ZenMode - Operator Monitoring

Covers: Starting Your Shift, Site Ownership, Processing Each Alarm, Why Processing Speed Matters, Key Capabilities, Display Modes, Filters, Best Practices.

ZenMode is the operator’s alarm-processing screen — built for handling one owned site at a time. It opens from within Alarm Center when you assign yourself to a site — it is not a separate sidebar item. NOVA99x has already filtered false alarms before they arrive — what reaches you is a focused, time-ordered view of only what needs attention. Super Admins use the separate Alarm Center (Admin View) to oversee the whole team across many sites at once.

Starting Your Shift

ZenMode opens for a specific site after you pick one from the Alarm Center (Operator View). The full flow is:

1. In Alarm Center, click Start Shift. The shift timer begins and End Shift appears in the top-right corner.
2. In the Sites Unassigned to Operators table, click Assign to me on a site. ZenMode opens and the site is automatically assigned to you — the site status changes to In Progress and appears as your Picked Site if you return to Alarm Center.
3. The camera grid and timeline load. Active camera tiles show an event count badge; use the True alarms only toggle in the toolbar to filter by NOVA99x classification.
4. Process alarms as they arrive — new alarms appear automatically, no refresh needed.
5. When done, click End Shift. You are taken to your Operator Performance page — a full breakdown of your shift metrics and charts.

Three things must be in place before ZenMode shows alarm data: at least one site onboarded with an active device (see Setting Up Sites and Adding Devices — ZenMode is empty without active cameras); you are assigned to that site as an Operator; and NOVA99x active — it filters alarms automatically with no setup needed.

Site Ownership

Site ownership ensures only one operator processes a live site at a time. When you click Assign To Me inside ZenMode, the site locks to you immediately. Other operators see the site as In Progress in the Sites Unassigned to Operators table and cannot take it.

Taking a Site

Site selection starts in Alarm Center. Each site row in that table offers two actions, but only one of them claims the site:

• Assign to me — the one that takes the site. Available on any row with Available lock status. ZenMode opens, a “Site successfully assigned to you” banner confirms it, the lock status becomes In Progress, and an Unassign button appears in the ZenMode header. No extra step needed.
• View (tooltip View ZenMode) — a look, not a claim. ZenMode opens read-only and the site stays Available for anyone else to take, so use it to judge how busy a site is before committing. To take it after all, come back to the table and use Assign to me.

Releasing a Site

To release a site so another operator can take it, click Unassign in the ZenMode header (top-right), or click the red Unassign site button on your Picked Site row in Alarm Center. The site returns to Available status immediately.

Clicking Back to New Alarms does not release the site — it returns you to Alarm Center while keeping the site locked to you.

Troubleshooting Ownership

• Site stuck as taken — if an operator disconnected without releasing, a Super Admin can force-release the site using the red Unassign icon in the Sites with Assigned Operators table in Alarm Center (Admin View). This action is logged in the audit trail.
• Cannot take a site — another operator already holds it. The lock status shows In Progress in the Sites Unassigned to Operators table in Alarm Center. Coordinate with them or ask a Super Admin to reassign.
• Super Admin reassignment — Super Admins can reassign operators to sites by using the red Unassign icon in the Sites with Assigned Operators table to force-release the site, then using the Assigned to dropdown in the Sites Unassigned to Operators table in Alarm Center (Admin View) to assign a different operator.

Processing Each Alarm

Alarms are not reviewed one at a time in isolation — opening one starts a run through every open alarm on that camera. The cycle is:

1. Click an event card or a timeline dot to open the event modal. It begins playing through the camera’s open alarms, and ALARM n OF m shows your place in the run.
2. Click Pause when you reach one that needs a decision. Nothing advances until you press Play, so take the time you need.
3. Review the clip. NOVA99x has already classified the event, and the detection chip names what it found and how confident it was — for example person (34.8). Use Download clip if the event needs to be kept as evidence.
4. Close it: Close current alarm for the one on screen, or Close all alarms for the whole camera. Either way you select a closure tag and may add Closure notes before confirming.
5. Press Play to carry on through the rest of the run.

Event Detail Modal

Opening an event card or clicking a timeline dot opens the alarm detail modal. Rather than showing one alarm on its own, the modal plays through every open alarm on that camera in turn, so you can watch a run of events without closing and reopening the window.

• Header row — a site chip and a device chip, then the alarm timestamp (for example 21/07/2026 - 11:40:52), all on one line. A device with no name shows as “—”.
• Video clip — the recorded footage at the moment of the alarm.
• ALARM n OF m — your position in the camera’s queue of open alarms, shown above a bar with one segment per alarm. The segment colours tell you the NOVA99x classification at a glance, and the highlighted segment is the one playing now.
• Pause / Play — the modal advances through the queue on its own. Pause holds it on the alarm in front of you for as long as you need, and the button becomes Play to start the run again. Use it whenever an event deserves a closer look — nothing moves on until you let it.
• Detection chip — the object NOVA99x detected and its confidence score, for example person (34.8).
• Close current alarm — closes only the alarm on screen; the queue moves to the next one.
• Close all alarms — closes every open alarm on this camera at once. The Close Alarms modal opens before anything is confirmed.
• Copy Salvo URL — copies a link to this alarm event.
• Download clip — saves the footage locally for evidence or handover.
• Mask overlay — shows or hides the camera’s mask on the clip; see Masks.

