ThermovisionFLIR FCSeries Installation Manual

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3.2 Maintenance Menu
The following sections describe more advanced camera configuration options that require the admin 
login. For the configuration changes in the remainder of this chapter, it is necessary to save the 
changes, then stop and restart the server to make the changes effective. Additional configuration 
options are available that are not described in this manual. For more information on setting or 
changing these camera parameters refer to the Nexus IP Camera Configuration Guide (FLIR Doc 
#427-0030-00-28) or contact the local FLIR representative or FLIR Technical Support.
The basic camera configuration settings (LAN Settings, Services, and Security Options) available 
through the expert login are described in 
Server Menu, pg. 2-6. When logged in as admin, additional 
Maintenance menus are accessible, including Sensor, Files and Product Info. 
3.2.1 Sensor Menu
Most of the configuration changes described here are done through the Sensor 
menu, including configuration steps from the Communications, Devices, and 
Modules selections, as described below. 
Communications Menu
The primary IP configuration parameters, such as IP address, network mask, and 
gateway, are configured with the LAN Settings page (
LAN Settings, pg. 2-7.) Use 
the Networking page to configure some of the other IP networking parameters. 
The ONVIF (Open Network Video Interface Forum) is an open industry forum for 
the development of a global standard for the interface of network video products. 
An ONVIF-compliant VMS can be used to control a FLIR camera, display video, 
and, for pan/tilt cameras, access up to 50 pan/tilt presets.
Networking Page:  Generally it is assumed the camera network will be secured through recognized 
network security measures and best practices, such as limited physical access, firewalls, and so on. 
As an additional security consideration, it is possible to restrict access to the camera to a limited 
number of IP Addresses. 
						

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The default TCP port for most FLIR IP cameras is 1001. This is the port number that a client program 
such as FSM can use to communicate with the camera. If using an ONVIF-compliant VMS as a client, 
refer to VMS Remote, below.
If the Enable Network Broadcast Discovery 
parameter is set to Yes, the camera sends 
out a “discovery” packet on the network 
every half second as an Ethernet broadcast. 
To restrict client programs to allowed IP 
addresses, enter allowed IP addresses in 
the Remote Clients list, then set the Allow 
anonymous clients parameter to No, and 
click Save. The changes will not take effect 
until the server is stopped and started.
After the interface is configured, scroll down 
and click on the Save button to save the 
configuration. The changes will not take 
effect until the server is stopped and started.
It is also possible to restrict access to the camera from a web browser. Refer to Security Options, pg. 
2-11 to add an allowed IP address to the list in the Restrict Web Configuration section.
VMS Remote:  If the camera is to be used with a third-party VMS that is compliant with ONVIF, the 
parameters can be adjusted (if needed) to work with the VMS. Refer to the VMS documentation to 
determine what parameter values are needed. By default, the camera is configured with a VMS 
Remote interface with ONVIF 2.0 parameters. 
Several types of third-party Video Management System (VMS) systems are supported by FLIR IP 
cameras. Because these systems tend to evolve and change over time, contact the local FLIR 
representative or FLIR Technical Support to resolve any difficulties or questions about using this 
feature.
Set 
Enter IP
Scroll
Addressesdown
to No pulldown 
Select
Interface 1 
						

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Devices Menu
Set the temperature units for FC-Series R camera displays on the IR page. On the GPIO page read 
the default I/O parameters, set the output reset interval, or change signal labels. GPIO is enabled by 
default.
IR:  Adjustments to the IR settings should only be made by someone who has expertise with thermal 
cameras and a thorough understanding of how the various settings affect the image. Haphazard 
changes can lead to image problems including a complete loss of video. Setting the temperature 
display to Fahrenheit or Celsius is included on this page. Click on the Save button to save the settings. 
The changes will not take effect until the server is stopped and started.
Set pulldown
Scroll down 
						

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GPIO:  GPIO is enabled by default, although the GPIO signals must be wired during installation, refer 
to 
General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO), pg. 1-2. The Output Reset Interval can be used to 
automatically reset the output signal after a certain amount of time. The value of 0 prevents the GPIO 
from resetting automatically (it must be reset with a client program such as FSM).
The illustration at the right shows the default settings 
for both the input and the output signals. 
In order to make these signals more meaningful in a 
camera network or VMS software, set the Label to 
reflect the purpose of the signal, such as IO 0 Input for 
the input signal and IO 1 Output for the output signal.
Click on the Save button to save any changed settings. 
The changes will not take effect until the server is 
stopped and started.
Modules Menu
This section describes the Video page, On Screen 
Display (OSD) page, and Alarm Manager page. On 
the OSD page, set the text (camera name, date/time, 
etc.) to overlay on the video. The OSD text will appear 
on the IP video streams as well as the analog video 
output. Use the Alarm Manager page to define rules 
for internal camera alarms from Video Analytics, 
Radiometric IR, or GPIO.
Video:  Use this page to modify the video stream parameters by selecting the various parameters that 
affect both image quality and transmission bandwidth.
By default, four video streams are enabled for the camera: Video 0, Video 1, Video 2, and Video 3. 
The Video 0 and Video 1 streams are available for viewing from a client program such as FSM, a 
stand-alone video player, or a third-party VMS. Video 2 is used for snapshots (and image capture 
when it is an alarm, and Video 3 is used by the web browser Live Video display. 
Set output duration
Default
Settings 
						

