Milestone simultaneously releases version 6.5 for XProtect Professional and XProtect Basis+ IP video software

Milestone Systems announces the release of XProtect Professional version 6.5, a single-server video surveillance system controlling up to 64 cameras per server, for midsized installations that need robust software with the full functionality of easy management, flexible scheduling and fast analysis. At the same time, the company is releasing XProtect Basis+ version 6.5, a single-server video management system controlling up to 25 cameras per server, for smaller installations that need reliable software with essential functionality. Both products epitomize the Milestone open platform IP video management paradigm, supporting best-of-breed solutions with the widest choice in network video and computer hardware equipment available on the market today.

XProtect Professional 6.5 is the more comprehensive of the two solutions, providing greater capabilities and additional new features such as:

Two-Way Audio
The XProtect Professional Server is capable of transmitting the new Smart Client's microphone input to remote speakers attached to IP devices. This feature complements the existing functionality for recording and relaying incoming audio from remote devices equipped with microphones to computers with Smart Client and speakers. Each speaker and microphone is assigned to a device which by default is the same as the device they are connected to. The speaker and microphone can be assigned to other devices as well.

Optimized storage and bandwidth usage
New compression technologies - With the introduction of new video compression technologies (H.264, MPEG-4 ASP and MxPEG) the consumption of both network bandwidth and storage space is reduced considerably.

Bandwidth optimized multi-streaming - To preserve bandwidth the Recording Server only opens a single video stream from the camera and is able to split it into a stream for live viewing and a stream for recording. This allows users of Smart Clients and Remote Clients to view live video at a different frame rate and resolution than what is stored in the database. You can save a significant amount of disk space by storing recordings in the databases at a lower frame rate e.g. 4 frames-per-second, while maintaining high quality live viewing on access clients with a high frame rate e.g. 20 frames-per-second.

Improved archiving - The archiving process has been improved with hourly archiving (which addresses the greater storage needs with megapixel cameras). To optimize the process one database is now closed at a time, database cleanup is performed outside the archiving window and connections to the access clients are maintained. The archiving also offers dynamic archiving which enables spanning across several disks as an alternative to direct assignment of drive and path for each database. The administrator can set archive retention time individually per camera and is also able to force automatic archiving, if the database is running full.

Both XProtect Professional 6.5 and XProtect Basis+ 6.5 share these exciting upgrades:

Support for megapixel cameras and H.264
MxPEG Support - The video compression algorithm MxPEG, which is unique to Mobotix, is now supported. The MxPEG encoding is able to maintain high image quality for megapixel cameras while decreasing bandwidth consumption dramatically.

H.264 Support - This standard introduces a more efficient compression of video with a significant reduction in bandwidth and disk space usage, combined with high video quality that matches other standards. This is also referred to as H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 (AVC).

MPEG4 ASP Support - This video compression standard is called MPEG-4 Part 2, Advanced Simple Profile (ASP) and is an extension to the already supported MPEG-4 (Part 2), Simple Profile (SP). The MPEG4 ASP standard enables a number of technical features designed to reduce bandwidth consumption compared to MPEG4 SP.

Easy-to-use, multi-lingual XProtect Smart Client interface
Both XProtect Professional and XProtect Basis+ in versions 6.5 are delivered with the elegant and intuitive Smart Client Graphical User Interface (GUI), where operators can control and view camera images, live or recorded, centrally or remotely, as well as export evidence to share with authorities. New features with this version include:

• Two-Way Audio with ‘press to talk' functionality for fast action
• Controllable carousel windows by camera, timed or manually, switchable and with pause function
• Start recording by simply right-clicking in a camera view
• Dynamic actions - Assign outputs, PTZ presets, events and views as actions to joystick buttons and keyboard shortcuts
• Wash and wipe equipment for PTZ cameras is now supported and can be activated by Smart Client
• AVI export with audio automatically included in evidence extraction
• Digital zoom within images is now a default for fixed cameras to improve viewing details
• Localization has been extended so customers can now choose between 17 languages in the Smart Client Graphical User Interface (GUI) and help system: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish

"Both of these products fulfill surveillance needs in the SMB market by delivering top-of-the-line IP video management software with the latest functionality in a powerful, intuitive, open platform that is proven and flexible for future growth," says Christian Bohn, Head of Product Management at Milestone Systems.