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
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®
- Download and install the DW Spectrum DW Witness Plugin to your computer.
- Copy the downloaded plugin file to C:\Program Files\Digital Watchdog\DW Spectrum\MediaServer\plugins
- Restart the DW Spectrum® Media Server.
Setting Up DW Witness™
- If you have not already done so, download and install the DW Witness™ mobile application from the App Store or Google Play Store.

- 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:

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