HD Witness v2.0 Release (2013-09)

NEW FEATURES

• “Forensic SpyGlass” zoom windows. An ability to create single or multiple new views from an existing stream by drawing a rectangle over the desired area using the “new window” button (located on the original stream toolbar).  “Forensic SpyGlass” can then be moved between original streams in the layout maintaining the zoom window from one to the other.
• Events and actions:
• Notifications have been completely redesigned and now reside on the right panel.
• New actions have been added:
• “Play Sound” – ability to play sound when event occurs. Sound can either be selected from an existing library or uploaded by the user.
• “Text to Speech” – Computer voice ability to vocalize when a new event occurs. Extends the “Play Sound” action.
• “Instant Output”. It is now possible to connect output actions to instant events (i.e. motion start).
• Mapping System. An ability to position cameras on a schematic layout (i.e. building plan/facility map) and save/lock layout.
• History of events and actions. All events and actions are now displayed for easy data sorting and filtering. Additionally, “Check Server Issues” and “Check Camera Issues” have been added to Media Servers and Cameras Context Menu.
• Cameras List is introduced displaying all existing cameras allowing users to sort and filter data.
• Video color/gamma correction. (“Video Enhancer”) This feature can be activated by pressing the contrast icon located on the actual item. Darker scenes are best to use for showcasing the full capacity of this feature. Use Context Menu to adjust feature settings. It is also possible to export video while retaining the feature.
• Ability to adjust the quality of the second stream in camera settings. This may be useful in particular scenarios but is only recommended for advanced users of the system.
• Visual Motion Indication. Motion is visually indicated.
• Motion email notifications now include a video link. Opens stream in the web client.
• Locked Layouts are introduced disallowing any changes to layouts.
• Compatibility with Windows Server 2012 Family.
• Compatibility with Ubuntu 13.
• Translatable Tray Tool. Language settings are applied to both Client and Tray Tool.
• Fish-eye cameras are supported (enabling “fish-eye” in camera settings is required). A De-Warping filter can now be applied to fisheye streams along with PTZ navigation, zoom windows and other functionalities including 90°, 180° and 360° mini panoramic views
• Offline cameras diagnostics is implemented. By clicking on Diagnose, the software will report the most probable reason(s) for a particular camera to appear offline and will generate all the necessary data required for support. This new capability will ease self-diagnostic efforts and assist support in resolving the issue.
• Client Only Installer is now available on Windows.
• Software is now available in French and Simplified Chinese Language options.

IMPROVEMENTS

• Multi-core Processing
• Major enhancements to Media Server’s multicore processing architecture allowing greater processing efficiency on all single and multicore processors
  
  
• Client Launch:
• Auto-connection can now be activated on the login page. It will use pre-established user name and password to connect to server automatically.
• Ability to run Client when computer boots up.
• When client connects to a system with different versions of server components (i.e EC 1.5.1, MS1 1.5.0 and MS2 1.5.1), a warning message will appear.
• The “About” section now displays versions in use by all connected media servers

• Scene:
• The algorithm applied to arrow key item navigation (UP, LEFT, RIGHT, DOWN) has been improved.
• The current local time appears under playback control buttons.
• The UI tab settings (pinned or hidden tabs) are automatically saved in between client launches.
• When resizing video on scene, text (i.e. Unauthorized, NO SIGNAL etc.) did not scale properly. Fixed.
• A screenshot camera icon button has been added to on stream controls for one click capture.
• *** Improved behavior for zoom windows on rotated items.
  
  
• Tree
• New Context Menu items: Backup/Restore and Alarm/Event Rules (“System”).
• If a camera is experiencing technical difficulties (at least three network issues over the last minute), the camera will be marked with an exclamation mark.
• Thumbnails will appear in Resource Tree when hovering over a camera with a mouse cursor.
• Thumbnails will appear in the “Select Cameras” dialog when hovering over a camera with a mouse cursor while configuring Event Rules or copying Recording Schedule to cameras.
• A ping button has been added to the Media Server Settings dialog. If the computer is pinging, but Media Server appears to be offline, then it is most likely a software related problem. Otherwise, it is likely to be a hardware problem and a hard reset may be required.
  
