Overview

Purpose & Operational Context

ACTi’s System Health Management is engineered to continuously track and evaluate the operational status of critical components across a video surveillance ecosystem. It serves as a centralized monitoring console that integrates with surveillance cameras, network video recorders (NVRs), CMS servers, and TV wall servers, providing system administrators with a unified interface to view health indicators in real time. This proactive monitoring layer helps detect performance degradations, device failures, or connectivity issues before they escalate into service outages, making it especially valuable for mission-critical security deployments where uptime and reliability are paramount.

Real-Time Monitoring & Alerts

At the core of the System Health Management solution is real-time telemetry collection from managed devices via installed plug-ins. These plug-ins communicate device health metrics back to the System Health Management Server, which aggregates and visualizes this data. When anomalies or failures are detected, the system can automatically send email notifications and generate operational tickets, enabling rapid response from technical teams. This real-time alerting capability is essential for minimizing downtime and preserving the integrity of surveillance operations.

Reporting, Visualization, & Analytics

Beyond alerts, the system provides robust reporting and graphical analysis tools that help administrators understand trends and patterns in device performance. Visual dashboards and historical graphs allow teams to analyze health statuses over time, which supports predictive maintenance planning and resource allocation. Such analytical capabilities transform raw operational data into actionable insights, enabling more informed decisions about equipment upgrades or network optimizations.

Architecture & Scalability

The System Health Management Server (e.g., model SHM-102) acts as a standalone health monitoring platform. It supports installation alongside existing surveillance infrastructure, requiring plug-ins on each managed server (such as NVRs and CMS servers). Designed to scale, a single SHM architecture can manage hundreds of NVR servers and their associated devices, making it suitable for large-scale, distributed security networks. Licensing is modular, with one LMAS5000 license needed per server monitored.

Integration with Broader System Management

While the health management module focuses on device operability, it complements ACTi’s overall system redundancy, backup, and control strategies. In high-availability environments, integrating SHM with redundancy systems and backup servers adds another layer of resilience—ensuring that surveillance footage and system functionality remain intact even in adverse conditions like power loss, network issues, or hardware degradation. This integration fosters a holistic approach to surveillance system reliability and operational continuity.

Summary

Purpose & Context: Centralized surveillance device health monitoring for reliability.
Alerts & Monitoring: Real-time telemetrics and automated notifications to reduce service disruptions.
Analytics & Reporting: Graphs and historical data support maintenance planning.
Scalable Architecture: Standalone server model with plug-in-based monitoring and per-server licensing.
System Integration: Works with redundancy and backup systems to enhance resilience.

Applications

For end users, System Health Management functions as an operational assurance layer that protects surveillance investments and service continuity. In real-world deployments such as transportation hubs, campuses, utilities, retail chains, and critical infrastructure, surveillance systems are expected to operate continuously without manual supervision.

System Health Management enables end users to proactively detect failures related to storage capacity, server performance, network connectivity, or device availability before these issues affect video recording or live monitoring. By consolidating system health visibility into a single dashboard and automating alerts, organizations reduce reliance on reactive troubleshooting, lower operational risk, and shorten mean time to repair (MTTR). This is especially critical in environments where missing video evidence, delayed response, or prolonged downtime can lead to compliance violations, safety incidents, or financial loss.

When deployed as part of a broader solution from ACTi Corporation, System Health Management helps end users maintain predictable system behavior, improve operational efficiency, and ensure long-term reliability across multi-site surveillance infrastructures.

Solutions

The system health management solution consists of ACTi cameras, VMS (NVR and CMS) and the System Health Management service.