First steps with nxWitness VMS - and many questions
Answered
Hello everyone
I installed some cams for my smarthome 2 months ago and am on my way of learning and searching best solutions.
My primary use case is: surveillance of my smart home and recreation flat.
My secondary goal could be: using my freshly builtup expierience to install and support systems at other private homes or maybe more.
After having tested some surveillance SW, I wasnt very satisfied with some solutions:
Camlytics v2.2.2/v3.2.2, QNAP Surveillance(srv)/QVR(cli), QNAP QVRpro(srv)/QVRpro(cli), QNAP QVRelite(srv)/QVRpro(cli), Ubiquiti Video Server and several IOS/Android versions.
After a while I found Quindor's Video about nxWitness. Because I want to use my newly QNAP NAS as storage, I installed Ubuntu/nxWit in VM Virtualisation Station on my QNAP.
Now I try to get the system running to an extend that is ok for me.
I hope to find here some answers to my questions. Excuse me If I'm writing too long.
I will ask my questions in following posts, one after another.
Michael
-
Hi Michael Gruber,
Fire all your questions to us in this topic.
As you might have found, Nx Witness already comes with a 4 camera trial license that is valid for 30 days. In case you want to trial more camera and/or an extended period of time, feel free to let me know, and we are more than happy to provide you an additional trial license.
-
First I want to sync daylight time. Here in Austria it is now Fr 19th 23:05 - in which timezone are you all ? GB USeast or USwest ?
From quindor's video I know that the trial license has a 4 cam 30days trial period. For now I only have 4 cams, but I tried to define each cam with several test settings with different streams with different resolutions. Only 4 cams are recording now. Are cameras with identical IP adressess counted as different cameras that should be licensed at the end of the period ?
I'm sure that Zoom Windows aren't counted as different cams.
If I need more trial time we will see.For now I want to license at least 4 cams. Maybe I want to install a 5th cam, because I need one not too expensive cam with (ONVIF, PTZ, 8MP and 15x opt Zoom) to try some zoom windows of a distant parking place to recognize motion there and especially if it is occupied (illegaly)
Maybe I want to invest in a 6th wildlife type solar/accu powered cam with license plate recognision. But thats future. If everything is running well, this wildlife cam might accompany me during summer holidays with my camping caravan.Tell me the one time life license for 4 to 6 to 8 cams.
-
Hi Michael,
We are a distributed team and have people in Burbank CA, in the United States, which our HQ. We also have team in Moscow, Russia, in Taiwan, Australia, and Europe, I personally am based in the Netherlands.Licenses are counted by the unique camera ID and are only required when you want to record the stream.
IP addresses, can change at any time, the unique camera ID will remain the same.
Regarding zoom windows, you're right. You can show as many as you like.
Same applies for fisheye dewarping. You can display as many as you want, no dewarping licenses required.
-
Hi Norman
Q1 (about Camera Integration): The ONVIF Dahua cam is recognized automatically in nxWit. I can access cam GUI via extra Tabs in CameraSettings and nxWit knows that the HDBW2231 has optZoom.
My Ubiquiti G3pro has mic and optZoom3x. I can activate mic but optZoom is not recognized.
My 1st Ubiquiti G3dome has a mic and mic can be activated and is activated
My 2nd (same model, same firmware) Ubiquiti G3dome has also a mic but the mic cannot be activated
All 3 cams miss the tab in CameraSetting to access the cams GUI
All 3 cams do have some Features that can be controlled via GUI (brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, denoise, sharpness, WDR, AE (Anti-flicker-mode), flip/mirror, IRmode (on/off/auto, slider), IRintensity, Zoom, Focus, ResetIs it possible to tell nxWitness some parameters about Generic_RTSP cams like my Ubiquiti Cams to be recognized as a Zoom Cam, and to get the extra Tab in CameraSettings to access the vendors GUI.
