Alarm Center - Operator View
Alarm Center is the operator’s working environment during a shift. It shows your personal alarm queue, lets you pick and monitor sites, tracks your live performance KPIs, and — when your shift ends — automatically displays your Shift Performance Summary. To open Alarm Center, click Alarm Center in the left sidebar. Covers: Starting a Shift, During a Shift, Best Practices.
Starting a Shift
Click Start Shift in the Alarm Center header. The shift timer starts immediately and the End Shift button appears in the top-right corner. Your KPI cards begin tracking from this moment.
Before starting, make sure:
- At least one site is onboarded and Active in Sites & devices — Alarm Center shows no alarms without at least one active site.
- You are assigned to at least one site as an Operator, or Sites with Unattended Open Alarms are available in your account.
- NOVA99x is always active and filters alarms automatically — no setup needed before you start.
During a Shift
The Alarm Center main screen has four KPI cards at the top showing your live shift performance. Below the KPI cards, three panels sit side by side: QUEUED SITES ASSIGNED TO YOU (left), PICKED SITE (center), and USERS (right). Below all three panels, the Sites with Unattended Open Alarms table fills the full width of the page.
Viewing Period
A Viewing Period selector in the top-right corner controls which time range the KPI cards reflect. Quick preset ranges and a custom absolute date range (From / To) are available from the dropdown. Your shift timer and the Start or End Shift button appear alongside it.
Personal KPI Cards
Four cards appear at the top of the screen, tracking your shift in real time. Each card shows the current value with a min/max range across your shift window:
- SITES ASSIGNED — the number of sites assigned to you during this shift.
- CAMERA ASSIGNED — cameras currently assigned for alarm handling during this shift.
- ALARM PROCESSED — total alarms you have processed (closed) during this shift.
- ALARM PROCESSING — your average time to process an alarm, displayed in seconds (e.g. 0s). This is your live APT (Alarm Processing Time) — lower is better.
Queued Sites Assigned to You
A list of sites a Super Admin has specifically assigned to your queue. Each site shows the site name, a QUEUED status badge, and the alarm count (Alarms X). Three action buttons appear per row:
- Click the move icon to claim the site and start working it immediately.
- Click the red remove icon to remove the site from your queue.
- Click the eye icon to preview the site feed before picking.
Sites with Unattended Open Alarms
The Sites with Unattended Open Alarms table at the bottom of the screen lists every site that has open alarms but no operator currently assigned. Columns: Site | Last Alarm | Alarms | Lock status | Actions. When the queue is empty, the table shows Queue is clear.
Assigning a Site to Yourself
In the Sites with Unattended Open Alarms table, find a site with Available lock status. Use the Search site box to filter by name if the list is long. Each site row has two action icons: the eye icon (tooltip: View ZenMode) opens ZenMode in view-only mode without claiming the site; the Monitor now icon claims the site immediately — ZenMode opens and a Site successfully assigned to you banner confirms the assignment. The site status changes to In Progress and it appears as your Picked Site when you return to Alarm Center.
Picked Site
The site you are currently working. Shows:
- Site Name — the name of the site you own.
- Lock Status — In Progress while you are actively working it.
- Last Alarm — time of the most recent alarm from this site.
- Alarms — total alarm count for this site in the current window.
- View ZenMode (eye icon) — opens or re-enters ZenMode for this site. Use this when you clicked Back To New Alarms in ZenMode and want to return to the same site. See ZenMode for the full alarm-processing workflow.
- Unassign site — the red button releases your claim on the site. It returns to the Sites with Unattended Open Alarms table with Available status and becomes available for any operator to pick.
Users
The right panel shows all team members and their current status. The panel header shows X OPERATOR CURRENTLY MONITORING, where X updates in real time as operators start and end shifts. Colored dots indicate status:
- Green — active in shift (currently in ZenMode or processing alarms)
- Blue — online (signed in, not currently in an active shift)
- Orange — inactive
- Red — offline
Each user row shows their role label (Operator or Super Admin). When a shift is not active, an Operator’s label changes to Queued — they are signed in but not currently monitoring. Disabled accounts also appear in the list, marked with a Disabled label.
When your shift ends, click End Shift to go to your performance summary, or click Operator Performance in the left sidebar at any time. See Operator Performance for the full metrics and charts breakdown.
Best Practices
- Check your alarm processing time against the team average. If yours is consistently higher, review your ZenMode workflow. Common causes: not using True Alarms Only during busy periods, or handling events one by one instead of using batch close.
- Use the Alarms filtered by AI percentage as context. A very low percentage may indicate a site’s alarm threshold is set too broadly — flag it to your Super Admin for NOVA99x review.
- Share the classification breakdown with your Super Admin. Recurring patterns — such as frequent loitering detections or door forced-open events — may indicate a camera placement or alarm profile that needs adjustment.
- Pick the site with the most events first during peak windows. The Events count in the Queued Sites table and Sites with Unattended Open Alarms table shows you where the most activity is concentrating.