The Bell Behavior and Video Mailbox page allows you to configure the behavior of the Door Station when the bell buttons are pressed or when contact numbers are dialed. More specifically you have the possibility to:
• Define which remote devices are involved in the signaling phases
• Specify the sequence with which the remote devices will be called
• Enable/disable announcements and answering machine
• Assign the users the rights to playback the voice messages
• Specify which sounds should be played by the camera’s speaker to inform the user about the status of a call
NOTE: All the actions related to the bell buttons or the Keypad must be configured from within the Bell Behavior and Video Mailbox page. Do not use the Setup Menu > Action Groups page to configure actions involving call profiles and/or IP Notify profiles in case of bell button events. By disregarding this rule you might generate a conflict in the configuration which will lead to unpredictable behaviors.
Overview of the Bell Behavior and Video Mailbox Page
Go to Admin Menu > Bell Behavior and Video Mailbox.
Press the “More” button on the bottom right corner of the page to display the advanced configuration. If the “Less” button is displayed instead, it mean that the page is already displaying the advanced content.
TIP: Are the fields within the page are empty? Did you run the auto-configuration process? If yes try to delete the cache of the Web browser and reload the page. If the problem persists use a different Web browser.
The page is pretty long but it can be broken down in 4 logical sections:
Basic Settings
This part allows for the configuration of two basic settings:
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Door Station Bell Sound: this sound is played by the Door Station after the bell button has been pressed. You can choose a sound from the drop down menu or you can load your own file. For further information about custom sound file refer to chapter 15 “How to load a custom sound”.
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Automatically Stop Ringing: if enabled the Remote Stations will stop ringing when the door gets opened. This function requires the door to be connected to a Signal Input (Door Position Contact) to detect its status (open/ closed). For further information Please refer to Door Position Contact in chapter 10 “Assign Wires”.
Rename Door Station Users
New users are automatically created every time an RFID card or a PIN code is registered to the Door Station. Each user corresponds to a physical person and it is not possible to create new users without adding a new RFID card or a PIN code. To know how to register RFID cards and PIN codes please refer to chapter 5 “Complete Autoconfiguration”.
The default name for new users is “User #” where # is a sequential number but it’s possible to rename them with the name of the person to whom the user belongs; example “User 1” can be renamed as “Mr. Jones”. This is a good practice especially when it’s required to check the entry log to detect who accessed the building.
To rename a users:
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Select it from the “Door Station User” drop down menu.
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Change its name in the “Name” field
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Click outside the text field to apply the changes.
When you have renamed all the users you can press “Set” at the bottom of the page to apply the changes.
The configuration can be verified by accessing two different pages of the Admin Menu: Entry Permissions and Entry Log.
Now the Entry Log is much more clearer because it contains real name instead of generic names.
TIP: If the Entry Log is empty swipe one of the registered RFID cards or type one of the registered PIN codes and press the “Reload” button to refresh the page.
Set Remote Stations for Door Stations
Here we can select which Call profiles, IP Notify profiles and MxAPP profiles we want to use for call signaling. All of the “non selected” profiles can be used by the camera for standard video surveillance purposes but they will not be available for the “Signaling Phases” within the next section of this menu called “Per-Addresses Settings”.
The “Remote Stations for Door Station” box is empty by default but it can be populated by the auto-configuration process or manually by selecting the needed profiles from the boxes below and by clicking on the ‘’Add selected devices’’ button. The Eventstream profiles (MxMC, MxDisplay, MxSoftPanel, etc) and Push Notifications from MxBell are automatically placed in the “Remote Station for Door Station” box as soon as an imports the Camera into the device or Software. The ‘’Outgoing Call Profiles’’ and ‘’IP Notify Profiles’’ boxes contain the profiles created in the relevant menus. The easiest way to access such menus is to click on the links in the description on the right-hand side of the page.
Per Addressee Settings
An addressee is a predefined Door Station user group that can be called with a bell button or with a
dial code.
Example:
In a company the Marketing office can be an addressee as well as the Sales office and the Support office. In a home scenario an addressee can represent a family or an apartment.
Users can belong to multiple addressees at the same time and can have more than one device (Remote Stations) to receive calls (SIP phones, MxMC, MxBell, MxDisplay).
The Remote Stations and the order with which they are called is defined by the Signaling Phases. For example when the Marketing bell button is pressed we want the Grandstream phones of users A2 and A3 to ring and, if they cannot answer the call within 30seconds, the MxBell of the user A1 should ring.
NOTE: There is no limitation in the number of addressees you can create.
The auto-configuration procedure detects the hardware modules able to support additional bell buttons and creates an addressee for each possible bell button, whether the bell buttons are actually attached or not. In the example above we have two cameras, Master and Slave, each of them equipped with different hardware modules. The number of the addressees created by the auto-configuration depends on the hardware modules connected. After the auto-configuration addressees can be added and deleted as needed.
