Qognify launches the Control Room Update (R16) of its Cayuga VMS

The latest update focuses on improvements for the beating heart of large physical security environments – the Control Room. Cayuga R16 makes it easier for security staff to react, with new features and functionality including Advanced Maps, Patrol in Tiles and Dynamic Camera Layouts, delivering a more comprehensive overview in real-time – allowing for quicker response and thus reducing the impact of incidents.

Cayuga R16 builds on the introduction of the “Advanced Map Center” in the R15 release, launched earlier this year. This new mapping functionality has been enhanced and now allows for the automatic positioning of sensors in maps using geo-coordinates. Cameras, alarms and buttons, as well as event items can now be displayed on the ArcGIS maps provided by ESRI within Cayuga. In addition, when using the Qognify Mobile Client (also added to Cayuga earlier this year), cameras can be located on a smart device via Google Maps. These advanced mapping capabilities make it easier to quickly access a relevant entity and maintain an overview of the exact location of connected devices.

The new “Patrol in Tiles” (or Carousel Mode) functionality allows virtual patrols to be performed within single video tiles, freeing up space on the video wall, to ensure that the display and monitoring of live camera feeds can happen simultaneously. This is a significant improvement for the control room staff, who tend to be under pressure to perform with limited operator and/or video wall resources. Further video wall improvements are now possible with “Dynamic Camera Layouts”: By dragging additional cameras from the system tree into a grid view displayed on a monitor, the grid is rearranged, and further camera tiles are added – on the go and without changing the default settings of the particular view. Adjusting views has never been easier, saving time to respond to what’s actually happening.

In addition, Cayuga R16 is now compliant with ONVIF Profile S and G. It also supports extended functionalities of Dahua Thermal Cameras for body temperature scanning, as part of organizations’ COVID-19 operational response strategies. Behind the scenes the performance of Cayuga has been optimized in R16 by reducing the amount of data exchanged on management servers. There has also been a further hardening against cyber-attacks (building on the cyber security release of Cayuga R14 in October 2019) with important Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) updates.

Carsten Eckstein, Head of Product Management for Cayuga at Qognify states: “This year Qognify has made significant enhancements to Cayuga and the improvements in R16 continue our innovative roadmap to always release a new VMS version that responds to the ever-changing demands of multi-site corporate and enterprise projects. Many of the new functionalities that we incorporate into our software today are a result of our ongoing cross-product initiative that enhances the customer experience across our product lines. We will continue on this path, always with our users in the focus, enabling operators to undertake their duties with optimal efficiency and make faster, more informed and impactful decisions.