Press Release of webcam software for video surveillance and broadcasting

Turn your PC and webcam into a complete video surveillance and broadcasting solution!

Watcher, a Windows program that works with webcam not only to provide security for home and business, but also to provide video broadcasting capability. 

Four great features distinguish Watcher from other webcam software. Watcher combines both surveillance and broadcasting capabilities into one single software; Watcher is able to log true video/audio events (not just jpeg files) from beginning to end upon motion detection; Watcher can stream real time video to RemoteView, a free add-on from Digi-Watcher, to facilitate remote video surveillance easily using Internet connection or modems; Watcher can run in stealth mode or as an NT service.

Watcher is a full-fledged version that provides almost all functionalities expected from a webcam surveillance software. Watcher uses an advanced motion detection algorithm to perform monitoring job. Upon motion detection, Watcher logs the event into video files and triggers a series of configurable alerts: email, ftp upload or phone alert. The logged video files can even be remotely accessed. Watcher's broadcasting function can be performed simultaneously with motion monitoring, so while doing motion detection, Watcher can also continuously upload the images captured from camera onto the Internet. All the above functions can be scheduled to run at desired time, even in stealth mode.

In addition, Watcher can be easily configured as a multi-cam solution, which usually costs at least a few hundred dollars if you choose other software. The ability to support both VfW and DirectShow technologies means Watcher can work with a wide range of webcams and video capture cards. Watcher is the right choice for those looking for inexpensive and yet flexible video surveillance and broadcast solutions.

System Requirements
Watcher will run on a PC with a webcam or an analog camera with capture card and the following operating systems: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, or XP. The program requires 32MB of RAM.

Free download of Watcher for home security and more!

System and Webcam Requirement

Minimum system requirement:

• Pentium 2 or equivalent.
• Operating System: Win98/ME. WinNT/Win2000/XP.
• 32MB of RAM

A camera properly installed.  It can be either a USB webcam, or an analog camera with video capture card, or a wireless cam with a USB receiver at PC end.  As long as the webcam or the capture card is either Microsoft's WDM compatible or VfW (video for windows) compatible, it will work with Watcher (most of them in the market are either WDM or VfW compatible).

To use the RemoteView Software, you need to have:

• A modem if you will use the modem-to-modem connection to connect to the camera (Watcher) for remote video streaming.
• Internet access  if you were to use TCP/IP connection to connect to Watcher for remote video surveillance.

(Note: Cameras not listed here do not mean that they will not work with Watcher. As long as your camera supports Microsoft's VfW or WDM, it should work with Watcher.

• All webcam models by Creative Labs, Inc.
• Logitech QuickCam, Logitech Notebook USB..
• IBM Net Cam. 
• IBM PC Camera.
• X10 cameras.
• Intel Easy PC Camera, Intel Web Cam Deluxe
• Sumsung webcam.
• Labtech webcam.
• 3Com HomeConnect USB camera.
• ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder
• Compusa USB cam
• EZCam series USB camera by Ezonics.
• DNT Camstick 2
• Micro Innovations
• Orange Micro's: IBot2
• Dazzle* Digital Video Creator by Dazzle Multimedia
• Kodak Webcam
• Mini-Cube Camera (wireless) & Cop Security USB Receiver
• CleverCam
• AverMedia InterCam-Elite USB camera.
• Hauppauge WinTV Products.
• Nogatech CaptureVision PCMCIA card.
• Videum capture card by Winnov.
• BigPicture video capture board and camera by 3Com.
• COMPRO PS39 Digital Camera by ACS Innovations
• Philips USB and parallel port cameras.
• The SmartOne by Best Data
• Cinergy 400 tv capture
• Hauppauge Win/TV
• Sony Hi8 cams with VfW compatible capture cards.
• Grandtech capture card.
• Chronos Tv tuner/capture card
• Dexxa webcam
• HiVal Notebook Cam
• Mini-Cube Camera (wireless) & Cop Security USB Receiver
• DLink DSB cam.
• DXG Tech. Corp. (DATRON)
• Veo Stinger
• Veo PC camera
• Lifeview flyview TV tuner card.
• 3DeMON PV951T
• Logitech ClickSmart
• NOGATECH USB  single port adapter
• Philips ToUCam
• Mustek PC Cam
• Jetway TV tuner card
• Belkin analog to USB converter
• Axis 2120
• XirLink PC camera
• WPRO USB video grabber
• Osprey-100 capture cards
• Phoebe videocat camera
• Aiptek Pencam
• Brook Tree card
• Swann outdoor colour cam
• Pinnacle card (NTSC mode)
• GE Easy cam Plus

Free download of Watcher for home security and more!

Screen Capture of our webcam software

Quick Start on Using Watcher for webcam surveillance

What to do after the installation of Watcher? The following are the few things you can try to give you a quick start:

1. Try the system menu and browse through settings dialog.

Please click on the round button at the top left of the window and  choose "Settings". All Watcher's settings can be set in this single dialog box by navigating through the different settings pages. Please browse through the all the settings to get a rough understanding on how Watcher can be configured. It is important to refer to the settings manual where detailed explanation of each settings page is documented.

