R5.1.5

Bugs fixed in Observer 5.1.5

• Client not working as expected after connection loss to server (OBS-8023)

• Remove option to small upgrade over HTTP (OBS-8022)

• Cannot modify resolution with the "multiple camera edit" function (OBS-8020)

• edit function of cameras on top of camera wizard could lead to gop 0 (OBS-8007)

• OBS 5.1.4 Client shows wrong used storage space (OBS-7998)

• Stream profile settings lost in Camera Wizard for Honeywell (OBS-7996)

• PTZ-Settings cannot be changed for AD-Users (OBS-7992)

• Cannot export camera tree from NUS (OBS-7981)

• Adding new license is mandatory after upgrade from 5.0.x (OBS-7961)

• Mobile Client: Archive problems in NUS - NCS situations (OBS-7944)

• Samba upgrade doesn't work (OBS-7849)

• Cannot use archive player twice without changing to online view in mobile client (OBS-7796)

R5.1.4

Bugs fixed in Observer 5.1.4

• Missing key file for encrypted archive after small upgrade (OBS-7960)

• Double click in Online Monitor brings up the wrong stream (OBS-7576)

• Maintenancer: Heavy IO load after upgrade from 4.6 to 5.1 (OBS-7901)

• Improved memory usage on servers with low memory (OBS-7902)

• Reduce high database activity for better performance (OBS-7921)

• Modify stream settings changes stream type for recording (OBS-7964)

R5.1.3

Bugs fixed in Observer 5.1.3

• Mobile client performance improvement (OBS-7863)

• Copy current view to other's users doesn't copy cameras (OBS-7873 OBS-7859)

• Fix motion based recording duration problem (OBS-7908)

• Use relaxed InnoDB settings to increase database performance (OBS-7922)

• Fix unexpected fatal situations (OBS-7925 OBS-7926)

R5.1.2

Bugs fixed in Observer 5.1.2

• fix image index rebuild process (OBS-7891)

R5.1.1

Bugs fixed in Observer 5.1.1

• fix too many camera authentication error event generated on specific cameras (OBS-7586)

• fix recording stops after camera unreachable for more than a minute (OBS-7855)

• fix image database fatal error (OBS-7870)

R5.1.0

List of enhancements in Observer 5.1.0

• Advanced multi streaming

• New camera scheduling editor for cameras and rules

  • Rule admin: implementing scheduling (OBS-6517)

• Usability in the client

  • Event search: Provide support for full-text search (OBS-5745)

  • Add upgrade request function to license wizard (OBS-7119)

  • Add additional information to a known number plate (OBS-5041)

  • User and host search (OBS-7249)

  • System information: Sort host list alphabetically (OBS-7248)

  • Host Admin: Sort host list alphabetically (OBS-7247)

  • Camera properties: Show iCat stream (OBS-7139)

  • Add preview image/stream to camera admin page (OBS-7136)

  • Rework camera info display page in camera admin (OBS-6473)

  • Default recording period reduced from 30 days to 3 days (OBS-6522)

  • Motion Detection configuration: Change default "Time between events" to 15 seconds (OBS-6917)

  • Batch editing of cameras via multi-select in camera tree (OBS-6446)

• Operating system update to CentOS 8.3

• System security & Operations

  • Extended password policy options (OBS-7507)

  • Missing 'Expect-CT' Header (OBS-6968)

  • Missing Content Security Policy (OBS-6967)

  • Cookie Without SameSite Flag Detected (OBS-6966)

  • Option to require saving a reason for a system login (OBS-6824)

  • Implement LDAPS (ldap over https) support (OBS-6773)

  • Active Directory login for SNAP (OBS-6130)

  • Enable language, customizer and exporter options for AD users (OBS-5963)

  • Allow users to be member of multiple groups (OBS-6772)

  • Use memberOf search filter and update the AD GUI settings (OBS-6771)

  • Password expiration option and default password change dialogue (OBS-6562)

  • Longer root passwords should be allowed (OBS-6529)

  • Increase the allowed length of camera admin and user admin passwords to 32 characters (OBS-6270)

  • Change server side Java to OpenJDK 15 (OBS-7379)

  • Update Apache Tomcat to latest version (OBS-6393)

  • Update Munin to version 2.0.63 (OBS-7131)

• Other changes

  • Camera Wizard window size modification should be restricted (OBS-7562)

  • Update event manager to remove deprecated and unsafe parts (OBS-7354)

  • Remove SMS sending feature (OBS-7319)

  • Extend "update successful message" with information about new features (OBS-7174)

  • Option to include camera comment in camera tree name (OBS-7166)

  • Add I/O driver for Sunell cameras (OBS-7114)

  • Option to change hostname in nadmin (OBS-7044)

  • Sallegra input and relays integration (R-ET-4, R-ET-12, ADI-ET-8/8) (OBS-7043)

  • Host name should be mandatory during installation (OBS-7033)

  • Nadmin option to modify Domain name and Sysadmin Mail Address (OBS-7031)

  • Default stream(format) for Online Monitor (OBS-7000)

  • Disallow configuring mixed recordings with different codecs (OBS-6977)

  • Don't allow small upgrade from CentOS 6 based system to 5.1 (OBS-6911)

  • Change multi-channel cameras to require a single license (OBS-6860)

  • Camera wizard: add camera settings page (OBS-6827)

  • Include SSL certificate in system backup (OBS-6742)

  • Remove Web Start options from Observer page and JLNP files (OBS-6575)

  • Rule Admin action: Request URL (OBS-6571)

  • sMart on Observer upgrade support (big and small) (OBS-6504)

  • Define boot command line parameter to reserve disc space for sMart (OBS-6502)

  • Unbundled installation should require EULA acceptance (OBS-6402)

  • Change OS updates to not require re-installation (CentOS 8) (OBS-6360)

  • Consider manual trigger to get the modified camera configuration (OBS-6258)

  • Add events when archive is accessed or exported via SNAP (OBS-6218)

  • iCat NPR: Minimum plate size configuration option (OBS-6187)

  • Face Detection: Option to delete Minimum Face Size (OBS-5736)

  • Add catalina.out to saved logs (OBS-5650)

  • Host Admin: Cut-off label issue and reorganization of screen (OBS-5605)

  • Make EDS events configurable (icon, sound, highlight color) (OBS-5570)

  • Rework the repair mechanism (OBS-5545)

  • Display existing iCat motion detection and object tracking regions while drawing new region or event triggers (OBS-4863)

  • Rule Admin action: Send TCP Message (OBS-4450)

  • Virtual machine licensing improvements (OBS-4271)

  • Change iCat event trigger object choice from checkbox to radio button (OBS-4221)

  • Modify PDUC liveness checking (and/or the current working mechanism) (OBS-3382)

Bugs fixed in Observer 5.1.0

• Backup restore of OBS 4.8.1 failed on OBS 5.0.2 due to invalid FPS rate (OBS-7610)

• After big upgrade with faulty system backup client freezes when clicking on any camera (OBS-7589)

• Some events from NCS not arriving on the NUS (OBS-7551)

• ImageDispatcherQueue synchronization errors (OBS-7481)

• Java heapdumps in /netavis/upgradeKit (OBS-7412)

• Batch adding cameras results in license issues in a NUS-NCS setup (OBS-7393)

• Errors in BrowserServlet when EventType is empty string (OBS-7385)

• Motion detection pixel change threshold is blinking red (OBS-7381)

• ObjectNumberReportingEventHandler isn't executed (OBS-7356)

• EDS alarm events just appear after service restart (OBS-7333)

• "Javascript error on the ""Download exported files"" page" (OBS-7302)

• "Status of ""show camera name"" option isn't saved correctly across views" (OBS-7261)

• Misleading warning message when re-entering wrong password in User Admin (OBS-7238)

• EventHandlers have to compiled manually after System restore (OBS-7214)

• Export Admin & Rule Admin: Camera tree isn't sorted alphabetically but by camera ID (OBS-7211)

• User admin cannot disable NTP time synchronization after installation (OBS-7143)

• Client cannot load camera stream in view (OBS-7113)

• Starting event triggered recording changes iCat recording stream (OBS-7086)

• Adding image storage hard disk fails if floppy module is loaded (OBS-7067)

• Discovery wizard doesn't show camera name despite it being visible in the logs (OBS-7051)

• Update SNAP documentation with GetEntityTree status codes (OBS-6931)

• Unexpected behaviour when selecting multiple cameras after sorting them (OBS-6926)

• No emails can be sent due to missing default value (OBS-6924)

• Netavis 5.0.1 service start timeout (OBS-6916)

• Camera wizard: reset non-editable field values for Generic RTSP driver (OBS-6907)

• Camera wizard removes 'save audio' flag on update (OBS-6896)

• Event save checkbox does not work correctly (OBS-6893)

• Uncaught error after deleting a user (OBS-6888)

• Decrease socket TCP retry timeout (OBS-6884)

• Netavis 5.0 service start timeout (OBS-6780)

• "After a small upgrade on a CentOS 6-based system (OBS-6516)

• Archive players marks recordings from other days (OBS-6464)

• "Adding ACTi ACD2200 to Camera Wizard selects nothing on Video (OBS-6453)

• /tmp/nohup.out errors due to race-condition (OBS-6422)

• Video analysis recording: save in event list not checked and wrong default pre-post recording sec (OBS-6418)

• Show status menu fails after JDK RPM update (OBS-6414)

• Feedback message on erroneous network configuration (OBS-6405)

• A lot of superfluous events are generated playing encrypted archive (OBS-6375)

• Small upgrade does not update sample config files (OBS-6354)

• Potentially used but missing utilities (OBS-6350)

• Old HolidayCalendar.SAMPLE.xml config file gets restored to 5.0.0 system (OBS-6329)

• Custom event parameter wasn't filled out with iCat definition name (OBS-6278)

• Not possible to create a NUS-NCS Setup in license-less mode (OBS-6256)

• Archive player: Current playback time and time in black bar are not synchronized (OBS-6110)

• EDS Admin: Wrong feedback message for IP address validation (OBS-5598)

• Host Admin: Wrong feedback message if sMart password and confirmation don't match (OBS-5594)

• Host Admin: Missing placeholders (****) for sMart password fields (OBS-5593)

R5.0.2

List of enhancements in Observer 5.0.2

• Security related issues

  • Permissive HTTP Strict Transport Security Policy Detected (T#6965)

  • Missing HTTP Strict Transport Security Policy (T#6964)

  • jQuery Prototype Pollution (T#6963)

• Admin menu: Add SMTP settings and support for more options (incl. authentication) (T#6826)

Bugs fixed in Observer 5.0.2

• Keep Keyboard layout, Timezone, host name during big upgrade (T#6361)

• Event handler page layout broken (T#6401)

• After restoring system backup from another machine NCS does not get license from NUS (T#6816)

• Lost password recovery for admin does not work (T#6898)

• User isn't added without any error message once a mandatory field hasn't been filled out (T#6901)

• Wrong character limit when changing logged-in user password (T#6918)

• Missing chrony.conf in backup (T#6932)

• License allocation doesn't show server names when many server in host admin (T#6933)

• Exception when trying to download logs via HTTP on HTTPS-only server (T#6943)

• Changes in resolution when using event-based recording (T#6946)

• Mobile Client archive: Custom time selection pop-up closes immediately on latest Chrome (T#6952)

• Install with media check option lists wrong option (T#6953)

• User login via AD doesn't work due to special characters in username (T#6958)

• Starting Observer server from Observer DVD leads to unbootable system (T#6979)

• Age / Gender events without subsequent Face Report events (T#6980)

• Cameras disappeared from view in certain cases (T#6996)

• Video4Web example not working (T#7002)

• Server admin Menu cannot delete gateway or DNS IP address (T#7014)

• Improvements in handling multiple NICs (T#7028)

• Consider host name should be mandatory in install network settings (T#7033)

• Add new user menu option inactive after cancelled new user addition (T#7048)

New cameras in Observer 5.0.2

• Extend ONVIF driver to support H.265 (T#6250)

• Integrated Honeywell 30 series cameras (T#6908)

R5.0.1

List of enhancements in Observer 5.0.1

• I/O devices: Implement Axis Generic I/O driver (T#6527)

• SNAP URL/XML & Java SDK: functions to update NPR lists (T#6581, T#6582, T#6583)

• Admin Console: Option to disable HTTP access (T#5816)

• Admin Console: Display CentOS version (T#6568)

• Admin Console: [22] Show network details: Include MAC address (T#6567)

• Support updates from USB sticks (T#5391, T#5392)

• Updates: Add check whether /Images1 exists on first hard drive before an update is executed (T#6811)

• Add XML option to reduce the Hella polling time (T#6761)

Bugs fixed in Observer 5.0.1

• Use higher NFS timeout value when adding Image storage (T#6889)

• ARH version change does not work after 5.0.0 -> 5.0.1 small upgrade (T#6877)

• Big upgrade sets hostname to 'videosystem' in /etc/hosts (T#6878)

• Allow adding more than 10 image partitions (T#6344)

• nadmin.sh stuck with 100% CPU usage (T#6398)

• "Show main controls" does not display controls before restarting the client (T#6400)

• Clicking cancel on Save dialog in Camera wizard removes unsaved rows (T#6454)

• Camera wizard doesn't validate fields (T#6456)

