Viana Environments

To use Viana, it is necessary to understand the environments where it operates. These environments are the Viana Portal and Viana Edge.

Viana Portal

The Viana Portal is a web application that provides a single point of access where Viana users can manage and configure their devices and sensors on the edge. The portal allows the users to view meaningful insights based on the data captured from the edge.

Viana Edge

Viana Edge is a desktop application that runs on the edge device and is the core of Viana. The application’s main purpose is running the vision analytics on the edge (AI Edge Inference). The application also handles the data processing, storage, and transmission of data in the backend, and is also responsible for communicating with the Viana Portal and ensuring that the device is active and linked to the correct network.

System Requirements

Below are the system requirements to install and efficiently run the Viana Standard use cases in the edge, on CPU mode.

Edge Device Specification

Requirement	Specification
Processor	Intel Core i7 - 10th Gen or higher
Integrated Graphics	Intel HD/UHD/Iris/Iris Xe Graphics
RAM	16GB memory or higher
Storage Capacity	128GB SSD or higher
Operating System	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

*Highly recommended: hardware remote management capabilities like watchdog timer chips, remote reboot of connectivity devices / routers, switches.

Recommended Camera Specification

Requirement	Specification
Supported Camera Types	USB and IP Cameras (RTSP/Onvif Compliant)
Resolution	720p, 1080p
Frame Rate	15 fps to 30fps

Network Requirements

Requirement	Specification
Internet Speed	At least 50Mbps download, 25Mbps download speed
Connectivity	Wired; Cat5/6
Network I/O	Provided on-site

Using Viana™ Standard

Network in Viana™

A Viana network is a dedicated system for a customer/company that interconnects sensors, licenses, user accounts, reports, and all the data gathered and processed. The customer network is created upon the provisioning of a Viana license. User access will then be sent to the nominated email of the users.

Activating User Access

Upon creation of the user access, an invitation email will be sent to the user’s nominated email address. Once you receive the invitation email, click on the Get Started button and it should redirect you to the account activation page.

The next steps will guide you through the user account activation process:

Confirm your agreement to the End User Terms by clicking Accept.

Create a password that meets the minimum requirements.

Once you have successfully created your password, you will see a link to the Viana Portal.
Enter your registered email address and your newly created password.

Setting Up Viana™ Edge Device

Viana Edge Installation

A site is a location or branch where Viana will be deployed. Organizing locations in Sites helps users easily identify where the sensors are located and efficiently manage the network data.

The following steps online how to install the Viana Edge app using the command line;

Open the Ubuntu Terminal application and run it as an administrator using the command: sudo su
Input the device administrator password when required
In your terminal application, make sure you are on the root directory. To do so, issue the command: cd /
Run the commands to download the edge installer and complete the installation process

bash <(wget -qO- https://install.viana.ai/latest.sh)

After running the last command, you should be able to see the info in the command line. Use the device code shown ie, “B4M1R1” when pairing your Edge device in the Viana Portal.

Setting Up Viana™ Portal

Creating Sites

A site is a location or branch where Viana will be deployed. Organizing locations in Sites helps users easily identify where the sensors are located and efficiently manage the network data.

The following steps outline how to create and manage sites in Viana:

In the Viana portal, find the Manage module from the navigation panel.
Click Sites to navigate to the Sites page.
Click on the +New Site button located at the upper right portion of the page.

Complete the New Site form and provide all the relevant and required information (Site Name, Description, Location, Address, etc).

Once done, click on the Save button.
The newly created site will now appear in the Site List.

Once a site has been created in the network, you can now add floors, zones, sensors, and doorways.

Adding Floors

A floor is a storey or level (as in a building) within a site that will be tracked by Viana. Regardless of how many floors an actual site has, adding a floor in Viana is required to have a digital twin of your space.

The following steps will walk you through adding a floor to your site:

From the Sites page, locate the name of your site. Hover over its name then click it.
Go to the Floors tab and click on the +New Floor button.

Give your floor a name and upload a floor plan (must be less than 2MB, less than 1000px in width, and in either .jpg, .jpeg, or .png format).

Click the Save button to finish.

After successfully creating a floor, you can now add zones and sensors.

Adding Zones

A zone is a specific area within a floor that is being tracked. Zones group sensors, so they can be assigned to track a scene or field of view.

