Milestone Smart Client Trainin

Milestone 2020 R1 Professional

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 Table of Content
Page
Topic
Number
XProtect Smart Client (explained) 1
Add-on products 2
XProtect Access (explained) 2
Install XProtect Smart Client 2
Setup mode overview 3
Tabs in XProtect Smart Client 4
Live tab (explained) 4
Playback tab (explained) 4
Search tab (explained) 5
Alarm Manager tab (explained) 5
System Monitor tab (explained) 6
Settings window (explained) 6
Application settings 7
Views (explained) 7
Views (con guration) 8
Searching across view groups 9
Create view groups 10
Create view 11
Copy, rename, or delete views or groups 12
Add cameras to views 12
Add images to views 13
Add text to views 14
Permanently hide camera toolbar 14
Assign shortcut numbers to views 15
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 Cameras (con guration) 15

Digital zoom (explained) 16
Use digital zoom 16
Virtual joystick and PTZ overlay buttons (explained) 17
Live video (explained) 18
Camera indicators (explained) 18
Move cameras to PTZ preset positions 19
Take single snapshots 20
Timeline (explained) 20
Time navigation controls (explained) 21
Add carousels to views 23
Carousel settings 23
PTZ presets (con guration) 23
Add PTZ presets 24
Edit PTZ presets 25
Delete PTZ presets 25
Patrolling pro les (con guration) 26
Add patrolling pro le 26
Delete patrolling pro le 26
Edit patrolling pro le 27
Optimization 28
Enabling hardware acceleration Hardware acceleration (explained) 28
Check hardware acceleration settings 29
Getting to know your XProtect Smart Client 30
View version and plug-in information 30
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 XProtect Smart Client (explained)
Designed for Milestone XProtect® IP video management software, the XProtect
Smart Client is an easy-to-use client application that provides intuitive control over
security installations. Manage security installations with XProtect Smart Client which
gives users access to live and recorded video, instant control of cameras and
connected security devices, and an overview of recordings.

Available in multiple local languages, XProtect Smart Client has an adaptable user
interface that can be optimized for individual operators’ tasks and adjusted according
to speci c skills and authority levels

The interface allows you to tailor your viewing experience to speci c working
environments by selecting a light or dark theme. It also features work-optimized tabs
and an integrated video timeline for easy surveillance operation.

Using the MIP SDK, users can integrate various types of security and business
systems and video analytics applications, which you manage through XProtect Smart
Client.

XProtect Smart Client must be installed on operators' computers. Surveillance system

administrators manage access to the surveillance system through the Management
Client.
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 Add-on products
Milestone has developed add-on products that fully integrate with XProtect to give
you extra functionality.

XProtect Access (explained)

XProtect Access integrates events from one or more access control systems with the
features of the XProtect video management software. The incidents from an access
control system generates events in the XProtect system.

• On the Live tab, you can monitor access control events in real time from the
cameras associated with a door. In setup mode, you can customize your Access
Monitor view items with overlay buttons. In a map view item you can drag access
control units onto the map

• On the Access Control tab, you can view and investigate events, doorstates, or
cardholders.You can search or lter on events and review any related footage. You
can create a report of the events for exporting

• When a person requests access and if your system is con gured for it, a separate
noti cation pops up with a list of related information next to the camera feed. You
can trigger access control commands, such as locking and unlocking of doors.
Available commands depend on your system con guration

Installation

Install XProtect Smart Client

You must install XProtect Smart Client on your computer before you can use it. You
download XProtect Smart Client from the surveillance system server and install it on
your computer.

1. Open your browser and connect to the management server using the URL or IP
address of the server.

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 2. Enter one of the following:

! Local server(http://localhost/installation)
! IP address of the remote server (http://[IP_address]/installation)

3. On the Welcome page, click Language and select the language you want to
use. The XProtect Smart Client setup wizard starts.

4. In the wizard, follow the installation instructions. The wizard suggests an

installation path. Normally, you can use the suggested installation path.
However, if you have previously used add-on products, this path might not be
valid anymore.