• Netavis active directory user umlauts in password (T#6465)

• ONVIF driver: Eneo NXP-880F26 cannot be added (T#6539)

• ONVIF driver: Mobotix Q26 cannot be added (T#6540)

• Missing counting in view port for face detection (T#6543)

• Postfix start failed (T#6545)

• Wrong documentation concerning new image storage hard disk (T#6556)

• Special character issue in exported heatmaps (T#6559)

• Big upgrade fails during partitioning (T#6573)

• Observer 5.0 image server crash with Eneo camera (T#6589)

• Mobile Client: Error message "The server couldn't show the view" (T#6696)

• ONVIF driver: Vivotek FD8166A-N cannot be added (T#6758)

• Open clients seemed to cause fatal dumps after update (T#6765)

• Restoring systembackup from older version results in EventHandler compilation failure (T#6779)

• User admin: Permission inheritence doesn't work as intended (T#6787)

• FATAL because of ConcurrentModificationException (T#6791)

• Netavis 5.0 no output of MariaDB in fatal dump (T#6792)

• Upgrading from 4.4.5 to 5.0.0 uses invalid script home (/etc/netavis/script) (T#6798)

• common.utils.ExternalIOPluginMappings.default.xml gets overwritten after big upgrade (T#6809)

• Error message during system backup restore from 4.8.1 (T#6814)

• Error message during small upgrade from 4.4.5 to 5.0.1 (T#6818)

• ONVIF: Samsung SPE 410 only one channel gets a stream (T#6831)

• After uploading license, license activation wizard shows up again (T#6841)

• Wrong nadmin menu number in system event (T#6853)

New cameras in Observer 5.0.1

• Integrated Axis ​​generic camera driver (T#6480)

• Integrated Hikvision ​​generic camera driver (T#6481)

R5.0.0

List of enhancements in Observer 5.0.0

• Renewal of camera admin

  • Camera admin's pages to be replaced with table where multiple select, multiple setting and sorting is available for cameras and it's settings (T#5767)

  • Convert existing camera admin into new (T#5766)

  • Combo boxes to be replaced with text fields for video parameters, image size, frame rate (T#5861)

  • Camera discovery wizard to be changed: easier selection, info fields to move into camera admin table (T#5765)

  • Support multi-select for camera/group movement and delete (T#5534)

  • Excel import don't allow cameras existing already in Observer (T#5768)

  • Consolidation: removing "The 'I/O Control'" and "Video parameters" panels from camera admin (as the first one is accessible from I/O admin, and the other one is unused) (T#6107)

  • Allow to add cameras to an NCS camera groups directly from the NUS (T#5069)

• Update face SDK to latest version (T#5323)

  • Add support for Attention and Dwell time (T#5313)

  • GUI changes: parameter fields for Attention and Dwell time (T#5723)

  • Events: eliminate face detection event, but put attention and dwell time parameters into age & gender event (T#5722, T#5653)

• Implement H.265 support (T#5313)

  • H.265 support in Axis drivers (models: M2026-LE, M3106-L MKII, M3106-LVE MKII, M3106-L) (T#6239)

  • H.265 support in Vantage drivers (model: VP-NC5394P, VV-NC9425D) (T#6017, T#5968)

  • H.265 support in Generic RTSP and ONVIF Profile S drivers

• Installation, Operation System

  • Update the installation base system to CentOS 7.5 (T#5840)

  • Adapt install.sh to the new CentOS 7 environment (INSTALL only) (T#5447)

  • Update the shell scripts to support CentOS 7 (T#5389)

  • Update the Java part to support CentOS 7 (T#5388)

  • Additional useful error messages in the course of install (T#5614)

  • Protect grub with password (T#4670)

  • Define new partitioning scheme, handle most storage configurations automatically (T#4067)

  • UEFI support for bundled version (T#3954)

  • Rpm packages for CentOS 7 (T#4056)

  • Installing Observer from a USB stick (T#3788)

• Support for ONVIF Profile S conformant devices (T#5288)

• Security related issues

  • X-Frame-Options Header (T#5755)

  • Remove insecure Transportation Security Protocol (TLS 1.0) (T#5756)

  • Update Tomcat (T#5749)

  • Cookies to be marked as HttpOnly (T#5752)

  • Disable weak ciphers (T#5750)

  • Network Time Protocol Daemon (ntpd) upgrade to version 4.2.7-p26 (T#5812)

  • Restrict Network Time Protocol (NTP) mode 6 queries (T#5813)

  • HTTP/HTTPS: filter metacharacters for cross site scripting (T#5805)

  • HTTP/HTTPS: application error messages to be logged (T#5804)

  • HTTP/HTTPS: password field submitted through POST instead of GET (T#5807)

  • HTTP/HTTPS: Javascript library updated (T#5810)

  • Weak SSh algorithms disabled (T#5797)

• Various Improvements

  • Camera Admin: Add fields for additional GDPR-information (responsible person and use of camera) (T#6112)

  • Java version change to latest IBM Java 8 (T#5852)

  • iCAT tripwire: add arrow to indicate direction of counting (T#5504)

  • Add System Event: configured recording period cannot be reached due to insufficient disk space (T#5444)

  • Online Monitor window popup if an event occurs (T#2838)

  • License allocation on license server's host admin (T#5366)

  • Add PTZ privileges to user groups (T#5310)

  • New Rule Admin action: show in view (T#3671)

  • OpenJDK 11 support on client side (T#6054)

  • Netavis AD users keep their IDs (and configurations) if AD connection was lost and recovered (T#6134)

  • Simplifying the code: store events in one table instead of many (T#5267)

Bugs fixed in Observer 5.0.0

• Install fails if DNS configured incorrectly (T#4668)

• Recording interval 1 pic / 5 minutes not working (T#6002)

• Minimal face detection size editor doesn't work on Java 10 (T#5882)

• Fataldumps in case of archive encryption and multi camera SAFE export (T#5849)

• Camera access rights not synced to slave NUS in sync group for AD user (T#6028)

• No IO Device values in automatic export (T#6296)

• Layer Navigation Tool does not start via https using Web Start on JAVA 8 and 10 (T#5858)

• No stream in online monitor after restoring old system backup (T#5841)

• System Backup restore modifies the DB schema to latin1 from utf8 (T#5913)

• Exception occurs when pushing 'cancel' button for modifying usergroup's privileges (T#5950)

• Online monitor stream gets jerky in some cases if motion happens (T#5911)

• Import of 270+ cameras is very slow (T#5843)

• Every time when restoring a backup a new .orig copy of a certain file is made (T#5790)

• Unnecessary Exception in starter log with https connection (T#5860)

• Client shows partly wrong fps value at OnlineMonitor in some cases (T#5193)

• Error when downloading log files without SNAP license (T#5862)

• Empty event list appears in some cases when using next and previous buttons (T#4927)

New cameras in Observer 5.0.0

• Integrated Vantage cameras with a generic driver (model: VP-NC5394P, VV-NC9425D) (T#6017, T#5978)

• Integrated ONVIF Profile S driver (T#5288)

R4.8.1

List of enhancements in Observer 4.8.1

• Observer login to be case insensitive: allow lower-case login name for upper-case AD login (T#5569)

• Discovery driver for ABUS cameras (T#5524)

• Generate System Event when Automatic Export fails or configuration changed (T#5467, T#5164)

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.8.1

• Server-server https connection not working after update (T#5618)

• Admin menu [24] Configure replaced disk fails with big disk in some cases (T#5612)

• A few pixel resolution difference in iCat shouldn't show 'aspect ratio doesn't match' warning (T#5512)

• Missing host after restoring backup on server with multiple hosts (T#5726)

• Wrong camera picture appear in special cases in viewport for short periods when using ABS (T#5727)

• Client does not run on Java 10 (T#5732)

• Stream doesn't appear in view port at first try when having NUS-NCS setup + ABS + jpeg stream (T#5703)

• Redhat 6.9 recognized as Centos 7 at unbundled installation (T#5705)

• Nadmin menu point [18] 'Add manually mounted image storage' doesn't work (T#5716)

• Mobile Client: View Editor: scroll bar doesn't work properly in some cases (T#OMO-128)

• Mobile Client: Crop fit mode doesn't work correctly in live view (T#OMO-132)

• Event Statistics Export: start time calendar failure in monthly resolution; extra data lines in monthly export (T#5814)

• Event details window cannot be opened or closed in some cases when clicking back and forth within the window (T#5822)

• Deleting previously configured PTZ camera results in fatal in some cases(T#5769)

• NCS archive is not accessible from NUS when using mobile client (T#5823)

New cameras in Observer 4.8.1

• Integrated Axis ​​Q3517, ​​M5054, M​​5525-E (T#5555, T#5553, T#5552)

R4.8.0

List of enhancements in Observer 4.8.0

• License-Less Mode Extension: Using NETAVIS Observer without a license for up to 30 days (T#5251, T#5253)

  • The license-less mode has been significantly expanded and now allows users to work without any functional limitations for up to 30 days.

  • This enables customers to try NETAVIS Observer without having to deal with licensing issues. It also facilitates the scheduling of an initial installation as the newly installed system can be fully configured without having to wait for the license key.

• Mobile Client: Accessing multi-camera live views and archive recordings on your mobile device (T#OMO-16, T#OMO-23)

  • The Mobile Client brings freely-definable multi-camera live views and access to archive playback to mobile devices of all sizes.

  • The integrated transcoding ensures that H.264, MPEG-4, and MxPEG live and archive streams are also available on all browsers and platforms.

  • The Mobile Client replaces the previously available Client for Smartphone & Tablet as well as the Client for iPad.

• 3D Sensor Integration: High accuracy counting for complex safety and business applications (T#5254)

  • The integration of 3D sensors by HELLA Aglaia into NETAVIS Observer enables solutions for complex safety and business applications which cannot be realized with regular 2D video analytics technology.

  • Examples are occupancy management at ticket-less events, customer frequency measurements in shops with low-ceiling heights, and zone monitoring applications (see below for details on the latter).

  • 3D sensors can also use height information to distinguish between adults and children which can be useful information for businesses.

  • The new "Sensor Admin" configuration tab was added to manage these new type of External Data Sensors (EDS) (T#5394)

• Zone Monitoring & Queue Length Detection: Improving business processes by monitoring zones and detecting queues (T#)

  • Zone Monitoring and Queue Length Detection are built on the newly introduced 3D sensor integration.

  • It can automatically detect queues of people in front of checkout counters, information desks or similar locations.

  • Upon reaching a pre-configured threshold, zone monitoring and queue line detection can create an event which can be used as a trigger for speaker announcements, informing staff to open an additional counter, and other processes.

• System Security & Operations: Improved OS, application security and performance

  • NETAVIS Observer 4.8 is based on the latest CentOS 6.9 operating system which contains bug fixes and security improvements, including for Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. (T#5458, T#5445)

  • Stronger and future-proof encryption between servers and devices such as cameras is enabled by the newly introduced support of 4096 bit SSL certificates. (T#5485)

  • To facilitate legal compliance with the EU's upcoming GDPR laws, NETAVIS Observer 4.8 offers an option to only read the country/region of a number plate, rather than the full plate. (T#5191)

  • Log download: include Layout Navigation (LNT) logs (T#3893)

  • Admin menu item [27] shows software RAID status (T#4948)

  • Update Java to 1.8.0.5 (T#5473)

• iCAT Improvements

  • iCAT NPR: Engine updated to v2.0 (T#4865)

  • iCAT NPR: Add engine for Iranian plates (T#4789)

  • iCAT NPR: Add option to only read country/district information rather than full plate (T#5191)

• Interfaces & Event Management System (EMS) Improvements

  • EMS: Pause function for online monitor live streaming (controllable via EMS Event Management System) (T#3320)

  • EMS: Add SetArchiveProtection method (similar to SNAP feature) (T#5285)

  • Automatic Export: Add monthly upload option (T#5000)

  • Event export: extend with further event properties (T#5222)

  • Host admin: Increase default value of "Max. number of events stored on the server" to 250 000 events (T#3670)

  • Introduce "Generic Counting Event" events to be used for example with External Data Sensors (EDS) (T#5400)

  • Introduce "Generic Zone Event" events to be used for example with External Data Sensors (T#5401)

  • Extend Direct sMart interface with DeviceID and RemoteHostID for VMS events (T#5460)

  • Extend Direct sMart interface with NPR region (T#5475)

  • Extend Direct sMart interface for "Generic Counting Event" (T#5476)

  • Extend Direct sMart interface for "Generic Zone Event" (T#5477)

  • Extend Direct sMart interface for Zone Alarm & Notification event (T#)

  • Heat map exports: option to include iCAT definition name in file name (T#5471)

  • Extend Observer ConnectionLostToHost and ConnectionRestoredToHost events with remote host ID (T#5492)

  • SNAP URL/XML: option to sort the entity tree by name added to GetEntityTree parameter (T#OMO-61, T#5479)

• Various Improvements

  • Eliminate the 10MB GOP size limit for MPEG-4 and H.264 streams (T#4385)

  • Client Starter: introduce "Download client without asking" option (T#5192)

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.8.0

• SNAP URL: EventFilter doesn't work (T#4963)

• ExternalIOPluginMappings XML is not merged during big upgrade and system backup restore in selected scenarios (T#5257)

• Alters does not run on files restored from the backup during big upgrade in selected scenarios (T#5258)

