Large organizations will inevitably require more security cameras to manage safety and security. With more security cameras comes more time managing your system, especially when reviewing the video. And as many facility managers know, looking through video surveillance footage is time-consuming.

When bad things happen – and they inevitably do – you need to be able to react quickly. That is why choosing an easy-to-use video management system (VMS) is key to your security and safety solution’s success. Milestone XProtect software has been around for over 20 years. The developers have built-in some excellent features to quickly help customers find, save, and share video surveillance footage.

Features such as bookmarking, evidence lock, desktop notifications, independent playback, and generic 360-degree dewarping are just a few users have at their fingertips.

3 Reasons to Choose Milestone XProtect

3 Reasons Why a Business Should Choose Milestone XProtect VMS

Milestone XProtect VMS can grow with your business. It supports thousands of devices, is user-friendly and accessible around the world. Here are 3 reasons why a business should choose Milestone XProtect.

1) Bookmarking in XProtect VMS

In XProtect, a bookmark is basically a small video clip. When an operator bookmarks an incident, the VMS assigns it, and the user who created it, an ID. The benefit of bookmarks is that they are searchable. Users can easily find them later, allowing them to find or share vital video sequences quickly. As well, each bookmark records a few seconds before and after the incident, ensuring that nothing is missed.

The bookmarking feature in XProtect provides an easy way for users to mark video sections of interest and add descriptive notes for later analysis. With bookmarks, users can highlight and share suspicious incidents with other users. It also provides a simple way to create evidence material when needed. This video shows how the bookmark feature works in XProtect VMS.

Operators can create bookmarks in live or recorded video in XProtect VMS. Suppose they spot something of interest while watching the live or recorded video. In that case, they can immediately create a bookmark from the camera’s taskbar. Bookmarking makes the video searchable and provides an easy way to gather evidence material when needed. You can delete bookmarks created by yourself or others. If you delete a bookmark, it is removed from the database, and you can no longer find it.

The Bookmarking feature is only available in Milestone XProtect Professional+, Expert, and Corporate. It is not available in XProtect Essential or Express. Further to this, rule-based bookmarking is only available in Expert and Corporate.

2) Evidence Lock

Evidence Lock is only available in Milestone XProtect Corporate. No other versions offer this feature.

The XProtect Evidence Lock feature ensures recorded video is not deleted prematurely, like when an investigation is underway. This feature provides operators with a way to protect video sequences from deletion and stop other users from deleting the data until a user with sufficient user rights unlocks the evidence. The feature also covers audio and other data from devices related to the selected cameras. The evidence lock feature applies mainly to recorded video.

The operator selects the desired video sequence through the time selector on the recording timeline to enable the evidence lock mechanism. By clicking create, an Evidence Lock is created. At this point, the user can add any details and determine the time the evidence lock will remain in place. Once an Evidence Lock is in place, it overrides standard video archiving policies, essentially preventing the data from being automatically deleted.

3) Desktop Notifications in Milestone XProtect

Another great feature available in XProtect VMS is Desktop Notifications. With desktop notifications, operators receive pop-up notifications on their screens whenever an alarm is triggered. Notifications are customizable – an operator can set them to cover only essential alarms. A separate window displays the alarm details and associated video recording with a single click, enabling a user to take immediate action if required. The desktop notifications appear (minimized) whenever alarms with certain priority levels occur in the VMS system.

The Desktop Notifications feature is available in all Milestone XProtect versions except Essential+.

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4) Independent Playback

The Independent Playback feature is available in all Milestone XProtect versions.

Independent playback is what it sounds like – it allows instant playback of recorded video for one or more cameras while watching live video simultaneously. An operator has complete control with independent playback while investigating an instant without losing track of what is happening in real-time. Browsing the recording timeline in the independent playback mode, the operator can assess and scroll back and forth in real-time or go to a specific date and time via the calendar preview.

5) Generic 360-degree Dewarping in XProtect VMS

A 360-degree camera can help cover larger areas than standard cameras. They provide complete situational awareness with no blind spots, enabling you to follow a moving object with a single camera. A 360-degree camera can reduce installation and costs and increase situational awareness for setups of any size. However, these cameras often warp the image. And this is where XProtect’s generic 360-degree dewarping can help.

For example, a fisheye camera provides a 360-degree panoramic image. It covers a larger area than a standard IP camera. But the camera’s raw image is warped, making it difficult to see what is happening. But with XProtect generic 360-degree dewarping the operator can drag the cursor to move around within the image and zoom in and out using the mouse’s scroll wheel.

When you invest in a video surveillance system, you invest in much more than hardware and software. You invest in the safety of your business, people and assets. With an open platform VMS like XProtect, an operator has access to many great features to help do just that. From bookmarking to desktop notifications, and even 360-degree dewarping, XProtect is jam-packed with tools to help you keep everything and everyone safe.

If you liked this article, you may also like 3 Reasons Why a Business Should Choose Milestone XProtect VMS. To learn about the different recording options for security cameras, check out the article DVR vs NVR vs VMS: Which Security Recording System is Best.

Are you interested in learning more about Milestone XProtect? Check out this page, or contact us for more information. If you are an XProtect VMS user looking to add cameras or need some support, give us a call for a FREE, no-obligation online design session.

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Written by : Carlo Di Leo

At the age of 24, with no experience in the security industry or any money in the bank, Carlo quit his job and started Spotter Security from his parent's basement. Founded in 2004, Spotter grew from a single man operation into a multi-million dollar security system integrator that caters to businessess and construction sites across Canada.

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