Configuring a Privacy Switch

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This page uses image examples^🖼️

Prepare all Cameras

On each camera in the room:

1. Set the I/O Ports
2. Set the PTZ Presets
3. Set the Privacy Mask

Set the I/O Ports

The Input/Output (I/O) ports will be wired to the Privacy Switch. These are used to determine which mode the camera should be in and outputs power to the Privacy Switch to light up the LED.

1. Go to System → Accessories^🖼️.
2. Ensure that Ports 1 & 3 are set as Input and 2 & 4 are set as Output.

Port 1	Input		Port 2	Output
Port 3	Input		Port 4	Output

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Some cameras will only have ports 1 & 2.

Image Example

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Set the PTZ Presets

If there are any PTZ cameras in the room, you will need to set the preset positions on those cameras. These locations will help drive the camera to its Privacy Position and Home Position.

1. Pan/Tilt/Zoom your camera to the desired angle.
2. Go to PTZ → Preset Positions^🖼️.
3. Select Preset Positions → Create preset position^🖼️.
1. Home
• Set a typical angle that would capture the room normally.
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The Home preset may already exist. If this is the case, hit the Edit button on the existing Home preset instead of creating a new preset.
• In the Name field enter Home.
2. Privacy
• Typically, this involves having the PTZ face the wall.
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The exact position does not matter for functionality, but having the camera visibly face the wall can help to ensure visual privacy even if the mask is off.
• In the Name field enter Privacy.

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Set the Privacy Mask

The Privacy Mask will be used to block the view

While your camera is in the Privacy Position:

1. Video → Privacy Masks^🖼️ → Hit the plus (+) button to add a Mask.
2. Have the mask cover the entire view.
3. Name the mask Privacy.

Make sure this is the first/only mask.

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Add Recipients

The privacy switch is driven by custom rules/events created on the camera. These rules are sent to all cameras through Recipients.

Add Self

1. Go to System → Events^🖼️ → Recipients^🖼️.
2. Select Add Recipient.
3. In the Name field, enter Self as the name of the camera.
4. In the Type^🖼️ field, select HTTP.
5. The URL^🖼️ of the recipient will be in the form:

http://CAMERA_IP/axis-cgi/param.cgi

Image Example

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Add Remote Cameras

If there is more than one camera in thme setup, be sure to add additional recipients. This will allow you to create additional rules later to tell thme remote cameras what to do when privacy is enabled/disabled.

All Remote Recipients

Repeat the steops from Add Self, but change the Name to Remote.

Remote PTZ Recipients

For remote PTZ cameras, separate PTZ Control recipients need to be made alongside the standard recipient of the form:

http://CAMERA_IP/axis-cgi/com/ptz.cgi

Image Example

1. Enter in the corresponding Username and Password for the recipient camera.
2. Hit the Test button.
3. If the camera responds that everything is okay, hit the Save button to save your recipient.
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Repeat this process on all PTZ cameras in the room that the privacy switch would be activating.

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Add Privacy Event Rules

Privacy On

1. Go to System → Events^🖼️ → Rules^🖼️.
2. Select Add a rule.
3. Set Name to Privacy On.
4. Set Condition to Digital input is active or I/O → Digital input. (Firmware Dependent)
5. In the Port section, select the port the privacy switch trigger is connected to (white wire).
6. Set Action to Send notification through HTTP.
7. Set the Recipient.
8. The Query string suffix will be of the form name=value for each parameter name and value, with an ampersand (&) between each name/value pair.

The suffix should be composed of the following pairs:

Fixed & PTZ
Name	Value
action	update
Image.I0.Overlay.MaskWindows.M0.Enabled	yes
AudioSource.A0.InputGain	mute
PTZ Only
Name	Value
PTZ.Various.V1.PanEnabled	false
PTZ.Various.V1.TiltEnabled	false
PTZ.Various.V1.ZoomEnabled	false

Image Example

The completed suffix should be (ignore word wrapping):

action=update&Image.I0.Overlay.MaskWindows.M0.Enabled=yes&AudioSource.A0.InputGain=mute&PTZ.Various.V1.PanEnabled=false&PTZ.Various.V1.TiltEnabled=false&PTZ.Various.V1.ZoomEnabled=false

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Privacy Off

1. Go to System → Events^🖼️ → Rules^🖼️.
2. Select Add a rule.
3. Set Name to Privacy Off.
4. Set Condition to Digital input is active or I/O → Digital input. (Firmware Dependent)
5. Check the box Invert this condition.
6. In the Port section, select the port the privacy switch trigger is connected to (white wire).
7. Set Action to Send notification through HTTP.
8. Set the Recipient.
9. The Query string suffix will be of the form name=value for each parameter name and value, with an ampersand (&) between each name/value pair.

The suffix should be composed of the following pairs:

Fixed & PTZ
Name	Value
action	update
Image.I0.Overlay.MaskWindows.M0.Enabled	no
AudioSource.A0.InputGain	0
PTZ Only
Name	Value
PTZ.Various.V1.PanEnabled	true
PTZ.Various.V1.TiltEnabled	true
PTZ.Various.V1.ZoomEnabled	true
autofocus	on

Image Example

The completed suffix should be (ignore word wrapping):

action=update&Image.I0.Overlay.MaskWindows.M0.Enabled=no&AudioSource.A0.InputGain=0&PTZ.Various.V1.PanEnabled=true&PTZ.Various.V1.TiltEnabled=true&PTZ.Various.V1.ZoomEnabled=true 

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Set AudioSource.A0.InputGain to the amount of gain necessary for the room. For example, if the camera's input gain would normally be set to 15 dB, the name/value pair should be AudioSource.A0.InputGain=15.

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LED Toggle

On the Host Camera:

1. Go to System → Events^🖼️ → Rules^🖼️.
2. Select Add a rule.
3. Set Name to LED Toggle.
4. Set Condition to Digital input is active or I/O → Digital input. (Firmware Dependent)
5. In the Port section, select the port the privacy switch trigger is connected to (white wire).
6. Set Action to Toggle I/O while the rule is active.
7. Set the Action Port to the port the privacy switch LED is connected to (black wire).
8. Set the Action State to Active.

Image Example

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PTZ Rules

The following rules will be used to move the camera to a privacy location when privacy is enabled, and then move to a home location once privacy is disabled.

PTZ Privacy

1. Go to System → Events^🖼️ → Rules^🖼️.
2. Select Add a rule.
3. Set Name to the camera name with PTZ Privacy Position.
4. Set Condition to Digital input is active or I/O → Digital input. (Firmware Dependent)
5. In the Port section, select the port the privacy switch trigger is connected to (white wire).
6. Set Action to Send notification through HTTP.
7. Set the Recipient to be the proper PTZ Controls Recipient.
8. The Query string suffix should be: gotoserverpresetname=Privacy

Image Example

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PTZ Home

1. Go to System → Events^🖼️ → Rules^🖼️.
2. Select Add a rule.
3. Set Name to the camera name with PTZ Home Position.
4. Set Condition to Digital input is active or I/O → Digital input. (Firmware Dependent)
5. Check the box Invert this condition.
6. In the Port section, select the port the privacy switch trigger is connected to (white wire).
7. Set Action to Send notification through HTTP.
8. Set the Recipient to be the proper PTZ Controls Recipient.
9. The Query string suffix should be: gotoserverpresetname=Home

Image Example

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