VIVOTEK cameras go offline after updating to Nx Witness v4.1.0

Issue Description

Some VIVOTEK cameras appear offline when using Nx Witness 4.1+ and the following description is shown if you select the diagnostics button: 

FAILED: Camera request “GetProfiles” failed with error “Fault info: Reason: Action Failed. The requested SOAP action failed.. Additional: SOAP-ENV:Receiver. Sub info: “http://www.onvif.org/ver10/error”:Action. “. Please try to reboot the cameras, then restore factory defaults on the web-page. Finally, try to update the firmware. If the problem persists, please contact support. 

Cause of the Issue - Summary

The issue occurs due to differences between the implementation of the latest ONVIF API in Nx Witness 4.1 and some VIVOTEK cameras.

Possible Solutions

Solution A

Please follow the steps below:

1. Remove the camera from Nx Witness
2. Update Nx Witness to the latest patch:
1. Visit the Nx customer portal.
2. Click on the Monthly Patch tab.
3. Download and install the package for the correct Operating System or perform an in-client upgrade.
3. Restore the camera to its default settings (i.e. Hard Reset).
4. Add the camera back to Nx Witness. 

Solution B

If Solution A does not resolve the issue, please reach out to our support team, and we will supply a new resource file that forces the camera to use the previous ONVIF API generation.

To receive the correct resource file, send the Nx support team the following information found in the offline camera’s Camera Settings dialog: 

• Vendor,
• Model, and
• Firmware.

Please share a screenshot of the dialog (as seen below) to avoid delays due to typos or missing information.

The Authorized Resellers can submit a ticket directly to the support team. Downstream customers can submit their requests to the Nx support community.

Cause of the Issue - A More Detailed Look

If onvif/media1 and onvif/media2 are requested by a 3rd party software application within the same initialization session, in certain cases, the cameras may respond to the onvif/media request from Nx Witness at first, but not the onvif/media2 request from Nx Witness later in the process.

The cameras may display unexpected behavior during the entire initialization process when they receive onvif/media2 requests due to the different approaches in implementing the latest ONVIF API. As a result, the initialization of the affected models is unsuccessful, and the cameras go offline.

Ideally, Nx Witness would use onvif/media2 only, but Nx Witness needs to maintain backward compatibility as much as possible, and therefore, Nx Witness tries onvif/media1 first and only uses onvif/media2 if the camera is known to support onvif/media2.

The issue is known to occur when these cameras are used:

• FD9189-H (0121d)
• FD9380-H (0223d)
• IT9389-HT (0121)
• FE9391-EV (0121d)
• FD9360 (v0100 and v0223)
• IB9388-HT(0121d)
• FD8189-H (FW: 0121d and 2.2002.23.01d)

And/or when the following firmware is used:

• 0121d
• 0223d
• 2.2002.23.01d

It is expected that the list of models and firmware versions will be updated over time while we circumvent the issue in our camera resource database. 

Questions

If you have any questions related to this topic, or you want to share your experience with other community members or our team, please visit and engage in our support community or reach out to your local reseller.