Geovision Hotline Notification

[murphomatic 0]

I'm wondering if anyone out there uses the Geovision Hotline as the primary notification feature (dial a phone number and relay a voice-message or enter DTMFs for pager displays, etc).

 

I think this aspect of the GV software is a bit lacking in usability as you cannot record custom messages for specific events (say dial different phone numbers and play different voice messages depending on which I/O pin or camera is experiencing an alarm).

 

....so I wrote a program to do this for GV systems. I'm curious if there's any interest in the community for this kind of application, or does everyone just use email alerts and never touch the hotline feature? The issue I've found w/email alerts is that if you're using email to send text messages, the messages may be delayed a number of minutes as they bounce around various networks before finally arriving to the recipient. I figured dialing a phone directly and playing a voice message to the person who answers would be faster, but became frustrated at GV's lack of ability to record custom messages for different events on the system.

 

Has anyone else had these same kind of frustrations?

[ForestCat 0]

Hi,

I'm currently looking pretty critically at the capabilities of the various packages out there. Bear in mind, I have no hands on at this stage, only .pdf knowledge. While the Geo seems ahead of the pack in terms of its actual surveillance param configurability, I've gotta agree that the notifications almost seem like an afterthought. I perhaps just need to look closer, so I'm open to correction. For example, one of the other packages has this wonderful feature that allows you to insert system variables into your email templates, i.e $$C which would be camera#, $$S for sensor #, etc (I'm paraphrasing the hell out of that, but you get the idea). Yes, email notification is by no means immediate, even assuming push email, i.e. blackberry, etc.

The ideal scenario: Some event happens. The system dials whatever numbers you need in the order you need. It "reads" from the event log (text to speech synth, or, you could prerecord voice snippets tied to all possible events, I suppose. The system simultaneously fires off detailed emails & jpg's to your cell phone, regular pop3, & a webmail account, which, because of the voice notification, you know you need to check RIGHT NOW. And, the killer feature: The email contains an https:// link to the recorded video of the event, viewable from ANY browser, without the need to download/install any vb controls, etc.

My thinking is that when something legitimate triggers an event, seconds count. When its a false alarm, its still a legitimate alarm, until you KNOW its a false alarm. Seconds still count.

I get the feeling that most of the surveillance software is designed with the assumption that someone will be constantly monitoring the system, or within walking distance of a terminal & just need to be "alerted" to switch to a specific view, etc. I see a need for more support for those who will not always be within short reach of either the host system, or a system w/ Internet Explorer & broadband. So yes, I think your idea is good.

[rory 0]

Nice idea murph .. the only other thing i can think of would be to use the Geo IO and an AD2000 Dialer (cost quite a bit of $$).. can you post some screenshots? Thanks, Rory

[murphomatic 0]

The main screen of the application is nothing too fancy - just a simple log that displays the activity the dialer has received.... incoming connections, rules that have matched, outbound dialing, etc.

 

The program works by way of "profiles". You create a "profile" that specifies a phone number to dial, and then contains various "rules" that trigger dialing under certain conditions, and define what is said on the phone line to whoever answers the call.

 

Here's a screen shot of the profile configuration screen:

 

 

The program basically intercepts GeoVision email notifications. The program then takes action based on the content of those notifications.

 

You can see in the screen shot of my test profile that it's looking for key-phrases "Input 1" and "Input 2". If either of those phrases are present in the GV email - it will dial the phone and play the appropriate audio.

 

This works better than standard email notification it can run on the main GV server, allowing it to receive the email notices from the GV system instantly, and immediately dial a number... instead of pushing the email notices out to the 'net and waiting for however long it takes for the notices to eventually reach the recipient or be dumped by a spam filter. This allows for faster response time instead of incurring several minutes of delay for email to process.

 

We're just about finished with development. We've invested a couple thousand to get it developed, and are thinking of offering it at a retail price of $99.

 

If anyone has any questions/comments or feedback on the retail price I'm suggesting, I'd sure love to hear your input.

 

Thanks again for those who have replied already.

[jeromephone 6]

Along those same lines we are trying to tie an access control system to the Geovision the manual says we can use a geo IO and relay board to shut off the alarm or recording feature on a valid swipe but it does not say how to reactivate it? I agree the features you are looking at would really help we have a customer who would like to get rid of his security company and just use the access control and geo but I am not pushing it as you say the alarm portion is a bit clunky

[cctv_down_under 0]

Doesn't Geo have it's own (not released yet) Acces control engine.... I really am not sure, I have brochure on it but never read it