2N IP Force/Verso video issues in DW
Answered
Looking for help with getting our 2N Force/Verso door intercoms to work best in DW.
DW Server and Client: Patch version 4.2.0.33124
2N Helios IP Force: Version 2.32.2.41.22
We have always had issues with 2N Helios IP Force/Verso door intercoms in DW and I have been able to make small tweaks to get them working for the most part but it is very inconsistent and whereas the small tweaks work for one, the same does not work for others. Outside of DW, when looking at the Live view from the 2N webpage itself and or through 2N's IP EYE the video always looks great so I know it's not an issue with the 2N camera itself and the latest firmware has been installed. However, the 2N video in DW is not displaying the same good image. We are getting constant Network Issues, "No data received during last 10 seconds" but only on the 2N devices. We are on a patch version of DW as had similar no data in the last 10 seconds on the latest DW release build for most if not all of the cameras which was resolved with the patch except for the 2N's which are constantly losing the connection (freeze), and or bouncing from Hi-Res to Lo-Res even though the recording schedule during the day is set to record always. I have also gone into the camera settings expert tab and enabled the "Keep camera stream and profile settings" which is hit or miss. For the video stream configuration, I do have the camera primary stream set to use MJPEG so that I can get 1280x960 resolution as the standard H264 can not go above 640x480 is quite frankly way too low to be useful. The secondary stram does not have the option to use MJPEG so it is set to H264 and 640x480 and the bitrates do not match the available bitrates from the camera and can only go as high as 937. Also, the default FPS of 7 won't capture any motion events unless I change it to 10 FPS.
I have captured a screen recording that hopefully picked up on the drop of the resolution and the settings and opened a Live view directly from the 2N camera where it shows good video throughout but within DW the video is often laggy and bouncing between lo and hi-resolution. Did not record audio on the screen recording but also didn't mute it so apologize for the clicking of my mouse sounds.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qS2d9arTHggZ2Rn88 Make sure after opening the link to change the video quality to 1080p, Google photos default opens at the lowest quality for playback.
Sincerely,
Scott Donahue
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Hi Scott Donahue,
We use Onvif for the integration with most cameras, like 2N.
Please check if the behavior in the Onvif Device Manager is comparable to the behavior in the VMS.If that is the case, please report it to 2N. If that isn't the case, please capture the event with Wireshark to get a better understanding where the communication fails, either on the side of 2N or on the side of our VMS.
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Have you add the 2N Integration license or the 2N Gold License? It should be plug and play once you apply a 2N License to that device. Reach out to 2N Sales and ask for a trial gold license, apply that to the Intercom. Remove the camera and reboot the 2N Device. Then try adding the 2N Device Back, everything will auto populate including the Door Relay Release Soft Trigger if you have the lice se installed on the 2N Intercom.
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Norman Thank you for the suggestion of using the Onvif Device Manager. Shows the ONVIF version is 2.02 Profile S. The 2N that I've been working on as stated in OP is on their most current firmware. Is there a way to update the ONVIF version separately or is that within DW/NX? The behavior in the Onvif Device Manager for live video is good, video streaming encoder using jpeg 1280x960 is good, selecting h264 640x40 and get "Object reference not set to an instance of an object". However, in DW, I'm receiving both streams, so I'm not sure what the object in question is in ODM. For Profile 1 the video source shows framerate 10 and resolution 1280x960 and the video encoder configuration shows jpeg 1280x960, quality 8, frame rate 15, bitrate 2048, and encoding interval 1. The only difference in Profile 2 is encoding shows h264 640x480, frame rate 30. The Events don't show anything other than the logicalState change from false to Inactive and time is really old so not sure how accurate it is, no date.
*Note that in DW Advanced tab, whatever the Codec is set at when you first add the 2N in is what it is, and no way to change it from h264 to MJPEG even if on the camera itself it has been changed. The only way it will change is to completely delete the camera from DW, make the change on the camera and then add it back. Also, cannot change bitrate above 937 for the secondary stream if that matters, and with all the different ways I have tried to get these 2N intercoms to work, I have also found that if the FPS is left at the default of 7 that the motion events don't work. But like many other things I've tried, this is not consistent, and the motion detection works fine. Under the Expert tab, I have also left that alone and some intercoms work fine, others I have to check to "Keep camera stream and profile settings" to get it to work.