Maybe by modifying the /opt/networkoptix/mediaserver/bin/plugins/libGENERIC_RTSP_plugin.so and producing an own libUBIQ_G3pro_plugin.so file ? Or whereever the "defined camera" information is stored.
Edit: On Saturday I cross changed the IPs between two cams. The one that didnt play audio because I cannot activate it in the settings, now plays the outdoor sounds perfectly. And all newly defined cams audio cannot be activated. So its no HW issue only a nxWit SW settings issue.
PS: Sa 20.2: I found the unsolved thread about Ubiquiti G3pro integration request.
Q4: Where is the location and where are the files, where all the newly defined cameras are stored ?
Comment: Is it possible to simply switch the boolean entry iin cameraUserAttributesList[].audioEnabled of the specific camera that is malfunctioning ?
-
Now some cams detect the motion and some do not detect. I want to:
- display the loRes stream on dashboard
- display the hiRes stream when zooming in the cam and
- record the loRes stream 24h and
- record 20sec before and after a motion detect.
Where can I find a how to ?
A: Trial and error: I verified, that my cams
do record the lores streams
do display hires during motion
do display hires during live fullscreen
do not display hires stream when only selected (5% bigger output)
on nxWitWinCliIt was a bit tricky because one remote cam has bandwidth issues. More to learn. (I reduced it to 3fps at 1080i, 6fps at 576i, 9fps at 640x360)
-
Q2: Is it possible to record audio events (sounds)
And second display it in the Timeline with a stripe in another color ? Let me suggest blue instead of red motion events.
After that I could smart search for red lines AND blue lines. And if nxWit does expand this, other events could be displayed in other colors (recognition, intruder, ...) Could be a Feature Request #2Q3: I would like to display more than one timeline. Maybe a Feature Request #3
PS: I collect my Questions and ideas and after a while, when I have solved most beginners problems, i will maybe putting it into the "New Feature Idea" section.
-
@Norman:
I am / was in the IT industry myself. But I'm not currently active, because my old system was simply dead patched after more than 30 years.
I have just recommended the nxWitness for a 100 Cam installation to someone interested in a QNAP forum. If he buys, there is then a tip prpvision or who sells the licenses in Austria.
I could imagine organizing a license sale.
The nxWitness seems very reasonable to me. But I would like to have it better under control myself.
-
Hi Michael Gruber,
Q1: For RTSP streams there is no option to change settings, since they are considered generic RTSP streams and there is no API applied that can discover such an option.
If audio fails, it might help to check the audio codec that has been used, and you could try if using another codec helps to get audio to work. HERE you can see which codecs are supported. Unfortunately no certainty, since if varies how the audio was integrated on the device.
If you want to benefit from other features of such devices, you could check if there is an API available and then with a Soft Trigger event and a Do HTTP Request action you can use such features in some way.
Q2: It depends on your definition of an Audio Event. Some brands we natively integrated offer various Audio Events, like Gunshot Detection, Anger Detection, etc.
Also, there are various 3rd party applications for Audio Events that can be used by adding them as specific Generic Events. Events will be displayed in the right-panel panel. If you set the action Bookmark then the events will be displayed in the timeline in blue and the camera that is selected in the grid, will reveal its bookmarks in the timeline or the bookmarks' menu (Ctrl+B).Q3: Personally, I think that displaying multiple timelines is a bit confusing and unclear. That being said, the timeline correspond with the selected camera in the grid.
Q4: For Windows, you can find the Media files at the following locations:
D:\HD Witness Media\hi_quality
D:\HD Witness Media\lo_qualityFor Linux, you can find the Media Files at the following locations:
/opt/networkoptix/mediaserver/bin/var/data/hi_quality
/opt/networkoptix/mediaserver/bin/var/data/lo_quality -
Regarding lores, hires.
Please check THIS support article.
In case motion isn't detected you can increase the sensitivity, but in general it is a lack of contrast, which should be resolved by adding more light. Also, it might help if the camera can switch from color to black and white.
