Introduction

The "Record & Replay" module needs to be configured to access this feature.

The user can set TimeZero to record Targets (AIS and ARPA), Radar Echo, Camera(s) and up to 4 Audio channels (from microphone or VHF). The data can then be replayed from any WorkSpace that has been configured with a time line. Various Record & Replay Options allow the user to select which data to record, and in the case of Radar and Camera, the frame rate and quality can be adjusted to save space. For Audio recording, any microphone or line input that are recognized by Windows can be used. However, if you plan to record more than two channels, we recommend using a dedicated external audio interface (refer to Audio Interface for more information).

TimeZero can store and playback up to 30 days of data that can be replayed immediately. When the recording limit is reached inside TimeZero, the data is either automatically deleted or archived. If an archive location has been selected (second Hard Drive, NAS, ...), the amount of data that can be stored is only limited by the size of the hard drive itself. Data that has been archived cannot be replayed directly by the software that is currently recording real time data, but can be replayed from another computer loaded with another copy of TimeZero. Please refer to the Archiving chapter for more information.

IMPORTANT: A solid state hard drive is required to support recording and replaying data in TimeZero

Enabling Recording

By default, TimeZero is set to record Targets and Events. Radar, Video and Audio recording can be enabled from the Record & Replay Options. Please note that Video and Radar recording can take lots of space! To save space, it is possible to decrease the recording frequency and the quality of the Radar and Video.

Recording automatically starts when the software is opened.

Recording Space (average):

  • Events Recording: events recording is approximately 1MB per day (when TimeZero generates lots of events).

  • Target Recording: approximately 200MB per day (200 AIS targets and 30 ARPA targets at all times).

  • Radar Recording at maximum frequency (every radar turn) in high quality: approximately 1GB per day for a properly tuned radar picture. Decreasing the resolution to "normal" or "low" would reduce the size by a factor of 3 or 9 respectively. Decreasing the recording frequency would divide the size of the recording by the same amount. Lowering the Radar Quality (from 8 to 2 bits) would save 30% space. If space is an issue, we recommend lowering first the quality (4 bits for example), then the recording frequency and then the resolution. A good compromise in between quality and size would be recording in High Resolution at 4 bits every 2 antenna turn. This would result in 500MB per day. Note that noise and echo from landmass can greatly increase the size of the recording. Please refer to the Radar Mask chapter to learn how to "clean" the Radar picture and remove unwanted echo on landmass.

  • Video Recording continuously at one frame per second and 50% quality: approximately 3GB per day per camera. It is possible to reduce the size by decreasing the recording frequency (recording a picture every minute will divide the space by 60!) or decreasing the quality (going from 50% to 30% quality will save 30% space). It is also possible to dramatically reduce the size by only enabling video recording when the camera is tracking a target (not recording when the camera is idling). This mode can be enabled from the Record & Replay Options.

  • Audio Recording: 300MB per day per channel for continuous recording. However, user can adjust an "Audio Recording Threshold" allowing to not record silence (the threshold should be adjusted just above the background noise).  In that case, with a 10% utilization, the audio recording drops dramatically.

A 500GB Solid State Hard Drive should be enough space to hold the operating system, software, charts and one month of active recording. If the remaining disk space falls below 20GB, a first alarm will be triggered in TimeZero ("Disk Low Space Alarm"). It is recommended to adjust the archiving process by decreasing the amount of day recorded if you see this alarm. If nothing is done and if the hard drive falls below 5GB, a "Disk Full Alarm" will be triggered and the recording of data will stop to avoid overfilling the disk.

Events

Events "bookmark" important moments so that they can be easily retrieved from the Event List or Time Line when playing back the data. Events are created by TimeZero when:

  • The software starts or exits (automatic)

  • The user creates a manual event

  • A rule is set to record an event

Creating Manual Events

"Manual Event Log" can be manually created by the user to mark and retrieve specific moment from the event list. To manually record events, customers can click on the "TimeLine Event" button located in the Toolbar:

As soon as a manual event is created, a window will appear allowing the customer to give a title, description and a priority to the event. After validating the prompt the event will be created.

Create Events from Rules

Rules can be setup to create events automatically (from the Alarms Option). Simply select "Create Event" from the "Actions" tab of the Rule definition. You can click on "Parameters" to either use the Rule Name or a custom text as the event name.

Find Events

Events will be listed in the Event List and displayed on the Time Line with small white dots:

Please refer to the Replay Data chapter for more information.

TIPS: If a rule is set to move and activate a camera when a target enters an area, it can be a good idea to set that rule to also trigger an event. That way, it will be very easy to locate at which time a target entered an area, and when to look at the camera replay.