Another issue I'm seeing the LIve view delay within DW. For example, while viewing the live view and opening the camera settings in DW and selecting the Web page tab and from the web page selecting the Live Preview, the two don't sync and the image in the Live Preview is accurate, the person walking up to the intercom and pushing the button, but the Live View in DW the person does not show up for 30 seconds or more.
Believe me, I have tweaked and change so many settings over the years to try to get these to work which for the most part they do but way too often I just have dealt with the "Network issue" and have gaps in the recordings, and thus my reason for posting on the NX community in hopes that someone else out there has found a way to get them to just work that could share what they have done and if by chance the developers are reading this, they would see that possibly there is some bug in the code that needs to be fixed in a future patch or version. I have reached out to 2N and they say it's all working fine from the device to the Live Preview to their 2N IP EYE software, something we use for our receptionist and they say the issue is with the VMS (DW/NX)
Griffin Hagler Thank you for the suggestion about the License but the license is not the issue. We have over 150 of the 2N IP Force/Verso intercoms, all have the 2N GOLD License.
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Hi Scott Donahue,
We try to implement the latest version of Onvif and you cannot upgrade this on the VMS or the camera. Such upgrades are done in the source code or firmware and are based on the Onvif API.
Resolution settings, codecs, and frame rates are typically done by the Nx Witness VMS.
For these purposes there is the Allow System to optimize camera settings option in the General tab of the System Administration menu.You can override that by disabling this option, but it applies to all devices or go to the Camera Settings menu, tab Expert and enable the Keep camera stream and profile settings. In this was the settings made in the camera will be the ones used in the VMS.
Please notice that the secondary stream is for Smart Search and adaptive scaling only, and the resolution should not exceed 1024x768 (640x480 is recommended) and have a frame rate of 7 fps max.
In general, I would recommend using H.264 as the codec, otherwise the load on the server will increase significant due to the much larger incoming bandwidth a MJPEG stream generates.
Can you please provide 3 Wireshark captures?
- Of the discovery and initialization process, capture it from the server with the camera IP address as the host filter.
- When you encounter the delay, capture it from the server with the camera IP address as the host filter.
- At the same moment, capture it from the client with the server IP address as the host filter.
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Hi Scott Donahue,
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'.
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We have the same issues with 2N cameras (Verso and Force) on multiple sites. All with DW Spectrum. They are usually identified as "Generic RTSP". Primary stream is MJPEG (1280x960), secondary is h264 (640x480) and usually both at 15fps. The only choices are 10, 15, or 30fps. Default bit rate is 512kbps. We have to exclude them from the alerts because we would get 100 alerts per day.
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Hi Jason Brown,
Can you please provide 3 Wireshark captures?
- Of the discovery and initialization process, capture it from the server with the camera IP address as the host filter.
- When you encounter the delay, capture it from the server with the camera IP address as the host filter.
- At the same moment, capture it from the client with the server IP address as the host filter.
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I have only been able to complete two captures thus far. The dropouts can be 10 minutes to 10 hours apart, so that makes the capture a bit harder. I will get you some of that info eventually.
For the two capures I do have, I setup a test system with only one 2N Callbox (model is "IP Solo" but it is basically the top half of an IP Verso). I captured the initial "auto" setup using just the IP address and credentials entered into spectrum. When added this way the camera rarely works properly. It is offline more than it is online. This is consistent with our experience at other sites.
I then did a 2nd capture of what happens when adding the camera using the RTSP address. This works properly and the camera drops offline only occasionally (usually 5-10x per day instead of constantly as mentioned above).
You can download the captures here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/h18gkzd272zsjsv/AAA5ByexPKVcj8Jt-hNfvhJva?dl=0
I will get more info as time allows.
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Update - I added a 3rd file. A capture from a different site with more pronounced problems. This device is a 2N IP Force. It is connected to a local switch shared with 2 other cameras that are not having any issues. There is another IP Force at this same site that also has multiple issues per day, but not as frequently as the device I captured.
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Norman - Any updates on this?
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Hi Jason,
I checked the 3 files.
- 2N IP Force Dropout.pcapng
- 2N IP Solo Discovery and Initialisation Auto.pcapng
- 2N IP Solo Discovery and Initilialisation RTSP.pcapng
In the 1st and 3rd file, I don't notice any abnormalities that could lead to disconnections, so I assume you didn't capture the correct moments.
In the 2nd file, I did notice a lot of declined Onvif requests, which will lead to disconnections.
For example:
Such requests should be replied with HTTP/1.1 200 OK, like this, similar, one:
This seems an issue related to the Onvif integration and should be improved on the camera side.
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