This guide takes you from start to finish through a standard open field experiment using the open fields with built-in recording stage.

1. Find the right Mac mini. Each Mac mini has a label with the name of the room it is connected to. The rooms are called “Bosch”, “Corot”, “Dix” and “Escher”.
2. Switch on the lights in the room where the open field is located. The CCTV cameras in the recording stage turn off in darkness.
3. Switch on the power strip. The Mac mini, its monitor and the switch (the box where the camera Ethernet cables are plugged in) are all connected to one power strip.
4. Wake up or start the Mac mini. First click the mouse or tap a key. If the Mac mini was asleep, the monitor turns on (make sure the monitor itself is switched on). If nothing happens, the Mac mini is switched off. Its power button is on the back, on the left side. Press it and wait. An Apple logo on the monitor shows that the system is starting up.
5. Log in. Choose the user “Research assistant” and enter the password 2017Lethe.
6. Open SmartPSS, the recording software. Its icon looks like this: There is an icon in the Dock. Alternatively press CMD-Space and type the name, or open the Applications folder (CMD-Shift-A) and look for it there.
7. Open Live View. On the SmartPSS dashboard click “Live View”. A list of cameras appears on the left, and a grid of empty rectangles fills the rest of the window.
   
8. Select your camera. Double click the camera that belongs to your room. The camera name contains the room name, for example “Camera BOSCH N8-31” or “Camera ESCHER N8-28”.
9. Check that the camera is online. The camera entry on the left should show a green dot, and one of the rectangles should show the live video. A red symbol instead of the green dot means the camera cannot be reached. See troubleshooting below.
10. Synchronize the camera clock. The time stamp in the video comes from the clock inside the camera, not from the Mac mini. The camera clock drifts and resets after a power cut, so synchronize it before every session. In SmartPSS click “Devices” (on the dashboard, or via the home icon at the top). Find your camera in the list and click the clock icon in its row, labelled “Time Sync” or “Sync Time”. Some versions show the button only when you hover over the row, or offer it after a right click on the camera. SmartPSS then writes the current Mac mini time into the camera. Go back to “Live View” and check that the time shown in the top corner of the video matches the clock in the Mac mini menu bar. If there is no such button, open the camera settings with the gear or wrench icon in the same row (labelled “Device Config”), go to System, General, Date & Time, click “Sync PC” and then Save.

Either of the two methods works.

• Method 1: Move the mouse over the live video. A row of icons appears at the top right of the video. Click the icon that looks like a small camera. Recording starts.
• Method 2: Hold down the CTRL key and click on the live video. A menu appears, and you can release CTRL. Click the menu item with the small camera icon, labelled “Record” or “Local Record”.

Use the same icon or menu item again: either click the small camera icon at the top right of the video, or CTRL-click the video and choose “Record” / “Local Record”. The recording stops.

1. Go to the Finder. On the Desktop there is a folder called “RECORDED VIDEOS”. Double click it.
2. Inside you will find one or more folders, named after the camera and the date and time of the recording.
3. Open the folder for your session and confirm that your videos are in it.
4. Plug a USB stick into the Mac mini and drag the folder with your videos onto the USB stick.
5. When copying has finished, eject the USB stick: click once on the USB stick icon on the Desktop and press CMD-E, or drag the icon onto the trash can. Remove the stick only after its icon has disappeared from the Desktop.

1. In the Finder, open the Apple menu and choose “Shut Down…”. Wait until the Mac mini has switched itself off.
2. Switch off the power strip.
3. Clean up the room, then switch off the light.

Work through these steps in order and stop as soon as the video appears.

1. Check that the power strip and the switch are on and that the link light on the switch port of the camera is lit. Check that the room light is on.
2. Right click the camera in the list and choose “Connect” or “Refresh”. If it stays red, wait one minute and try again, since the camera takes a while to boot after power is restored.
3. Quit SmartPSS. Unplug the power cable of the Ethernet switch (the little box where all Ethernet cables go in, usually on top of the Mac mini), wait 10 seconds, and plug it in again. Start SmartPSS and try to get a video from the camera.
4. Restart the Mac mini: click the Apple menu and choose “Restart”.
5. Shut down the Mac mini (see section 5), and once it has shut down, turn off the power strip it is connected to. Wait 10 seconds, then start again from step 1.3 of this guide.

The camera clock was not synchronized, see step 1.10. Synchronize it and start a new recording. The time stamp in a recording that already exists cannot be corrected. If the Mac mini clock itself is wrong, check that the Wi-Fi is on, since the Mac takes its time from the internet.

Check the power strip, then press the power button on the back for a few seconds.

Check that the monitor is switched on and that its cable is plugged into the Mac mini.

Contact the lab manager and do not change settings in SmartPSS. Camera addresses and passwords are documented on the camera page.