Closing an Alarm

Every closed alarm requires a closure tag, and there are two ways one comes to exist. A Super Admin curates the standing list in the Configure tags dialog, reached from Alarm Center with Work Mode set to Admin — see Setup your alarm closure tags. You can also make one on the spot: start typing a name that is not on the list in the Closure tags field of the Close Alarms dialog and a + Create “name” option appears — selecting it adds the tag and applies it to the alarm you are closing. Because a tag created this way joins the list everyone else picks from, agree naming with your team before inventing one mid-shift. An optional free-text Closure notes field can be added for context the tag alone does not capture.

The closure timestamp, tag, description, and operator identity are recorded automatically and form part of the alarm’s audit trail. For sites with multiple operators in a shift, the platform tracks which operator took and closed each alarm.

Close Alarms Modal

The Close Alarms modal opens from two places:

• Close current alarm or Close all alarms inside the Event Detail Modal
• Close all alarms button in the ZenMode toolbar — closes all open alarms in the current date/time range

Fields shown in the modal:

• SITE — the site name
• ALARMS TO BE CLOSED — total alarms that will be closed
• ALARM TIME — timestamp of the alarm (shown when closing from the event modal)
• LAST ALARM TIME — timestamp of the most recent alarm in the range (shown when using CLOSE ALL ALARMS)
• TRUE ALARMS — count classified as true by NOVA99x
• FALSE ALARMS — count classified as false by NOVA99x
• CLOSE ALARMS BETWEEN — the time range being closed, e.g. 15:37:43 → 16:07:05 (shown only when using CLOSE ALL ALARMS)
• SENSOR / SENSORS — the sensor or sensors involved
• Closure tags * (required) — select a tag from the dropdown; applied to all alarms in the action
• Closure notes (optional) — free-text field for additional context
• Confirm / Cancel

Rating an alarm

Closing an alarm records how it was handled, not whether NOVA99x got it right. Rating the detection itself — thumbs up or thumbs down, and the Verification Tags panel that follows a thumbs-down — is done in Video Search, where the full tag list and comment field live. That feedback is what trains the model over time.

Why Processing Speed Matters

Alarm Processing Time (APT) — the time from taking responsibility for a site or alarm to closing its alarms — is recorded for every alarm you handle. It feeds directly into your Alarm Center (Operator View) and the Super Admin’s Alarm Center (Admin View). ZenMode is GC Surge’s patent-pending processing engine. It groups correlated alarms from the same site into a single closeable event — 10 alarms become 1 event with 1 close action. Operators process them in parallel, not one at a time. In production at a live monitoring center: 10 alarms averaging 3 seconds each = 30 seconds sequential; ZenMode parallel scan = 6 seconds. up to 5x faster, measured in live deployment.Combined with NOVA99x pre-filtering, GC Surge reduced APT by 85% to 97%, enabling 40% more cameras per operator with no increase in headcount — but capturing those gains depends on maintaining a disciplined review cycle for each alarm.

Key Capabilities

• Focus Zone — a movable time window on the timeline that defines which alarms you are actively working. It appears as a shaded band between two vertical yellow markers. Alarms inside the band are your working set; alarms outside stay visible on the timeline but de-emphasised. Turn it on and off with the Focus Zone toggle. Super Admins set the default width and position; operators can move and resize it during the shift. Narrow the zone to stay on the latest alarms; widen it to batch-close a longer backlog without losing your live feed.
• What the Focus Zone changes — it does more than shade the timeline: it decides how many alarms the event dialog will walk you through. With the zone off, the dialog queues every open alarm in the viewing period, which on a busy site reads ALARM 12 OF 1694 and gives you no realistic end point. Turn the zone on and the same dialog narrows to the alarms inside the band — ALARM 2 OF 12 — a run you can actually finish, with a segment bar short enough to see at a glance.

• Controls that appear with the Focus Zone — with the zone off the toolbar carries True alarms only, Show closed, the Focus Zone toggle itself, Pause, Close all alarms, and the − / + timeline zoom buttons. Switching it on adds the width value (for example 10m), Focus now, Close ZenMode Alarms (n), and the green LIVE TRACKING indicator. If you cannot find one of those controls, the zone is off.

