Validate and Export SWEAR-Protected Video in Milestone XProtect
Overview
- Use this guide to validate the authenticity of recorded SWEAR-protected video and export it for validation outside the Milestone system.
- Use this workflow when you need to confirm chain of custody for a previously recorded clip.
- This guide applies to Milestone Smart Client environments where SWEAR certification is already configured and active.
What you’ll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you will be able to:
- Validate previously recorded SWEAR-protected video in Milestone Smart Client.
- Export video using Milestone Smart Client for validation.
Before you start
Who this is for
- Audience: customer-admin
- Platform: vms
- Vendor: Milestone
What you need
- Required role/permissions: Access to Milestone Smart Client playback and SWEAR validation features.
- Required access/credentials: Access to a system with SWEAR-protected recordings.
- Required versions: Milestone Smart Client with SWEAR plugin installed.
Safety / impact
- Downtime impact: none
- Data impact: read-only during validation; export creates output files.
- Rollback available: not applicable
Steps
1) Validate video authenticity in Smart Client
Open a previously recorded SWEAR-protected clip and run validation.
- In Milestone Smart Client, go to the Playback tab.
- Select a 5-minute section of video from a period when the camera was protected by SWEAR.
- For each SWEAR-protected video in your view that you want to validate, do the following:
- Hover over the camera image in the view.
- Find and select the SWEAR hand icon
in the button bar at the bottom of the video panel. - Select "Add to SWEAR" in the menu that appears. The selected camera video is added to your validation list.
- Repeat these steps for each camera video you want to validate.
Notes:
- Use a time range you can confirm was covered by active SWEAR protection.
2) Open the SWEAR tab in the Milestone Smart Client
In the top row of tabs in Smart Client, switch from Camera View to the SWEAR tab.
- Confirm that all selected cameras appear in the top section of the tab. Confirm that the start and end times match your selected time range.
To verify these cameras for the specified time range, select Verify.
Notes: After the progress bar finishes, verification results appear for each camera. These results indicate the authenticity status across the selected video interval.
Details of verification
You can review each result for a selected video segment. Here's how:
In the top section, click on the camera you want to view the details for.
SWEAR details appear in the bottom-right pane and include the following tabs:
-
Attestation: A summary of the Authenticity Score and Time Score, with a link to create and download a PDF attestation report.
- Visual: This section displays validation status across the video and compares cryptographic hashes preserved during the original recording with hashes from the current video for each segment.
- Metadata: This section lets you review metadata hashes for the video (future option).
- Hashes: This section lets you review hash values for each video segment. Use filters for Verified, Modified, Unverified, and Attention to quickly find segments by status.
- FAQs: Further help for commonly asked questions.
3) Export video and validate
Export: In the top row of tabs in Smart Client, switch from the SWEAR tab to the Exports tab.
- Open the "Add Item" menu to add a camera to the export. You can also select the all-cameras view to add all cameras currently in view at once.
- Verify all cameras you want selected show up in the camera list display.
- When you have selected all cameras, select "Create Export".
- Create Export dialog:
- Verify the name of your export
- Confirm the location to save the export
- Select the "Export" button to begin the export. Export status appears in the top-right corner of the window.
Validate export: Open Windows File Explorer and locate your export folder.
- In the export folder, run the "SmartClient-Player.exe" file.
- This Smart Client Player is a playback-only version of Smart Client. To validate exported SWEAR video, select the SWEAR tab, then follow the steps in Section 2.
- The export player includes the same options for selecting cameras and reviewing validation details.
Other use-case examples when validation is less than 100 percent
Attention (yellow)
If SWEAR is delayed while hashing video or preserving that hash in the immutable ledger, the status may appear as Yellow. The video remains valid; however, SWEAR emphasizes full transparency by indicating that protection was delayed by more than 60 seconds.
Verify list
Visual tab
Hashes tab
Modified (red)
Red indicates that the displayed portion of the video has been modified. Even a single-pixel change in one frame causes SWEAR to flag that second of security video as altered.
Verify list
Visual tab
Hashes tab
Unverified or No Recording (gray)
An Unverified status indicates that the video segment was not protected by SWEAR. This can occur if a camera was not added to the SWEAR Certification Service in Management Client, or if the selected time range includes a period when the camera was not recording.
Verify list
Visual tab
Hashes tab
Unverified or No Recording has no hashes to display. This example shows a camera that was not added to SWEAR.
If it didn’t work
Common issues
- Verify action is unavailable -> SWEAR plugin is missing or not enabled -> Fix: Confirm plugin installation and restart Milestone Smart Client.
- No SWEAR results for the selected clip -> Clip may be outside SWEAR-protected time range -> Fix: Select a different clip known to be protected.
- Exported file shows unexpected status -> Certification and export time window may not align -> Fix: Revalidate the exact exported time range and rerun export.