• Non user defined device type descriptors should be used from the actual version instead of keeping/restoring old ones (T#5259)

• Admin Console: login takes 20 seconds (T#5276)

• User Admin: User isn't added if "Forget question" contains '-sign (T#5296)

• More robust MJPEG decoding: prevent segfault in jpeg decoder on corrupted stream to avoid fatal situations (T#5363)

• Camera discovery tool can't find cameras where the default authentication options don't work (T#5408)

• Setting timezone to "NET" stops automatic exports (T#5466)

• SNAP: server fails to close channel correctly in ViewPortProcessor (T#5469)

• Heatmap export might export with overlapping time ranges in selected scenarios (T#5470)

• SNAP: TimedArchive's GetStamp sends 'content-type: image/jpeg' in selected scenarios (T#5488)

• Wrong timezone in stored in configuration table after installation in selected scenarios (T#5493)

• Export: monthlyStatistics.csv contains max 30 days (instead of 31) (T#5495)

• SNAP URL shouldn't cache servlet response objects (T#5496)

• Distributed upgrade doesn't work from 4.7.x -> 4.8.0 (T#5499)

New cameras in Observer 4.8.0

• Integrated ABUS IPCA72500, IPCB74500 (T#5378, T#5379)

• Integrated Axis M3045, M3046, P3374, P3375, V5915 (T#5436, T#5137, T#5432, T#5433, T#4973)

• Implemented Hikvision I/O output for supported Hikvision cameras (T#4180)

• Integrated Panasonic WV-SFV631L, WV-SPW631L, WV-SW458 (T#5263, T#5262, T#5264)

R4.7.1

List of enhancements in Observer 4.7.1

• Object number reporting event: Add number, iCAT definition, camera to event title (T#4103)

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.7.1

• Automatic export: "Export period" config shouldn't be available for heat map export jobs (T#5319)

• 4.7 archive export or replay not possible in case that old system backup is restored (T#5344)

• "Auto login after 1 minute" feature results in "wrong password" message (T#5383)

• Automatic Export: Daily export files contain daily instead of hourly resolution (T#5439)

• Network settings: correct settings are applied after big upgrade, but config file doesn't exist anymore (T#5343)

• Heatmap maximum values: Cannot restore the initial config "without any maximum values" (T#5208)

• Timed-archive via SNAP crashes the server after multiple pause / resume commands (T#5407)

• Storing PTZ positions not possible in Axis P5515E camera (T#5295)

• Big upgrade failed on HW RAID system on system disks larger than 2,2TB (T#5280)

• Duplicate resolution 2688x1520 available on Axis M3106-L (T#5304)

• MJPEG Streaming Issues with selected fish-eye cameras (e.g. Panasonic SF-438E) (T#5256)

• MJPEG Streaming Issues with Bosch cameras in selected scenarios (T#5307)

• Bosch RTSP driver: "Camera not responding error" if using non-default ports (T#5308)

• MPEG-4 decoding does not work (T#5300)

New cameras in Observer 4.7.1

• Integrated Axis M3047, M3048, P3227, P3228 (T#5369, T#5370, T#5142, T#5143)

• Integrated ABUS IPCA62520, IPCA73500, IPCB42551, IPCB72501, IPCS10020 (T#5374, T#5373, T#5376, T#5375, T#5372)

• Integrated Panasonic WV-SFN310A (T#5065)

• Integrated Hikvision DS-2CD2042-WDI, DS-2CD2542-FWDI (T#5185, T#5186)

R4.7.0

List of enhancements in Observer 4.7.0

• Automatic Camera Discovery & Mass Camera Import/Export: Importing and exporting large numbers of cameras with a few clicks (T#146, T#3395, T#4628).

  • The newly added Automatic Camera Discovery & Mass Camera Import/Export enables system integrators to quickly add any number of cameras to a NETAVIS Observer system. The desired basic camera configurations can be prepared directly in the camera discovery wizard or in Excel, and then be imported. Similarly, it is possible to quickly export the camera configuration from an already running NETAVIS Observer system.

• Dynamic Privacy Mask: Protecting peoples' privacy dynamically (T#3934, T#4627)

  • Dynamic Privacy Mask expands upon the original NETAVIS Privacy Mask to provide dynamic privacy protection for customers and employees. Within a freely definable area all moving objects and people are detected and dynamically covered with a mask. Of course, this Dynamic Privacy Mask can also be scheduled to be active only during certain times of the day or be deactivated manually, e.g. via a panic button in case of an incident.

• Data Export & Upload: Automatic and manual data export to NETAVIS sMart Data Warehouse and other systems

  • NETAVIS Observer 4.7 provides many new features for managing the data created by iCAT Video Analytics. Aside of a direct interface to sMart Data Warehouse, it also includes a new user interface for configuring the automatic export and upload of event statistics, events including their parameters, and heat maps to sMart Data Warehouse and other 3rd party systems. Additionally, this data can also be manually exported into standard formats (CSV, HTML, JSON, XLS) for further processing.

  • Direct interface from sMart to Observer (T#4655)

  • Export admin: Central automated scheduled event, event statistics and heatmap export administration (T#4022, T#4166, T#4639, T#4764, T#4889)

  • Exporting files to remote locations using FTP or SFTP (T#4305, T#4306, T#4651)

  • Manual and Automatic event export into JSON (T#4641, T#5149)

  • Manual and Automatic event export into XLS (T#4550)

  • Manual and Automatic event export into CSV (T#4654)

  • Automatic heatmap export into CSV (T#4314, T#4652)

  • Retention time mechanism for storing file-based exports on the Observer server (T#4895)

  • Option to access stored file-based exports in a browser (T#4896)

  • Extended CSV export file with FieldID and HostID (T#4017)

• Rule Admin Support for Custom Events: Using the new custom event action to set up application specific events (T#3908, T#3946, T#4634)

  • Custom event types known from SNAP APIs and I/O XML configurations can now also be set up and used within the rule administration. These fully customizable event types can be used as actions triggered by the various trigger types. Besides custom event parameters, parameters from the triggering event can be inherited. This allows setting up context camera events, for example: a context camera linked to an I/O device or a camera for NPR scenarios which shows the driver instead of the plate plus NPR details like the recognized plate.

• System Security & Operations: Improved OS, application security and performance

  • NETAVIS Observer 4.7 is based on the updated bundled CentOS 6.9 operating system which provides improved hardware compatibility (T#4775)

  • Observer 4.7 contains many security improvements on the operating system and application level (T#3258, T#3426, T#3909, T#4516, T#4517, T#4754, T#4749, T#4752, T#4755, T#4756, T#4757, T#4758, T#4780, T#4818, T#4819, T#4820, T#4821, T#4823, T#4888)

  • A more efficient use of hardware resources is enabled by an improved memory management on the server and client (T#2998, T#4026, T#4657).

  • For operators many system events concerning errors or potential issues, e.g. a camera not providing enough fps for reliable video analytics, wrong NUS-NCS configuration,... were added (T#3229, T#3829, T#4656, T#4689, T#5018)

  • NETAVIS Observer 4.7 allows restoring of system backups from previous versions into current systems for improved system operations (T#2998, T#4028, T#4636)

  • Also components like Tomcat and Java were updated to its latest version (T#3569, T#4245, T#4320)

  • Switch the file system from EXT4 to XFS (#4469)

  • Firewall port settings: don't overwrite iptables / firewall port settings during updates (T#4439)

  • Update: Don't allow update from 32-bit to 64-bit system (T#4317)

  • Revise the default partition sizing for Bundled Installations: / and /netavis partitions are increased to 10GB each (T#4950)

  • Admin menu item "[9b] Set netcard's link parameters" is not supported anymore (T#4299)

  • Admin menu item "[34] CSV export and upload" is removed and replaced by the new Central Data Export Administration (#T4984)

  • Extended log files with sysstat information for improved performance logging and monitoring as well as improved streaming and iCAT logging (T#3975, T#4279, T#5047)

  • Show number of used licenses for all features in the System information tab (T#5105)

  • Customizer login: access can be configured by user (T#3200)

• Red Light Detection: New iCAT Video Analytics Feature for traffic violations (T#3974, #4633)

  • NETAVIS Observer 4.7 adds a new iCAT Video Analytics module for traffic and transportation applications: Red Light Detection. It can detect when cars drive across a crossing, despite the traffic light having switched to red already. This feature allows municipalities and companies with large premises to reliably detect and fine traffic violators.

• Further iCAT Improvements

  • Queue Line Detection with average/current number of people and average waiting time detection (T#4629)

  • Improved FAT synchronization leading to more accurate iCAT overlay graphics (T#4626)

  • Additional iCAT Tracker "TrackerX" added for complex people counting scenarios (T#138, T#4268, T#4630)

  • iCAT Face Detection: Change default age groups to industry standard (T#4846)

  • Easier iCAT config using a larger preview image (T#3677)

• SNAP Interface Improvements

  • SNAP URL & XML: Stream transcoding from H.264, MPEG-4 and MxPEG to MJPEG (T#2431, T#4659, T#OMO-18)

  • SNAP URL: Timed archive access for easier 3rd party archive access implementation: default support for starting, stopping, pausing and resuming streams (T#4971, T#5156)

  • SNAP URL & XML: Canvas View Creation merging multiple camera live streams into one merged live MJPEG stream which is optimized for the target device (T#4637)

  • SNAP URL & XML: add protected archive information to "GetVideoArchiveMap" (T#3631)

  • SNAP URL: Making I/O device information available (T#4223)

  • SNAP URL: Support HTTP post requests (T#4979)

• Various Improvements

  • Rule Admin Trigger: Number of objects changed (T#4136)

  • Rule Admin Trigger: Waiting time for queue line detection (T#4136)

  • Easier PTZ config using a larger preview image (T#3677)

  • Licensing is done with license files instead of license strings (T#4147)

  • Custom events: show custom parameter in event details (T#4196)

• Backup now also contains custom button configurations as well as additional customizer configs (T#5252)

• System events for erroneous NUS-NCS configuration (T#4689)

• Stability improvements for the archive maintenancer (T#4959)

• sysstat info is added to logs (T#5047)

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.7.0

• Minor bugfixes in the login and "Forgot my password" dialogs (T#4839)

• Axis F34: license each attached camera separately (T#4862)

• Video4Web does not work in Internet Explorer (T#4899)

• "Event search results" aren't pageable in selected scenarios (T#4900)

• No system backups made on the day when time changes to summer time (T#4901)

• AxisFrameStreamer does not support custom HTTPS port (T#4923)

• SAFE Player judders during MJPEG export playback in selected scenarios (T#4931)

• AxisFrameStreamer won't close RTSP session correctly in selected scenarios (T#4955)

• When all days of the week are disabled for a continuous recording scheduling, the corresponding archive recording is removed (T#4967)

• Video4Web: Stream freezes after ~80 second in Internet Explorer (T#4982)

• CanonAudioStreamParser fills logs in selected scenarios (T#5003)

• Client time is used at event search/export instead of server time (T#5086).

• Wrong documentation links in Observer client (T#5108)

• EMS: ActionPropagator setPTZPosition() method doesn't work without specifying position name (T#5152)

• NEA recording issues in selected scenarios (T#5172)

• Adding a new camera with Hikvision DS-2CD7153-E driver freezes the client (T#5187)

• Video buffer size calculation is wrong when 'Use these settings' checkbox is not enabled in selected scenarios and for selected cameras (e.g. Hikvision DS-2CD886BF-E) leading to a corrupt stream (T#5188)

• System backup isn't created on the /Images partition of NUS only installations which can lead to issues during big upgrades (T#5202)

• Problems during host IP address modification in selected scenarios (T#5204)

• PTZ control doesn't work after big upgrade in selected scenarios (T#5214)

• Protected archive is shown as event triggered recording in archive player (but not in calendar view) (T#5243)

• Minor bugfixes in the archive player timeline buttons (T#5216)

• SNAP URL: UnregisterCustomEvent command is missing the parameter for the custom event type (T#4693)

• SNAP XML: Custom event unregistration doesn't work (T#4694)

• Video wall login doesn't work over HTTPS (T#5035)

• Useless information on event details dialog at custom event case in case that no event text is set (T#4678)

• StatusUpdateExecutor might run into a fatal situation in selected scenarios (T#4583)

• Avoid multiplied overlay notification message in case of multiple motion detection regions per camera (T#3585)

• Correct custom event handling in NUS-NCS environments (T#4110)

• System Events and Cache Data Changes were sent twice internally in selected scenarios (T#4367)

• Archive playback returns an error message "There are no images on the server for the selected time period." in selected scenarios, even though archive is available (T#4395)

• No quit option for Nadmin / Set time zone menu (T#4533)

• Multiple Non-MJPEG streams are fetched in selected scenarios erroneously (T#5205)

• It is not possible to set Client on Server screen resolution (T#5270)

New cameras in Observer 4.7.0

• Integrated Axis M1065-LW, M3106-L, P1244, P1254, P1264, P1405-LE MkII, P3214-VE, P3224-LV, P3905-R, Q1659, Q1942-E, Q2901 (T#4868, T#4869, T#4870, T#4871, T#4872, T#4874, T#4875, T#4876, T#4877, T#4878, T#4879, T#4880)

• Integrated Mobotix MX-S15D (T#4734)

R4.6.8

List of enhancements in Observer 4.6.8

• Introduce option to disallow SHA1 ciphers for secure communication (T#4665).

