Vicon host PC connectors

This section describes the connectors on your Vicon host PC that you use to connect to other components in your Vicon system. It does not cover standard connectors for your mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc. The following images show an example of a current Vicon host PC; the location and type of connectors depends on your PC and the year in which it was obtained. For details, see the documentation supplied with your PC.

Vicon system network ports

A Vicon system runs on its own dedicated network, rather than being integrated into a general communications network. This system network uses Gigabit Ethernet communications, so the Vicon host PC requires an appropriate network adapter card. For details of recommended network cards, see What are the latest PC specifications? on the Vicon website, or contact Vicon Support.

Vicon systems require at least a Gigabit Ethernet card, supporting data transfer rates up to 1000 Mbps. To attain the high-performance of which Vicon systems are capable, use a PCIe network card. This is because most embedded network cards built into PC motherboards cannot manage the network traffic involved when performing measurements at high frame rates with analog at high speed, or capturing high marker counts with many cameras.

This Vicon system network port connects the Vicon host PC to the primary Ethernet switch, which controls the data flow between the Vicon host PC and other devices in the Vicon system.

This section describes the network ports on a Vicon host PC and how to configure them for use with your Vicon application software.

Depending on your PC and your intended usage, you may need to configure one or both network ports:

• PCs with dual 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports
• PCs with a single Gigabit Ethernet network port

PCs with dual 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports

The current Vicon host PCs have dual 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports. We recommend that if your system includes Vicon Vue video cameras, you should route optical data through one of the two 10 GbE ports and video data through the other (see Configure a single network port and Configure a second network port).

For examples of systems from simple setups in which data is routed through a single port on the PC to larger systems with multiple Vicon video cameras, in which optical data is routed through one port and video data through the other, see Vicon system configuration and connection examples.

Configure a single network port

You must configure the Gigabit Ethernet network adapter card for the Vicon system. To do this:

1. Disable all protocols other than Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) for this network adapter card.

   

2. Use the following IP address settings for this network port:
   
   • IP address: 192.168.10.1
   • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
   • Default gateway: Leave blank

     

3. Reboot the Vicon host PC.
   When the system is booted, an IP address in the range 192.168.10.10 to 192.168.10.254 is assigned to each camera via DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), which centrally manages the assignment of IP addresses.

The Vicon system maintains an internal connection map, which uniquely identifies each IP address with a particular camera. This makes it possible for you to plug active cameras into different ports on the rear of the Ethernet switch without having to recalibrate the cameras. Vicon DHCP will not interact with the DHCP on the local network. This IP address range does not go through routers, so Vicon data and communications traffic do not affect Internet or other network communications.

Data is streamed from the camera to the Vicon host PC as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets. Commands are sent via Telnet to individual cameras or broadcast to all cameras using a proprietary protocol.

If you have installed a PCIe card for this Vicon system network, you must increase the Receive Buffers parameter for each card to its maximum setting to optimize its performance when your Vicon system is running under high network load.

For more detailed information on configuring network ports for Vicon systems and Vicon video devices, and for instructions on setting the Receive Buffers parameter, see Configuring network card settings.

Configure a second network port

If your PC has dual 10 GbE ports, like the current Vicon host PCs, and if your system includes video cameras, you can make efficient use of the available resources by routing optical data through one port and video data through the other.

To use the second port for video data, you need to set its IP address. To do this, follow the same procedure as you did for a single network port (see Configure a single network port), but set the IP address to 192.168.10.2.

To send video data through the second port, in your Vicon application software, in the Properties pane for each video camera, set the Destination IP Address to the same IP address as the second connector (normally 192.168.10.2, as explained above).

For an example of a system where both ports are used in this way, see Vicon Vantage system with Vicon video camera.

PCs with a single Gigabit Ethernet network port

You will typically use the following connectors on your Vicon host PC.

Vicon system network port

You must configure the Gigabit Ethernet network adapter card for your Vicon system. To do this, follow the instructions in Configure a single network port.

Additional network ports

In addition to the Vicon system network card, if you need to make any of the following optional connections, you will need to install additional Ethernet network cards in the Vicon host PC:

• Local area network (LAN): A separate, dedicated Ethernet port is required to connect the Vicon host PC to your LAN.
• Vicon video cameras: A second dedicated Ethernet port is required to connect Vicon Vue video cameras.
• Link aggregation (if required): Link aggregation is required only for systems that include a large number of cameras.

As the Vicon system is independent of your communications network, no guidance is offered for LAN network cards.

For secondary Ethernet switches or video cameras, to attain the high performance of which Vicon systems are capable, Vicon recommends that you use a PCIe network card rather than the embedded network card that may be built into the PC motherboard.

When you have installed any PCIe network cards, you must increase the Receive Buffers parameter for each card to its maximum setting to optimize its performance when your Vicon system is running under high network load.

For details of recommended network cards, see What are the latest PC specifications? on the Vicon website.

For instructions on setting the Receive Buffers parameter, see Configuring network card settings.