Automate the Camera replacement procedure

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Jeff Jones
  • Edited

Can you build an automated tool to migrate old footage and settings over when a camera gets replaced?

Maybe you could detect if a new camera ID shows up using the same IP number from an existing camera that also happened to be recently offline, then pop up a message asking if we wanted to move footage and settings to the new camera, and delete the old camera "channel" once it's complete?

 Or perhaps just a button in the camera settings dialog that says, [this is a replacement camera] which brings up the similar migration dialog and lets you pick which camera to copy from.

I did find the help resource for doing this manually. And boy is it convoluted.
http://support.networkoptix.com/hc/en-us/articles/217862448-Replace-a-camera-and-recover-related-archive-footage-

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    Igal

    Jeff,

     

    Thank you for submitting the request. It's a great idea indeed. I'll let it our Devs know about it.

    In the meantime, in order to partially simplify the process, I suggest that you try our new API Call Generator located on my.networkoptix.com.

     

    Thank you.

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    Sergey Bystrov

    Jeff,

    This request is a hight priority to us. However, we already planned features for 3.2 and it did not make its way in.
    Likely it will be one after it.

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    Jeff Jones

    Thanks. That's good to know.

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    Kyle Folger

    It is good to know. It's a feature I requested back in version 2.3 and the date was June 5, 2015. At least fisheye on the mobile app is working which was also a long requested feature.

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    Joel Sabine

    It's a bit surprising that in 4.1 this still isn't possible... still +1 vote for this feature.

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    Norman Graafsma
    • Edited

    Hi Joel Sabine,

    The feature is listed on the roadmap, it just doesn't have a fixed release date yet. 

    There are many feature requests and there is always a limitation in resources, and we have to make choices. 

    Camera replacement is not a frequent routine and therefore had less of a priority to features that affect frequent routines.

    JIRA-VMS-973

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    Joel Sabine

    Hi Norman,

    Completely understand the choices - it's not always easy keeping up with the many requests...

    I'm looking at this mostly from 3x perspectives:

    • From an enterprise client perspective - 1000+ camera systems typically have life-cycle management programs in place and camera replacements are frequent routines. These systems are rarely installed in one instant so are constantly changing. Not having a simple way to replace cameras is a major roadblock to using Nx for enterprise clients.
    • Even for the smaller systems - often we'll use an analog encoder to reduce the cost of entry to a VMS platform for a client with existing old infrastructure and then progressively upgrade cameras to spread out the cost for clients. This makes replacement a much more frequent task.
    • Quite a few times now we've had to delete/re-add cameras to a system to deal with compatibility issues when an updated device template needs to be applied (currently have this exact case ongoing) - not having a simple camera replacement tool/mechanism makes this incredibly painful.

    Just my two cents for what it's worth...

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    Sergey Bystrov

    Joel,

    You point are very clear. To be honest I have no idea how people are handling it now. If I were to do it frequently, I would shoot myself in the head:-(. I feel like it must be done asap. The issue is that other SIs want archive encryption, 2FA, better AI coverage, cloud storage, LDAP groups etc, easier video export(like a link) and so on:-)

    Sorry for the inconvenience. We will do our best to speed it up. Will do another brainstorm session on this, to see how to make something quick and simple. 

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    Michael Omeros

    Good Afternoon All, 

     

    I just had to do this for a customer and compared to other VMS products I really think this needs to be Automated as a priority. I also noticed that the Smart Search Feature is lost on the old Data once migrated over to the new camera folders. 

     

    Regards Michael.  

     

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    Kyle Folger

    Agreed. That's why I requested the feature back in 2015. We have swapped many cameras since then and it's always a PITA.

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    Colin Robinson

    Agree that this feature needs to be looked at ASAP, I am finding more cameras are being replaced as systems get to being older

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    Jeff Jones

    Because of the hassle, I've just been naming the old camera z-old (camera name) to kick it down to the bottom of the list and telling the customer they had to go to that camera if they wanted to review old footage from it. Once the old footage rolls off I then delete the camera from the list.

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    Kieran Vella

    Definitely an issue we are seeing more and more. Nifty idea of prepending a camera name with z-old but we often have to reuse the failed cameras IP which messes things up.

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