• Various security improvements (T#4518, #4744, #4750, #4751).

• Prevent big upgrade in case that system backup is not executed (e.g. no valid license) (T#4700).

• Disable automatic FTP service start: change behaviour for big upgrades (T#4762).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.6.8

• Event list displays wrong events after client start (T#4908).

• "Event search results" aren't pageable in selected scenarios (T#4900).

• MPEG-4 streaming issues in selected Observer versions for Sony SNC-DS10, Sony SNC-DM110 and Panasonic WV-NS202(T#4773).

• Archive player: selected time period wasn't played in selected cases, even though archive data was available (T#4491).

• Hikvision cameras: cannot get JPEG stream if using username/password with special characters (T#4765).

• Correct VBR/CBR bitrate control type value for new Samsung drivers (T#4669).

• In case of an invalid license, the server is going into unknown state in selected cases (T#4761).

• Login using "forget question and answer" doesn't work in selected cases (T#4786).

• Generic RTSP driver adds trailing '/' with empty RTSP path fields, leading to streaming issues (T#4813).

• H.264 stream is only visible on the NCS but not on the NUS in selected scenarios of large-scaled systems (T#4826).

New cameras in Observer 4.6.8

• Integrated Siqura BC840-AID (T#4738).

• Added 5th video port as QuadView for Axis P3707-PE (T#4774).

• Integrate Axis M1125-E, P5624-E Mk II (T#4766, T#4828).

• Integrated Samsung PND-9080R, QNV-7020R (T#4784, T#4785).

R4.6.7

List of enhancements in Observer 4.6.7

• Replace incremental session IDs with secure random session IDs (T#4715).

• CSV export and upload configuration in admin menu (T#4661).

• FTP service is not started by default config but can be activated using admin menu [33] (T#4292).

• Age & Gender Detection: option to show age groups in overlay text of online monitor and event details (T#4577).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.6.7

• Sony cameras: set RTSP timeout to zero to prevent h264 disconnect on regular basis (T#4721)

• NUS-NUS Synchronization: Camera added to mounted group does not appear on NNS slave in tree (T#4728).

• Four-letters timezone config can lead to not being able to change settings in host admin (T#4743).

• Sony cameras: MJPEG stream reconnects silently in selected scenarios (T#4747).

• Sony 6th generation driver fails to set 15 fps on many models (T#4742).

• Cached Rule data doesn't synchronize for the client in NUS-NUS synchronization setup (T#4705).

• Event table rotation stopped after large time jump into the past (T#4733).

• Updates from 3.x versions might fail silently in selected scenarios (T#4643).

• Streaming problems with Sony 6th generation cameras after upgrading to 4.6.6 (T#4721).

• Camera tree does not refresh in selected scenarios (T#4712).

• Wrong cache handling led to performance losses in distributed systems in selected scenarios (T#4672).

• NPR event supression time ignored when video analysis running on non-JPEG stream (T#4683).

• Selected Hikvision cameras ignore RTSP port changes resulting in "Camera not responding" error (T#4684).

• Hitting windows key in starter displays error message (T#4541).

• Removing a camera while its PTZ was still turned on in the Online Monitor could cause the Browser server to crash (T#4567).

• It is not possible to get stream from Panasonic cameras for certain cases (T#4611).

• Observer client start fails after client was not (re)started for months (T#4244).

• Automatic db repair mechanism fails in selected scenarios (T#4191).

• Remove fatal flag files at startup (T#4587).

• No H.264 stream on AXIS A8004 after upgrading firmware to 1.58.2.1 (T#4592).

• Problems when retrieving more than 50000 events at the same time via SNAP (T#4371).

• Image server might do a fatal under certain circumstances (T#4583).

• [29.] Set time zone in admin menu works even though it shows an error message (T#4310).

New cameras in Observer 4.6.7

• Integrated Axis M2026-LE, A8105-E, P5635-E MkII, Q1615 MkII, Q6055 (T#4625, T#4682, T#4753, T#4681, T#4660)

• Integrated Hikvision DS-2DF8236I-AEL, DS-2DF7286-AEL (T#4584, T#4538)

• Integrated Uniview IPC222ER-F36, IPC2322EBR-P, IPC242E-DLIR-IN (T#4337, T#4338, T#4339)

R4.6.6

List of enhancements in Observer 4.6.6

• Daylight saving removal for Egypt (T#4704).

• Faster shutdown of services (T#4541).

• Improved security due to updated openSSL and samba (T#4781, T#4598).

• Added new resolutions for Axis M3027 supported since the 6.30.1 firmware update (T#4670).

• Smartphone client now supports iOS 10 browser (T#4771).

• Introduced tolerance for number plate list matching (T#3523).

• Improved handling of non-accessible cameras (T#4128).

• Improved memory handling for systems with lots of cameras (T#4715).

• Suppression of duplicated number plate events in case of long idling cars (T#4606).

• Minimal plate length set to 4 as default for number plate recognition (T#4456).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.6.6

• AVI export does not work on streams with uneven width (T#4739).

• System might crash when running video analytics on faulty streams (T#4523).

• Malfunctioning IO device might cause system slowdown (T#4661).

• Canon native drivers: Can't get more than 10~12fps for Full-HD MJPEG stream in certain cases (T#4405).

• Canon webview drivers ignore RTSP port settings on some models (T#4793).

• Too long number at admin menu #29 causes fatal. (T#4782).

• Axis M3037 wrong resolution options in client (T#4636).

• In rare cases the server might incorrectly detect a PTZController thread as dead which results in a fatal. (T#4761).

• NPR min char length shall does not include whitespaces (T#4718).

• Event List: Disabled columns are displayed after client restart (T#2848).

• The "is not in list" number plate option doesnt save on Rule editor dialog (T#4713).

• Server might do fatal when many PTZ control running parallelly (T#4612, T#4586).

• No host ID was generated in some virtual machine environments (T#4647).

• NUS could not start when camera was added to a mounted group on NCS while NUS was not accessible (T#4634).

• No archive access right was checked via SNAP (T#4446).

• NEA cameras were not accessible via SNAP (T#4631).

• NEA admin allowed to define a recording size below the limit (5GB) where we do not start recording (T#4131).

• Observer download dialog also jumps on top preventing the user to do anything during observer startup (T#4637).

• Export dialog jumps front always (T#4296).

• Schedule intervalls were "fallen to 14 single intervalls" when two identical were added (T#3814).

• NPR event synchronized to frame timestamp (T#4045).

• Arab plates do not match for plate lists fixed (T#4628).

• Find all physical Ethernet cards (T#3666).

• Secondary password for Active Directory test have been removed (T#4578).

• Undelivered event propagation between hosts does not work (T#4624).

• The Active Directory connection test was not giving error message for wrong user/password combinations (T#4576).

• Active Directory users were not able to delete items in the Adminitration Tool (T#4573).

• Fix for Host admin / host variables not updating remote changes (T#4585).

• Fix for Host admin UI does not reflect the changes (T#4093).

• Canon driver sets wrong I frame interval (T#4568).

• Canon parameter changes doesn't apply on certain cameras released after 2015 using webview protocol (T#4591, T#4682).

• Can't get stream from certain Dlink cameras (T#4590).

• PTZ doesn't work for Canon cameras under certain circumstances (T#4349).

• I/O Admin: "Panasonic cameras (3 ports: 3 inputs)" listed twice (T#4550).

• Digest authentication in some cases only working with GET commands only (T#4566).

• Axis P1354 audio to camera is not working (T#4339).

• URLAPI live video requests could result in hanging server (T#4403).

• No OS Swap values were included in SNMP (T#4540).

New cameras in Observer 4.6.6

• Integrated Samsung SND-L6083RN, SNP-6320HP, SNP-5430H (T#3838, T#3839, T#3840)

• Integrated Canon VB-R13 (Webview) (T#4629)

• Integrated Samsung SNB-9000, SNP-L5233H (T#4656, T#4658)

• Integrated Axis P3707-PE (T#4729).

• Integrated Samsung SNO-L6083-RP (T#4614).

• Integrated Hikvision DS-2DE7230IW-AE (T#4674).

• Integrate Canon VB-M50B (Webview) (T#4551).

• Integrated Axis Q6128-E (T#4571).

R4.6.5

List of enhancements in Observer 4.6.5

• Allowed user password length is increased to 32 characters (T#4431).

• Improved security due to updated glibc library (T#4380).

• All 11 views are supported for Axis M3027 over the 5.75.1.1 firmware (T#4448).

• Using ISO3166 alpha 3 for NPR country codes (T#4437).

• Video4Web now supports HTTPS (T#4412, T#4459).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.6.5

• Camera tree mounting does not work correctly in specific scenarios (T#4418).

• Cannot get stream from Samsung cameras when password contains special characters (T#4356).

• Copy view to other users: User selection window doesn't add scrollbar for long user list (T#4058).

• Cannot scroll down the I/O devices list, after it's full (T#4450).

• Error(s) during upgrade do not stop the procedure (T#4438).

• After small upgrade tomcat will not start (T#4430).

• Trying to get streams from non-accessible cameras in smartphone client can lead to fatal (T#4402).

New cameras in Observer 4.6.5

• Integrated Hikvision DS-2CD6362F-I (T#4284).

• Integrated Axis F34 (T#4447).

• Integrated Hikvision DS-2CD4526FWD-IZH, DS-2CD4A85F-IZS, DS-2CD6412FWD-C2, DS-2DE4220IW-D (T#4255, T#4285, T#4282, T#4281).

R4.6.4

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.6.4

• Frame streamers are logging using disk space unnecessearily (T#4398).

• Server side MPEG-4 decoding does not work (T#4394).

• NPR plate aggregation logic using #of max matches instead of continous matches and also handles whitespaces (T#4374).

R4.6.3

List of enhancements in Observer 4.6.3

• ICat region rectangle drawing extended with NW-SE and SW-NE directions (T#4351).

• It is possible to set minimal face size for better face detection accuracy (T#4197).

• Improved streaming stability for Mobotix cameras (T#4164).

• Improved performance for mass scheduling control via Event Management System(EMS) (T#4016).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.6.3

• In-camera motion detection does not work (T#4303).

• The last hour of the Summer to Winter daylight saving change is not visible in the calendar (T#4170).

• Export event statistic records in .csv files: further event types have been introduced, see config file StatisticExportConfig.sample.xml (T#4108).

• Some iCAT definitions are not assigned in scheduling (T#4305).

• iCAT admin video preview cannot handle 16:3 aspect ratios correctly (T#4313).

• Under /tmp remaining unwanted temporary files. (T#4194).

• Export of long archive periods fails under certain circumstances (T#4013).

• Export of long archive periods leads to fatal situation under certain circumstances (T#4124, T#4153).

• Security improvements for mobile client and video wall control (T#4161, T#4262).

• iCAT cause fatal situation in certain cases (T#4164).

• Mobotix image size settings does not work for certain dual eye cameras(T#4059)

• Mobotix settings are applied despite the default settings being disabled. (T#4250)

• Panasonic PTZ zoom limited to 10x despite camera offering 36x(T#4177).

• Panasonic Aspect ratio setting for Panasonic cameras(T#4148).

• When master-slave initialization file contains wrong data Observer crashes (T#4196).

• Panasonic SF336 authentication error when forbidden config given(T#4142).

• Cannot select camera in Rule admin's action editor in certain cases(T#4129).

• Online Monitor: double-click large-view results in cropped image(T#4120).

New cameras in Observer 4.6.3

• Integrated Hikvision DS-2CD2122FWD-I-2.8, DS-2CD2142FWD-I, DS-2CD2722FWD-IZS, DS-2CD4A26FWD-IZHS, DS-2CD2642FWD-IZHS, DS-2CD2522FWD-I, DS-2CD6026FHWD-A (T#4276, T#4277, T#4278, T#4279, T#4280, T#4286, T#4283).

• Integrated Canon with WebView: VB-S30D, VB-S31D, VB-S800D, VB-S805D, VB-S900F, VB-S905F, VB-H43, VB-H630D, VB-H630VE, VB-H730F, VB-M42, VB-M620D, VB-M620VE, VB-M720F (T#3865, T#3866, T#3867, T#3868, T#3869, T#3870, T#3871, T#3872, T#3873, T#3874, T#3875, T#3876, T#3877, T#3878,).

• Integrated Axis P1435-LE (T#4265).

• Integrated Axis Q1775 (T#4150).

R4.6.2

List of enhancements in Observer 4.6.2

• New regions supported for NPR

  • Southeast Asia (T#3946)

  • North Africa (T#4003)

  • Pakistan (T#3886)

• Smartphone client now supports Windows 10 Edge browser (T#3980)

• Smartphone client now supports iOS 9 browser (T#4014)

• The following triggers have been added to Rule Administration

  • Object crossed field or tripwire (T#4024)

  • Object started moving in field (T#4026)

  • Object stopped in field (T#4025)

• The following actions have been added to Rule Administration

  • Play sound (T#3903)

  • Send email (T#3955)

• NPR engine updated to v1.1 (T#3971).

• Expansion state of application camera tree is stored per user (T#3935).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.6.2

• File save dialog was opened with wrong (Open) title (T#4057).

