Video Wall Magic

Video Wall Magic 

Whenever people talk about CCTV, one of the first associations is video walls. No matter how powerful the servers behind, it is the visual that produces the "wow" effect — even on the most tech-savvy customers. Yet, they often back off, having heard the price. And this is where all EVO Global customers clearly benefit: EVO video wall has just got a major enhancement, and it does not cost you a rupee. EVO by LUXRIOT.

Video walls are widely used everywhere from airports to rock concerts. Traditionally, in CCTV their application includes, but is not limited to, showrooms and control centres. To build a video wall, you take narrow bezel monitors, projectors, or TV sets, and tile them together. Depending on the goal, some or all of them may form one huge screen. This resulting "transformer" display is much better rather than just one large display: it offers customizable shape and size, distributed processing, and superior reliability.

Typically, you would employ additional technologies to make several output devices work as one. EVO Global allows casting a single picture onto a combination of displays from separate workstations. Most importantly: without anything other than just regular Windows display management. EVO is one of the most comprehensive enterprise-level VMS solutions on the market, featuring interactive maps linked to alarms; an advanced event and action manager; analytics tools; video wall support and other components you will definitely appreciate. To ensure the safety of your data, the software also offers edge recording for synchronising all data with IP devices storage, archive replication, advanced system health monitoring and failover, which will reduce the disruption of your video surveillance recordings to zero. SSA Integrate is India Regions business partner.

Fantastic Flexibility

Video walls have been available in EVO Global since its very first versions. So what's different now?

Earlier, we already saw how the Luxriot virtual video wall helps organize collections of displays, including those in different locations. Now, EVO Global offers another option: mosaic display, or, according to a customer, "the real video wall". Previously, you could have a virtual collection of screens, scattered across the place, managed from your office. From now on, EVO Global also gives you an opportunity to combine several local screens into one. Both approaches fit into the video wall definition, yet they have different use case scenarios. And, both retain EVO's convenient and flexible management instruments.

In other words, EVO now acts as your video wall controller — no middleware required. The displays may be independent, maybe even driven by different workstations. But, in EVO they behave as a single canvas. Clever algorithms ensure full synchronization between the screens, guaranteeing zero delays.

Such architecture provides notable flexibility. Not only can you re-arrange the displays or add new ones at any point, but you also are free to use variegated hardware. This is true for both workstations and display brands. While a consistent video wall solution looks best on homogenous LCD/LED panel sets, a temporary replacement or a quick demo set-up becomes a piece of cake.

As you would expect, the rest of EVO Global video wall functionality remains the same. Once configured, any video wall screen contents can be controlled from anywhere in the universe.

Smooth Setup

Let's consider a use case. 

Four display panels tiled contiguously, driven by two workstations. The task for EVO will be to display one high-resolution picture using all four screens. Simultaneously, an extra display in the operator's room should preview the same layout.

Briefly, the plan is: create a video wall, install clients, assign client displays to the video wall screens.

Add a single screen video wall in EVO Console

Detailed description

Step 1: in your EVO Console, add a new video wall. For the current setup, the wall layout will be simply one screen, 1x1 grid. We shall use the same video wall screen for both the showroom and the operator's room.

Step 2: install EVO Monitor on all client workstations. The client application does not require a license, and you can use either 32- or 64-bit packages. Each application instance may have one or several windows. Therefore, the four panels can be split between two, three, or four workstations. Let's assume we have two client PCs here, each driving two displays.

Step 3: link physical displays to video wall screens. In this case, we have only got a single video wall screen, and we shall use it twice.

First, in the showroom, all 2x2 displays will belong to the video wall screen with a "tiled" option. To do this, open the multi-display settings, select a window, tick the Video wall screen setting, then also tick the Tiled display option on the right. In the mosaic preview, enter the grid size and then select the part of the big screen that is occupied by the underlying physical display.

Second, in the operator's room, simply point the monitor to the same video wall screen, without selecting the "tiled" setting. As a result, the same output will be produced on a single preview display.

