Visitor Announcement Solution Guide

This solution guide describes how to set up a visitor announcement system which will send a notification message to a receptionist or sales assistant when somebody arrives at the entrance of your office.

This guide is written for Windows users. Linux users can achieve the same functionality, but they need to use the Web Console instead of the Desktop Client & SAFR Actions GUI.

For simplicity's sake, this guide assumes that you're using a SAFR Cloud License. If you're using a SAFR On-Premises License, you'll also need to install and manage the SAFR Server.

Required Hardware and Software

Required Hardware

Required Software

Install SAFR Desktop Client and SAFR Actions

Download and install the SAFR Desktop installer for Windows from the SAFR Download Portal. The SAFR Desktop installer includes both the SAFR Desktop Client and SAFR Actions. Note that when you install SAFR Actions, both of the following are installed:

If you have many cameras, you may need to install multiple Desktop Clients on different PCs. Typically each PC can handle up to 8 cameras. If you do install multiple Desktop Clients, don't install ARES (or SAFR Actions) on the additional clients; you should only install one ARES instance.

Camera Selection

Cameras should be located so that subjects' faces aren't backlit; the faces should be well lit from the front with an even and uniform lighting. Direct sunlight on faces should also be avoided in order to reduce sharp contrast, which often hides facial features.

Install and Connect Your Cameras

For each camera you install, do the following:

  1. Within the SAFR Desktop Client's Camera Feed Analyzer window (i.e. the client's default window), select the camera you want to install.
  2. Select the Enrolled and Stranger Monitoring operator mode from the drop-down menu in the upper right corner of the Camera Feed Analyzer window.
  3. Optimize the camera location and orientation. Adjust the camera's optical zoom to ensure that subjects' faces are at least 80 pixels high from chin to forehead.
  4. Adjust the focus of the camera to the closest position where all subjects' faces are within the camera's field of view. (i.e. ensure that no one will be to the left or right of the camera view)
  5. Add the camera's video feed to your Video Recognition Gateway (VIRGO) video feeds by pressing the Add to Video Feeds button.
  6. Check your system's CPU and GPU load. If you need to install an additional camera, but doing so would increase your CPU or GPU load to 100% or greater, install an additional instance of the SAFR Desktop Client on a different machine and install the additional camera on the newly installed Desktop Client.

Configure SAFR to Send Notifications

Configure SAFR to Send Emails

Configure SAFR so that it can use an email server to send email messages.

  1. Get an SMTP Server account you can use to send emails.
  2. Go to the Web Console's Status Page.
  3. In the Configuration section, click on Set up SMTP Email Service. You'll be presented with the following dialog.
    • Email Server: The address of the SMTP email server.
    • Server Port: The email server port. The default port for SMTP is 587.
    • Sender Email: The email username of the SMTP account. (e.g. Susan.Johnson@gmail.com)
    • Password: The password for the SMTP account.
    • From Email Address: The email address that will appear on the "From" line. This feature isn't supported by all email servers; if this field isn't used then the Sender Email value is used for the "From" line.
    • Sender Name: The display name on the "From" line. (e.g. Susan Johnson)
    • Test Email: Configure the test email that will be sent after you finish setting up the SMTP email service.
      • To Email: The email address to which the test email will be sent.
      • Subject: The test email's subject.
      • Body: The test email's body.
  4. Click Apply.
  5. Verify that the specified email address received a test email.

Configure SAFR to Send SMS Messages

Configure SAFR so that it can use a short message service (SMS) server to send SMS messages.

  1. Go to the Web Console's Status Page.
  2. In the Configuration section, click on Set up SMS. You'll be presented with the following dialog.
    • SMS Provider: Your SMS Provider. You can select either SAFR Cloud or Amazon SNS from the drop-down menu. The SAFR Cloud provider is much easier to set up however, so you should probably select the default SMS Provider, SAFR Cloud.
    • Test Message: Send a test message to verify that your SMS is properly configured.
      • To Phone Number: The phone number to which the test message will be sent. The number should be in the E.164 format. (e.g. +12065551313)
      • Message: The text message that will be sent.
  3. Click Apply.
  4. Verify that the specified phone received a test SMS message.

Configure ARES

Note: Make sure the SAFR Actions GUI is not running during steps 1-3 below.

On the machine where ARES is installed:

  1. Delete the default SAFRActions.config file located at C:\ProgramData\RealNetworks\SAFR\ares\config.
  2. Save VisitorSAFRActions.config to C:\ProgramData\RealNetworks\SAFR\ares\config.
  3. Rename the config file you just saved to SAFRActions.config.
  4. Start the SAFR Actions GUI.
  5. Within the SAFR Actions GUI, set the following fields to the specified values:
    • userId: Your username.
    • userPwd: Your password.
    • emailDef -> Item 1 -> recipients -> Item 1: The email address of whomever you want to receive email notifications. If you want more than 1 person to receive email notifications, do the following:
      1. Hover your mouse over recipients.
      2. Press the + button to create additional recipients.
      3. Set the newly created item(s) to the additional email address(es).
    • emailDef -> Item 2 -> recipients -> Item 1: The email address of whomever you want to receive email notifications. If you want more than 1 person to receive email notifications, do the following:
      1. Hover your mouse over recipients.
      2. Press the + button to create additional recipients.
      3. Set the newly created item(s) to the additional email address(es).
    • smsDef -> Item 1 -> recipients -> Item 1: The phone number of whomever you want to receive SMS notifications. It should be in the E.164 format. (e.g. +2065551313) If you want more than 1 person to receive SMS notifications, do the following:
      1. Hover your mouse over recipients.
      2. Press the + button to create additional recipients.
      3. Set the newly created item(s) to the additional phone number(s).
    • smsDef -> Item 2 -> recipients -> Item 1: The phone number of whomever you want to receive SMS notifications. It should be in the E.164 format. (e.g. +2065551313) If you want more than 1 person to receive SMS notifications, do the following:
      1. Hover your mouse over recipients.
      2. Press the + button to create additional recipients.
      3. Set the newly created item(s) to the additional phone number(s).
  6. Choose File > Save to save your changes.

Note: If ARES is installed on a different machine from a SAFR Desktop Client, make sure the system clocks on the Desktop Client and ARES machines are within a few seconds of each other. (If the two system clocks differ by more than a few seconds, events may not trigger.)

Test Your Visitor Announcement System

To test the "StrangerDetected" notifications of the system that you have just set up, do the following:

  1. Open the SAFR Actions GUI and make sure that your email address and phone number are listed as recipients of the "StrangerDetected" email and SMS notifications, as described in the Configure ARES section above.
  2. Hide your face from all connected cameras.
  3. Show your face to a connected camera and wait for SAFR to recognize you.
  4. Upon recognition, you should see the following:
    • You should receive a "StrangerDetected" email notification in your inbox.
    • Your phone should receive a "StrangerDetected" SMS message.

To test the "RegisteredDetected" notifications, do the following:

  1. Register yourself into SAFR.
  2. Open the SAFR Actions GUI and make sure that your email address and phone number are listed as recipients of the "RegisteredDetected" email and SMS notifications, as described in the Configure ARES section above.
  3. Hide your face from all connected cameras.
  4. Show your face to a connected camera and wait for SAFR to recognize you.
  5. Upon recognition, you should see the following:
    • You should receive a "RegisteredDetected" email notification in your inbox.
    • Your phone should receive a "RegisteredDetected" SMS message.

Downloadable Files

See Also