Con guration

Setup mode overview

1. Create views

2. Add content to views

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 3. Add overlay buttons

4. Set the camera properties

5. Create and manage views

6. Add cameras to views

7. In setup mode, in the navigation pane, buttons and panes are highlighted in
orange.

Tabs in XProtect Smart Client

The XProtect Smart Client has the following tabs:

• The Live tab for viewing live video

• The Playback tab for viewing recorded video

• The Search tab for making advanced searches for video and metadata.

• The Alarm Manager tab for investigating incidents and alarms

• The System Monitor tab for viewing system information

Live tab (explained)

On the Live tab, you can view live video feeds, and work with audio, carousels,
hotspots, Matrix, smart map, pan- tilt-zoom (PTZ) control, digital zoom, independent
playback, and more.

Here, you can also enter setup mode, where you can set up views for your cameras
and other types of content.

Playback tab (explained)

On the Playback tab, you can investigate recorded video by playing it back, start
search from any camera or view, and then document what you nd by exporting
evidence. To protect the evidence from being deleted from the database, you can also
add evidence locks to recorded video.
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 The timeline gives you advanced features for browsing recorded video and jumping
to a speci c date and time. You can also:

• Listen to audio when connected to selected Milestone surveillance system

• If your XProtect VMS supports smart map, you can get access to the cameras in
your system in a geographical interface, which is easy to navigate.

• Use hotspots, digital zoom, or carousels, navigate sh eye lens images, print
images, and more

Search tab (explained)

On the Search tab, you can search across the different types of data available in your
VMS system. This includes

• Video recordings in genera

• Recordings with motio

• Recordings with motion in selected areas

• Bookmark

• Video recordings with alarm

• Video recordings with events

From the search results, multiple actions are available.

Alarm Manager tab (explained)

On the Alarm Manager tab, you can view and respond to incidents or technical
problems that have triggered an alarm. The tab displays an alarm list, an alarm
preview, and a map if one is available.

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System Monitor tab (explained)

On the System Monitor tab, you can get a visual overview of the current state of
your system servers, cameras, other devices, and the computer running XProtect
Smart Client.

By default, the tiles represent Recording servers, All servers, and All cameras.
Your system administrator speci es the tiles and the threshold value for each state.

Here is a description of the colors used:

• Green : Normal state, Everything is running normally

• Yellow : Warning state, At least one monitoring parameter is above the de ned
value for the Normal state

• Red : Critical state, At least one monitoring parameter is above the de ned value
for the Normal and Warning state

If a tile changes color and you want to identify the server or parameter that caused the
change, click the tile. This opens an overview in the bottom of the screen. Click the
Details button for information about why the state changed.

Settings window (explained)

The Settings window lets you control which features and elements, for example,
language selection, joystick setup and keyboard shortcut setup, you want to use on
each of the tabs. For languages where your normally read and write from right to left,
you can choose to enforce a visual left-to-right interface if needed.

Open the Settings window from the application toolbar:

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Application settings
Application settings let you customize the general behavior and look of your
XProtect Smart Client.

If available, the Follow Server column lets you specify that you want your XProtect
Smart Client to follow the recommended settings of the server. Certain settings are
server-controlled, in which case, con guration on the server decides whether you can
override the settings.

Views (explained
The way video is displayed in XProtect Smart Client is called a view. A view can
contain video from up to 100 cameras, depending on your surveillance system.
XProtect Smart Client can handle an unrestricted number of views, allowing you to
switch between video from various groups of cameras. The layout of each view can
be customized to t its content. To help you maintain an overview, all views are
placed in folders called groups. A group can contain any number of views and, if
required, subgroups.

Views can be private or shared with other users.

In addition to video, views can display web pages and still images (for example,
mugshots). For some surveillance systems, views can even display data from other
applications (such as receipts from a cash register) alongside video

Your user settings, including information about your views, are stored centrally on
the surveillance system server, so you can use your views on any computer that has a
XProtect Smart Client installed.