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Video 0 uses H.264 encoding and Video 1 uses MPEG 4 encoding. To modify parameters that affect 
a particular IP Video stream from the camera, select the appropriate link at the top of the page (for 
example, Video 0). 
With the factory configuration, the default parameters provide high-quality full frame-rate video 
streams with reasonable bandwidth usage. The default settings for each video stream provide high-
quality, full frame-rate video. In general, for most installations it will not be necessary to modify the 
default parameters. However in some cases, such as when a video stream is sent over a wireless 
network, it may be useful to “tune” the video stream to try to reduce the bandwidth requirements. In 
particular, the RTP Settings, Network Options, and the Settings parameters are described below.
It is possible to adversely affect the performance and/or image quality if changes are done incorrectly 
or haphazardly by an untrained person.
There are some challenges with streaming video over an IP network, when compared to other 
traditional IP applications which are less time-critical, such as email and web browsing. In particular, 
there are requirements which must be fulfilled to ensure satisfactory video quality in professional 
security environments. There are many parameters and factors related to network infrastructure, 
protocols, codecs and so on that can affect the quality and bit rate of a video stream when it is 
established between the camera and a client. 
The video streaming is done using a protocol generally referred to as Real-time Transport Protocol 
(RTP), but there are actually many protocols involved, including Real-Time Transport Control Protocol 
(RTCP) and Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP). In the background, a “negotiation” takes place to 
establish a session between the client (such as FSM, or a third party VMS or video player) and the 
camera. The ports which form a session are negotiated using a protocol such as RTSP. A client 
typically requests a video stream using its preferred settings, and the camera can respond with its 
preferred settings. As a result, many of the details are established dynamically, which may run 
contrary to network security requirements.
In some networks, the RTP/RTSP traffic is carried (tunneled) over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 
as that may allow the traffic to cross network boundaries and firewalls. While this method involves 
more overhead due to encapsulation, it may be necessary for clients to access the video streams 
when HTTP proxies are used.  
						

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According to the specification, RTP is originated and 
received on even port numbers and the associated RTCP 
communication uses the next higher odd port number; the 
default RTP Port is 554. The Stream Name is used when 
establishing a session from a client. The default value 
recognized by FSM for the first stream is ch0; the complete 
connection string is: 
rtsp://192.168.250.116/ch0. 
If necessary, this stream name can be used to open a video 
stream with a third-party video player.
By default the video stream uses the IP address of the 
camera. If the Use External IP parameter is set to “yes”, an 
alternate IP address can be entered.
Note, always use an even port number for the RTP Port parameter. 
By default, the video streams from the camera are sent 
using unicast packets rather than multicast. This means a 
given packet of IP Video will be sent separately to each 
client that has that video stream open (for example, FSM 
clients, nDVR, and so on). Therefore each additional client 
will cause the bandwidth consumption to go up and cause 
more overhead on the system in comparison to multicast. 
On the other hand, video packets sent using multicast are 
shared by streaming clients, so additional clients do not 
cause bandwidth consumption to go up as dramatically. If 
the video streams are used by more than one client/location, 
it may be wise to use multicast for more efficient bandwidth 
usage.
To set the camera to use Multicast, set the Enable Multicast 
parameter to “yes”, and set the Destination Network address 
and Destination Port to a unique combination that will not 
conflict with other IP Video devices on the network (the 
Destination Port must be an even number).
If more than one camera is providing multicast streams on the network, be sure to configure each 
stream with a unique multicast Destination Network IP address and Destination Port combination.  
						

