Genetec Software Development Kits

Advanced Development Tools for Security Applications

As corporations demand that business, security, and IT processes become increasingly integrated and that information be shared among a variety of systems and applications, new tools are required to facilitate the sharing of data. Furthermore, increasing the level of automation for synchronizing data between these different systems is a crucial element in any security system, as companies want to move towards a seamless, automated, and transparent model and limit the amount of manual intervention and errors that can result.

Towards this end, Genetec offers Software Development Kits (SDK) for Synergis, IP access control, and Omnicast, IP video surveillance systems as the tools of choice for integrating corporate business and physical security systems, allowing companies to reduce costs and improve efficiency. An additional advantage offered by the SDKs is the ability to create applications that meet specific end-user needs through lightweight or custom-developed workflows.

Flexibility of Third-Party Integration and Data Sharing
Through the use of an SDK, new services or applications can be developed to synchronize data between Genetec's solutions and other business systems in a seamless manner that is transparent to the user. The SDKs provide an extensive list of programming functions to extract access control and video information in real time, as well as a variety of configuration functions. These functionalities facilitate the sharing of data with multiple external databases or systems such as building management systems (BMS), human resource management systems (HRMS), enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), intrusion and fire detection panels, and external visitor management software, among many more. Information is shared between end users security applications and their business systems, thus avoiding the duplication of data entry activities.

Integration also enables the automation of workflows between a company’s IT, security, and business systems. For example, the termination or suspension of an employee will update all systems affected by the change, or motion detection triggered on a video camera can automatically prompt the building management system (BMS) to turn on the lights or the heating system.

Development of Standalone Custom Applications
Genetec's SDKs facilitate the development of standalone applications for both access control and video surveillance. Although both Synergis and Omnicast have extensive functionalities, end users may require scaled-down versions of each system's functions to match their internal and possibly simpler workflows. For example, a university may require a simple student enrolment and card tool that is tailored to the experience of their personnel. This can be achieved using Synergis' SDK.

Alternatively, Omnicast's SDK provides a complete set of live viewing, archive retrieval and archive playback capabilities to create custom video viewers, which can then be embedded in third-party applications.

Examples of additional functionality that can be developed through the SDKs include:

• Developing standalone applications to display live and playback video, export video, remote live viewing control, PTZ control, and more.
• Building standalone applications to configure and manage cardholders and credentials.
• Synchronizing cardholder, card, and visitor data with any third-party human resources system, visitor or badging system in real-time.
• Designing graphical maps embedded with executable applications, allowing for more advanced access and video functionality.
• Sending access and video events, alarms, and status information from Synergis or Omnicast to an external system, as well as receiving and displaying events, alarms, and status information from the same external system.
• Triggering video popup and alerts within the Omnicast platform when alarms or events from external systems are set off.
• Establishing communications with any external device such as a building management system, central station receiver, or an intercom system over an IP, RS232, or RS485 connection.

Dynamic Synchronization and Automation
Use of the SDK can enable an increased level of automation within a company. As indicated previously, removal of an employee from the HR database can automatically trigger the disabling of the employee's access rights in the physical access control system. Through this type of account linking, a user can remove the current practice of having to manually disable the employee's profile in both the HR and security systems. The same can be extended to the logical security system through Genetec's support of Microsoft Active Directory. The tangible benefits of removing manual intervention and replacing it with an automated process are that you only need to make the change in one place as it will automatically be done in the other systems. What's more, the likelihood of human error inherent with manual activities is virtually eliminated. This and more is possible with the Synergis SDK.

Overview of Synergis and Omnicast SDK

New Functionality with Custom Macros Scripts
Both Omnicast's and Synergis' SDK enable users to enhance each product's abilities through the use of macros. Macros are custom scripts written with the SDK and loaded into Synergis or Omnicast for real-time execution. Additionally, macros can be added at any time without requiring a new version of a Synergis and Omnicast system. Backwards compatibility ensures that any development will work with a new version of Genetec's solutions. This gives unlimited power to trigger advanced system actions and behaviors that could never be possible with cameras, video encoders or door controllers alone.

Ability to Leverage the Corporate IP Network
Historically, system integration was achieved with dedicated hardware and communication links between systems. With the advent of IP technology, the use of dedicated hardware links between systems becomes a thing of the past. Today, companies who chose to use Genetec's SDKs can leverage their investment in the corporate IP network to seamlessly link systems residing on the same network, whether they are in the same building or housed across multi-site and geographically dispersed facilities. All of Genetec's solutions have been developed from inception for an IP networking environment, thereby ensuring they not only effortlessly communicate over IP, but can also scale over IP to meet users' requirements.

Multitude of Underlying Technologies
Genetec's SDKs use a variety of open technologies such as the C++ and C# programming languages, in addition to the .NET framework. The Omnicast SDK, for example, consists of a collection of ActiveX components exposing a wide range of functionalities found in the Omnicast system. Software developers can create either HTML-based applications using VBScript or Jscript, or Win32-based applications using Visual Basic, C, C++ or C#.