Recordings: Fast, Simple Access to the Footage You Need
Find footage in just a few clicks with SEiNG’s AI-backed smart filters.
SEiNG features a self-learning AI model to classify, predict, and trace objects. This means that you no longer have to sit scrubbing footage for hours – instead, let SEiNG do it for you. This guide goes into how.
An overview of SEiNG’s attribute search
Once you have logged into SEiNG using Single Sign On, use the sidebar menu to navigate to Recordings (under the Monitoring heading). By default, SEiNG shows shortcuts to the 4 most recent days.
The green bar above the media windows lets you filter your footage using attribute search. If you require a different date to those shown in the sidebar, you can select it from here.
Once you’ve set your date, select your devices. You can also apply additional filters. These filters appear as icons in the green bar, which reveal their names when you hover over them with your mouse:
- Sites: view all devices within a specific geographic location
- Groups: view all devices within a group specified within your SEiNG settings
- Devices: select individual devices
- Region: set a region within device field of view to search for certain object markers
- Categories: search by object counts or classifications
- Marker: filter by objects including:
- Pedestrian
- Car
- Cell phone
- Lorry
- Handbag
- Bus
- Cyclist
- Backpack
- Event: for word-based search if you have added notes to footage
- Tags: search for tags that have previously been assigned
- Sort: by newest or oldest
- Star: to quickly locate pinned footage
- View Device Context: review the full story across cameras and time frames
Once you’ve selected a date and device as minimum, SEiNG will load the relevant footage and display a timeline below the filter bar. To narrow the timeframe, click on a start point in the timeline and drag to your desired end time. SEiNG will then update the footage shown based on your selected timeframe and filters.
Managing your chart
When you've selected a date and device, SEiNG will pull up a chart view of activity across your devices.
Your chart will show a full day of activity across your selected devices.
Each device will display as a different colour, so you can quickly see which cameras are busiest and when. You can see the key if you hover over the chart, as well as object counts in the given period.
Managing your timeline
Switch to timeline view by clicking on timeline, then timeline from the drop down.
The timeline gives you a visual overview of activity across your devices, making it easy to identify patterns, spot incidents, and jump directly to important moments without wasting time.
For each device, your timeline will show periods of activity in green, and when an object has been detected by SEiNG’s AI model in yellow.
If you have multiple devices selected, scroll to view each timeline, or click and drag downward to expand the view and see multiple timelines at once.
You can pin certain devices to the top of your timeline by clicking the pin icon next to device name.
By default, the timeline displays a 24-hour view. Click the + button to zoom in and see a shorter period in more detail. Use the < and > arrows to move backward or forward through the timeline.
Footage review in SEiNG
Once you have selected your filters, SEiNG will instantly pull up media matching the criteria.
Each media window shows:
- Footage: quickly review by dragging your mouse across the scrub bar, or click the window to play the media
- Date and time of the footage
- The site and camera name, labelled in the top right corner
- Length of the media in seconds, labelled in the bottom right corner
- A star icon, so you can mark key recordings (find again later using the star icon on the filter bar)
- Context, which opens a pop-up showing media around the select recording
- Icons, so you can quickly identify markers
View footage in full screen mode by double clicking the media window. Close full screen by double clicking again or pressing escape on your keyboard.
Detail preview
Click the icons on your media window to open a preview of details.
- Use the skip buttons to jump forward or backward in the video
- If enabled through your cameras, turn on sound using the audio toggle
- View full screen by double clicking or use the expand button in the bottom right corner
- Click “Live” to view real-time footage
- View object classifications (markers) such as cars, lorries, or pedestrians
- View object counts and heatmaps
- Get context by reviewing earlier footage from the selected device, or those across the site and group
- Add a description
- View device name and status
Using the grey Actions button, you can:
- View context: see media around this recording. By default, SEiNG will show you footage across the selected site or group, +/- 5 minutes. Adjust using the filters at the top of the Context pop up.
- Copy video URL for quick, simple sharing
- Verify video: if you have previously downloaded the media, SEiNG can analyse the metadata to detect signs of tampering or alterations
- Share recording via email
- Add a Case
Click the grey Details button or alternatively, the green arrow icon at the bottom right of the media window within Recordings, for a full screen version of the details overview preview.
Understand events in context
When you’ve used the AI-search function to find the footage you need, you can get a broader picture into what’s been happening by viewing the media around your recording.
Every media window within recordings has a “view device context” icon in the top left corner. Alternatively, you can access context by clicking the green arrow on the media window within recordings, then selecting "View Context" from the drop-down.
When this is selected, a pop-up window will appear, with:
- Green filter bar
- Timeline
- Media windows
- “Download” button
- “Create Case” button
By default, your context window will show your selected camera +/- 5 minutes from the event. You can layer on filters to view more footage using the green filter bar. Adjust the timeframe, select a specific site or group, and even add markers.
You’ll also see the synchronised player toggle, turned on by default. This stitches together pieces of video from each camera, so you can quickly scrub through. View multiple cameras in sync by clicking the play button under the filter bar, or scrubbing through the timeline; you can also skip back and forth 5s here. This feature is ideal if you have multiple pieces of separate video or lots of cameras.
If you’d rather view individual media, simply switch the toggle off. Videos will be displayed as separate clips rather than a stitched timeline, allowing you to review each recording independently.
Example use case: context in action
If you were investigating an incident involving a cyclist at one of your sites, you might want to view the context around the cyclist arriving at your site and moving around it before the incident. In this instance, you could:
- Adjust the timeframe to +/- 20 minutes
- Select your site
- Choose “cyclist” under markers
Footage meeting these criteria will appear as a media window.
If synchronised player is on, you’ll see a media window per camera. Review media individually or play all footage at once so you can follow the cyclist’s journey across your site without having to switch between cameras.
Alternatively, toggle synchronised player off to view individual clips.
Sharing video
There are 3 ways to share footage from SEiNG.
- Cases: a built-in investigation management tool. View Guide.
- Copy Video URL: get a tamper proof temporary link to footage.
- Share recording: this provides you with a custom link, sent via email. With this option, you can add a title and notes.
Verifying video
If you have previously downloaded footage as evidence and want to ensure it hasn’t been manipulated, use SEiNG’s built in CCTV video verification tool.
- There are 3 ways to navigate to the tool:
- Visit SEiNG.ai/verification
- Click “Verify a Recording” under “Help & Support” in SEiNG’s sidebar menu
- Click “Verify Video” in the actions drop down when you’ve selected media in Recordings
- Select the source: either add a URL to the media, or upload a file
- Click the green “Verify” button. SEiNG will process the recording and validate its signature
- If valid, a green “Recording is valid” bar will appear. If not, the bar will be red and say “Recording is not valid”.
If you scroll down, you’ll be able to see the metadata SEiNG assesses.
Filters in practice: example scenario
Imagine we want to find footage of a member of staff using a mobile phone at the top the stairs between 9-10am.
1. Select the date of the incident.
2. Set the device.
3. The timeline now will appear. Narrow down the timeframe. 4. Select “Cell Phone” under markers
5. Your footage will appear. Review quickly by dragging your mouse along the scrub bar. Double click to view full screen.
6. When you’ve found the footage you need, click the green button to view more details, add notes, share the footage or create a case.
7. Say we want to share the footage by email:
- Click “Share recording”
- Give it a title, add a short description under “Notes”, and add the email recipients.
- Click “Share”.
We have now found and shared the recording in just a few clicks.
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