking for a change then narrow down til you find it

[emsgeorge]

Strange question, are you directly employed by said venue ?

 

Or freelance, or contracted by someone else to look after it.

 

To throw mud here...….. contracted and freelance would require an SIA CCTV licence to review footage. In house or directly employed staff don't.

[Whiskers]

Strange question, are you directly employed by said venue ?

 

Or freelance, or contracted by someone else to look after it.

 

To throw mud here...….. contracted and freelance would require an SIA CCTV licence to review footage. In house or directly employed staff don't.

None, I help the technician, the venue is a good cause! I do not view the stuff myself, I can not donate that much time. The guy who views is staff and paid.

 

I know that many DVRs have motion detect but admin will not permit any use of them.

 

The guy who views gets the raw files for the period and sits down with a windows laptop, none of that can be changed because the system was installed by experts,

 

Admin has spoken. So the only solution will be software preferably windows, and thanks for the suggestions so far.

[Junior8]

If they are prepared to pay this worker to waste their time and the venue's money in this way and you are a a volunteer helper leave them to it. They won't implement anything you suggest anyway in all probability.

[Stuart91]

If they are prepared to pay this worker to waste their time and the venue's money in this way and you are a a volunteer helper leave them to it. They won't implement anything you suggest anyway in all probability.

 

That's a fair enough point, but I think what the OP is trying to do is find a way to save their friend (the hapless worker) from the drudgery of sifting through hours of footage. That seems like a worthwhile endeavour to me.

[nmr]

DVR-Scan? Seems to do what you want. Free, open source and has a windows version

https://dvr-scan.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Never used it, so no idea how good/accurate it is.

 

[gyro_gearloose]

The trouble processing existing video is that you're going to need to transfer the data off the CCTV system and onto a computer. 11 cameras for a week will give you a Terrabyte or two of data, which will take time simply to move across to the computer let alone the amount of time it will take to process said video. The limiting factor in the data transfer speed will be the fact that the CCTV system will still be writing to the hard drive(s) while you are trying to read from it/them. You might want to bring a book or two to read while the files are being transferred :)