Rename/Create/Delete Addressees
To rename and addressee you need to:
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Select the Addresse profile from the drop down menu
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Type the new name in the “Name” field
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Click out of the text field to apply the setting.
After renaming all the addressees press “Set” to apply the changes. The configuration of our cameras will look like:
To create a new addressee:
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Click on the “Add addressee” button. A new addressee name will be put in the Name
field (e.g. “Addressee 7”). -
Then rename it
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Click out of the field to apply the settings.
To delete an addressee you just need to select it from the drop down menu and press the “Delete addressee” button.
Now that all the addressees have been created we can configure them according to our needs.
NOTE: When you select an addressee from the drop down menu all the following fields will be updated accordingly. Before you make any changes within the highlighted section please always make
sure the correct addressee is selected. Everything below Per Addressee Setting in the menu, only correspondes to the Addressee selected.
TIP: For a better overview of the whole section “Per-Addressee Settings” we recommend you to keep the web browser open in full screen as showed in the example beside.
In the following example we will go through every parameter of the configuration of only one addressee (Supervisors) both on the Master and on the Slave camera and we will provide a general
overview for the other addressees.
Assign Bell Button/Contact Number
The first thing we are asked to do is to define how to contact each addressee. To do that we need to select the Addressee from the drop down menu and then select the hardware button from the “Bell Buttons” box.
There are 4 different possibilities in terms of Bell Buttons based on the external modules connected to the camera:
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Main Bell: this is the camera Bell Button and it is always present because it is integrated in the camera module.
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External Bell Buttons: all the bell buttons connected to any of the available Signal Inputs of external devices such as I/O Module, MX-232-IO-Box and so on.
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BellRFID module: up to 5 buttons integrated in the module
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Keypad: this device does not provide any additional bell buttons but it allows you to dial a contact number to notify the addressees. The blue bell button of this device corresponds to the camera bell button and it is used to start the call after the contact number has been typed.
In our example the Master Camera is connected to an I/O Module and a Keypad hence in the configuration page we have 5 bell buttons of which 1 is the Camera Bell Button whereas the other 4 buttons have been automatically generated by the auto-configuration process due to the presence of the I/O Module. As mentioned before the keypad doesn’t add any Bell Button to the system but it allows to create a Contact Number which is a dial code that can be used to call the addressee.
The Slave Camera is connected to an BellRFID module and an MX-232-IO-Box. Within the “Bell Button” box we can see 3 Bell Buttons: the Camera Bell Button and the 2 additional buttons created by the auto-configuration process due to the presence of the MX-232-IO-Box. The Bell Buttons of the BellRFID are displayed in a separate section but they have the same properties of the aforementioned buttons.
Select the addressee you want to configure from the drop down menu. In our example we will select the addressee named Supervisors. In the case of the Master Camera we will assign it the “Bell1” from the “Bell Buttons” box whereas in the case of the Slave camera we will tick the checkbox next to the first button of the BellRFID.
NOTE: Once a Bell Button has been assigned to an addressee it cannot be used to contact other addressees. This means, if you choose the button ‘‘Bell1’’ for the addressee ‘‘Supervisors’’ it will not be possible to use the same button to call the addressee ‘‘Marketing’’.
To make a Bell Button available you need to
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Detect which addressee is currently using it
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Select - None - from the “Bell Buttons” box.
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Select the addressee you want to assign the button to
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You will see that the Bell Button is not grayed out anymore.
With the field ‘’Contact Number’’ you can assign a dial code that will be entered through the keypad to call the same Addressee. The Contact Number needs to be a number within the range 1 - 65535.
In the example above the addressee “Supervisors” can be called either by pressing the bell button “Bell1” or by entering the code 5500 from the keypad as shown in the image below.
NOTE: Although Contact Numbers and Outgoing Call profiles can contain the same digits they have two completely different functions: an Outgoing Call profile can be used to call a specific SIP device (e.g. extension *102) whereas a Contact Number is used to call an addressee which is a group of devices.
NOTE: The keypad cannot be used to call an arbitrary VoIP extension within the system. It can be used to contact an addressee (through a Contact Number) or to open the door (through a PIN code).
When all the addressees have at least a Bell Button or a Contact Number to be called you can press “Set” to apply the settings before we move to the next section.
Set Access Rights for Video Mailbox
In the section “Set Access Rights for Video Mailbox” we can specify which users will be able to listen to the voice messages of the addressee directly from the Door Station by placing the RFID card in front of the reader. To authorize multiple users to listen to the messages of the addressee you can click on each of them whilst holding the CTRL button.
Assign the users to each own addressee then press “Set” to apply the changes.
TIP: Users can be created by teaching new RFID cards to the the RFID module or by adding PIN codes (only for the keypad module). Users can be renamed as described in the paragraph “Rename Door Station Users”
Call Profiles
Now that we have created and renamed our Addressees, assigned them the right bell buttons and/or Contact Numbers, defined which users can access the mailbox, it’s time to specify which devices should be notified when the visitors call each addressee and in which order the specified devices should ring. To do that we need to introduce the concept of “Call Profile” which shouldn’t be mistaken with the “Outgoing Call Profiles”. The Call Profiles allow us to be much more specific than a simple list of devices that have to be notified.
