Security Monitor Pro has a feature to block unwanted motion detection on camera preview by adding a mask area. This region will be shown on the camera preview by default. To hide the mask, select 'Manage Cameras' option from 'Camera' menu. Now select the camera and click 'Edit Camera'. On 'Mask Area' tab, uncheck the ‘Show Mask area on camera preview’ option. Make sure that the 'Enable Masking' checkbox is selected to block false alerts. You can also add, customize, invert, erase, grab and move mask area. [image: SMPpost5210.jpg]

Security Monitor Pro allows you to add text, image and date-time labels on your camera preview and broadcast the stream. To add your website address on the preview, select 'Manage camera' from the tool bar, then choose the camera and click Edit camera. On Labels tab, select Text Caption and click Add text button. Now, use formatting tool bar to change font and background color of the text. You can also adjust transparency percentage and the position of your text caption on camera preview. Start broadcasting by selecting 'Broadcast' icon from the tool bar. The text captions will be visible on the camera stream. [image: SMPpost5196.jpg]

Security Monitor Pro triggers an event when motion is detected on the camera and can easily be scheduled to monitor for specific duration. To record video on motion detection, click on Manage cameras from Tool bar, choose the camera and click Edit Camera. On Actions tab, select ‘When motion is detected’ as the primary action and check 'Video Recording' under actions to perform section. You can also adjust the motion trigger level by clicking on the ‘Motion Settings’ button. [image: SMPpost5180.jpg] Now to create a schedule, click on the ‘Scheduler’ button on the tool bar. Choose the camera and select Daily schedule to run for 6 hours. Select Monitoring as the actions to perform during scheduled time. This will monitor for motion on your selected camera daily for the 6 hour time frame. When motion is detected, the video recording will start and will continue recording as long as motion is present. [image: SMPpost5180_1.jpg]

Security Monitor Pro allows you to detach camera preview from the main user interface and place it anywhere on your screen. To detach camera ,right click on the camera preview and select 'Detach Camera', this will allow to drag and position camera preview window anywhere on the screen. In order to keep the camera on top of other windows, right click on detached camera window and select 'Always on top' option. This will help you to do other work simultaneously. You can directly control PTZ (Pan, Tilt, Zoom), start broadcasting, monitoring or recording actions from the detached camera preview window. For more information refer this link: https://www.deskshare.com/help/smp/Detach-or-attach-camera.aspx

Security Monitor Pro helps you to identify the motion occurring by highlighting the detected region or Camera border. To configure the setting for highlighting the moving object, click Manage Cameras icon from tool bar, choose the camera and click 'Edit Camera'. [image: motionsetting.png] On Actions tab, click on the ‘Motion Settings’ button. Now select the ‘Highlight motion movements in:’ option and choose the color from the dropdown list. You can also highlight the camera and thumbnail border which will help you to identify motion across multiple camera previews. Right click on camera preview and start monitoring action. Whenever motion is detected, it will be highlighted in the selected color.

Security Monitor Pro allows you to add same camera multiple time with different configured actions. To add same camera multiple time, export camera configuration settings and import it as many times you want to add that camera, which will skip steps to configure the camera each time. By configuring same camera with different actions for different scenario you can perform motion detection and regular interval monitoring at same time which helps you to keep track of motion and reason behind motion, add mask areas to monitor different regions and you can also view separate areas using zoom functionality. Learn more about different monitoring actions. Note: Some IP cameras might have a specified maximum connection limit. If that limit is exceeded, then the camera will not show a preview when you add it multiple times.

Security Monitor Pro keeps track of all important incidents in the form of event logs for each individual camera. To view Event log for specific camera, select the respective camera from 'Show Event Log For' dropdown list in the Event log viewer. This will list all the incidents with description, date and time. You can also create separate log file for the selected camera by clicking on the Save button, which will help you to keep record of all action events. [image: EventLog.png]

Security Monitor Pro has a default option to restart previously running actions on application launch. To stop previously running actions, click Settings icon from the tool bar and uncheck "Restart previously running actions on application launch" option. You can also stop the actions manually before closing the application. [image: SMPpost5117.jpg] This option will prevent the previous running actions to restart on application launch.

The way to accomplish this in Security Monitor Pro is by adding two schedules. For the first schedule, select the ‘Monitoring Actions selected in camera settings’ option on the ‘Add Schedule’ dialog. [image: SMPpost5105_1.jpg] Make sure you have selected the ‘Take Photos’ action from the actions tab on the Add/Edit camera window. The video recording action is selected by default, uncheck it. [image: SMPpost5105.jpg] For the second schedule, select the ‘Video Recording’ action from the ‘Add Schedule’ dialog. While adding the schedule, enter the start date and time, and the number of hours to run the schedule. [image: SMPpost5105_2.jpg]

It is very easy to set the broadcasting port in Security Monitor Pro. Go to the Edit camera dialog, and click on the ‘Broadcast’ tab. Change the port number in the ‘Broadcast Port:’ field. [image: ConfigureBroadcasting.png] Security Monitor Pro will inform you if you have selected a port which is in use by another program. If the port is already in use, then you will see an ‘Auto Select’ button after clicking on the OK button. Click on the ‘Auto Select’ button to set the port number automatically.