Increasing sensitive is mostly intended to reduce the volume that is required to activate the motion detection.
To set the post and pre-recording, you can set this in the Recording tab in the Camera Settings menu.
Forcing lores or hires streams can be done by right-clicking on the grid, select Resolution and the desired stream, Low or High. When displaying a single camera, the hires stream will be displayed. If you have a layout with multiple cameras and you select either hires or lores and you save the layout, next time you open that specific layout if will remember the previous resolution setting.
-
Regarding the German part. I can understand German pretty well, but the primary language on the community is English, and we prefer to keep it like this, so any of the content remains understandable for the majority of people. For convenience’ sake, I translated it to English.
To answer your question. We work with authorized resellers. For the DACH region this is Allnet GmbH.
To master the Nx Witness VMS, it might be helpful to enter the free Nx Operator Certification training.
This is an accessible way to get to know the majority of features and possibilities of the Nx Witness VMS. -
Thanks for the answers, Norman
ad Q3: has no priority, I'm learning a lot, i did some screenshots and I will explain it later
ad Q2: I will try the bookmarks and learn how they can help
ad Q1-cam-integration: I was afraid, that there is no way of integrating generig RTSP cams, because there was a thread 7 monts ago about Ubiquiti integration Maybe I will dig a little bit deeper into /api/manualCamera/add you mentioned there
I will try the SoftTrigger for achieving my intendsad Q1-audio & ad Q4: i've found already the storage location for the media files - the question aimed to find the location where the camera definitions are stored. Anywhere in the file system or in the database. I think the "audio enable" boolean entry is in the database.
This boolean entry is the only one that makes my life difficult now. As I mentioned it is no HW or codec issue. Both identical HW cams are added. One has audio enabled and with the other one "audio enable" cannot be checked.
Both cams send streams with same formatted audio streams. nxWitness refuses to enable it with every newly defined cam. So I think it is a demo license issue ?
I have defined 4 cams and each with 4 different stream settings for training. So I have 16 defined cams that receive streams of 4 real hw cams. So I have exactly 4 audio enabled cam definitions between my 16 cam definitions. If it is a demo licensing issue i should pose my question different. How can I transfer -
Hi Michael Gruber,
You can't change the boolean. It either works or it doesn't.
Please check the settings for both cameras closely. Initially check the firmware and the audio codecs that were set.I assume, you currently added the RTSP manually as described in THIS support article, so changing the method to the API call; /api/manualCamera/add will not make any difference in this case.
-
Good morning Norman
Thanks for your answer, Your answers are faster than I can dokument the whole thing. Thank you for your patience.
Yes I added the cameras manually, (as described in the "THIS" artticle) but I dont know a different method. After "addCamera" I cannot do any other step as to enter a IP address and search. Anyway.I checked the settings (although UBIQUITI GUI doesnt have much properties to set)
- I deleted some camera definitions to be clearly beneath the 16 licensed count - now I have had 10 definitions
- I have 3 Ubiqiti cams - 2 different models - they might have 2 different firmware versions (the two that were the last two available) - each cam has three streams (s0=1080p/s2=576i/s1=640x360)
I tested ALL combinations (and it took me quite a long time during last night): each Cam - each model - each fw - each stream has working audio
- but is is impossible for me, to define a new camera setting with working audio !?!
the only way to test all camera variantions is to modify by "edit stream" in CameraSetting of one of my 4 already defined camera definitions that already have working audio - by chance ?
I do not find out, how I produced the working definitions, and assume, zthat these were the first 4 definitions I ever made in my nxWitness test environment. Can it be verified or determined in any of the log files ?
To explain it a little bit more exact, I have produced a screenshot of my camera list (in fact I produced several screenshots) There I detected, that during addCamera action the stream-part of the entered description was stored as "Model" and the IPaddress-part was stored as "IP/Name".
