Omnicast 4.8 now supports more new hardware from some key Genetec technology partners and additional enhancements have also been made to to the PTZ priority function, support for advanced audio coding (AAC), and other maintenance and deployment tools.

The line-up of the newly integrated hardware includes the latest camera models from Acti, Axis Communications, Bosch, Cisco, Iqinvision, and Sony. Additional hardware integrations within Omnicast 4.8 also include support for Axis T8310 video surveillance control board and the Bosch Divar 700 hybrid video recorder.

The three modules of the Axis control board, T8311, T8312 and T8313, can be used to control the video streams from Omnicast 4.8 with a variety of functionalities such as PTZ, digital zoom, cameras and layouts switching, playback control, and more. Users also have the ability to customise other buttons for more precise operational functions.

The integration with the Bosc Divar 700 hybrid video recorder (HVR) is another option for users who are looking to record up to 32 cameras in H.264 compression format and manage the streams from Omnicast. Users will be able to stream live and playback video from the Divar 700 as well as control PTZ and video quality from Omnicast.

Customers who would like to designate PTZ control priorities to specific users will benefit greatly from the Omnicast 4.8 enhanced PTZ priority overrides. Beyond simply assigning users priority to PTZ controls, administrators can even select the cameras or group of cameras, including entire sites, for which a user has priority. Omnicast 4.8 also supports AAC, the latest audio compression and encoding scheme. Customers with cameras supporting AAC are likely to experience better sound quality.

An array of maintenance and deployment tools have also been added to this latest version of Omnicast so users and integrators alike can better configure and track their systems. Some of these tools include automatic configuration of the firewall exceptions, network diagnostic tests for video units, statistics pages for various services, and many other features.

"In this new version, we really wanted to focus on offering our integrators and their customers more tools to better manage and monitor their systems," says Francis Lachance, Product Manager at Genetec. "This will allow them to be even more self-sufficient in their operations and will contribute to greater system health awareness and efficiency gains."