The following steps will instruct you on how to draw zones on your newly added floor:

After adding a floor, click the Edit Floor Plan button.
In the Floor Plan Editor, you can draw zones to help you easily visualize the areas that are going to be tracked by Viana. In drawing your zones, you can choose from these tools:
1. Rectangle Tool. This tool is ideal for drawing rectangular-shaped zones. Position the tool pointer on the floor plan, press and hold down the mouse button, drag to draw, and release the mouse button to complete the zone.
2. Trace Tool. To draw polygons or irregular-shaped zones, use the Trace Tool. Position the pointer in the floor plan and click to set the starting point for your selection. Drag to draw a straight segment around the zone in the floor plan that you are tracing. Click to set the end point of your first segment. Continue to draw subsequent segments until your zone is complete.

Complete the mandatory text fields, e.g., Name and Maximum Capacity (of your zone), then click the Save button to apply.

Once you have created a site and zone in your network, you can now allocate a device.

Pairing Edge Devices

To connect the Edge device to the desired Viana network, you will first need to pair your Edge device on the Viana Portal.

Adding a Device

Before pairing any edge device, please ensure you have the following details;

The edge device is online and is connected to the internet
You have the Device Code generated after the installation of the Viana Edge application

To add a device, go to the Devices tab and click on the +Add Device button

Agree on the End-user Terms by toggling the “I have read, understood, and hereby accept the End User Terms” declaration and then click on the Accept button
Input the device code in the Pairing Code field and click on Pair.
After pairing the device, you will need to select the Use Case/Service Applet that you want to install to your device and then click on the Install button.
You will see a progress bar whilst the Installation of the Service Applet is in progress.

In your edge device terminal, you will also see that the command line installation will proceed.

In the Viana Portal, wait for the process to be completed, and click on Close. In the Edge device, you will also see a notification that the installation is 100% completed.

The newly installed device will now be shown under the Unallocated list in the Devices tab.

Assign the Device to a Site and Zone

To assign an edge device to a specific site and zone, follow these steps:

Under the Unallocated list, find the device that you want to update and click on the Device Name
In the Device Settings, click on the Actions dropdown and click on Edit Device Details

In the Edit Device, select the intended Sites, Floor, and Zone and then click on Save

Adding Sensors

The sensor is a camera that works as an IoT device and serves as Viana’s eyes to see the world. Viana™ integrates with sensors to detect, track, process, and transmit raw data to the cloud.

Prerequisites

Before adding a sensor to the Viana™ Portal, make sure the following prerequisites are ready and configured:

Edge device connected to the Viana network
USB Camera (for Audience Measurement and COATRO use case)
IP Camera (RTSP/Onvif Compliant) - the camera should be online and connected on the same network with the edge device

Adding the Viana Sensor

In the Viana portal, find the Manage module and click on the Sensors tab
Once you are on the Sensors page, click on the +Add Sensors button.

In the Add Sensors to Viana dialog box, select the Sensor on Viana Edge Device option.

Under the Connect Sensor, fill in the needed information;
- Device Name - select the edge device that you want to connect the camera to
- Choose camera type - select the camera type you will use with Viana ie. USB or IP Camera
- Select your network camera - input the RTSP address of the camera, and username with password (if necessary)

Click on the Test Connection to confirm if the RTSP URL is working correctly and if the camera is connected to the same local area network with the edge device.

Click on the Next button to review the camera field of view

The next step would be selecting the service applet that you wanted to use for your sensor. In the example, the People Counting is the available use case.

Click on the Next button to complete the sensor connection process.

Setting up a Scene (People Counting or Zone Engagement)

When you add a sensor to the portal, the sensor’s field of view (FOV) is automatically captured, thus creating a scene. A scene is the sensor’s captured field of view (FOV), where the Active Regions (tracking regions) are created.

Important: Before data tracking will begin, configuring the scene according to the service applet is required.

Service Applet Configuration

When configuring a scene, it is important to understand Active Regions and how they function for tracking data per service applet.

Active Regions

Active Regions are scene settings that prescribe how data will be tracked. Different tools are available to create them, which are defined below.

Icon	Active Region Tool	Function	Service Applet/s
	Rectangle Tool	For tracing rectangular-shaped zones.	Zone Engagement
	Trace Tool	For tracing zones having other shapes.	Zone Engagement
	Trip Line Tool	For marking entrances or exits for counting people or vehicles.	People Counting Traffic Measurement
	Direction Tool	For marking directions for vehicle entries or exits.	Traffic Measurement

People Counting Configuration

For People Counting, we will be using a trip line. This is the method of counting people who cross a defined line in a certain time duration. The following steps will walk you through drawing your People Counting trip line:

From the Sensors page, find the sensor that you want to configure with People Counting and click on the image thumbnail

Your scene will then be opened in the Scene Editor.
On the upper right part of the Scene Editor, kindly choose People Counting from the service applet dropdown. The People Counting toolbar and panel will appear on the screen.