  
• Screen Recording
• Recorded files are now displayed properly in Windows Media Player even if the initial recording was performed in high quality.
• Recorded files are displayed much better when recording in “Application Window” vs. fullscreen.
  
  
• Camera Settings
• Previously, the application forced cameras to change their primary stream settings to max resolution and fps/quality from Recording Schedule settings. Secondary stream settings were set automatically. It is now possible to leave settings pre-configured (i.e. set up specific resolution, FPS and quality for the 1st and 2nd streams on a camera’s web page and retain for use in the software. Warning: this is an Expert Mode feature and may cause for the system to work unexpectedly if used incorrectly.
• The default motion sensitivity level in motion dialog has been changed to 5 (used to be 8).
• The “Open Item” button has been added to the “Camera Settings” form opening the current camera in a new tab.
• A Ping button was added to General tab of Camera Settings next to camera IP address for simple response test
• *** A user can now add RTSP streams. It was not possible in earlier versions to view streams that were generated by specific Media Servers (camera streams worked well).
  
  
• Health Monitoring
• Added an ability to enable/disable graphs
• Added an ability to outline a specific graph by hovering over the description with a mouse (while all other graphs appear decolorized).
• Added Network Usage to Health Monitoring.
• Added new buttons to show log and server check issues.
  
  
• Layout/Multi Videos
• Improved behavior for all local files that are saved on a layout.
• Local files are not allowed in multi-videos.
  
  
• Web Client
• Web Client can be opened directly from the Tree Context menu (System) and Main Menu.
• Panoramic cameras are now supported (1st sensor is displayed).
  
  
• Licenses
• “Enterprise” license type has been renamed to Professional.
• Four free licenses have been discontinued and replaced by four free 30-day trial licenses across all versions.
  
  
• PTZ
• When opening a PTZ camera in fullscreen and using a mouse wheel to zoom in, it was not possible to zoom out if PTZ controls were active. It can now be done by double-clicking.
  
  
• Events and Actions
• Notification settings are stored in the database. The login credentials remain the same regardless of the computer in use.
• An aggregation column has been added to Event and Action (was previously located in advanced E&A settings).
• E-Mail templates are improved with direct contact links to respective support systems.
• A new filter has been added to “Event/Actions” dialog.
  
  
• Manual Camera Addition
• When a user tried to add an existing camera manually, the application displayed “No Cameras Found” for the existing cameras. The application now instructs the user that the camera is already registered and cannot be added again.
  
  
• Time Line
• A time selector has been added to Calendar.
• A localized date/time format is now used in Time Line (based on regional settings).
  
  
• Export
• When exporting a single camera, the default filename is “Camera name+start day+start time” (previously a MAC address).
• Added a screenshot timestamp option.
• The “Open New Window” button along with a progress bar has been added to the export dialog. It is now possible to open a new Client instance and continue working during export.
• All current video streams are purposely paused during export to save bandwidth.
  
  
• Installer
• The previous database version can now be backed up during upgrades. In case of failure, the database can be restored to the previous version.
  
  

NEW CAMERAS AND RECORDERS SUPPORTED

• Arecont Vision: all latest models
• Avigilon: 2.0-H3-D1-IR, 2.0-H3-DO1-IR, 2.0-H3M-DO1, 2.0W-H3-BO1-IR
• Axis: all models
• Vivotek: SD8362E, FD8372, IP8335H, FD8134, IP8362, MD8562, IP8151, IP8133, FD8135H, FE8172V, CC8130, FD8136 (PTZ), FD8361 (PTZ), FD8362E (PTZ), FD8161 (PTZ)
• Dahua: IPC-HFW3200S
• ACTi cameras with older firmware versions are now supported (T series < 4.13, K series < 5.08 and A1 series < 6.03). Newest firmware version is also supported. Input/output for ACTi cameras are now supported.
• Sony: SNCRH124 (Advanced PTZ)
• Any RTSP stream can now be added as a camera by entering the desired RTSP URL into the manual addition form vs. camera’s IP.

iOS Client

• iOS client now works on iOS 5
• A sorted list of cameras is now displayed
• A camera name appears in the top left corner
• Panoramic cameras are now supported (1st sensor is displayed)
• The server status was not displayed properly. Fixed.

