HD Witness v1.5 Release (2013-4)

NEW FEATURES

• An analog license has been introduced. It is a new type of license that can only be used with analog cameras. Analog cameras are generally divided into two categories:
• DTS Based (i.e. VMAX Channels). When using this particular type of cameras, an analog license is required for live viewing and archiving (camera settings in the “General” tab). Recording is performed on DTS, so the software only acquires recorded data from it.
• Encoder channel (i.e. Flex Watch channels) cameras require a license to be able to record, but not for viewing purposes. Recording is configured as usual. Cameras are recorded directly by Media server.
  
  
• The license form has been redesigned to display the following information:
• Licensed To – the license name and the provider the license has been obtained from
• Licensed To – the license name and the provider the license has been obtained from
• Type – analog or digital
• Expiration Date – applies to trial licenses only
  
  
• Windows 8 is now supported
• User emails have been introduced. Each user is advised to provide their email address for notification purposes.
• Intuitive Mail Server settings. Both email and password are required to receive notifications. The system will process the rest. Additional parameters are available (refer to the user manual for more information).
• Any client is now able to talk to any EC regardless of their versions 

Events and Actions

• Events:
• Motion (camera(s) must be specified). Camera(s) must have recording enabled.
• Camera Disconnected (camera(s) must be specified). If not, any camera will trigger the event.
• Storage Failure (in case Media Server is unable to write to storage)
• Network Issue (RTP timeout or RTP packet loss)
• Camera IP Conflict (in case several cameras or servers share the same IP address)
• Input Signal on Camera (must be supported – ONVIF and Axis only)
• Media Server Failure (in case Media Server goes down or reboots itself)
• Media Servers Conflict (whenever a Media Server connected to a different EC is pulling video from the same camera)
• EC Connection Lost – results in notifications only
• Licenses are not configured – received by Admin only
• E-mail is not set – Admin is notified when users do not provide their email addresses
• Storages are not configured properly (Admin is notified)
  
  
• Actions:
• Camera Recording (camera(s) must be specified). Camera(s) must have recording enabled.
• Panic Recording
• Send Mail (recipient(s) must be specified). Mail Server settings must be configured in Global Settings.
• Show Notification (user roles must be specified). Notification parameters must be configured in Global Settings.
• Camera Output (must be supported – ONVIF and Axis only)
• Each event/action is grouped in Rules. Rules can be configured Advanced Event Rules (CTRL + E). Each rule has standard and advanced parameters.
• Hardware acceleration of video decoding. The flag in System Settings will only appear if Intel HD graphics is enabled.
• PTZ is greatly improved:
• PTZ is now more intuitive and precise
• PTZ now works properly for rotated/flipped Axis cameras
• PTZ positions can be saved/restored (cameras must support PTZ positioning)
• Any position on the current view can be zoomed on by drawing a rectangle to zoom in or double-clicking zoom out). Must be supported by the camera.

NEW CAMERAS AND RECORDERS SUPPORTED

•  Digital Watchdog VMAX 480 encoders
•  Axis encoders (including PTZ)
•  Flex Watch Encoders (including PTZ)
•  Vivotek encoders
•  Arecont Vision 12186 and 20365 models
•  AXISP1354
•  ACTi product line
•  Canon product line
•  StarDot product line

IMPROVEMENTS

• ONVIF support is improved allowing more compliant cameras to be supported.
• Storage Dialog is significantly redesigned. It is no longer important to specify the folder for the recording data, however it is important to select the recording disks and conserved space. The software will process the rest.
• CTRL can now be used in Calendar Search for selecting multiple dates.
• Both upper and lower case characters are now accepted by the system.
• Domain names can now be added to the “Manual camera addition” form.
• The “Do Not Show Again” checkbox is added to the upgrade form. To re-enable, use the “Check for Upgrades” from the main menu.
• It is possible to view EC and Media Server logs via Web Interface. Use https://<EC IP>:<EC Port>/web/servers URL (i.e. https://127.0.0.1:7001/web/servers).
• Improved auto storage selection. When installing a media server, each and every available partition in the system must be added (if the partition has >100 GB free).
• A manual RADASS switch is added to the interface, however it has not been implemented into the code yet. More updates to come.
• If max fps is reduced to motion+low, it will be reduced for all the record modes in the schedule (Arecont Vision cameras only).
• An item must be selected prior to export.
• The screen recording form has been redesigned.
• If multiple cameras are played back asynchronously, the playback position will appear for every item on the timeline.
• Preview Search Layout is more streamlined: the aspect ratio of cells is equal to the aspect ratio of the source video.
• A user is able to customize colors on Health Monitoring’s UI.
• Non-admin users (viewers) can now create own layouts based on the cameras that are specifically assigned to them.
• Smart Search is not available if a camera does not support Motion Detection and Dual Streaming.
• Viewing a camera on Web/Android Client for over 15 minutes results in a timeout. Once back to active, it is recommended to reconnect in order to reduce the Media Server load.
• Manual Camera Addition Dialog is improved:
• Latter data is filled automatically.
• Other actions can be performed while manual camera addition is in progress.

BUGS FIXED

• Identically named items were sorted randomly in Tree every time Client was started. Fixed.
• If the password for admin was changed, no changes were applied to EC until system restart. Fixed.
• If the distance between recorded fragments was insignificant (2-3sec), then the “Next chunk” button resulted in jumping over these fragments. Fixed.
• The “Open in a New Window” command did not work for Multi-Video exported files. Fixed.
• The selection of items was not properly saved after closing and re-opening the layout. Fixed.
• If two cameras were playing video near the live position and one of them was closed, then the second camera would not jump to live and result in occasional freezing. Fixed.
• Whenever clicking ESC too many times, the main window would get bigger.
• Whenever creating a layout for a viewer and assigning cameras, the viewer would not be able to perform search in the tree: cameras were not searchable. Fixed.
• Whenever a user attempted to physically delete a file on a saved layout, it would show “Loading” instead. Fixed.
• Fixed the known Timeline related bug – incorrect selection whenever a range of several items was selected simultaneously.
• If restore database from backup, then status was incorrect sometimes. Fixed, however media server and client restart may still be required.
• Actions did not work in certain cases i.e. if event is received from one media server and action should be performed on another media server. Fixed.
• VMAX Proxy was installed in “client only” mode. Fixed.
• “No Licenses” notification appeared sometimes even if the licenses were activated. Fixed.
• It was possible to drop a user into the tab navigator. In this case, an empty layout was opened. Fixed.
• Playback could freeze when seeking through VMAX archive. Fixed.