From the toolbar, select the Trip Line Tool. To start drawing, position the tool pointer on the scene, press and hold down the left mouse button and drag to draw your desired trip line size. Release the left mouse button if your desired size is achieved.

A trip line panel will appear on the opposite side of the toolbar. Fill out the following fields:
1. Name.
2. Line Thickness.
3. Entrance/Exit Indicator. The trip line has an arrow that indicates the direction of the entrance. You can change the direction of the arrow by clicking the up or down buttons.

Click the Save button to save your trip line/s.
To save all your People Counting configurations, click the Save Configuration button.
To save and apply all your configurations, hit the Save Scene and Exit button located on the upper right corner of the editor.

Zone Engagement Configuration

For Zone Engagement, we will be using the Rectangle Tool or the Trace Tool to define the active region that we are going to track. Using a similar concept with people counting, we count the people that cross the lines defined in the active region and start to capture the duration until that certain person leaves the spot. The following steps will walk you through drawing your active region:

From the Sensors page, find the sensor that you want to configure with People Counting and click on the image thumbnail
Your scene will then be opened in the Scene Editor.
On the upper right part of the Scene Editor, check if the service applet dropdown is set to Zone Engagement.
In drawing your zones, you can choose from either tool:
1. Rectangle Tool. This tool is ideal for drawing rectangular-shaped zones. Position the tool pointer on the floor plan, press and hold down the left mouse button, and drag to draw your desired zone size. Release the left mouse button if your desired shape is achieved.
2. Trace Tool. If you are going to draw polygons or irregular-shaped zones, use this tool. Position the Trace Tool pointer in the floor plan and click to set the starting point for your selection. Drag to draw a straight segment around the zone in the floor plan that you are tracing. Click to set the end point of your first segment. Continue to draw subsequent segments until your zone is complete.
A zone panel will appear on the opposite side of the toolbar. Give your zone a name and assign tags (optional).

Click the Save button to save your newly drawn zone/s.
To save all your Zone Engagement configurations, click the Save Configuration button.
To save and apply all your configurations, hit the Save Scene and Exit button located in the upper right corner of the editor.

Anonymous Audience Measurement Configuration

To complete the configuration, a sensor must be associated with a site and zone.

The configuration is complete! Tracking for Anonymous Audience Measurement data should begin.

Once Active Regions are created and saved, Viana™ will begin its tracking.

Monitoring Your Sensors

Make sensor monitoring a part of your daily routine. Quickly check your sensors by doing these easy steps:

In the navigation panel, click Sensors to navigate to the devices page.
In the lists of sensors, there is a Status column that indicates if your sensor is online or offline

You may also check your sensor information. Click the meatballs menu under the Actions column, then click the View Sensor Details button.

If there is a need to change the sensor configuration, click the Edit button.
Click the Save button to apply the changes.

Learn and Discover

Data extracted by Viana™ can be visualised in the Portal. Data can also be filtered and experimented with for users to generate richer, more contextual insights.

Viana Dashboard

The Viana Dashboard shows a comprehensive overview of your Viana network. Using the dashboard, you can monitor the status of your sites, devices, sensors, and licenses. The dashboard also has shortcuts that you can use to add sites, devices, and sensors.

X-Ray Data

X-ray is a sub-module of Insights where users can deep dive into data sets. It has customised dashboards displaying data from different angles relevant to each service applet.

The following are steps to play with data on X-ray.

On the Insights Module, click X-ray.
Choose the service applet that you want to see data from and click Explore.

You will find customised data visualisation.
- The Summary tab allows you to explore data on a network level.
- The Comparison tab allows you to compare data from different sites, zones, and dates/times.
To view and compare data from sites, zones, and dates/times, use the filters on the left-side panel of the X-ray dashboard.

Retail Experience Dashboard

The Retail Experience Dashboard (RED) is an analysis and reporting tool customised to visualise network-wide or store-level data relevant to retail businesses, empowering retailers to measure growth, identify trends, and pinpoint areas of improvement. The RED data covers People Counting, Zone Ranking and Traffic Measurement

People Counting

The People Counting (PC) report explore and compare the trends and insights with data captured from entry monitoring, zone management, foot traffic, demographics, visit duration, and staff capacity.

Note: Viana™ Lite is only available for People Counting, Zone Engagement, and Traffic Measurement service applets at the time of publication.

Connect with meldCX

If you have any questions about Viana™, please reach out to the team at viana@meldcx.com.

Articles in this section

Viana™ Standard Product Manual

Table of Contents:

Viana Environments

Viana Portal

Viana Edge