ARA Group reports it is now the exclusive distributor in Queensland and NSW of the NX Witness video management system, manufactured by Network Optix.
ARA Products managing director Stuart Harmer said while VMS was not uncommon in the industry, Nx Witness took it to another level.
“I wanted something that set us apart from the rest,” Harmer said. “I really like products that are trusted technology and trusted brands, but specifically I don’t want to be a ‘me too’. It must be something that sets us apart and give us some exclusivity.
“Nx Witness certainly does that for us. It’s a lot different to anything else out there in the way it works.”
One example of this is its ability to record a playback of footage and your voice giving the recipient instructions and details about a security instance.
“With Nx Witness you can for example click screen record and play back recorded footage of an event and talk the recipient through what happened, Nx also records your voice and lets you make notes on certain details, this is critical in loss prevention and other security applications. Nx Witness packages up the recorded screen footage and voice audio into a small file which can be emailed easily and played by the recipient without any special software,” Harmer said.
“Another great feature is Nx’s ability for storage analysis, so users can forecast the impact that adding Hard Drive storage to the Nx server will have on their storage duration.
“For example, liquor licencing may require storage of video footage for 30 days however if an operator changes a camera to record a higher resolution that can have a dramatic impact on the storage, meaning suddenly they are in breach of the law because the total days are reduced.
“With Nx Witness the storage analysis means you can determine the impact of any changes from days to minutes right down to seconds. That’s really important for an end user.”
The system’s video wall capabilities mean it can display camera feeds from systems all over the world and the wall can be expanded to any capacity required.
According to Harmer, any desktop client can be switched into video wall mode enabling screening on plasma screens, ideal for use in a control room or corporate head office environment, for example. Another benefit for integrators (the installers of CCTV and security protocols) is the system’s rapid deployment.
“It can be set up and configured extremely quickly which shortens the length of time the integrator and engineers are required on site,” he said. “It has super ease of use, visually it looks great and has an extensive API to enable intricate and robust integrations with other systems.”
Nx Witness works across Apple Mac, Windows and Linux and uses metadata to enable the fastest incident searching capability on the market. It uses a grid interface to combine footage together and provides a clever resource tree to monitor the health of the system. Other features include a mobile app for Android or iPhone and the free NX Cloud service provided by Network Optix so systems can be easily grouped together all over the world.
“The system also has very good auto discovery and will look at the user’s network and find compatible hardware it can work with and add it to its system,” Harmer said.
ARA Products ISCS will officially launch Nx Witness in Australia at the Security Exhibition + Conference Trade Show at ICC Sydney, Darling Harbour, July 26-28.♦