After doing any "edit stream" in CameraSetting, those initial stored "initial information" is not correct in any way, but rather is very misleding and disturbing.
Again although I can see clearly which phrases I used during addCamera action, I couldnt detect any common pattern that had led to audio enable checked or audio enable unchecked configurations.I would prefer to get access to the camera properties database, to switch this little boolean value, and I tell you this would be the work-around in this little but annoying situation.
I'm sure, there is an issue during camera property detection of nonONVIF RTSP defined cameras. (I wont call it a bug by now)But while we are on the way I learn a lot about the system - and again thanks for your patience and fast responds
Michael
-
Hi Michael Gruber,
If you open the RTSP stream in VLC player that has no audio in Nx Witness, does the audio work?
If so, can you check the codec that is used in VLC player? -
When I am at home again, I will check. And I‘ happy to learn sth about codecs.
What I can confirm is, that each of my camstreams has audio. Now I can verify this in the IOS App IP camera Viewer (of Robert Chou) where I can hear it.
After returning home, i will write a list of all combinations
And i will shutdown my current test ubuntu server and install a new one (in a VM) there I will define all cam streams one after the other.
Honestly I‘m not sure what I hope to see: reproducing the odd behaviour to get you to fix it or having all new cams in the new server with audio, to go to my next questions but dont know what was going on. -
Hi Michael Gruber,
HERE the link to the support article about the codecs we support for video and audio.
I will send you a new trial license, so you can 'play' around in your VM. HERE a support article about how to run Nx in a VM. -
Audio Codecs:
- Ubiquiti G3Pro Audio Codec: MPEG AAC Audio (mp4a) stereo
sample rate:48000Hz Bit per sample:32 - Ubiquiti G3Dome Audio Codec: MPEG AAC Audio (mp4a) stereo
sample rate:22050Hz Bit per sample:32 - Dahua IPC-HDBW2231R-ZS: Doesnt have an audio stream.
This would only have the cam with -ZAS
Video Codecs:
- Ubiquiti G3Pro & G3Dome Video Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (h264)
s0 1920x1080 / s2 1024x576 / s1 640x360 - Dahua Video Codec: MPEG-H Part2/HEVC (H.265) (hevc)
main stream: 1920x1080 (1080p) / or 1280x960 (1.3MP) / or 1280x720 (720p)
sub stream: 704x576 (D1) / or 640x480 (VGA 4:3) / or 352x288 (CIF 4:3)
These are common codecs.
Thanks for the links. I had a glimpse on them and know where to find if necessary.
I'm just reinstalling nxSrv. And I did it with my 14yo son, who is just beginning to learn linux in school. I expect he will have more linux experience than I in several months.
On the other hand I will use this following Ubuntu-nx-VM to save all streams not within Ubuntu but directly on QNAP NAS to keep the VM image as small as possible.So you see, my extra time for analyzing this issue is not really useless.
Michael
- Ubiquiti G3Pro Audio Codec: MPEG AAC Audio (mp4a) stereo
-
Dear Norman
As I mentioned in Discord in my new nxWit installation none of the added cams has been defined as camera with working audio. Although I added the 16cam / 90 days trial license.
On weekend I analyzed the info.txt files in the hi_quality or lo_quality directories of the various cams.
As mentioned 3 of 12 camera definitions in the first nxWit installation have got the entry audioCodec during automatic adding. During in the second nxWit addingCamera process 0 of 15 got working audio.
During the weekend I took a look at the info.txt files in the camera definitions.
If I could control the parameters manually, that are automatically and wrong taken to define the camera definitions, I could easily correct the corresponding DB entries.Some cameras have got defined values
- cameraCapabilities 397348 others 397344 - but it would be interesting, whats behind those entries
Audio Capabilities:
- audioCodec: all cameras with working audio have the entry "AAC" - but I couldnt define, how these 4 were defined
- mediaCapabilities: all have "hasAudio":false even those with working audio !?!