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Example of a 2x2 view

Views (con guration)

In setup mode, you can create view groups and views, and specify which cameras or
other types of content should be included in each view.

Your ability to edit views and groups depends on your user rights. If you can create
the view or group, you can also edit it.

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 Searching across view groups

If you have a large or complex hierarchy of view groups, the search function makes
navigation easier and allows you to search for views and cameras across the
hierarchy.

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The example below shows the bene t of searching instead of navigating through a
complex hierarchy when you need to get an overview of related views:

Create view groups

Your XProtect Smart Client may be precon gured to display view groups that you
can add your views to. However, you can create your own view groups to help your
organize your views.

Example

Imagine that you have cameras installed on ten different levels in a multi-story
building. You decide to create a view group for each level and name them
accordingly: Ground oor, First oor, Second oor, and so on.

1. In setup mode, in the Views pane, select the Private or Shared top-level folder
you want to add a group to.

2. Click Create New Group:

3. A new group is created named New Group.

4. Select and click the New Group to overwrite the name.

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 5. You can now create views within this group.

Create view
To view or play back video in XProtect Smart Client, rst you must create a view,
where you add the cameras you need.

Requirements

Before creating the view, you need a group that you can add the view to. For more
information.

Steps:

1. In the right corner, click Setup to enter setup mode.

2. In the Views pane, select the group you want to add the view to.

3. Click to create a new view.

4. Select a layout. The layouts are grouped according to their aspect ratio, and
according to whether they are optimized for regular content or content in
portrait mode (where the height is greater than the width).

5. Enter a name for the view by overwriting the default New View name.

6. Click Setup again to exit the setup mode.

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 Copy, rename, or delete views or groups

If you have a view and you want to reuse it, you can copy it. You can also copy a
group of views or a private view to a shared view.

1. In setup mode, in the navigation pane, select the view.

2. Click Copy Or press CTRL+C.

3. Browse to where you want to copy the view, select Paste Or press
CTRL+V.

4. The copied view is by default named the same as the original followed by (2).

To change the name, click Rename Or right-click and select Rename.

5. To delete a view, select the relevant view, and either click Delete Or right-
click and select Delete.

Add cameras to views

To view video from a camera, rst you must add the camera to a view.

1. In setup mode, select the view you want to add a camera to.

2. In the Overview pane, expand the required server to view a list of available
cameras from that server.

3. Select the camera from the list and drag it to a view item inside the view. An
image from the camera appears in the selected view item.

4. You can specify the camera properties (such as quality, frame rate and more) in
the Properties pane. For more information.

5. For each camera you want to add, repeat the steps above.

6. To add multiple cameras to a view, for example all of the cameras from a
camera folder, drag the folder to the view. Make sure a suf cient number of
view items are available in the view.

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 Add images to views

You can display static images in a view. For example, this is useful when you want to
share a snapshot of a suspect, or a diagram of emergency exits.

Steps:

1. Click Setup to enter setup mode.

2. In the System Overview pane, drag the Image item to a view item. A window
appears.

3. Locate and then select the image le that you want to add.

4. Click Open. The image now appears inside the view item.

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 5. To make the image available to others who cannot access the location of the
image le, on the Properties pane, click Embed. The le is stored in the
system.

6. Click Setup again to exit setup mode.

Add text to views

You can add text to one or more a view items inside a view. For example, this is
useful when you want to send a message or instructions to operators, or post a work
schedule for security personnel. You can use up to 1,000 characters.

Steps:

1. Click Setup to enter setup mode.

2. On the System Overview pane, drag the Text item to the view item, where you
want the text to appear. A window appears.

3. Enter the text.

4. Click Save.

5. To change your text after you save it, in setup mode, click Edit text in the
Properties pane.

Permanently hide camera toolbar

When you minimize the camera toolbar in a view item, the toolbar remains
minimized only to you in the current session. However, you can hide it permanently
for a particular view item, for all users with access to the view item.