From the same system menu, you can choose "View all Status". This function is helpful when Watcher is performing a lot of tasks and the status bar is being refreshed quickly. The "Status Log" window will show all the previous status displayed on the status bar. This is useful to the understanding how Watcher perform various tasks.

2. Try recording a video into a file.

Please make sure Watcher is running the "Capture" mode (The tabs at the top of the windows will toggle Watcher to operate in either "Capture" or "Log" mode). Click on the start button right under "Record", you will be prompted to enter the name of the video file that is going to be produced by Watcher. Enter the file name and click 'Save', the video recording starts right away until you press "Stop" button. If recording has problem please refer to the troubleshooting page.

3. Play the recorded video

Please click on the "Logs" tab at  the top of the window. That will switch Watcher from Capture Mode to Log mode. Click on the file open icon at the left bottom of the window and choose the file just recorded. (Or, you can directly hit the system menu, find "Play dgw video clip".) While it is playing, you can also try to click around to pause it, play it faster or slower, zoom in or zoom out.

4. Try the Monitoring function of Watcher.

Please make sure video logging is turned on. For a start, please make sure ftp alert and email alert is not enabled, so that your will not be confused by too much activities.

In "Capture" mode, please click on the small start button right under "Monitor", the program will tell you that the monitoring will start in 5 seconds. Try to move around, your motion will be detected and recorded into a video log file.

5. View the recorded video log clips in the log window.

Please click on the "Logs" tab at  the top of the window to go to the log window (Log Mode). In Log Mode,  there should be one or more log files. Double click on one of them and the program will start playing the video which was just recorded. While it is playing, you can try to click on different buttons under the video window. You can try pause it, play it faster or slower, zoom in or zoom out. You can also right-click on the file, to convert it to windows AVI video file or to merge multiple files into one video file.

6. Try adjusting monitoring sensitivity.

Now go back to Capture Mode by clicking on Capture Tab on the top of the window. Go the Settings dialog box and choose "Monitor Settings -> Motion Sensitivity". You can choose the sensitivity level, ranging from "very insensitive" to "very sensitive",  by dragging your mouse along the sliding bar. Choose a different sensitivity level and click on "OK". Start monitor again, try to move yourself around to test whether Watcher can detect you. 

7. Try alert settings

Choose the same "Monitoring Setting" page. There are four settings page designed for alert. The first one is the video logging, which we have already tried. The second and third is ftp alert and email alert. These alerts required internet connection and more information. You could try the "Other Alerts" which is simpler and get back to the more sophisticated alerts later.

The "Other Alerts" are some events to be triggered after motion is detected. For instance, you can choose a wave file to play to deter the intruder. You can also choose an application or a file to open, for example, a WinWord file. This is useful if you are playing game at office, and you want to automatically switch to WinWord when your boss comes in. What's more, if you are a registered user, you can choose phone-alert function, so that Watcher can call your hand-phone when a motion is detected.

8. Toggle audio settings

You can toggle the audio setting of Watcher. Try to record a video file again with audio on, and play the file to verify that audio is also recorded.

9. Listen to RemoteView 

You can try to listen to RemoteView. Firstly you need to determine how RemoteView will connect to Watcher by changing the Listening Settings 

Tip: You can actually try out the TCP/IP connection with Watcher and RemoteView running on the same PC. Please specify the IP address/hostname to be "127.0.0.1" or "localhost" (both of them mean the current PC) in RemoteView's connection setting dialog

After the listening setting is specified, you can go ahead to start listening by clicking on the small start button under "Listen".

If your Watcher is running behind a firewall, and you want a TCP/IP connection,  please make sure your firewall opens the listening port - 5003 by default.

10. Try Broadcasting to local web server

Now that you are ready to test it out by yourself. Firstly you need to set the Broadcasting to local web server setting, make sure you check the option to "Launch the internet explorer...". Go to Watcher's capture mode and click on the start button under the text "Broadcast". Your internet browser would then be launched with the url "http://127.0.0.1/" and you will see live images from your camera being refreshed almost real time. 

By doing some more setups such as obtain a permanent host name for your PC, you could let everyone else on the internet to view live images from your camera from their browsers.

Of course, you could also broadcast the image to a remote server and the broadcasting will just work in a similar way.

11. Try the Auto-start option

Click menu->Auto-start options. The auto-start settings are essential if you want to scheduler Watcher, or run Watcher as an NT service.

12. If you want to try the multi-cam solutions.

Though Watcher by itself is a single-cam application, you can still use it for multi-cam scenario.

13. Parallel run of operations.

This is where Watcher becomes complicated, and this is also why other webcam software can't compare. Watcher can do the following tasks simultaneously, monitoring and broadcasting, or monitoring and listening, or recording and broadcasting. All these operations can be auto-started when Watcher is auto-started by Scheduler, or NT service or Windows. With all these combinations, Watcher can almost do everything you can think of.