Getting started

Get started with Network Optix and the Nx AI Manager plugin

A basic Nx platform comprises of one or more Nx Meta servers administered through an Nx client, this platform can either be a set of Nx Witness, Nx Go or Nx Meta servers and the corresponding client.

The Nx AI Manager Plugin is a tool that enables you to create and manage large-scale Edge AI solutions using the Network Optix toolkit. With this plugin, you can turn any compatible edge device, like a router, gateway, or IPC, into a "smart" device that can run advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) models on input data. Using AI and ML models, you can analyze a video stream and gain valuable insights, such as counting the number of cars passing by in the video stream.

Often used terms

Here, we provide a short list of terms that pop up repeatedly in these docs and are good to know:

• The Nx AI Manager: The Nx AI Manager is the name for the package of components that is the Plugin, Runtime and Cloud.

• The Nx AI Manager Plugin: Nx AI Manager Plugin is the plugin for Nx Meta, or another Powered-By-Nx product, that runs on an edge device, enabling you to configure your edge AI solution.

• The Nx AI Runtime: The Nx AI Runtime is the library component of the Nx AI Manager responsible for running AI models on AI accelerators. It is controlled by the Nx AI Manager Plugin within Nx Meta and in turn manages the AI accelerator library and the downloaded models.

• The Nx AI Cloud: The Nx cloud environment (found at https://admin.sclbl.nxvms.com/) allows you to

  1. manage your devices and AI models and

  2. add your models to your personal AI model collections.

• The Network Optix Toolkit: All development tools, libraries, applications, and utilities that enable integration with Network Optix in your own application are available, including the Nx AI Manager Plugin and the Nx Meta API.

• EVOS: Network Optix's Enterprise Video Operating System, which includes all of Network Optix's open tools, enables developers to manage numerous video streams across multiple locations, deploy on-site AI models (at the edge), visualize videos, establish business rules, and deliver meaningful applications to end users.

• Nx Meta: The version of EVOS that is mostly used for development with the Nx AI Manager, it consists of one or more server installations and a client to manage those servers. Nx Witness and Nx Go can also be used instead.

• An AI/ML model: We use this term somewhat loosely for any model definition that describes the transformation of input (streams of images) to output (bounding boxes, license plate, "OK"/"NG" etc.). This model can be a Deep Neural Network (AI), a simple classification model (ML), or a traditional Vision pipeline. Ultimately, the logic running on the device does the "magic".

• Edge device: We loosely refer to any device (camera, gateway, IPC, etc.) that runs the Nx AI manager.

Get started with the Nx AI Manager plugin

To get started with Nx and the Nx AI Manager plugin, follow the steps outlined below:

Install Network OptixStarting the Nx AI Manager PluginConfigure the Nx AI Manager PluginPlugin SettingsAdvanced configuration

And because it's sometimes necessary:

System requirementsTroubleshooting