📸 DCM and Video Surveillance Management Systems (VMS)
DCM can work with any camera with an IP address, either connecting directly, or connecting to a camera RTSP stream managed by any Video Surveillance Management System (VMS) software. This setup process is described in the main Manual.
For some specific VMS systems, DCM offers some additional features and tighter integration with the native management consoles. These will be detailed in this Appendix.
✨ Additional Features with Supported VMS
These features are not necessary for basic operation, but can offer additional convenience if using a supported VMS. The main additional features offered may include:
-
The ability to import a list of cameras from the VMS and fill in camera details automatically to make setup quicker and easier. The user setting up DCM now does not need to know details of each camera other than their rough location.
-
The ability to integrate and display the DCM custom Alarm warnings into the native notification system of the VMS, making key events available through a ‘single pane of glass’.
-
Allow a VMS user to display the full DCM dashboard within the native VMS interface, to see detailed information without needing to swap between dashboards.
⚙️ Technical Integration Details
These features make use of the VMS software Application Programming Interface (API) where available to extract information from the VMS system and push data back into the VMS.
This does not replace the need for a valid network connection from DCM to the VMS host machine, either via a VPN tunnel, if using the standard cloud version of DCM, or alternatively if using the On Premises option, having DCM running on a local machine with access to the same network as the host machine of the VMS software.
✅ VMS Systems that Support Extra Integrations
These pages lists supported VMS systems, and specific versioning information. The exact options available in an API may vary by manufacturer, so this will list features and any specific exceptions or exclusions. The actual procedure to set up the API link is the same for all supported VMS systems, and is detailed in the next sections.