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The parameters in the Settings section will have a significant 
impact on the quality and bandwidth requirements of the 
video stream. In general it is recommended that the default 
values are used initially, and then individual parameters can 
be modified and tested incrementally to determine if the 
bandwidth and quality requirements are met.
For each video stream, the Codec Type options are MPEG4, 
H.264 or MJPEG. MPEG4 requires the least amount of 
processing, and MJPEG requires the most. 
Note
The Bit Rate parameter is only used when the Rate Control 
parameter is set to CBR (Constant Bit Rate). With the CBR 
setting, the system attempts to keep the resulting bit rate of 
the video at or near the target bit rate.
The I-Frame Interval parameter controls the number of P-frames used between I-frames. I-frames are 
full frames of video and the P-frames contain the changes that occurred since the last I-frame. A 
smaller I-Frame Interval results in higher bandwidth (more full frames sent) and better video quality. A 
higher I-Frame Interval number means fewer I-frames are sent and therefore results in lower 
bandwidth and possibly lower quality.
The Image Size parameter controls the video resolution size and therefore can have a considerable 
impact on bandwidth usage. The larger the size of the frame, the better the resolution and the larger 
the network bandwidth required. The following table provides the corresponding resolution for each 
Image Size setting. 
As a rule of thumb, if the video will be viewed on its own and on a reasonably large screen, a large 
image size setting may look better. On the other hand, if the video is shown as a tile in a video wall, a 
smaller image size may look as good and consume less bandwidth. 
The MJPEG type is used for Video 2 and Video 3 for 
capturing snapshots and the Live Video feed respectively 
It is not possible to select a different type for these streams.
Ta b l e 3-2: Image Size Settings
Image SizeNTSCPA L
D1720x480720x576
4CIF704x480704x576
VGA640x480N/A
CIFN/A320x240
SIF353x240352x288
QVGA320x240N/A
QCIFN/A176x144 
						

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On Screen Display (OSD):  Use the OSD page to turn on and configure the On Screen Display 
(OSD) options. It may be desirable to display text information (such as the name of the camera or the 
date/time) as an overlay on the video image. The OSD configuration page allows certain camera-
related information to be displayed in the analog video and in the IP video streams. It is possible to 
display the following parameters as an overlay on the video channels: Date, Time, Label, Preset
1, 
Icon, Menu, Initial System Info, and Thermography Info (FC-Series R camera only). 
The Label can display the Friendly Name (configured on the Product Info page), the Hostname 
(configured on the LAN Settings page) or a Custom text string (using the Text parameter after 
selecting Custom). 
The appearance of each text string can be controlled with the following parameters:
• State (on or off)
• Transparency (on indicates only the letters are displayed, off indicates the letters are displayed 
inside an opaque block)
• Color (changes the color of the letters)
• Style Mode (can be Preset, which indicates the information is displayed in certain preset sizes 
and locations, or Manual, which requires additional size and location settings)
• Size (text size - small, medium or large) 
• Location (preset location on the screen where the information will appear)
1. The Preset label is generally used with FLIR pan/tilt cameras.  
						

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The Initial System Info parameters control how 
the initial system information is displayed, such 
as the IP address and Serial Number. By default 
this information is displayed on the video overlay 
(analog and IP) for 10 seconds.
The Thermography Info setting controls 
whether the Thermography OSD temperature 
readings are displayed on the video overlay 
(FC-Series R camera only). 
The OSD text will appear on the IP video 
streams as well as the analog video output. 
						

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Alarm Manager:  Use the Alarm Manager page to set the response and action that results from an 
individual alarm. It is possible to have more than one action for a single alarm by adding additional 
rules (for example, one action could capture an image and another could generate an output). The 
actions resulting from each alarm condition, may require defining Message Systems and setting up 
Notification Lists (refer to 
Services Menu, pg. 2-8) or using the Media Browser (Media Browser, pg. 3-
24).
In general, each Alarm Rule describes an alarm Source and a single alarm Action. For the FC-Series 
camera, the source of the alarm typically will be internal from the camera itself, although it is also 
possible for the camera to receive alarms from another camera or device/server on the network (such 
as a radar server, input/output server, ground sensor, fence system, or other security sensor).
Alarm Source:  The source of alarms for the FC-Series S camera is typically internal from Video 
Analytics and/or GPIO Input, while the FC-Series R camera also sources Radiometric IR alarms. In 
these cases, the Alarm Source Server IP Address is set to the localhost value of 127.0.0.1 and the 
TCP port is the default 1001. Otherwise the address and port are set to that of an external server. The 
FC-Series camera Alarm Source Device ID for alarms that are internal, is set to 0.
The Alarm Source Device Type is chosen from a pull down menu; not all options are available for a 
specific camera or installation. 
When the alarm source is Video Analytics or Radiometric IR, the Alarm ID corresponds to the area or 
spot id, as configured in the Setup menu. When the alarm source is from the internal GPIO Input, the 
Input ID is set to 1. Video Analytics (0,1,2,3) and Radiometric IR (0,1,2,3) each have four alarms. The 
Alarm ID is set sequentially during the setup for each alarm source. Refer to 
Video Analytics Setup, 
pg. 3-4 and Temperature Monitoring Setup (FC-Series R camera only), pg. 3-7.
Enable Alarm
Manager
Enable each
Alarm Rule