• Unicode characters did not appear correctly in HTML event export files (T#3997).

• Mobile client does not work on MS Internet Expoler 11(T#4087).

• Video4Web does not work with HTTPS page(T#4095).

• Certain Samsung cameras might cause fatal when they go offline (T#4094).

• NPR gap detection disabled for North-Africa and Arab modules. Disable learning is checked by default (T#4082).

• Image size setting does not work for M15D Mobotix camera in dual eye mode (T#4059).

• Contradiction NumberPlate and NumberPlateCompressed fields of Number plate event fixed(T#3994).

• Contradiction in event description and FAT object in event review fixed (T#3949).

• Remove the forced disable of Mobotix watermark (T#3854).

• FAT data and event details contradictions fixed (T#3949).

• chpass login does not work (T#4029).

• Distributed upgrade not possible (T#4005).

• Correct typo in time zone names (T#3797).

• Replay archived images OM menu item does not work with non-JPEG streams (T#4000).

• Mobotix single eye different view support bug (T#3959).

• Memory leak in certains situations when using iCAT NPR Slow in VMware environments (T#3978).

• Too many events sent to scheduler could cause out of memory exception (T#3787).

New cameras in Observer 4.6.2

• Integrated Axis Q3709-PVE (T#4066).

• Integrated Axis P5515-E, M3037 (T#4035, T#4037).

• Integrated Samsung SND-7084R (T#3646).

• Integrated Axis P3225-LVE, M1124 (T#3950, T#3951).

R4.6.1

List of enhancements in Observer 4.6.1

• Number plate detection also detects country of origin (T#3944).

• Writing Byte Order Mark(BOM) to exported txt, csv number plate files, in order to help 3rd party programs recognize the encoding (T#3938).

• Expansion state of the camera administration's camera tree is stored per user (T#3248).

• Arabic NPR module also detects color code of number plates (T#3810).

• Reduced frame rate recording is not supported any more starting with Observer 4.6.1 (T#3804).

• Mobotix camera HTTPS enabled(T#3918).

• Possibility to match number plates with or without separators (T#3783).

• Admin menu item [29] updates OS time zone (T#3827).

• Improved licensing for cameras which support different streams via different ports (like 360° and dual-lens cameras) (T#3812).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.6.1

• Importing of the first number plate from text or csv file does not work correctly in certain cases (T#3943).

• Support complete range of refresh intervals for Panasonic cameras integrated after 2010 (T#3928, T#3929, T#3908).

• Privacy Mask isn't shown despite being enabled in recording schedule in certain cases (T#3859).

• Bosch custom RTSP port is not supported (T#3831).

• After grant User Access to Archive no Archive Tab visible in Observer Client (T#3664).

• Non-ASCII characters in hostname should not be allowed (T#3858).

• Generic I/O device statechange messages: last character is ignored when message does not end with line end character (T#3895).

• NUS-NUS syncronization does not work in 4.6.0 (T#3899).

• Certain Axis cameras cannot deliver 2CIF streams with our current driver. (T#3117).

• Online monitor does not resize stretched view correctly (T#3832).

• Can not download files from the server with non-ASCII characters in file name (T#3858).

• Event search time spinner jumped back hours when time-zone of client and server differ (T#3798).

• Added daylight saving time zones for Great Britain and Ireland (T#3797).

• Event statistics export to XLS does not work (T#3821).

New cameras in Observer 4.6.1

• Integrated D-Link DCS-4701E, DCS-4602EV (T#3642, T#3640).

• Integrated Samsung SNB-8000P (T#3645).

• Integrated Axis P5635-E, Q6115-E, M7011 (T#3896, T#3897, T#3898).

• Integrated Canon with WebView: VB-R11VE, VB-R10VE, VB-M640V, VB-M640VE, VB-M740E (T#3846, T#3847, T#3843, T#3844, T#3845).

• Integrated Panasonic WV-SF336E, WV-SF346PJ, WV-SW395 (T#3850, T#3851, T#3852).

• Reintegrated Panasonic WV-SF335, WV-SP306 (T#3807, T#3806).

• Integrated Acti B96, B410, E923 (T#3622, T#3623, T#3659.

• Integrated Axis P1365 (T#3829).

R4.6.0

List of enhancements in Observer 4.6.0

• Licenseless mode allows adding a camera (T#3609).

• Remove 32bit support for Observer unbundled (T#3726).

• iCAT Number Plate Recognition: Integrated NPR with NPR list management (T#3414)

  • The new video analytics module iCAT Number Plate Recognition provides NPR that is tightly integrated with the rest of NETAVIS Observer.

  • It can be configured as easily as other iCAT analytics modules and supports plates from over 60 countries, including all of Europe, the Arabian Peninsula (also with Arabic characters), and others.

  • Additionally, the simple yet powerful NPR list management enables a broad set of applications including search and filter options for NPR related video sequences and statistics data.

  • Combined with the new rule administration and graphical I/O device administration, setting up systems for use in vehicle entry, parking, and free flow scenarios is now simpler than ever before.

• Graphical I/O Device Administration: Configuring I/O devices within the Observer user interface (T#3417)

  • Adding I/O contacts from a broad set of supported cameras and I/O devices has been significantly simplified and improved with a new graphical I/O device configuration.

  • With most devices adding them to a NETAVIS Observer system is now as easy as selecting the model and entering its IP address, port, user, and password.

• Rule Administration: Combining triggers with actions for solving many video surveillance and video analytics scenarios (T#3415)

  • The new rule administration enables the simple configuration of a range of actions which are triggered by specific events.

  • For example the permanent recording of cameras can be started once an alarm system is activated or a barrier can be opened upon the detection of certain number plates.

  • The rule administration is an extensible system which will continue to cover more scenarios in the future.

• iCAT Heat Map Enhancements: Automatic data reset and normalization across all cameras (T#3566)

  • NETAVIS iCAT generates heat maps for four different types of analytics data: amount of moving objects, speed of moving objects, amount of stopping objects and the stopping time. To facilitate and improve them, an option for manual reset as well as automatically resetting heat map data on a daily, weekly or monthly basis was added.

  • Together with an option for normalizing heat maps and a freely definable colour benchmark, comparisons across different cameras and even servers is now facilitated.

  • Moreover, it is now easier to follow heat map trends over time in the Archive Player. (T#3396)

• iCAT Video Analytics Enhancements: Various improved algorithms and extended configuration options

  • The iCAT Video Analytics self-learning component for overhead counting was improved for large groups of people. This provides a higher accuracy of people counting results in high density environments. (T#3532)

  • New iCAT object tracking region options for better tracking results in selected scenarios of perimeter security and people counting are available now. (T#3451, T#3452)

  • Additionally, it is easier to display iCAT information in the Online Monitor and Archive Player for single view ports and complete views. (T#2771, T#3673)

  • The module iCAT Traffic was adapted and is suitable for tunnel scenarios since Observer 4.6. (T#3556)

  • Also the module iCAT Face Detection now performs with enhanced tracking algorithms for better results in age group and gender estimations. (T#3754)

• User Management: Enhanced user management options for administrators (T#3418)
  

  • All of the aforementioned new functionalities can of course be enabled and disabled for users and user groups.

  • Additionally a number of previously available features such as client configuration options or log file download can now be controlled more granularly as well.

  • Overall more than a dozen new privileges were added to the user management.

• Large Installations: Optimizations for projects with multiple sites and large amounts of cameras

  • Observer 4.6 comes with optimized performance and stability for distributed systems with over hundred camera servers and realizes a reduced client startup time for such large installations.

  • Client performance as well as the handling of archive exports are adapted and improved, especially for weak and instable network environments.

  • Additionally, the NFS handling for external storages was improved. (T#3544)

  • The BARCO video wall controller in combination with Siemens SUT50 control board is now integrated. (T#3185)

• IT Compliance: Operating system and IT security standards

  • HTTPS communication is improved by only allowing strong, state-of-the-art ciphers like TLS for enhanced IT security. (T#3185)

  • Observer 4.6 bundled is delivered including a new version of the professional server operating system CentOS 6.6 for free. (T#3397)

  • Both, bundled and unbundled versions support 64-bit server hardware and are continuously improved towards the latest IT security standards.

  • 32-bit support for Observer unbundled is discontinued (T#3726)

• Generic HTTP MJPEG Demo Camera Driver (T#3539)

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.6.0

• Allow only Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellmann style encryptions for even better security (T#3611).

• Can't delete last ActiveDirectory Config (T#3665).

• Added question to overwrite when NPR export file exists (T#3780).

• I/O devices: Update overwrites changed DeviceTypeDescriptor xml files (T#3788).

• Import of self signed SSL Certificate failed (T#3564).

• In case of NFS mount is broken, the system can not make fatal dump, system backup and reboot. After booting the system the broken NFS connection can't reconnect, after NFS available again. (T#3181).

• Adding a new image disk to a system might lead to periodic fatal situations in every 6 hours under certain circumstances (T#3368).

• Overhead downward looking option in object tracker is improved for bigger groups. (T#3532).

New cameras in Observer 4.6.0

• Integrated Canon with WebView: VB-R11, VB-M641VE, VB-M741LE, VB-M641V (T#3668, T#3717, T#3718, T#3758).

• Integrated Axis A8004-VE (T#3805).

Technical notes in Observer 4.6.0

• Please consider the following change for all unbundled installations and manual RPM updates: from this version, the /netavis/rpms/NetAViS_Kit/install.sh script must be started manually after the RPM install.

R4.5.4

List of enhancements in Observer 4.5.4

• A system without local Image partition, prevents big upgrade (T#3647).

• Decreased client startup time for users having many cameras in views. (T#3581).

• Improved client performance in bad network environments (T#3581).

• Update Java to version 1.7.10. (T#3552).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.5.4

• Heatmap in archive view can be disabled (T#3734).

• Improve handling of network instabilities during archive export (T#3513).

• Replay archive images submenu also appeared under Control menu (T#3692).

• User can redirect zoomed camera view to another viewport despite of not having add camera to view privileges (T#3579).

• Modifying the top group (mount point) of a remotely mounted camera tree causes client hang (T#3311).

• Replay archived images menu in online monitor does not work correctly, when server and client time are not in sync (T#3045).

• Non-responding Canon camera might cause fatal situation (T#3672).

• NAS management allowed mounting a path more than once (T#3621).

• Check software environment for add on libs and programs at unbundled install (T#2107).

• System information panel showed different total disk space from the used value (T#3667).

• Panasonic JPEG driver rework. New API is being used now (T#3653).

• Allow only strong communication ciphers between client and our HTTPS server (FREAK) (T#3611).

• Generic TCP I/O device does not work (T#3616).

• Panasonic WV-SF438E: missing 1280x720 resolution, Panasonic WV-SF438E: small streambuffer (T#3624 T#3625).

• Typing an invalid answer to the last customer data question freezes the installation, after reboot the decrypted root password does not work (T#3593).

• Privacy mask display problem (T#3159).

• CRLF was appended to uploaded files (T#3577).

• GMT and UTC abbreviations were not used consequently, now only GMT is used (T#3563).

• Restoring system backup changes ownership of the munin directory (T#3554).

• Potential NTP security leak (T#3450).

New cameras in Observer 4.5.4

• Integrated Mobotix M12D, Q25 (T#3320, T#3321).

• Integrated Eneo NXB-980IR37M, NXD-980IR37M, PXD-2030PTZ1080 (T#3559, T#3560, T#3458).

• Integrated Axis Q6045-E Mk II, Q6000-E, Q1635, F44 (T#3585, T#3584, T#3583, T#3582).

R4.5.3

List of enhancements in Observer 4.5.3

• Manual focus via SUT50 for Siqura encoders (T#3313).

• SNMP MIB descriptor file has been added to the distribution (T#3422).

• Mounts automatically unavailable NFS storage if becomes available (T#3181).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.5.3

• In certain cases some older Panasonic and Sony camera models can interfere with newer cameras, resulting in streaming problems (T#3461).

• More than one CD reader support at upgrade (T#3366).

• Continuous zoom is slow when used parallel with pan/tilt (T#3327).

• The maximum usable storage size was not correctly updated at startup (T#2661).

• The initial list of events at login is not filtered with the current user privileges and access rights (T#3444).

• The maximum usable storage size was not correctly updated at startup (T#2661).

• Privacy Mask with H.264 takes a lot of SERVER's CPU power! (T#3390).

• Visual Statistics / Heatmap at Archive: create reference image each minute (T#3396).

• Axis M1144-L doesn't support the resolution 480x270 (T#3349).

• Nadmin network settings, if chosen DHCP, but at the next trial chosen not DHCP, never asks again IP address, netmask, gateway and nameserver (T#3353).

• Visual Statistics / Heatmap cannot be displayed in the archive (T#3355).

• URLAPI requests - needing to opening sessions - checked out SNAP licenses, instead of URLAPI licenses (T#3236).

• Registered but not auto-mounted NFS connection produces incorrect fstab entry (T#3350).

• Re-implement timezone selection functionality under CentOS 6 (T#3283).

• NFS mount remember the mount options, and don't ask again (T#3316).

• Archive player: synchronous playback does not work properly (T#3292).

New cameras in Observer 4.5.3

• Integrated Panasonic WV-SF438E, WV-SF138, WV-SFN631L (T#3179, T#3275, T#3301 ).

