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Demo Mode ?

edited May 2020 in SecuritySpy
We are in a small flat for a couple of months whilst our new house and studio are completed so do not have ready access to cameras for testing. Is there a way to do a demo mode in SS w/ dummy camera feeds to see how it, web interface, IOS and TvOS function (and so that we can do this part of eval without eating up the 30 day trial period)?

Thank you,

Comments

  • BenBen
    edited May 2020
    Yes, actually we have recently added this feature to the software. Please do the following:

    - Download and install the latest beta version of SecuritySpy.

    - Go to your Home folder (available from the Go menu in the Finder), and open the SecuritySpy folder within that. In the SecuritySpy folder, create a folder called "Simulated Video Inputs" and add to that folder any JPEG file you like (just make sure it has a .jpg or .jpeg file extension).

    - In SecuritySpy, go to Preferences -> Cameras, and click the plus (+) button at the bottom left. Here you should see your images shown as simulated video inputs, which you can select to add them to SecuritySpy.

    This should allow you to test many functions of the software. The main thing you can't test properly is motion detection, as these simulated video inputs will just show a static image. If you want to simulate motion (e.g. to test notifications or recording), you can right-click on any video image in SecuritySpy and select the "Trigger Motion Detection" option.

    As this is a new feature that hasn't yet been tested yet "in the wild" (as we've just been using it for our own internal testing), please let me know if you find any problems with it.
  • Thanks Ben. That sounds great. We'll try it today.
  • Overall that works! Thank you. Some initial thoughts.

    - Some .jpg's caused errors. It didn't appear to be name length/characters or any sizing parameters that I could see. Not a big deal because we were able to load enough to see capabilities but I can upload the bad files if you want to troubleshoot.

    - TvOS didn't automatically pick up added cams. Again, not a big deal and in real world shouldn't be a problem. Also might be purely a demo issue.

    - In TvOS:
    - Matrix screens look good! You should have screenshots of these and an image w/ the drop-down menu on your site and app store.
    - It'd be nice to have an option of each camera filling it's cell or fitting within.
    - Thin (or configurable) black borders would be nice but not critical.
    - Camera Name on each image? Maybe this is a demo/static image issue.
  • Yes, please email us the JPEG files that didn't work, as we'd like to fix any problems with this.

    When you said the tvOS app didn't pick up the new cameras, were you adding the cameras wile the tvOS app was open? I believe you'll always need to quit/reopen the tvOS app for it to pull in the new cameras.

    Glad to hear the Multiplex screen looks good. Yes, we are planning to add some more screenshots for the next app update (annoyingly, Apple doesn't allow adding/modifying screenshots to apps already in the store - you have to re-submit everything in order to do this).

    We'll consider your suggestions. The option to show the camera name is a good one I think (this is not a demo or static image limitation).
  • Yeah, we had TvOS running so had to quit and reopen to see new 'cams'. Shouldn't be a problem in the real world.

    Camera names would def be helpful. I think we'll have 27 cameras with a few locations difficult to distinguish from others. The camera's timestamp wouldn't be bad either just to know that we're seeing a live rather than static image. With our current ICRealTime system that has come in handy a few times when cams have hung.
  • I agree that the option to have camera names would be useful. Timestamps should be turned on in the cameras themselves, and therefore will be always present on the video feeds.
  • Thanks for the tip on the timestamps. I should have thought about that. Do most cams have a field for a camera name that could be displayed similarly?
  • Many cameras do have a field for a name that can be displayed on the video image, in addition to the timestamp. You should be able to find this option via your camera's settings pages via its web interface, if it has this feature.
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