The auto-configuration process generates 5 default Call Profiles. An overview of such profiles is shown in the table below:
The default profiles can be renamed, modified or deleted and it’s also possible to create further profiles, give them a name and customize them.
NOTE: Call Profiles are not shared among the addressees. In other words each addressee can have a Call Profile with the same name (e.g. “Closing Times”) but with completely different behaviors.
NOTE: When adding Addressees new Call Profiles will need to be created as there will not be any default profiles.
Delete Call Profiles
In order to delete a Call Profile you just need to a. select it from the drop down menu and b. press the “Delete call profile” button. Press “Set” to apply the settings.
To keep this example as simple as possible let’s delete all the default Call Profiles except for the one named “Ring and Mailbox”. Remember to press “Set” after every deletion.
Create Call Profiles
To create a new call profile:
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Press the “Add call profile”
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Give it a name by typing the new name (e.g. “Closing Times”) in the “Name” field
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Click out of the field to confirm the name.
Press “Set” to apply the changes.
Modify Call Profiles
If you have followed this example you should have only two Call Profiles for the addressee Supervisors: “Ring and Mailbox” and “Closing Times”.
In order to rename the profile “Ring and Mailbox” to “Opening Times” by using the same steps described above.
Now that we have two call profiles “Opening Times” and “Closing Times” we can configure them according to our needs.
If a MxDoorMaster is connected to the camera, the next parameter we see is the Ringing at the Security Door Opener “Signaling”. If enabled, the MxDoorMaster will ring when the addressee is called
through the configured Bell Button or Contact Number.
In order to call one or more Remote Stations we need to define at least a Signaling Phase. The Call Profile “Opening Times” should already have a Signaling Phase. If not you can press the “Add signaling phase” button to create a new one. From the text box:
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Select the Remote Stations you want to notify when the Bell Button or the Contact
Number is pressed -
Select the duration of the Signaling Phase.
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The checkbox next to the Signaling Phase number allows for enabling or disabling the Signaling Phase.
In the example above when the bell button “Bell1” is pressed the GrandStream phone *101 and the MxEasy will be notified simultaneously. As soon as one of the Remote Stations answer the call the other will stop ringing. If the call is not answered within the specified time the Door Station will perform the next Signaling Phase (if any).
To configure another Signaling Phase:
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Press the “Add signaling phase” button
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Tick the checkbox next to the Signaling Phase’s name
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Select the other Remote Stations you want to notify
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Specify the duration of the signaling phase.
If no further Signaling Phases have been configured the Door Station will play the announcement sound (if the “Announcement” is enabled) and the visitor will be invited to leave a message (if the “Video Mailbox” is enabled).
It is possible to decide whether to reproduce an audio file in the case no one answers the call within the time specified in the signaling phases. To do so:
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Enable the “Announcement”
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From the following drop down menu select the audio file you want the camera to reproduce. The uploaded file will be eventually available in the drop down menu below.
If you want to allow the visitors to leave a message (regardless of the fact they pressed the button to call an addressee) you just need to enable the “Leave Message” parameter. In this example the Video Mailbox has been deactivated for the “Opening Times” call profile.
TIP: To leave a message after the announcement you need to keep the mail button pressed while speaking. To leave a message without placing a call you need to press the mail button briefly and after the announcement you need to keep it pressed while speaking.
Finally you can activate and choose the audio sounds to notify the visitor through the camera’s speaker when the Door Station tries to establish a connection with the Remote Stations selected in the Signaling Phases. If ‘’GlobalDefault’’ is selected the Door Station will play the sound specified in the section “Basic Settings” on the top of the configuration page.
Press “Set” to apply the settings.
The “Opening Times” call profile for the “Supervisors” addressee is now complete. Now you should configure the call profile “Closing Time” for the same addressee.
Here is the overview of the “Closing Time” call profile. In brief we disabled the “Signaling” through the MxDoorMaster, we didn’t create any Signaling Phase because we don’t want to notify any Remote Stations and we enabled both the Announcement and the Video Mailbox.
NOTE: the Call Profiles created and modified so far (“Opening Times” and “Closing Times”) refer only to the addressee “Supervisors”. You should create the Call Profiles for all the other addressees.
Usage Example
When the last employee of the Supervisors group (addressee) leaves the office in the evening he/she can set up the call profile ‘‘Closing Times’ from a Remote Station (Video phone, MxEasy or MxAPP), so that the pressing the “Supervisors” bell button will NOT cause the phones to ring and an automatic voice message announcing the opening hours of the office and maybe will be played instead. The following morning, when the first Supervisor employee arrives to the office he/she can set up the ‘‘Opening Times’’ call profile so that when the Supervisors bell button is pressed the selected devices will ring and in the case of a missed call, the visitor will be informed that the called person is currently not available