• Integrated Acti B94, I45, B25, B45 (T#3322, T#3323, T#3324, T#3325 ).

• Integrated Canon VB-H630VE, VB-M620D, VB-M720F (T#3305, T#3309, T#3310 ).

• Integrated Canon VB-H43, VB-M42, VB-H730F, VB-H630D, VB-M620VE (T#3303, T#3304, T#3307, T#3306, T#3308).

• Integrated Axis P1428-E, F41, P1425-LE, P1427-LE (T#3475, T#3476, T#3477, T#3478).

• Integrated Axis Q1615, Q3505 (T#3343, T#3344).

• Integrated Samsung SND-6011R, SNO-6011, SND-5084P, SNB-5004P, SNB-7004 (T#3338, T#3339, T#3340, T#3341, T#3342).

R4.5.2

List of enhancements in Observer 4.5.2

• Barco video-wall control using the Siemens SUT50 keyboard (T#3185).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.5.2

• Bashbleed / Shellshock; vulnerable bash upgraded (T#3268).

• Sony WR600 PTZ fixed (T#3260).

• It is not possible to compile event handlers (T#3251).

New cameras in Observer 4.5.2

• Integrated Samsung SNB-6003, SND-5061, SNB-5001, SND-5083, SNV-7084R, SNO-7084R, SNO-7082R (T#3261, T#3262, T#3263, T#3264, T#3265, T#3266, T#3267).

• Integrated, Sony SNC-WR630, Sony SNC-WR600 (T#3207, T#3203).

• Integrated Mobotix M15D (T#3184).

• Integrated Canon S905F (T#3222).

• Integrated Bosch NTI-50022-V3, NIN-50051-V3, NIN-733-V03IPS, NIN-932-V03IPS, NUC-51022-F2 (T#3224, T#3226, T#3227, T#3228, T#3229, T#3240).

• Integrated Siqura S-68 E (T#3219).

• Integrated Vumii Accuracii (T#3247).

• Integrated Axis M1025, Axis P3215-VE, Axis P3365 (T#3244, T#3245, T#3246).

• Integrated Canon VB-S805D (T#3221).

• Integrated Sony SNC-XM631, Sony SNC-XM632, Sony SNC-VM632R, Sony SNC-EM632R, Sony SNC-VB635, Sony SNC-EB600B (T#3201, T#3205, T#3208, T#3209, T#3202, T#3206).

R4.5.1

List of enhancements in Observer 4.5.1

• Audio support for Axis P7216 (T#3134).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.5.1

• Floating license client cannot get license from license master (T#3242).

• Certificate management, [28] in admin menu, have a mistyped menu item (T#3215).

• Client does not report recording problem, when NFS mounted device becomes unavailable (T#3230).

• Using ABS might cause system freeze in certain circumstances (T#3170).

• Localhost could be added to hosts using other than loopback addresses (T#3183).

• No Active Directory test could be made after a big upgrade (T#3176).

• NAS connection lost event contains wrong information (T#3182).

• Sony cameras do not apply default resolution on single MJPEG (T#3178).

• Panasonic camera: password with special characters (T#3143).

• Canon cameras cannot deliver stream after changing time settings (T#3168).

• Canon VBH41 PTZ does not work (T#3060).

• Observer should autofill username in login dialog when username is provided without password (T#3165).

• Cannot delete multiple Online Monitor windows in one step (T#3038).

• Upload configuration file limit has been increased to 10MB (T#3122).

• In certain cases nadmin configuration files lost during big upgrade process (T#3162).

• During upgrade RPM packages have not been copied to the appropriate place (T#3163).

• LNT cannot load previously saved project in some rare situation (T#3130).

• LNT should display login dialog when user password is not set in starter (T#3160).

• Heavy release and allocation of PTZ resources can cause server fatal and/or client hangup (T#3161).

• iCAT dual-streaming adapted to the 5 new resolution categories which were introduced in 4.4.5 (T#3115).

• In rare situations Observer server cannot start immediately due to error: Couldn't open listen port on: 33335 (T#3142).

• OM does not display stream after adding+removing+adding a camera into a newly created view (T#3152).

• Wrong limits in 90-nproc.conf (T#3127).

• Missing minimum time for staying inside parameter of "Object crossing field" event trigger (T#3132).

New cameras in Observer 4.5.1

• Integrated Axis M3027-PVE (T#3198).

• Integrated D-Link DCS-2130 (T#3213).

• Integrated Samsung SND-6084R (T#3212).

• Integrated Samsung SNO-6084R (T#3211).

• Integrated D-Link DCS-6314 (T#3190).

• Integrated Axis M1145-L (T#3189).

• Integrated JVC VNH-557U, JVC VN-H657U (T#2867, T#2879).

• Integrated Bosch NBN-733V-IP, NUC-50022-F2, NIN-733-V3IP, Bosch VG5-7220-EPC4 (T#3138, T#3139, T#3140, T#3141).

• Integrated Sony SNC-EB520, SNC-EM521, SNC-EM600, SNC-EM630, SNC-EB630, SNC-CX600W (T#1788, T#1799, T#2849, T#2850, T#2851, T#2852).

• Axis Q6042-E.

R4.5.0

List of enhancements in Observer 4.5.0

• iCAT Traffic: Traffic Monitoring, Stopped Vehicle Detection, Wrong Way Detection
  iCAT Traffic is the innovative module which extends the outstanding NETAVIS iCAT video analytics solution for Traffic surveillance. It detects Traffic State Changes, Stopped Vehicles and Wrong Way Drivers on expressways and highways and astounds with self learning effects. Its reliable analytics algorithms combined with an easy-to-configure interface are a powerful combination to analyze traffic and detect dangerous situations.

  • New iCAT feature for traffic monitoring on a road or highway (T#2215).

  • New iCAT feature for detecting stopped vehicles on a road or highway (T#2214).

  • New iCAT feature for detecting wrong way drivers on a road or highway (T#2213).

• Video4Web: Displaying camera's live video streams in browsers for embedding into websites
  Video4Web replaces Snapplet with a significantly more versatile solution for embedding cameras' live video streams in websites. It supports full screen mode, doesn't require having Java installed and works with desktop as well as mobile browsers and even old versions of Internet Explorer without MJPEG support.

• Generic RTSP Driver: Enabling video streaming for many non-integrated cameras (T#1708)
  The generic RTSP driver enables MJPEG, H.264, and MPEG-4 streaming for many cameras whose drivers are not integrated in NETAVIS Observer. It is necessary that the camera makes these streams available via RTSP and that the configuration (stream resolution, fps, etc.) is done in the camera itself.
  As it is a generic driver, NETAVIS cannot guarantee that each URL will work with Observer. Please test the driver with the required cameras first.

• New GUI for Dynamic View Control
  The use of dynamic views triggered by iCAT and motion detection events was significantly simplified by the addition of a new configuration menu.

• Archive Access within the Online Monitor: Viewing event recordings within the Online Monitor
  Combined with the dynamic view control feature, archive access within the Online Monitor view ports now allows operators to quickly view event-triggered recordings without having to switch to the archive. They are therefore able to keep an eye on live camera-streams while reviewing critical events.

• Axis T8310 Control Board Integration: Controlling Observer with the jog dial, keypad, and joystick (T#1522)
  The AXIS T8310 Video Surveillance Control Board has been integrated into Observer. Many functions of the Online Monitor or Archive such as navigation between views, PTZ control, and archive playback can be controlled with the jog dial, keypad, and joystick.

• Archive Efficiency Feature: Keeping event-triggered recordings longer than permanent recordings
  The archive efficiency feature allows for storing event-triggered recordings (including pre- and post-alarm periods) longer than permanent recordings. Recordings without events can therefore be automatically deleted after a shorter period of time which results in improved storage efficiency.

• Improved browser compatibility of Client for Smartphone & Tablet: now also supports browsers which don't support MJPEG streaming.
  

• Client for Smartphone & Tablet supports HTTPS now (T#3079)
  

• iCAT Removed/abandoned object feature is not supported any more starting with Observer 4.5 (T#3097)
  

• SNMP Support: Integration for monitoring NETAVIS Observer systems
  SNMP support in Observer has been enhanced so a broad variety of operating system and application events can be communicated to monitoring systems. Thereby failures such as camera malfunctions can be detected and addressed even faster. Also events such as iCAT detections can be forwarded accordingly.

• Active Directory Integration: New login options, large installation support
  The integration of Active Directory has been expanded to allow for more login options. Additionally the setup was improved to work more efficiently with complex and large-scale Active Directory environments

• Camera Status Overview: Quickly assessing cameras' status and configurations
  The newly added camera status enables users to quickly see whether all cameras in their system are running normally. Any issues such as a camera being unreachable or running out of disk space to store a recording are indicated by a red icon. An overlay provides additional information about each camera and its status and configuration.

  • Visual and balloon help statistics for each camera in the Camera Administration tool (T#2973, T#2840).

• Host variable "Day limit for remove protected archive" have been introduced. Any remove-protected archive older than this value (number of days) will be removed automatically. If the value is 0 then no remove-protected archive will be removed (default behavior) (T#2788).

• New access right for marking portions of the archive remove-protected (T#2812).

• In the camera tree, the user can select to search in the cameras and groups at the same time (T#2813).

• The user can classify an event and add comment to it (T#2961).

• The user can set an end date in the event search dialog (T#2967).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.5.0

• Small Upgrade: Observer service doesn't start after small upgrade (T#3075).

• Unbundled install, switching to admin didn't work (T#3073).

New cameras in Observer 4.5.0

• D-Link DCS-6915 (T#3092).

• Generic RTSP driver (T#1708).

• D-Link DCS-7513 (T#2646).

R4.4.8

List of enhancements in Observer 4.4.8

• PTZ presets accessible through context(right-click) menu (T#2707).

• Added SNMP V3 TRAP (T#2826).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.4.8

• It is not possible to get RTSP stream from Canon cameras when they are behind a firewall/router (T#3029).

• Disabling/enabling recording through the Online Monitor for D-Link cameras might result in fatal situation (T#3040).

• "Manual recording control in Online Monitor" camera access right is enabled by default for a new user (T#3037).

• ShowCameraInViewport URLAPI command can result in FATAL situation in certain cases (T#3031).

• Client can freeze when minimized, maximized during audio playback (T#2924).

• Continuous recording stops/degrades when "alarm recording length" is longer than that could be stored on the disks (T#2999).

• Forced OS install only, not user friendly message (T#2734).

• Archive motion detection could be played only once (T#2975).

• Improved NFS storage handling stability (T#3025).

• Admin menu [26] restarts Observer even if no changes were made (T#3023).

• Admin menu [29] configure replace disk doesn't work (T#3007).

• If the customer short name (during installation) contained UTF characters the root camera group name was unreadable (T#2740).

• When events fill up the event list too rapidly, it might happen that the "Next" and "Acknowledge and next" do not jump to the next event (T#3016, T#3019).

• After big upgrade, degraded RAID doesn't boot (T#3002).

• Event search SAFE export can freeze on cancelling export (T#3014).

• Archive player: Missing Play / Stop buttons in Archive motion detection (T#2800).

• It is possible to add cameras to a viewport by dragging it from the camera tree even if user has no "Add camera to viewport" privilege (T#3010).

• Mounted camera pops to front in OM viewport when NCS is reconnected (T#3013).

• Admin menu [19] Client on server screen resolution (T#3001).

• NAS is not inserted into Directories table (T#2988).

• Client on server autostart doesn't work (T#2982).

• Admin menu [29] will be executed although it isn't displayed in admin menu (T#2977).

• When more than one window is used, the archive access via ShowArchiveForCamera URL command stops the camera stream in the second Online Monitor (T#2992).

• Archive access within the online monitor: hardcoded Hungarian strings (T#2990).

• Server could crash during exporting statistics into XLS format (T#1989).

• SNAP.Net.API: ShowCameraInViewport does not work properly (T#2954).

• No archive playback in the event details dialog after an acknowledge and next button press (T#2962).

• ShowCameraInViewport command does not work in .NET SNAP API (T#2954).

• Firewall was not opened for SNMP trap (162/UDP) and notification ports (T#2928).

• Views can not be selected by Axis keypad if they are in a group (T#2947).

• View port menu in the Online Monitor became bigger than screen if the user had too many views (T#2966).

• Server restarts when all camera turn to logout PTZ position in a huge installation (T#2930).

• Event does not appear in the event list after an event based video export (T#2929).

• Selection of the same item of time selector drop down list does not take effect in event search dialog (T#2923).

• Paging before the selected start time is possible in event search dialog (T#2922).

• Server crashes when exporting large number of event videos from event search dialog (T#2921).

• MySQL could not be stopped (T#2920).

• Could not acknowledge older events (T#2919).

New cameras in Observer 4.4.8

• Axis M1143, M2014, M3014, M3024, M3026, M3203, M7016, P1214, P1355, P1357, P3353, P5415, P7216, P7224, Q1614, Q1922, Q6042, Q6044, Q6045, Q7436 (T#3021).

• Siqura Eve One, Eve Four (T#2941, T#2942).

• Siqura S60, S64, HSD620, HSD820 (T#2944, T#2945, T#2978, T#2980, T#2981).

• Axis Q1765.

• Axis P5414.