Steps:

1. On the Live or Playback tab, click Setup to enter setup mode.

2. Find the view item where you want to hide the toolbar.

3. Click to hide the toolbar.

4. Click Setup again to exit setup mode.

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Assign shortcut numbers to views

You can assign shortcut numbers to views to let users select views using standard
keyboard shortcuts.

1. Click Setup to enter setup mode.

2. In the Views pane, select the view you want to assign a shortcut to.

3. In the Shortcut eld, specify a shortcut number, and then press ENTER. The
shortcut number appears in parentheses in front of the view name.

4. Repeat as necessary for other views.

5. Click Setup again to exit setup mode.

Cameras (con guration)

The settings in this section pertain to the Overlay Buttons and Properties panes. To
access these panes, click the Setup button and make sure that the navigation pane on
the left-hand side is visible.

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 Digital zoom (explained)

Digital zoom lets you magnify a portion of a given image so you are able to have a
closer look at it. It works both in live and playback mode.

Digital zoom is therefore a useful feature for cameras that do not have their own
optical zoom capabilities. Your use of digital zoom will not affect any recording of
the video. Recording will still take place in the camera's regular format.

When you export evidence, you can choose to export the regular images or the
digitally zoomed images in AVI or JPEG formats. When you export to database
format, this is unavailable, because the recipient can use digital zoom on the exported
recordings. If you print an image on which you have used digital zoom, the digitally
zoomed area of the image will be printed.

Use digital zoom

Requirements
To enable digital zoom, on the camera toolbar, click More and select Digital zoom.
Steps:

1. Click and hold down the mouse button inside the image to zoom. The area you
select is highlighted by a white border. When you release the mouse button, the
zoom will take effect.

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 2. To move to other areas of the image while maintaining your zoom level, in the
overview frame, drag the highlighted area to the required position.

3. To adjust the zoom level using the zoom level slider, press and hold down the
SHIFT key, click inside the image and while holding both down, move your
mouse up or down the zoom level slider.

4. Selecting a zoom level of 0% lets you view the full image again.

5. Click the Home icon inside the virtual joystick to return to the normal zoom
level.

Virtual joystick and PTZ overlay buttons (explained)

If your views include sheye cameras or lenses, or PTZ devices (see PTZ and sheye
lens images (explained) on page 238), you can navigate the images by clicking either
the arrow mouse pointer (the virtual joystick) or the PTZ navigation buttons that
appear inside the image.

The virtual joystick

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 PTZ overlay

Live video (explained)

The video stream from the camera is not necessarily being recorded. Typically,
recording takes place according to a schedule, for example, every morning from
10.00 to 11.30. Or whenever the VMS system detects special events, for example,
motion generated by a person entering a room.

If title bars have been enabled in the Settings window, the title bar above the images
indicates if video is being recorded. Sometimes the camera is recording for short
periods only. This is because the system server may have been con gured to only
record when there is motion, when a door is open, or similar.

To investigate an incident that was recorded, go to the Playback tab. To perform

advanced searches, go to the Search tab.

Camera indicators (explained)

The camera indicators show you the status of the video that is displayed in the camera
view items. The camera indicators are visible only if the camera title bar is enabled.

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 The list describes the different camera indicators that appear when:

• motion is detected. Click inside the image to reset the motion indicator

• the server connection to the camera is los

• video from the camera is being recorde

• a connection to the camera is established. This icon is only relevant for live video

• playing back recorded video

• no new images have been received from the server for more than two seconds

Move cameras to PTZ preset positions

To make the PTZ camera move to a prede ned position, select a PTZ preset from the
list of available positions de ned for the PTZ camera.

1. On the Live tab, on the camera toolbar, click the PTZ icon to open the PTZ
menu.

2. Select a PTZ preset in the menu to move the camera to the required position.
The icon turns green.

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 Take single snapshots

As you are viewing live or recorded video, or searching for video, you can take an
instant snapshot that you can share. The path to the folder, where the still image is
saved, is speci ed in the Settings window under Application settings.

Requirements
In the Settings window under Application, Snapshot must be set to Available.
Steps:

1. If you are on the Live or Playback tab:

1. Hover over a view item that contains a camera, a hotspot, a carousel, or a

camera navigator.