Android Client

• If a camera archive contained too many recorded fragments, live video would occasionally freeze. Fixed.
• When logging in using a combination of caps and lowercase characters (Admin – admin), camera list did not appear. Fixed.
• Panoramic cameras are now supported (1st sensor is displayed).
• Added an ability to save and restore connection details.

BUG FIXES

Client UI Main Controls

• Tooltips appeared in incorrect locations. Fixed.
• After logging out and opening a local file in a new window, Client did not connect to EC. Fixed.
• The recording icon on video items could be resized. Fixed.
• “NO SIGNAL” among other text appeared on panoramic cameras multiple times. Fixed.
• When zooming in on an item and then closing the client (ALT + F4), all panels disappeared after the restart. Fixed.
• Client resulted in occasional freezing if a media folder contained too many files (>100,000 files). The limit is now set to 1,000 files.
• If too many cameras with a large number of recording fragments were opened simultaneously, Fixed Client occasionally crashed. Fixed.

Events/Actions

• Auto-reset for camera output did not function correctly for some camera models.
• When selecting “Add” and “Apply” in the Events/Actions dialog, the event rule was occasionally duplicated causing an improper work cycle. Fixed.
• It was impossible to change notifications from “All Users” to “For Administrators Only” in the Alarm/Event Rules form (advanced settings only). Fixed.

Recording

• Panic recording was impossible to stop if recording for all cameras was turned off. Fixed.
• Fixed all existing issues with inactive external storages (incorrect recording status).
• The storages mounted as local disks did not appear on the storage list (Linux).

Playback

• Double-clicking to stop touring did not prompt the side panels to reappear. Fixed.
• ACTi cameras displayed grey background occasionally. Fixed.
• Arecont Vision panoramic sensors appeared misaligned when flipping the videos. Fixed.

Time Line

• Thumbnails are now displayed correctly for panoramic cameras (1st sensor is displayed).

Export

• Audio was not exported properly in AC3 format while running Multi-Video export. Fixed.

Installer

• Whenever a user uninstalled Enterprise Controller on Windows, the ports remained busy. Once reinstalled, the ports appeared new. Fixed.
• When changing installed components and removing EC, the application did not suggest for database deletion. Fixed.

Camera Addition and Configuration

• The following error was occasionally displayed for manual camera addition: “This server version supports searching by IP address only”. Fixed.
• A camera’s web page could not be opened if its http-port was not 80. Fixed.
• Any changes to camera’s IP address did not reflect in the camera settings form automatically (only in Tree) unless the form was re-opened. Fixed.
• If a camera was discovered automatically and was not accessible by multicast, the camera did not work after Media Server restart. Fixed.
• A camera with same IP address could be added twice via automatic discovery or manual addition. Fixed.
• Removed the occasional “FPS value is too high” warning that occurred when opening camera settings.
• *** Panoramic camera sensors were not displayed in correct order when flipped. Fixed.

Compatibility (older version support)

• When connecting to a newer EC version (i.e. 1.4 client to 1.5 EC) while still running the previous app version, restart was suggested, but it would still not run. A warning message is now given.
• If an older version was launched in a compatibility mode, an upgrade notification was invoked. Fixed.

Miscellaneous

• Screen recording crashed on start if resolution was not a multiple of eight. Fixed.
• Whenever a user deleted an offline server in a multi-server environment, all active cameras disappeared and could not be discovered. Now, the cameras are distributed to other servers.
• When disconnecting and reconnecting Media Server to EC, a cameras displayed NO SIGNAL. Fixed.
• If Media Server’s IP was changed during an all-in-one installation, the server’s IP address was not automatically updated in the tree unless it was reconnected to EC again. Fixed.
• Fixed playback slider’s incorrect position that occurred in preview search.
• Web-client. Video did not play if a camera was moved from one server to another. Fixed.
• Licenses were removed when database was restored from another server. The recording continued until Media Server’s restart. Fixed.
• A camera stream was occasionally freezing in Client when opening the camera in Web-Client and clicking on Pause. Fixed.
• *** External offline storage could occasionally decrease writing speed. Fixed.
• *** When enabling custom camera stream control in Expert Camera Settings, it only applied till Media Server was restarted. Fixed.
• *** Post-release updates