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Genea Access Control System Integration with Avigilon Unity Video Management System
Genea Access Control System Integration with Avigilon Unity Video Management System

Learn how to integrate your Genea Access Control System with Avigilon Unity Video Management System

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Written by Genea Developer
Updated over a year ago

Genea access control integration with Avigilon Unity video management system merges access control and video surveillance. By combining Avigilon Unity security cameras with Genea’s technology, organizations can improve their access control experience, eliminate abuse from outside parties, and verify who is entering their space at a given time. Features as part of these integrations include:

  • Allow mapping cameras to the doors - This provides instant access to right video feed at the right time.

  • Ability to monitor access logs with Avigilon Unity cameras - Administrators can correlate their video feed with events and activities from our access control systems without the hassle of manually rewinding or fast forwarding through the footage.

  • View Live Video Stream

  • Camera Wall

  • Utilizing Interactive Floor Plan - Administrator can attached cameras to the Floor Plan feature on Genea Platform.

For the best viewing experience of this camera video player, please use Chrome or Firefox browser.

Prerequisites before Installation

  • Genea User Account with Global Admin Role:

    You should already have a Genea User Account with Global Admin Role before proceeding with the installation. If you don't have one, please contact your Genea administrator to create an account for you.

  • Avigilon Unity User Account:

    You need an Avigilon Unity user account with the 'API User' role or higher privilege. The account must have access to All Sites and Locations where the cameras are installed. If you do not have an Avigilon Unity user account, please contact your company admin to create an account for you.

Before proceeding with the installation, please make sure you have met all the prerequisites listed above. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please contact our support team for help.

Steps for setting up Your Genea Access Control System + Avigilon Unity Video Management System Integration

1) Login to Genea Platform and Navigate to the 'Integrations' tab in your admin dashboard.

2) Go to 'Video Management Systems' integrations and click 'Install' under the Avigilon Unity integration.

3) Provide necessary information and click 'Install'.

Note: The account credentials entered during the setup of the integration should be of an active account on Avigilon Unity. If the account is deactivated, the integration will not function as expected.

4) Genea is now connected with Avigilon Unity successfully.

5) Set 'Camera Link Offset' from the setting screen

This setting enables you to customize the offset time for the camera link to sync the access event and camera times.

The internal clock of cameras may drift from the exact time and vary from room to room. And access events being critical, it is necessary that we display the exact video clips against a particular access event in the activity log. To ensure the correct video clips are displayed along with access events, this setting can be used.

You may set your system to capture video of an event up to 10 seconds before, or up to 10 seconds after the camera time stamp. To set, move the slider next to the 'Camera Link Offset (seconds)' to the desired number of seconds.

6) Mapping Cameras to Door

Locate the Location setting at the bottom of the page, it will show list of all the locations. Click on exact 'Location' from the list where you need to map the door.

Click on 'New' to add mapping of door to camera.

Click on Door 'Dropdown' to select the door. Click on respective cameras attached to that door against Camera 'Dropdown' and 'Save' the choices.

Note: The door may have several cameras installed, and settings can be configured from this screen.

You now have access to the list of Door to Camera mappings, giving you the option to 'Edit' or 'Delete' the mapping.

Clicking on any camera, will give you the Live Feed. It will help you double check mapping of Door to Camera. Congratulations!! You are now ready to start monitoring your access logs with Avigilon Unity cameras!

Monitor access logs with Avigilon Unity cameras:

Now that your system is integrated, you will have the ability to view any access event or notification. In your application activity log, you will see a new column titled 'Cameras'.

Clicking on the camera link will open the surveillance footage for that event in the video player.

View Live video stream

Live stream of video will be visible in the 'Control Center', under 'Door' tab. For each door there will be link to the camera that is mapped to it.

You can click on the Camera link to see the live feed.

Camera Wall

Camera Wall is a complementary video management feature available with Avigilon Unity integration, that provides an intuitive and simple user interface to monitor live feeds from the cameras within your Genea application. Genea's built-in camera wall allows you to view your cameras from multiple remote locations on a single screen. You can change the arrangement and preview the layout of the cameras, for your security needs.

Set up an effective and personalized video monitoring system within minutes!

The camera wall feature allows every admin to personalize their wall views. This is a user-based feature and allows you to create a monitoring wall for yourself. Admins can set up different camera wall views with their own logins to the Genea application.

To set up your own camera wall, proceed as below:

1) Navigate to 'Control Center' > 'Camera Wall' from your Genea admin dashboard and select cameras.

This is the camera wall where you can see multiple cameras on a single screen. You can select Full Screen view too.

Once the camera wall is set up within the application, you will be able to monitor your cameras from the wall view.

Interactive Floor Plan:

Go to your floor plans, and you can include Avigilon Unity VMS cameras on them. This will provide you with all the information you need to view the cameras.

Video Player Features

The video player is useful in playing the recordings of the camera; for example, to track door events by instantly re-watching the segments of CCTV video for analytical purposes.

The Video Player is designed with several useful features that will allow you to inspect the video footage with ease.

#No

Name

Description

1

Date Picker

Use the Date Picker to choose a specific date and view the corresponding historical video

2

Live View

To access real-time video feed, simply click on the "Live" button. Once selected, a vibrant red "LIVE" icon will appear on the video screen, signifying that you are now in live viewing mode.

3

Rewind or Fast Forward

In a video, you have the option to skip forward or backward by 10 seconds, or jump to the previous/next available clips.

4

Play/ Pause

You have the ability to both play and pause the video by utilizing this button.

5

Time Ribbon

To access the archival video, simply click on the timeline ribbon.

6

Scalable Time Ribbon

You have the option to zoom in and out to adjust the time ribbon scale.

7

Door Unlock

To unlock the door that is currently being monitored by a specific camera, simply click on the "Door Unlock" icon displayed on the player interface.

8

Quick Grant

A Quick Grant emulates a credential swipe, triggering the targeted door captured by the camera to temporarily unlock, enabling someone to pass through. When you click on the icon, the door will open for a duration of 5 seconds, after which it will automatically re-lock itself.

9

Mini Player

You have the option to watch videos in mini-player mode, which lets you view videos in a floating window, so you can continue watching while interacting with other websites or applications.

10

Full-Screen View

At any time, you can minimize the video screen to full scale and vice-versa.

11

Camera Name Label

The camera's name, combined with the corresponding door's name, will be displayed on the upper left corner of the video for convenient identification during event inspection. The format will be "Camera Name | Door Name", where the camera name is sourced from Avigilon Unity and is combined with the mapped door name from the application using a pipe (|) separator to create the camera name label.

If you have any questions about this integration or have any feature requests, please reach out to acsupport@getgenea.com.

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