Genie Overview

Genie is a PC based system which connects to Genesis panels to assist clients manage their access control and security. Genie has been designed to extend the power of the Genesis panels to provide a richly featured yet easy to use system for managing data, system control and event reporting.

Genie concurrently processes alarm and event information while allowing data viewing, editing and reporting by operators.

Genie Features

• Wizards and other tools to manage users and their access through doors and to areas at a site.
• Alarm notification so that appropriate action can be taken by operators.
• Graphics for displaying layouts of the site with live points to quickly view the location of alarms. The points on graphics are also used for sending commands to the panel. (Not available Genie Lite)
• History Screen shows events as they occur. Add comments, command points and view point and user event details.
• Alarm Screen list current alarms showing details, priority and providing a quick route to the appropriate graphic. Operators can log comments about alarms.
• Archive Reporting for listing events that have occured in the past. Predefined reports are available for common events filtering such as access reports.
• Operator Permissions provide extensive customisation of menu items and options for different operators.
• Schedules and Actions Standard actions automatically backup your database. Create additional actions to copy backups to other computers.
• Automatic downloading of changed data to the panel ensures user access and other programming is always up to date.

Genie Professional

• Unlimited Archives can be saved in monthly or six-monthly files.
• Point Trigger Actions Set a trigger on a point to execute and action when a specific event occurs. Actions executed include commanding other points and running a status report. Use this to generate a Users On Site when a fire or muster alarm is activated, or to send an email.
• Automatic Operator Logoff Set a Timegroup for an Operator Group, and operators will only be able to log on during the valid times for the timegroup. They will be automatically logged of at the end of the valid times.
• Graphics Use graphics files as background to drawings, or import DXF files and edit with the built-in Editor. Live points, graphics jumps and text make displaying status and controlling points simple and quick. Open up to 4 Graphics Viewers at the same time. View different plans for point monitoring and control.
• Graphics Workstation Workstations can be configured to automatically log on a defined operator and open the graphics. Use when the operator id is not important, such as in secure locations, and have a limited selection of points and commands available.
• Timed Point Commands Timed commands, under Genie control, have been added for Inputs, Doors and Areas. These complement the timed output commands available within the Genesis panel.
• Schedules and Actions As well as the standard actions you can create actions to run System Reports, such as Users On Site under Scheduler control.
• History Screen Additional features include a list the last 10 events for a point or user with a single click.
• Alarm Screen additionaly features include display of custom response instructions for operators. Bulk Acknowledge, Suspend or Reset of multiple alarms with a single click.
• User Importing Import user data including, user name, key details, user type, access type and validity dates.
• Custom Icons can be created for use on graphics.

Additional Options are available in Genie to provide addititional specialised functionality.

• Door Watcher automatically displays stored user images as access events are received for a door.
• Time Attendance records user access at defined readers for Time Attendance reports, and exporting to third party systems such as spread sheets and payroll systems.
• Counter Points manage variables available in the Genesis panel for automatic recalling and reporting.
• Partitioning allows sites to be divided into partitions to limit operator access to specific users and points for editing, commands and reporting.

View the Feature Matrix to see more features and which options are available in the different Genie Editions.

New features in  Genie Professional Version 2 Release 3.6

• Trigger Emails Generate emails on select Point Events. This can be used to send emails to mobile phones to alert technicians to potential hardware problems.
• Operator Comments can now be added directly from the Point Control Window.
• Customised Alarm Sounds can be set up for different operator groups. Select a different sound for different alarm priorities, or suppress the sound altogether. Set these from the Operator Groups Wizard.

New features in  Genie Standard and Professional Version 2 Release 3.6

• Operator Logoff on Timeout Operators can be automatically logged off after a set number of minutes of inactivity at a Workstation.
• User Area Activity Report A new report has been added to display the last time a user's pins was entered to access or secure an area.
• Testing Genie programming has been simplifed by the addition of a utility to simulate events from a panel.

Changed features in  Genie Version 2 Release 3.6

• Operator Groups Wizard has been redeveloped, simplifying the customising of operator permissions by grouping different permissions under their menu item. Some items relate to multiple menu items and are set separately.
• User Importing now supports importing the image file name. {Professional Only}
• Other changes are listed in the Release notes.