• Dallmeier IP camera (T#2906). Dallmeier IP camera driver can be used for any camera which provides the streams on the rtsp://ip/encoder1 and rtsp://ip/encoder 2 rtsp URLs. Configuration must be done on the camera's webpage. Encoder 1 codec must be H264 and encoder 2 codec must be MJPEG (in case if it is used).

• Canon VB-S900F (T#2913).

• Canon VB-S800D (T#2912).

• Canon VB-S31D (T#2911).

• Canon VB-S30D (T#2910).

• Canon VB-H41 (T#2473).

• Canon VB-H41B (T#2604).

• Canon VB-H610D (T#2603).

• Canon VB-H610VE (T#2474).

• Canon VB-H710F (T#2602).

R4.4.7

List of enhancements in Observer 4.4.7

• Audio in/out support for Axis P3364 (T#2888).

• Updated bundled CentOS 6.4 with the latest packages.

• Improved big upgrade mechanism(T#2818).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.4.7

• Audio playback problem with Panasonic NP244 camera (T#2890).

• Canon VB-C500 camera does not deliver MPEG-4 stream (T#2895).

• Server might generate a fatal dump after a longer period of inactivity cause of mysql connection timeout (T#2843).

• Un-establishable Active Directory connection caused client restart (T#2841).

New cameras in Observer 4.4.7

• ACTi E42 (T#2884).

• ACTi E32 (T#2883).

• ACTi E31 (T#2882).

• ACTi E92 (T#2885).

• ACTi E22 (T#2881).

• Axis M3025 (T#2845).

R4.4.6

List of enhancements in Observer 4.4.6

• The following SNMP improvements have been done (T#2824, T#2825):

  • Enabled/disabled SNMP V1

  • Privacy policy and passphrase for V3

  • Notification address and port definition

• RTSP tunneling for Vivotek IP8362 (T#2792).

• Configurable Pre- and Post-Alarm Time for Event-based Export (T#2789).

• Configurable Pre- and Post-Alarm Time for �go to archive player� Feature (T#2790).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.4.6

• Camera specific events don't display event camera name in certain cases (T#2816).

• Aspect ratio of a view port is not considered when setting video size parameter for all viewports. The solution will consider aspect ratio also when adding a new camera to the viewport. Optimal video resolution will be selected (only for multistream JPEG cameras) based on aspect ratio and size of the a viewport (T#2815).

• Copy views should work with multiple windows (T#2808).

• The message "no ABS license" appears in the event list, although ABS is not used (T#2666).

• Upgrade not possible on machine with software RAID (T#2823).

• ConnectionToCameraLost event contains 0 entity ID in certain cases (T#2814).

• The field "Total storage space" in the Camera Admin Tool is not updated after extending the storage capacity of a server (T#2661).

• Crop calibration menu "Define crop area..." of a view port is enabled even if the view was not setup with option "Crop image to fit into view port" (T#2784).

• Face detector demo license not activated on CentOS 6.4 (T#2791).

• Client side logfile was not in time-synch with server (T#2787).

• After an upgrade from previous CentOS with force OS, Observer does not boot if RAID is in degraded mode (T#2781).

• Event highlight color selection does not work for Removed/abandoned, Sabotage, Lighting change, Face detection (T#2757).

• Do not set correct image resolution in live video, when multistream is on, but only JPEG streaming is allowed.

• Admin menu (26) produces an error message (T#2773).

New cameras in Observer 4.4.6

• Samsung SNV-6084 (T#2838).

• Samsung SNB-6004 (T#2836).

• Samsung SNV-6084R (T#2835).

• Mobotix T24 camera (T#2765).

• Sony SNC-VB600 camera (T#2828).

• Sony SNC-VB600B camera (T#2829).

• Sony SNC-VB630 camera (T#2830).

• Sony SNC-VM600B camera (T#2831).

• Sony SNC-VM630 camera (T#2832).

• Sony SNC-ZM550 camera (T#2288).

• Sony SNC-ZP550 camera (T#2286).

• ACTi D31 camera (T#2810).

• ACTi E62 camera (T#2744).

• ACTi E21 camera (T#2761).

R4.4.5

List of enhancements in Observer 4.4.5

• Generic TCP I/O device (T#2833).

• Configurable live stream buffering interval in client (T#1783).

• Allow the user to login into Active Directory using the sAMAccountName as tag (T#2709).

• Changed bundled OS to CentOS 6.4 (T#2702).

• Extended IO device based Online Monitor control for non primary windows (T#2659).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.4.5

• Setting size parameter for all viewports was only possible for QCIF,CIF and 4CIF (T#2450). Now there are 5 categories of resolution:

  • Very small (QCIF,QQVGA,QCGA,...)

  • Small (CIF,QVGA,CGA,...)

  • Medium (VGA,4CIF,NTSC,D1,...)

  • Large (HD-720, SVGA, XGA, SXGA,...)

  • Very large (HD-1080, SXGA+, UXGA,...)

• Crop window display is not working correct in online monitor (T#2453).

• Permissions for accessing the system information and user information tools were interchanged (T#2759).

• Software RAID reassemble error after changed broken disk (T#2755).

• fsck at boot time ask a root login, while nobody knows the root password (T#2728).

• LNT cannot load projects using non-ASCII characters correctly under certain circumstances (T#2633).

• Archive belonging to custom events sent via SNAP cannot be displayed in certain cases (T#2753).

• System does not prevent duplication of individually mounted cameras. Only local cameras and cameras belonging to mounted remote group can be duplicated (T#2741).

• Two small spelling mistake in the Admin menu (T#2737).

• NFS share disappears after big upgrade (T#2721).

• 5th generation Sony cameras always apply default MJPEG stream settings (T#2726).

• AVI Export with selected cameras and H.264 archive: missing frames (T#2723).

• No scrollbar in Active Directory config dialog (T#2693).

• Admin menu #23; adding new image disk, not found the new disk (T#2706).

• Admin menu #18; adding a partition with the same name is possible (T#2700).

• Anonymous Active Directory login was possible (empty password) (T#2653).

• Assigned iCat definitions cannot be saved in certain cases (T#1775).

• ABS does not work properly for high bitrates (T#2605, T#2658).

• Munin-node: does not work, after a big upgrade (T#2678).

• After a big upgrade, the server can't do a proper system backup (T#2669).

• Online Monitor forgets framerate and quality settings after two client restarts (T#2681).

• Not all the image disks are indicating "not for image store" at NUS / NLIS system (T#2680).

• Unclosed SNAP channel prevents session close under certain circumstances (T#2679).

• No I/O port change event generated for Axis P8221 device on first change after Observer restart (T#2677).

• Java SNAP library always delivers MJPEG (T#2671).

• The system backup doesn't writes backup on Image directories at NUS system (T#2668).

• Disk subsytem failure event occurs with strange parameters (T#2648).

New cameras in Observer 4.4.5

• JVC VN-H657 camera (T#2690).

• Axis M1004-W camera (T#2750).

• Axis M1014 camera (T#2763).

• Axis M1034-W camera (T#2764).

• Eneo PXD-2018PTZ1080 (T#2458).

• D-Link DCS-6815 camera (T#2638).

• Siqura C60 encoder (T#1927).

Technical notes in Observer 4.4.5

• SNAP live stream resolution paramers has been changed. The paraleters "small", "medium" and "large" will deliver higher resolution than in previous releases. Two additional resolutions have been added: "verysmall" and "verylarge". The following resolution keywords are available:

  • "verysmall" delivers QCIF,QQVGA,QCGA,... (as it was for "small" resolution until now)

  • "small" delivers CIF,QVGA,CGA,... (as it was for "medium" resolution until now)

  • "medium" delivers VGA,4CIF,NTSC,D1,... (as it was for "large" resolution until now)

  • "large" delivers HD-720, SVGA, XGA, SXGA,...

  • "verylarge" delivers maximum resolution of the camera

R4.4.4

List of enhancements in Observer 4.4.4

• All 8 streams of Axis M3007 can be accessed from now on (T#2533). Camera has been added as 8 port video server.

  • Port 1 - Overview
  • Port 2 - Panorama
  • Port 3 - Double Panorama
  • Port 4 - Quad View
  • Port 5 - View Area 1
  • Port 6 - View Area 2
  • Port 7 - View Area 3
  • Port 8 - View Area 4

  Please make sure to select a resolution which is supported by the selected mode, otherwise no stream will appear.

• Stability improvements for smartphone client streaming (T#2595).

• Next and previous viewport functionality in right-click menu (T#2615).

• PTZ capability has been added to the Panasonic WJ-GXE500 video server (T#2597).

• Saving and restoring window position and size on exit/startup (T#2576).

• One-Click Single-Sign-On Webstart for Observer Client and LNT (T#2571).

• Drag and drop camera assignment from LNT to Observer client viewports (T#2572).

• Automatic (no user interaction required) client download option for starter (T#2456). Automatic download can be configured per session in the Starter.

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.4.4

• No daylight saving is used in Saudi Arabia (T#2652).

• Could not ask for new license key in white-labeled version when Netavis_EMAIL and Netavis_FAX was not present in the mapping file (T#2583).

• Adding image partitions which have different size (compared to the existing partitions) might cause that recording length does not increase as assumed (the system is not able to use the whole recording space). It could even happen that existing recording is shortened after adding new image partition (T#2614,T#2436).

• Active Directory gateway stopped after reading the 1st group, thus users belonging to groups defined in further lines were not imported (T#2627).

• LNT process does not exit when there is at least one opened video stream on exit (T#2632).

• Unbundled upgrade overwrites firewall settings (T#2607).

• Restart button redirects to loopback address (T#2621).

• AVI exported on 64bit Linux machine is not playable (T#2620).

• Can't install Observer on a system with disks, larger than 2TB (T#2577).

• It is not possible to use uninitialized disks (T#2575).

• SetCameraPTZPosition SNAP function was inaccessible (T#2573).

• Observer requests MJPEG stream from Basler cameras 1st stream (which has framerate limitations) even if multi stream is disabled in the client (T#2454).

• Sending SMS to a user having no SMS number brings down the server (T#2593).

• Smartphone Client does not work behind a router when inner and outer ports does not match (T#2578).

• Webstart does not work in certain cases (T#2488).

New cameras in Observer 4.4.4

• Panasonic WV-SW352 camera (T#2642).

• Samsung SNV-5080R camera (T#2606).

• Dynacolor NV-223 camera (T#2630).

• Dynacolor NV-063 camera (T#2629).

• Dynacolor NH-820-N21 camera (T#2631).

• D-Link DCS-6616 camera (T#2618).

• Panasonic WV-NW964 (T#2600).

• Axis P1354 camera (T#2616).

• D-Link DCS-7413 camera (T#2584).

• D-Link DCS-7110 camera (T#2519).

• D-Link DCS-6511 camera (T#2587).

• D-Link DCS-6113 camera (T#2588).

• D-Link DCS-3716 camera (T#2586).

• D-Link DCS-3112 camera (T#2585).

• D-Link DCS-2210 camera (T#2590).

• D-Link DCS-2230 camera (T#2591).

R4.4.3

List of enhancements in Observer 4.4.3

• Logout button is accessible on all page in Smartphone client(T#2570).

• Added the following URL API commands:

  • ShowArchiveForCamera: activates archive player and plays the specified archive

  • ShowOnlineMonitorTool: activates online monitor

• Romanian and Ukrainian language has been added (T#2542, T#2568).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.4.3

• SAN devices have been umounted at stop or restart (T#2545).

• After closing browser, smartphone client keeps the license for several minutes (T#2570).

• JSP pages without the lang and country parameters resulted in null pointer exception (T#2442).

• It is not possible to execute StartEventTriggeredRecording for more than one camera using I/O mappings (T#2482).

• Cannot get MJPEG stream from JVC VN26U camera (T#2485).

• It is not possible to select all the camera types on a low resolution display (T#2487).

• Newly created window appears empty (T#2504).

• Login dialog sent wrong message if no user name has been filled out (T#2498).

• Cannot get MPEG-4 streams from Panasonic WV-NF284 and WV-NS202 cameras (T#2512). Important note: For cameras with newer firmware please use the V2 version of the drivers.

• Clicking cancel during SAFE export freezes the client (T#2511).

• Panasonic MPEG4 stream stops in every 2 minutes for some cameras(T#2547).

• Canon (VB M40, M700) export in AVI, JPEG format not possible(T#2506).

• Restoring a system backup on a foreign machine, causes bad configuration at the non-first NIC (T#2556).

New cameras in Observer 4.4.3

• Axis M1033, M3006, M3007, P1204, P1353, P3384, Q7411 cameras (T#2448, T#2508, T#2510, T#2509, T#2529, T#2530, T#2533).

• Eneo NXC 1502M (T#2513).

• JVC VN-T16U, VN-T216U, VN-T216VPRU cameras (T#2331).

• Samsung SND-3082 camera (T#2423).

R4.4.2

List of enhancements in Observer 4.4.2

• Send fullscreen windows to screen devices (T#2486).

• Relative PTZ control functionality for SNAP and URL API(T#2526).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.4.2

• Big upgrade to CentOS 6.2 with more than 2 hard discs, mixes partitions (T#2483).

• Fixed fullscreen size calculation problem.

• It is not possible to run smartphone client and video wall when web server is running on other port than port 80 (T#2490).

• It is not possible to select a licensing server when no license is installed on the server (T#2497).