2. In the toolbar, click . The icon momentarily turns green.

2. If you are on the Search tab, double-click a search result and click in the
camera toolbar. The icon momentarily turns green.

3. To access the snapshots, go to the le location where the snapshots are saved.

Timeline (explained)
The timeline displays an overview of periods with recordings from all cameras
displayed in your current view. Two timelines are displayed in the timeline area:

• The upper time line shows there cording periods of the selected camera

• The lower time line is for all the cameras in the view, including the selected
camera. If you have linked

oating windows, these will also be included on the lower timeline. You will see
these colors in the timeline:

• Light-red indicates recording

• Red indicates motio

• Light green indicates incoming audio

• Green indicates outgoing audio

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 Time navigation controls (explained)

(1) and (3)- The playback date and time is the time to which all the cameras are tied,
except if you are in independent playback mode. When you play back recordings, all
video in the view will be from the same time. Some cameras, however, may only
record if motion is detected. Also, there may be no recorded video from one or more
cameras in the view matching the speci ed point in time. Then, the last image in the
database prior to the speci ed point in time will be dimmed.

(2)- The Timeline time is indicated by a blue vertical line.

(4)- : Select a period of time by dragging the start and end time indicators on the
timeline (typically when you are exporting video (see XProtect format settings on
page 183). Click again to see the timeline with no time selected.

(5)- : Jump to a speci c point in time by specifying the date and time.

(6)- The playback speed slider lets you change the current playback speed. Move the
slider to the left, for slow motion, and to the right for fast motion. Click 1x for normal
speed.

(7)- : Move to the image just before the one currently viewed.
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 Play buttons

(8)- : Play backward in time.

Pause: When you click either Play backward in time or Play forward in time,
the button turns into a pause button. This lets you pause playback without having to
move your mouse pointer.

(9)- : Adjust the speed. Drag it to the right to increase forward

play speed. Drag to the left to increase backward play speed.

(10)- Play forward in time

(11)- Move to the image just after the one currently viewed.

Navigation buttons

(12 - Move to the rst image in the database for the selected camera.

(13 - Move to the rst image in the previous sequence.

(14 - Move to the rst image in the following sequence.

(15 - Move to the last image in the database for the selected camera.

(16 - Specify the time span of playback in the timeline.

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 Add carousels to views

Carousels let you constantly browse between the cameras of the carousel at a speed
you de ne.

1. Click Setup to enter setup mode.

2. In the System Overview pane, drag the Carousel item to a view item.

3. In the Carousel Setup window:

1. Go to the Cameras section.

2. Locate and double-click each camera you want to add to the carousel.

4. To de ne the sequence the cameras appear in the carousel, in the Selected

cameras list, move the cameras up or down.

5. Enter the number of seconds each camera appears in the carousel. You can
specify a value for all cameras, or for each camera.

6. Click OK to close the Carousel Setup window.

7. Click Setup again to exit setup mode.

8. (optional) To change settings for the carousel, in the setup mode, go the
Properties pane and click Carousel Setup.

Carousel settings
In the Properties pane, you can specify the settings for the carousel. The Live
Stream, Image Quality, Frame Rate, and Maintain image aspect ratio settings
apply to all cameras in the carousel.

To make the properties appear, you must select the view item and then click Setup.

PTZ presets (con guration)

Depending on your surveillance system, you can create, edit and delete PTZ presets.

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 Add PTZ presets

You can de ne additional PTZ presets:

1. In the view, select the relevant PTZ camera that you want to give a new PTZ
preset.

2. On the camera toolbar, click the PTZ icon to open the PTZ menu.

3. Click Manage PTZ presets to open the dialog box.

4. Click to add a new preset entry.

5. Select the PTZ preset entry and enter a new name for the PTZ preset.

6. Use the PTZ buttons to navigate to the relevant position and click Update
preset to save.

7. Use the arrows to move a PTZ preset up or down in the list. This can be useful if
your list contains many presets.

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Edit PTZ presets

You can make changes to existing PTZ presets, such as renaming or changing the
preset position:

1. In the view, select the PTZ camera with the PTZ preset you want to modify.

2. On the camera toolbar, click the PTZ icon to open the PTZ menu.

3. Click Manage PTZ presets and in the dialog box, select the PTZ preset.

4. To edit the name of the preset, ensure the name of the PTZ preset is highlighted.
Click the text and overwrite the existing name.