You can arrange the previews in any layout. Add your 3 cameras in Security Monitor Pro. Next, detach the first camera preview window by right clicking on the camera preview and selecting the ‘Detach Camera’ option. Resize the detached camera preview window and place it in the position you want. [image: SMPpost5082.jpg] Do the same for the other two cameras. You can select the ‘Always on Top’ option if you want to keep the camera previews on top of other dialogs or applications. [image: detach-camera-preview.png] Note that the Detach camera and Always on Top settings will not be preserved when you close the application.

In Security Monitor Pro, you can have a quick review of all the media files recorded within a custom date range with the help of Media Analyzer. To filter the video list, open Media analyzer from the tool bar. Select Custom Date Range option from 'View captured media' dropdown and enter the desired date range. The videos of specified date range will be seen in the list view. [image: SMPpost5064.jpg] You can also uncheck the ‘Photos Taken’ check box, if you want to review videos only. That will exclude all the photos from the list.

Yes, Security Monitor Pro can play an alarm when a network failure occurs. Under General settings there is an option ‘When network failure occurs, turn on audio alarm’. Select this option. [image: SMPpost5053.jpg] From the drop down list, you can select the length of time to run the alarm. Alternatively, you can use multiple monitoring stations on different ISP's to make sure recording occurs. Please see this article on multi-station surveillance monitoring.

Since you mentioned the camera was installed in a garden area, the false alarms may be getting triggered because of tree branches that are moving when the wind blows. I recommend masking the area on the camera preview which shows the trees or branches. Motion will not be detected under a masked area, and the false alarm events should be reduced. For more details on avoiding false alarms please refer this article: https://www.deskshare.com/resources/articles/smp_Masking.aspx Another option is to adjust the motion trigger level from the Motion Settings during the night hours.

Yes, Security Monitor Pro can upload images to website easily. It also allows you to keep only the most recent images and you can set how many of the most recent images to be maintained. For more details on configuring Security Monitor Pro for uploading images to your website please refer to this link: https://www.deskshare.com/help/smp/Upload-Media-Files.aspx

Security Monitor Pro allows you to configure schedule for cameras to start and stop monitoring actions at a specific time. To configure schedule, click on the 'Scheduler' icon. Choose the camera(s) and select when to perform scheduled actions. Monitoring action would be selected by default to be performed at scheduled time. Here you need two different schedules to be configured, one for the weekdays and other for weekends. Select the 'Weekly' schedule. Enter the Start date-time, and run it for 9:00 hours. Select all the days except Saturday and Sunday. [image: SMPpost5017.jpg] For second schedule, repeat the procedure but enter the 'Run for' duration as 4:00 hours and select only Sunday and Saturday. The schedules will start the monitoring actions at the configured date and time. [image: SMPpost5017_1.jpg]

You can adjust the playback speed from Media Analyzer in Security Monitor Pro. Select the 'Media Analyzer' option on tool bar and maximize the media analyzer window. Click on ‘Playback Settings’ icon from the preview controls. On Playback settings, you can adjust the playback speed using the slider. This will change the playback speed instantly for the video being played. [image: PlaybackSpeed.png]

Security Monitor Pro allows you to add Text and Image labels to your camera. When you add an image label, you need to adjust the image transparency. This is important in order to make sure that the motion is detected behind the image. To adjust the transparency level, select 'Manage camera' from tool bar, then choose the camera and click on 'Edit Camera'. On Labels tab, double click on the label image. Select 'Image Transparency' option and set the transparency level such that motion is detected behind the label. [image: add_water_mark.png] Note- Below 60% transparency, motion will not be detected.

Security Monitor Pro allows you to add mask area to avoid false alarm. To add mask area, select 'Manage camera' from tool bar, then choose the camera and click on 'Edit Camera'. On Mask Area tab, select the 'Enable Masking' checkbox, this will add a new mask area, you can move or change the shape of the region by selecting Grab and Move icon. The masked area will block motion detection in that particular area. [image: MaskArea.png] Note- You can also hide the mask area from main window by unchecking 'Show mask area on camera preview'.

Security Monitor Pro shows thumbnail view that allows you to quickly see the camera status and previews. To view thumbnails, you have to select camera layout which has camera count less than the total number of cameras present in the application. Also the thumbnail view is visible only upto three camera layout. To change the layout, click on the 'Camera layout' icon from toolbar. [image: SMPpost4963.jpg] The thumbnail view is a smaller view of your camera along with the status icon indicating recording, monitoring or broadcasting actions. You can also adjust the size of the thumbnail view.