- mediaCapabilities: all have "hasDualStreaming":false although all have triple streaming capabilities
- forcedIsAudioSupported: maybe should be set to "1" ?
- isAudioSupported: maybe should be set to "1"
PTZ Capabilities
- ptzCapabilities: UniFy G3Pro has zoomCapability, but there is no way to tell it nxWitness that this shoud be set other than "0"
- ptzCapabilities: Dahua cam was recognizes as ONVIF camera with "ptzCapabilities":1004100 This camera has the same 3xZoomCapability as the G3Pro - without Pan/Tilt/RotateCapability
- ptzActiveObject, ptzHotkeys, ptzPresets,
xVelocityCoeff, yVelocityCoeff, zoomVelocityCoeff
Camera Identification and Documentation
- cameraModel: is not detected during adding process automatically but could easily provided as UniFy G3Dome or UniFy G3Pro instead of s0, s1 s2 or other non corresponding strings
- cameraUrl: this entry corresponds to the IP address during camera adding - after external IP address of an external dyndns cam has changed, this never is correct any more
- deviceUrl: This seems to be the Url, that can be accessed through cameraSettings tab, to quickly access the camera. The IP adress is the same as for the rtsp streams but the parameter are different to connect to http
- MACaddress: if nxWitness addCamera cannot retrieve the MAC address of a camera that is added with Generic_RTSP then it would be easily possible to let it be entered for dokumentation purpose. Maybe interesting Suspend/Hibernate and for Wake-on-Lan
- firmware: same as for MAC address
Camera Control
- Even "non Supported" / non ONVIF cameras do have some capabilities that might be activated. Especially if there is a living user forum, some formerly unsupported cameras could one day be supported better and better.
- if nxWitness might support a General_RTSP with audio support, or a General_RTSP with ptzZoomOnly or a General_Camera_DefinitionFile.txt that could be edited before adding the camera, or presenting a "ManualCamCapabilities" Button after camera search was successful, I think we were on the right way.
So I hope there are enough thoughts that may solve my minor problem, that my cameras do have or dont have audio capabilities by chance.
If you want to add my cams (UnifyG3pro and Unify G3dome) in your support team, there will be a possibility to send you the external access credentials via discord as pm.
Good night
MichaelPS: picture for camera control on vendors GUI of the Ubiquiti G3Pro including ptzZoomOnly or disableIR, partially as switches partially as sliders
-
If you open the RTSP stream in VLC player that has no audio in Nx Witness, does the audio work?
If so, can you check the codec that is used in VLC player?Please share the remote connection credentials via Discord and we'll dive into it.
-
Hi Michael Gruber.
I'm sorry for the late reply.
As I thought, we cannot resolve the audio issue.
Regarding the recording; we should know more about the issue.
Couldn't it be that case that the licenses expired? HWID change? Storage disabled/unmounted?
-
Recording issue is resolved - beginners failure. I changed the IP of my QNAS, that is hosting my NFS share for hosting to a different fixed IP due to ending the purely testing phase to maybe stay "privately" productive.
The running nxW in the Virtual machine didnt change its IP address so the client noticed nothing, exept I received an error message "not enough HDD/SSD speed for recording to /mnt/NASQ/SURV-nxW"
I stopped my concurrently running QNAP QVRpro, I checked my volume space, I thought my backup job did consume too much bandwidth. The correct error message should have been: NFS share lost connection: IP address of NFS share is not accessible, no ping to NFS address possible - or something similar.
But if I would have been a little bit better in using linux, I would have interpreted the error message with more HI (AI in my brain) considering everything that has changed during the last 4 days :-)
Finally rebooting my machine and the NAS didnt solve the issue, but now I changed the entry in /etc/fstab to the now fixed correct IP. And it is ok again.
-
Hi Michael Gruber,
We have not heard back from you in a while, so we are going to assume your question has been answered and set this topic to 'Answered'.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
26 comments