Create a tiled video wall in EVO Monitor via multi-display setup

Step 4: have fun managing the video wall remotely or with E&A. For manual remote administration, there is a separate tab in the EVO Monitor application called — who would have thought? — Video wall. To start, drag and drop your video wall from the Resources section on the left. And then, place the desired layouts, channels and maps onto the preview area below. All adjustments will take instant effect and you will notice the changes in both rooms. Don't forget to save the current layout as start-up by clicking the "three stripes" button in the upper right corner of the preview area.

Tips & Tricks

To make the most out of the tiled video wall, remember a few aspects:

• make sure the video cards meet the hardware requirements for EVO Monitor
• calibrate your displays to match the brightness and color settings
• use displays with the same aspect ratio and resolution
• choose displays with the near-zero bezel (frame) and minimize the gap between them

Hardware requirements

Refer https://www.luxriot.com/support/hardware-calculator/

Benefits

EVO Global video wall feature is a strikingly simple yet powerful solution for anyone. All the more, we are proud to present the "stretchy" video wall option as a further advantage.

• Feel free to experiment with any size or shape, and re-build your video wall at any time. Any alterations to the original layout only need a few fine-tune clicks on the client side.
• The feature is already included with your EVO Global license - no additional costs involved.
• On top of that, the EVO Global video wall does not have strict requirements for the used display type. You do not have to stick to a particular brand, never mention additional software or hardware drivers. This also means you can start with the existing infrastructure, and the final solution may implore little or no extra investments at all.
• Easy setup and re-configuration.
• EVO Global redundancy covers for video walls, too, — have you set up your mirroring server?
• Control your video walls remotely from anywhere in the world. All changes are effective immediately. For routine scenarios, use our advanced Event & Action management: any video wall contents will pop up and disappear automatically.

Luxriot Evo Global, is not only offering 64-bit speed and all the necessary tools for setting up an absolute situational alertness system aimed to respond quickly to events, but also introduces a central server governance hierarchy of all the components. To know more on this, can mail to ssaintegrate@gmail.com

About PSIM

What is PSIM?

PSIM stands for Physical Security Information Management, however it certainly requires further explanation about why it is important. Firstly, the future of all security systems is IP based, this means that CCTV, Access Control, Intruder and Fire Alarms will be computer based. Analogue and standalone systems are becoming more redundant and technology is moving rapidly towards converging all these IP based systems onto a single software management platform.

Assuming your security systems are IP based, then PSIM software packages will make an incredible difference to way you secure your school, business or public sector space. This means facility or building management staff can centralise all systems onto a single platform and remotely manage the building.

The key attributes of a PSIM system are:

1. Collection: Device management independent software collects data from any number of disparate security devices or systems

2. Analysis: The system analyses and correlates the data, events, and alarms, to identify the real situations and their priority

3. Verification: PSIM software presents the relevant situation information in a quick and easily-digestible format for an operator to verify the situation

4. Resolution: The system provides Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), step-by-step instructions based on best practices and an organisation’s policies, and tools to resolve the situation

5. Reporting: The PSIM software tracks all the information and steps for compliance reporting, training and potentially, in-depth investigative analysis

6. Audit trail: The PSIM also monitors how each operator interacts with the system, tracks any manual changes to security systems and calculates reaction times for each event

PSIM is considered essential for Control Rooms or Command and Control Operations, as the software, provided all the systems are IP based, converge all the disparate systems onto a single platform to provide full management. Common security systems integrated onto a PSIM platform are:

- IP Access control systems

- IP CCTV systems

- Fire detection

- Video wall

- Intrusion detection systems

- Perimeter Intrusion detection systems

- Radar based detections

- GIS mapping systems

- Intercom or IP Phone systems

- Automated barriers & bollards

- Building management systems

The aggregated data, information and footage from the various systems provides the operator with intelligence to effectively manage situations (i.e fires, intruders etc) or day to day management of the building (i.e remote door locking etc). Ultimately, this means the need for large teams of facility staff can be reduce and the building managed centrally by key operators. A key reason for the development of PSIM has been the technology improvements of the systems listed above, which has meant software developers have been able to integrate and converge these systems onto single platforms. Technology in security systems is improving dramatically, prices are falling for systems and the software required to manage them is now available. It really makes sense to move forward and use PSIM to its full potential, let Sunstone help you embrace the future.