• Focus Zone — pinned vs. live — the tooltip on the Focus Zone indicator shows three values: the current zone width, the tracking state (live or pinned), and the number of open events inside the zone. Pinned means the zone is anchored to a fixed position on the timeline and does not auto-scroll as new alarms arrive — use it when batch-closing a backlog. When not pinned, the zone follows the live cursor. The open-events count tells you how many unhandled alarms are inside the zone right now.
• Close all alarms — closes all open alarms in the current date/time range and opens the Close Alarms modal before confirming. If True alarms only is enabled, only true alarms are included in the action. When the Focus Zone is enabled, two close buttons appear: Close ZenMode Alarms (n) — where n is the number of alarms inside the Focus Zone, so the count moves as the zone does — and Close all alarms, which covers the whole viewing period.
• True alarms only — hides everything NOVA99x classified as false, leaving only the alarms worth a decision. The timeline keeps just its green dots (green marks a true alarm, red a false one), the camera tile counts drop, and both Close ZenMode Alarms (n) and the open-alarm figure in the Focus Zone tooltip fall to match — so a close action taken while the filter is on will not touch the false alarms underneath it. The one thing it does not change is the TOTAL, OPEN and CLOSED counters, which always report the whole viewing period. Seeing OPEN in the thousands while the close button offers 22 is normal, not a fault.
• Show closed — ZenMode hides closed alarms by default, so what is in front of you is only what still needs handling. Turn this on to bring the handled ones back into the timeline and the camera tiles alongside the open ones — a camera showing 10 alarms will show 12 once two of them have been closed. Turn it off again to get back to a clean working set.
• LIVE TRACKING — a green indicator at the right of the toolbar, shown while the Focus Zone is following the live edge of the timeline. It disappears once you pin the zone or scroll back into history, which is your cue that you are no longer watching incoming alarms. Focus now brings you back.
• Focus Zone width — the value beside the Focus Zone toggle (for example 10m) sets how wide the zone is. Click it to type a new width. Note that it is a text field, so pressing Escape inside it commits what you typed rather than cancelling.
• FOCUS NOW — a button in the ZenMode toolbar that immediately jumps the Focus Zone to the current live position and re-centres it on the most recent alarms. Use it after scrolling back in history to review older events — one click brings you back to the live edge without manually dragging the zone. Appears alongside Pause in the toolbar.
• Pause — freezes the timeline and live alarm stream so you can review the current events without new alarms pushing in. Click again to resume live tracking.
• TOTAL / OPEN / CLOSED counters — live session stats in the ZenMode header: TOTAL is the cumulative alarm count for the viewing period; OPEN is how many remain unhandled; CLOSED is how many have been processed and closed. These update in real time and reset when the viewing period changes.
• When an alarm is closed by someone else — alarms can be closed by another operator or by the customer while you are working the site. You do not get interrupted: the alarm simply leaves your open queue, OPEN drops by one and CLOSED rises by one while TOTAL stays where it is, and the camera tile count goes down with it. Nothing you are currently paused on disappears from under you. Turn on Show closed if you need to see what was handled and by whom.
• Viewing Period selector — a dropdown in the top-right corner that sets the time range for the alarm counters and timeline. Quick ranges available: Last 5 minutes, Last 15 minutes, Last 30 minutes, Last 1 hour, Last 2 hours, Last 3 hours, Last 6 hours, Last 12 hours, Last 24 hours, Last 2 days, Last 3 days, Last week, and Last month. For a specific window, use the Absolute Range option with From and To date pickers (DD-MM-YYYY hh:mm).
• Back to New Alarms — returns you to Alarm Center without releasing the site. Your Picked Site stays locked to you (In Progress). From Alarm Center, click the eye icon on your Picked Site to re-enter ZenMode for the same site. To fully release the site so another operator can take it, use the Unassign button (top-right in ZenMode) or the red Unassign button on the Picked Site row in Alarm Center.

Display Modes

ZenMode uses a grid view that shows live camera feeds as tiles. The grid auto-sizes to your screen and the number of cameras assigned to the site. Each active camera tile shows a badge with the count of open events. Cameras with no events show a “No events here” placeholder. Use the timeline above the grid to navigate to specific events.

Filters

ZenMode filter controls are applied directly via toolbar toggles. Filters narrow which events appear in your current view without removing them permanently.

Alarm type

Two toolbar toggles decide which alarms reach your view: True alarms only and Show closed, both described under Key Capabilities above. During an active shift most operators run with True alarms only on and Show closed off, which leaves just the events still needing a decision.

Time range

Set the window with the Viewing Period selector, listed under Key Capabilities above. Changing it does not move the Focus Zone — that is a separate window you position yourself.

ZenMode vs Video Search

• Active monitoring shift — processing incoming events in real time: ZenMode
• Post-incident investigation — finding a specific past event: Video Search
• Evidence review for escalation or client report: Video Search
• High-volume periods requiring fast triage: ZenMode
• New operator in training — learning event types: Video Search first, then ZenMode for production shifts.
• No live streaming or camera patrol: GC Surge is an alarm-driven platform — it does not provide a live CCTV view or camera patrol feed. Operators see a camera feed only when reviewing an active alarm in the Event Detail Modal (showing the camera’s current state at that moment). For general live surveillance monitoring, use GCXONE.

Best Practices

• Review missed alarms at the start of every shift before switching to the live feed.
• Keep the Focus Zone narrow during high-activity periods to stay on the latest alarms.
• Use True Alarms Only when the queue is large to surface only what needs action.
• Use batch close on the timeline for older alarms instead of one at a time.
• Never leave a site taken without closing or releasing it — it blocks other operators from taking it.
• If alarms stop arriving on a site you have taken, check the site status in Configuration before assuming the site is quiet.