Installing the DW Witness Plugin For DW Spectrum

Installing the DW Witness™ Plugin For DW Spectrum®

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Affected Roles:  Administrator, Owner

Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps:  DW Spectrum®, DW Witness™

Complexity:  Medium

Software Version:  DW Spectrum v3.2 or higher

Last Edit:  November 20, 2020

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DW Witness™

The DW Witness™ mobile application allows users to turn their own mobile phones or tablets into portable surveillance cameras. By connecting the application to a DW Spectrum® Server, video through DW Witness™ can be archived directly to the DW Spectrum® Server.

This article will outline how to set up a DW Spectrum Server to function as the media server for use with DW Witness™.

Supported/Affected Devices

• DW Blackjack® Series

Before Starting

• DW Witness™ is compatible with DW Spectrum IPVMS v3.2 or higher
• TCP Port 7001 and TCP Port 32201 should be port forwarded for external network use
• If using a network Firewall or SonicWall, TCP Port 7001 and TCP Port 32201 must be port forwarded
• Creating Custom rulesets in Windows Firewall (Advanced Settings) for TCP Port 7001 and TCP Port 32201 may help to mitigate unexpected LAN issues

Setting Up DW Spectrum®

1. Download and install the DW Spectrum DW Witness Plugin to your computer.

2. Copy the downloaded plugin file to C:\Program Files\Digital Watchdog\DW Spectrum\MediaServer\plugins

3. Restart the DW Spectrum® Media Server.

Setting Up DW Witness™

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

2. Launch DW Witness™ on your mobile device.

Tap the Set button (gear icon), then enable the Spectrum toggle switch.

Enter the DW Spectrum Server IP address or URL.  You do not need to enter a port or login information.

iOS Example:

Android Example:

3. Tap the Connect button.

When prompted, tap the OK button for [Channel 1].  Channel 1 will be the only available option.

4. Tap on the red Recording button to begin streaming video to the server through DW Witness.

Note:  It may take some time to complete the registration the first time.

Using DW Witness™ With DW Spectrum®

When using DW Witness™ and DW Spectrum:

1. Your mobile device’s camera will display in the DW Spectrum® Device List.

It will be named DW-Witness-[unique ID].  The unique ID is automatically generated by DW Witness™.

If the DW Witness™ camera does not display in the Device List after one minute, Stop then Start the DW Spectrum® Server.

2. While streaming from DW Witness™, make sure that video displays in DW Spectrum® as a typical IP camera would.

If a “No Signal” message displays, click on the Diagnostics button at the bottom of the viewing window.  Alternatively, you may wait a moment to see if a connection is established.

3. You may set the recording settings for the DW Witness™ device like any other camera.

• For Continuous recording, a maximum of 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.