Using DW Witness with DW Spectrum IPVMS

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Affected Roles: Administrator, Owner

Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps: DW Spectrum IPVMS, DW Witness

Software Version: DW Spectrum v5.0, DW Witness 1.9|1.1.7 (iOS|Android)

Last Edit: June 6, 2023

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DW Witness

The DW Witness™ mobile application allows users to turn their own mobile phone or tablet into a portable surveillance camera. By connecting the application to a DW Spectrum Server, video through DW Witness can be recorded directly into the DW Spectrum Server.

This article will outline how to set up a DW Spectrum Server to function as the media server for hosting a DW Witness connected device.

Supported/Affected Devices

DW Blackjack® Server Series

Before Starting

DW Witness is compatible with DW Spectrum IPVMS v4.2 & v5.0
TCP Port 7001 and TCP Port 32201 must be port forwarded if a mobile device will be connecting from outside of a secure network (Firewall/SonicWall).
- DW Witness used direct connection only (IP address/DDNS) and cannot be connected through DW Cloud.
- Creating Custom rulesets in Windows Firewall (Advanced Settings) for TCP Port 7001 and TCP Port 32201 may help to mitigate unexpected LAN issues if using a cascading network.

Part 1: Add the DW Witness Plugin to the DW Spectrum Server

DW Witness is an optional add-on that can be integrated with an existing DW Spectrum System. For DW Witness to work with a DW Spectrum Server, a plugin must be added to the DW Spectrum Server files for any server that will be hosting a DW Witness camera/device.

To add the DW Witness plugin to a DW Spectrum Server:

Download and install the DW Witness Plugin for DW Spectrum Servers.
1. Visit the DW Witness product page and click the "Software" tab.
2. Download the DW Witness plugin for your system.

Copy the downloaded plugin file to the plugin folder on DW Spectrum Server.

Windows

C:\Program Files\Digital Watchdog\DW Spectrum\MediaServer\plugins

Ubuntu Linux

/opt/digitalwatchdog/mediaserver/bin/plugins

Restart the DW Spectrum Media Server.

Windows
- Right-click on the DW Spectrum Server Tray icon and select “Stop Server (started)” to STOP the server application.
- To START the server application again, right-click on the DW Spectrum Server Tray icon again and select “Start Server (stopped)”.

Ubuntu Linux
- Open the Terminal application and use the following command to STOP the media server:

service digitalwatchdog-mediaserver stop

- START the media server again with the following command:

service digitalwatchdog-mediaserver start

Part 2: Setting Up DW Witness

After adding the DW Witness plugin to the DW Spectrum Server files, follow the instructions below to add a device to DW Spectrum using the DW Witness mobile application.

If you have not already done so, download and install the DW Witness mobile application from the iOS App Store or from the Google Play Store.

Launch DW Witness on your mobile device. If this is the first time opening DW Witness, you will be prompted to enter the connection information for the application. Otherwise, tap the gear icon to open the configuration settings.

Enable the Spectrum toggle switch and enter the IP address or URL of the DW Spectrum Server. You do not need to enter a port or login information if the Server is still assigned to use the default TCP port (7001).

After entering the connection information, tap the OK button in DW Witness.

Tap the OK button again to select the camera channel. Since this is being set up for DW Spectrum and not a standalone recorder, “Channel 1” will be the only available option.

Tap on the red Record button to begin streaming video to the DW Spectrum Server through DW Witness. It may take a moment to complete the registration the first time.

Additional User Notes

When using DW Witness with DW Spectrum IPVMS:

The Auto-Discovery setting must be enabled for the system to add a new DW Witness device.
A recording license is required to archive DW Witness video streams to the DW Spectrum Server. You can activate the recording license for the DW Witness device just like any IP camera.
1. Right-click on the DW Witness device and select “Camera Settings”.
2. Select the “Recording” menu ta
3. Enable the “Recording” toggle slider to enable recording. DW Spectrum will only write to the DW Spectrum Server storage while the DW Witness stream is active.
Your mobile device’s camera will display in the DW Spectrum Device List and will be named DW-Witness-[unique ID]. The unique ID is automatically generated by DW Witness to self-identify in DW Spectrum.
If the DW Witness camera does not display in the Device List after one minute, Stop then Start the DW Spectrum Server as explained in Part 1, Step 3 above.
- If a “No Signal” message continues to display, click on the Diagnostics button at the bottom of the viewing window in DW Spectrum. Alternatively, you may wait a moment to see if a connection is established.

You may set the recording settings for the DW Witness device like any other camera.
- For Continuous recording, a maximum of up to 15 fps is available.
- For Motion recording, open Camera Settings, then select the Expert tab. Under the Motion Detection section, enable Force motion detection for stream, then select Primary from the drop-down menu.

DW Witness uses the next available IP address of the server’s primary network. If an IP address issue is created by DW Witness duplicating the same IP address as an existing device, you can potentially resolve the issue by trying one of the following:
- Delete the DW Witness device from the DW Spectrum Server’s resource list.
- Reboot the server to clear it.
- Moving the device to a different VLAN.

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For More Information or Technical Support

DW Technical Support: https://www.digital-watchdog.com/contact-tech-support/

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