New features in  Genie Professional Version 2 Release 3.5

• User Importing Genie imports additional information. This includes user type, access type and validity dates.
• Schedules and Actions: Scheduler Selected System Reports. Create an Action for a System Report, such as Users On Site and run this under Scheduler control.
• Point Trigger Actions: Set a trigger on a point to execute and action when a specific event occurs. Actions executed include commanding other points and running a status report. Use this to generate a Users On Site when a fire or muster alarm is activated.
• Automatic Operator Logoff: Set a Timegroup for an Operator Group, and operators will only be able to log on during the valid times for the timegroup. They will be automatically logged of at the end of the valid times.
• Graphics Viewer: Load Last Drawing option. Enabling this option will automatically load the last displayed drawing for the current operator in the viewer. This is handy for sites who regularly have more than one viewer open at a time. Up to 4 Graphics Viewers can be open at one time.
• Graphics Workstation: Open Graphics on Startup. Workstations can be configured to automatically log on a defined operator and open the graphics. Use when the operator id is not important, such as in secure locations, and have a limited selection of points and commands available.
• Timed Point Commands: Timed commands, under Genie control, have been added for Inputs, Doors and Areas. These complement the timed output commands available within the Genesis panel.
• Point and User History: View the last 10 events for a point or history in a list from the History screen, Command Centre or Graphics.
• Custom Alarm Responses: Create response instructions for operators to be displayed on the alarm screen.
• Bulk Alarm Acknowledgement: Acknowledge, Suspend or Reset multiple alarms with a single click.

New features in  Genie Standard and Professional Version 2 Release 3.5

• Schedules and Actions: New Action Centre makes Scheduled Events accessible from all workstations. The Action Centre is reached from the Command Menu.
• Graphics: Live Line. Use live line for representing perimeter and other alarms where a line shows the area of detection.
• Graphics Viewer: Auto Size option. Enabling this option will auto size the viewer to fit the graphic loaded.
• Archive Reports : User/Key Activate and Cancel. As keys are activated or cancelled, an new event is added to the Archives to record this. Reports can be generated from these new events making it easy to track the validity of keys.

Changed features in  Genie Version 2 Release 3.5

• Points Centre: The list of points separates the unit points from their status points making it much easier to find the units in the list.
• Status Reports: Reports have been added to list : Doors Unlocked, Inputs Isolated.
• Users Wizard: Valid From and Valid To times are now shown in 24 hour format.

New features and enhancements in  Genie Version 2 Release 3 to Release 3.4.

• Communications: A new report is available through System Reports listing panels with data waiting to be downloaded.
• Graphics: New live point types for displaying points.
• Graphics: Support for DXF files as underlays in Professional Genie.
• User Class Wizard: Bulk user validity period updating.
• Users Centre: The door, date and time of the last time a user presented a card is displayed in the Status bar at the bottom of the display.
• Graphics: The default Graphic displayed when the Viewer is started can now be selected.
  
• Points Centre: State information about points, and commands for points are now available in the Points Centre, as well as Graphics, History and the Command Centre.
• Archive Reports: Users for access reports can now be selected using their Tenant / Department.
• User Importing: Users can be created from a simple CSV file giving their card / key number and names.

Genie System Requirements

Standard PCs available are generally suitable for Genie. Faster machines with additional memory will give better performance, particularly for sites with large configurations or high numbers of daily events.

• Windows® 2000, XP (SP2), Server 2003, Vista, Win7 Operating System.
• Minimum 1 GB on Vista, Win7, 512MB for XP. More memory will give better performance
• 5 GB with minimum 300 MB available hard disk space for main system
• Additional disk space requried by archives for 6 months events
  • 70 MB total for up to 1000 transactions per day (typical smaller to medium site)
  • 200 MB total for up to 5000 transactions per day (typical for medium to large site)
  • minimum 500 MB for over 5000 transactions per day (very large site)
• Serial port or Ethernet card for connection to security panel. USB port can be used where approved driver is installed.