5. If the camera is not in the correct position, use the PTZ buttons to navigate to
the required position and then click Update preset to save.

6. Use the up or down arrows to arrange the PTZ presets on the list.

7. Click Close.

Delete PTZ presets

To delete an existing preset, select it and click .

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 Patrolling pro les (con guration)

Depending on your surveillance system, you can create, edit and delete patrolling
pro les.

Add patrolling pro le

When you add a patrolling pro le, you and other users can see the new patrolling
pro le in the PTZ menu.

1. In the view, select the relevant PTZ camera where you want to add a new
patrolling pro le.

2. On the camera toolbar, click the PTZ icon to open the PTZ menu.

3. Click Manage patrolling pro les to open the dialog box.

4. Follow the steps below and click OK to close the Manage patrolling pro les
window.

5. Click below the Patrolling pro les list to add a new patrolling pro le.

6. Enter a name for the pro le and press Enter. You can always rename it later.

The new patrolling pro le is added to the Patrolling pro les list. You can now
specify the positions and other settings for the patrolling pro le.

Delete patrolling pro le

To delete an existing pro le, select the pro le and click .

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Edit patrolling pro le

Specify positions in a patrolling pro le

1. Select the patrolling pro le:

2. Click below the Positions list to add a PTZ preset, PTZ presets are de ned
by your administrator or, depending on user rights, you can do this by clicking
the Manage PTZ presets button.

3. In the drop-down list, select a PTZ preset.

4. Repeat adding presets until you have selected all necessary positions in the
patrolling pro le:

5. Use the up or down arrows to move a PTZ preset in the list.

The camera uses the PTZ preset at the top of the list as the rst stop when it patrols
according to the patrolling pro le. The PTZ preset in the second position from the top
is the second stop, and so forth.
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Specify the time on each position

When patrolling, the PTZ camera by default remains for ve seconds on each
position speci ed in the patrolling pro le.

To change the number of seconds:

1. Select the patrolling pro le in the Patrolling pro les list.

2. Select the PTZ preset that you want to change the time for in the Positions list:

3. Specify the time in the Time on position (sec) eld.

4. If required, repeat for other presets.

Specify an end position

You can specify that the camera should move to a speci c position when patrolling
ends. You do that by selecting an end position on the patrolling pro le.

1. Select the patrolling pro le in the Patrolling pro le list.

2. Below On nish, go to, select one of the presets from the drop-down list as the
end position.

Optimization

Enabling hardware acceleration Hardware acceleration (explained)

Hardware acceleration improves the decoding capability and performance of the
computer running XProtect Smart Client. This is particularly useful when you view
multiple video streams with high frame rate and high resolution.
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 Check hardware acceleration settings

1. Go to Settings > Advanced > Hardware acceleration.

2. There are two settings for hardware acceleration: Auto and Off.
Select the default setting Auto.

3. Go to Video diagnostics overlay.

4. To make the current status of the stream, including the GPU resource used for
hardware acceleration visible, select Level 2.

The video diagnostics overlay status for Hardware acceleration can be: Intel,
NVIDIA or Off.

If the status is Off, continue to examine your computer so you can enable hardware
acceleration, if possible and make sure that all hardware acceleration resources are
utilized.

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Getting to know your XProtect Smart Client

The topics in this section can help you become familiar with the different areas your
XProtect surveillance system.

View version and plug-in information

Knowing the exact version of your XProtect Smart Client can be important if you
require support or want to upgrade. In such cases, you also need to know which plug-
ins your XProtect Smart Client is using.

• To view this information, on the XProtect Smart Client tool bar, click Help >
About

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