Customer Guides

The Andon Video Monitor is a program that processes your recorded factory videos and automatically extracts the status history of your Andon tower lights — the coloured lights used in factories to show whether a machine is running, stopped, or has a problem.

Think of it like a tireless analyst who watches every video recording you give it, writes down exactly when each light changed colour, how long it stayed that way, and gives you charts and reports so you can see where time was lost — all without you having to watch a single second of footage yourself.

Most factories already know which machines cause the most problems. What they often don't know is exactly how much time is lost, when it happens, and how frequently — because the data isn't captured automatically or is never properly analysed.

1. Download Andon Video Monitor.exe from the product page
2. Copy the file to a dedicated folder, e.g. C:\AndonVideoMonitor\
3. Double-click the .exe file to launch it. No installation needed.

When you run the .exe file for the first time, Windows or your antivirus software may display a warning. This is a false positive — the program is safe.

If you see a blue screen saying 'Windows protected your PC': click More info then click Run anyway. Windows remembers this choice.

The very first time you open the program, it will ask you to create an Admin account. This is the master account for the program — keep the password somewhere safe.

1. Enter a username — choose something easy to remember, like your name or 'admin'.
2. Enter a password — use at least 4 characters. Write it down somewhere safe!
3. Confirm password — type your password again.
4. Click Login — you will be taken straight to the Home screen.

After logging in you will see the 7-day free trial banner at the top of the screen. The trial allows 2 video sources and 2 regions per source.

The Home screen is your control centre. It shows your saved profiles, your loaded videos, and gives you one-click access to all the main functions.

A Profile stores the region layout and colour calibration for one camera angle. You create it once, then reuse it for every recording from that angle.

1. From the Home screen, click 📐 Create / Manage Profiles.
2. Click ＋ Create New Profile.
3. Browse to a clear reference video from that camera angle.
4. Enter a name for the profile, e.g. 'Line 1 Angle' or 'Assembly Cell A'.
5. Click Create Profile → to begin the 4-step setup wizard.

Step 1 of the wizard confirms the reference video opens correctly. You will see the video filename, total frame count, and frame rate. If the video opens and the image looks correct, click Continue →.

Step 2 lets you browse the video and capture the frame that will be used as the reference image for drawing regions. Choose a frame where the light tower is clearly visible. Use Step Forward ▶ and ◀ Step Back to browse, then click 📸 Capture Setup Frame.

1. Click and drag on the preview image to draw a yellow rectangle around one Andon light tower.
2. Name the region — type a clear name such as 'Machine 1' or 'Press A'.
3. Repeat — draw additional boxes if you have more light towers visible in the same frame.
4. Click Continue → when all lights have a box.

Step 4 is the most important step. You are showing the program what each colour looks like in YOUR specific video.

1. Tick only the colours your light tower actually uses under Enabled Colors.
2. Use ◀ Prev and Next ▶ to navigate to a frame where ONLY that colour is clearly lit.
3. In Capture Frame As State, select the matching colour from the dropdown.
4. In Meaning for this state, type what this colour means, e.g. 'RUNNING', 'FAULT', 'WARNING'.
5. In Roll-up for this state, choose UP (machine running) or DOWN (machine stopped).
6. Click 💾 Save Frame + Mapping.
7. Repeat for every enabled colour.

1. On the Home screen, click ▶ Load Video on the Profile card that matches the camera angle.
2. Browse to your video recording and click Open.
3. A date and time dialog will appear. Enter when the recording started.
4. Click ✔ Confirm & Load Video. The video appears as a card in the Loaded Videos section.
5. Repeat for each recording you want to analyze.

.mp4, .avi, .mov, .mkv, .wmv (most common formats), .mts, .m2ts (AVCHD from Sony / Panasonic cameras), .m4v, .ts (MPEG transport streams)

Click ⚡ Analyze All from the Home screen to process every loaded video in one go. A progress bar shows the current video and overall completion percentage. Analysis speed depends on video length and PC performance — a 20-minute video typically takes under 10 seconds. Results are immediately available in 📊 All Monitor when complete.

Click 📊 All Monitor on the Home screen to see the combined results of all analyzed videos.

Verify Detection opens the Single Light Monitor for one video and lets you watch the colour detection happen frame by frame in real time. Access it by clicking 🎯 Verify Detection on a video card on the Home screen.

The History screen lets you browse, filter, and export any past analysis session you have saved with the Send to History button.

Use the filter controls to view by Profile, Single Day, Date Range, or Quick Period shortcuts (Today, This Week, This Month, This Year).

• Calibration files folder — where calib_*.json profile files are saved
• History files folder — where dated history snapshots are saved
• Shared history folder — optional network path where history snapshots are also written, so other PCs can read them
• UI Scale — manually override the interface scale (0 = auto-detect)
• Enable inactivity timeout — automatically log out after a set period

All accounts in the Andon Video Monitor have full access. The first account is created on first launch. To change your password, go to ⚙ Settings and scroll to the Change My Password section.

1. Click the 🔓 Activate License button in the trial banner.
2. Your Machine ID is shown — send this to AshborneProjects when purchasing.
3. Paste the ANDON-... license key you receive into the key field.
4. Click Activate. The program confirms activation immediately.

• Check the file is not open in another program (media player, editor, etc.).
• Check the format is supported: .mp4, .avi, .mov, .mkv, .wmv, .mts, .m2ts, .m4v, .ts.
• Try moving the file to a local drive — network paths can sometimes time out.
• Check the file is not corrupted — try opening it in VLC Media Player first.

• Re-save the calibration example for that colour: navigate to a frame where ONLY that colour is lit.
• Check the region box is tight around just the light tower.
• Save additional example frames for the problem colour — more examples improve accuracy.

This is usually caused by a missing Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable on a new or clean PC. Download and run the free installer from: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe — restart your PC, then try again.

• Make sure each loaded video has a profile assigned (shown on the video card).
• Confirm the profile is calibrated: the Profile card should show ✔ Ready.
• Try removing and re-loading the video, then run Analyze All again.

No. The Profile stores the calibration permanently. Once calibrated, it works for every video you analyze with that profile.

Yes. The program analyzes any video file regardless of when it was recorded. Set the correct recording date and time when loading so history timestamps are accurate.

No. The program reads your video files locally and never copies, stores, or uploads footage. Nothing leaves your machine.

Yes. They are separate programs and do not interfere with each other. Some customers use both — the Camera Monitor for live watching and the Video Monitor for analyzing overnight recordings.

After 7 days the program shows an activation screen. All profiles, calibrations, history, and settings are preserved.