• Server stops when turns from license master to license slave mode (T#2499).

• The iPad client was not able to login into Observer servers having a certain version (T#2489).

• Server does not release the Smartphone license (after a timeout period) in case the user closes the Smartphone client without logging out (T#2505).

• GetEntityTree details option does not work in .NET SNAP API (T#2528).

R4.4.1

List of enhancements in Observer 4.4.1

• Fullscreen option in client. In full screen mode a window appears without title bar and fills the whole screen to maximize the useful client area (T#2334).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.4.1

• Fixes for some license and license dialog problems (T#2405,T#2437).

R4.4.0

List of enhancements in Observer 4.4.0

• CentOS 6.2 is the new base operating system in bundled version (T#1325). It ensures the support for the latest hardware elements on OS level.

• NEA (Netavis External Archive Management) has been added to Observer. It enables the user to attach multiple hot swappable eSATA/SATA devices to the server machine and configure them to be used for recording (saving) and playback (archive).
  An external storage is first configured to contain a (double) recording which runs parallel and with the same parameters of the currently active recording. When such a recording is finalized it is turned into an external archive which can be taken away and attached to any other Observer server.
  External archives are automatically "imported" by Observer and made visible in the archive tool of the client application.
  Creation and operating system level management of these devices is done via a new menu item in the system administration tool of Observer (T#1501, T#1502).
  A simple administration from the client GUI is also possible when the necessary privileges are set for the user (T#2156). When the administration is done via the GUI, the default label for a device will be the name of the logged in user (T#2197).

• For better visibility a red dot is drawn at the origo of the continuous PTZ movement vector (T#1583).

• Added support for Barix Barionet 50 device (T#1363).

• Webstart for LNT (T#1976).

• The following SNAP improvements and extensions have been added:

  • Version number for SNAP schema (T#46).

  • Camera tree info extended with camera IP addresses and PTZ capabilities (T#1786).

  • Improvements for PTZ control (T#1079, T#1262, T#1800).

  • H264/MPEG-4 streaming (T#1351).

  • Protect and unprotect archive records (T#893).

  • Start and stop smart guard in Online Monitor (T#1949).

  • Activate named views in Online Monitor and cameras in named views (T#1080).

• URL command API has been added as a new access possibility to Observer. See the details in documentation. (T#1490, T#1705, T#1745, T#1492, T#1764).

• Face detector with age and gender detection. This new feature detects and tracks faces and detects age, gender additionally as an option (T#1484).

  • To activate detector, add a "Face detector" definition in "Video Analysis" tab. The active detector automatically generates face detection events (T#1606, T#2246).

  • With "Event trigger" definitions it is possible to customize how face detection events are generated. When an "Event trigger" is added face detection events are generated according to the trigger definition.

  • Licensing for this feature is different from standard Observer licensing. After installation, in the "Customizer" download page a customer key will appear. Send the customer key to your vendor and upload the license file you get back in "Customizer". The new license will be activated when the server is restarted. Please note that certain changes in the server's hardware configuration may require a new license (T#2082).

  • Age range customization (see AgeRangeConfig.SAMPLE.txt on Customizer page) (T#2018).

  • Event statistic export for Gender and Age detection for booth .xls and .csv export. The .xls export has been extended by a second sheet containing base data. This allows more convenient creation of nice charts by using pivot table in excel (T#1607).

• Licensing: More accurate licensing up to feature level has been introduced (T#2047). Fixes for some license and license dialog problems (T#2197,T#2223,T#2224,T#2237). Individual text boxes for the license key are molded into one for easier copy/paste (T#2404).

• Ping a network device. A new menu item has been added to admin menu, which is able the user to check a network device's accessibility (T#2206).

• Netavis client for iPad. The application gives you live and archive views on MJPEG streams. Download the application from the Apple Store (T#1124).

• ABS streaming performance has been increased, especially when viewing many cameras with high framerate in small size views. The performance increment is significant when using a server with 4 or more CPU cores. The more CPU cores the higher is the increment (T#2327).

• H.264 or MPEG4 based iCAT processing performance has been increased. The performance increment is significant when using many high framerate H.264 or MPEG4 streams for iCAT processing and the server has 4 or more CPU cores. The more CPU cores the higher is the increment (T#2328).

• Video Wall Module. This module makes it possible to control up to 10 x 10 displays in a professional yet easy way. It is accessible on the http://server-address/videowall url (T#1638).

• Smartphone client. A simple client that can be run in the web browsers of smartphones which offers live streaming of cameras. The client can be accessed on any server via the URL http://server-address/browserclient (T#1880).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.4.0

• Login with any other user as the "auto-login" user is not possible (T#1579).

• Archive export under client on server does not work (T#1797).

• NTP query cause a connection lose if working on a remote server (T#2002).

• Boot menu item's name and parameter has been corrected to NLIS (T#2037).

• The number of processes are limited in CentOS 6 by default to 1024. It may result in crash with errno 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable). This limit is now increased automatically to 8192 in a bundled installation. Note! At unbundled install this limit is not modified and may cause problems, please modify the value at /etc/security/limits.d/90-nproc.conf (T#2044).

• Cannot recompile modified handlers. Unfortunately this fix will having effects after a reinstall or after a big upgrade (#2115).

• The client-on-server's X-Windows screen have been moved to virtual term 7 on CentOS 6.2. This fix needs a big upgrade or new install (#2138).

• The new generic network device names are different from the traditional (#2177).

• Problem when adding new image storage hard disk, over admin menu (#2290).

• Corrupt NEA DB table may inhibit to start the server (#2323).

• Popup view (double click in a view) does not inherit the viewport parameters. The solution will transfer the following parameters to the temporary popup view (*** view):

  • Video stream type (MJPEG, h.264, MPEG4 or MxPEG)

  • Aspect ratio, incl. different custom aspect ratios

  • The parameters crop or stretch.

  • Current crop position.

  • iCAT view options.

  The parameters will be transferred to the temporary popup view only once, at first popup time. If some viewing parameters (like stream type, crop or iCAT options) have been changed in the temporary popup view, or in the original view then those parameters remain unchanged in the popup view. Removing the temporary popup view will force inheriting the view parameters again. If the camera is being found in any single large view then this view will be popped up (no temporary popup view) regardless of the parameters mentioned above (T#943).

Technical notes in Observer 4.4.0

• Unbundled installation and face detector feature:

  • On 64-bit unbundled systems the face detector requires 32-bit library support to be installed before starting Observer installation. Note that 32-bit library support is often not part of the 64-bit distributions, hence it might be installed manually.

  • Unbundled systems tested with face detector feature: openSuse 10, openSuse 11, RedHat 5.7, RedHat 6.2

• Fail-over startup in a cluster environment does not work if the network subsystem of the server has error condition. (#2241).

R4.3.13

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.13

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Axis M3005, P8513, P8514, Q7414, Q7424-R cameras (T#1794, T#1870, T#2360, T#2363, T#2374).

  • JVC VN-H37U, VN-H57U, VN-H137U, VN-H237U, VN-H257U, VN-H237VPU, VN-H257VPU, VN-H157WPU cameras (T#1211, T#1212, T#1213, T#1215, T#1216, T#1257, T#2356, T#2357).

  • Vivotek SD-7313, SD-8312 cameras (T#2281, T#2282).

  • Basler Basler BIP2-1920c, Basler BIP2-1920c-dn cameras (T#2341, T#2365).

  • Panasonic WV-SF135 (T#2019)

  • Eneo GLS-2302 (T#2391)

• Focus change and camera moved detector modules have been replaced with new ones in sabotage detector. The new, advanced modules are more sensitive and more robust than the older ones and their CPU load is only slightly increased. The robustness is especially remarkable when there are many moving objects (people, vehicles...) in the camera view (T#1240, T#2012, T#2211).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.13

• Made NTSC resolution selection possible for Axis P5512, P5522, P5532, M1103, M1104, M1144, P1343, P1344, P1346, P3354, Q1602, Q1604, Q1921, Panasonic WJ-GXE500 and Vivotek SD8322 cameras (T#2017, T#2278, T#2280).

• No installation is possible when a HP RAID controller is in the server (T#2116).

• System backup modifies MAC address of the network cards (T#2362).

• It is not possible to get MPEG4 streams from Basler cameras with firmware version 3 or above (T#2364).

• Event names always appear in English on the first appearance of the event search dialog (T#2367).

• Client can consume available memory in certain situations (T#2371).

• Can't restore a system backup with multi licence key (T#2372).

R4.3.12

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.12

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Planet ICA-HM620 camera (T#2143).

  • Fitivision CS7120, CS7220, CS7232 cameras (T#2162, T#2163, T#2164).

  • Samsung SNB-5000, SNO-5080 (T#1738, T#1703).

  • Axis M1013, M3004, P3363, P3364, P5544 (T#2218, T#2257, T#2261, T#2297, T#2298).

  • NTSC resolutions for Axis P5522, P5532 (T#2278).

  • Digital PTZ for Axis P3354 (T#2139).

  • ACTi ACM3701, TCM3711, TCM7411 (T#2219, T#2220, T#2221).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.12

• Newly added PTZ positions do not appear in the route position list (T#2094).

• Camera details of duplicated cameras disappear when changing some data of the original camera (T#2061).

• SuSe port has been updated for the new features. It is tested with OpenSuSe 10.3 and Open SuSe 11.4 (T#2083, T#2084).

• Duplicated cameras (having the same IP address) are counted as separate ones in the licensing (T#2146).

• Can't decode high resolution ACTi H264 streams.

• Lighting change detector malfunction fixes (T#2119):

  • Brightness change detector works correctly now.

  • Brightness change detector now works also when no light switch on/off is selected.

• Sabotage detector does not work when used together with motion detector and the detection field for motion detector is very small (T#2217).

R4.3.11

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.11

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Panasonic WV-SP509, WV-ST165 cameras (T#1918, T#1981).

• Adapted Barionet driver to handle devices with newer firmware (T#2110).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.11

• In certain cases the server is not recording (T#2101).

• If more then one constraint was selected from "Object crossing..., Object starts..., Object stops..." checkbox group (at Event trigger definition), it might have produced a large number of events for every detected object instead of one. Now only one checkbox in the group is selectable (T#1561).

• SAFE player can't print in certain cases (T#1968).

• It is not possible to start 2 client sessions automatically in certain cases (T#2100).

R4.3.10

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.10

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Panasonic WV-SC386, WV-SW316L cameras (T#1979, T#1980).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.10

• ABS works unreliable in distributed system or in multi-NIC environment. After switching views in the Online Monitor some cameras run ABS which should not, and vice versa (T#1179, T#1725).

• Stream recording parameters do not update when default setting changes (T#1788).

• Some resolutions are missing for the Vivotek IP7142 camera (T#2085).

• LNT displays strings with special characters incorrectly in certain cases (T#1974)

• Client can't save logs, when the server's HTTP port is other than 80 (T#2077).

• Scheduling and enable/disable of privacy masks does not work properly (T#1992).

R4.3.9

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.9

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Allnet All2295, All2296 cameras (T#1516, T#1965).

  • Digital PTZ for Axis P1347(T#2078).

  • Missing resolutions for Axis M3204(T#1969).

  • Eneo GXB-1710M/IR, Eneo GXC-1710M/IR, Eneo GXD-1710M/IR camera(T#1646,T#1647,T#1648).

  • Moxa Vport 16P(T#2010).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.9

• I/O control status update in LNT does not work in certain cases(T#2057)

• A very infrequent random fatal condition, occures mostly when many users are logged in to a server. (T#2039)

• NUS is checking mount and writeable status of the mandatory image partition, and if the partition is not writeable then the server status gets "Running / Failure", though there is no recording on the partition (we are on a NUS!).

• Adding a new empty disk or Image partition (disk replacement or extension) to a system, having 98% full existing Image partition(s), may cause significant reduction of the archive length, and/or countinuos fatal conditions. (T#1990)

• iCat setup window sized incorrectly for corridor format cameras(T#1713)

• Client exsits with "Missing default style value for OptionPane type" error message (T#2063)

R4.3.8

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.8

• I/O impulse button in LNT. It is possible from now to create I/O controls which activates an output pin for a specified duration. There is a new predefined control I/O Impulse Button which can be used for this purpose. (T#1891)

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.8

• For NETAPP devices setting permissions is necessary after mounting (T#1486).

• No archive access reason string was saved (T#1843).

• The output directory, defined by the NETAVIS_DIRECTORY environment variable was not used for logging and config file storage (T#1826).

R4.3.7

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.7

• PTZ position handling has been added to the Sanyo VCC-HD5400 and VCC-HD5600 cameras with limitations (T#1366). Limitation exist because the camera is not able:

  • to report absolute values for stored or actual positions,

  • position the PTZ head to absolute values,

  • report the current number of stored positions,

  • remove a stored position.

  Therefore, modification will modify only the internal name of the position in Observer and not the stored position in the camera. To modify a position, the given position has to be first removed and then set again. Removing a position from Observer will not remove the position from the camera, only from Observer.

• More NFS mount parameters has been added to admin menu 17. (T#1486). There is possible to add u - to enable udp communication and s - to make soft mount.

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.7

• The language in the webclient is always English (T#1714).

• Privileges were not "inherited" correctly after creation, modification or deletion of a user (T#1724, T#1726).

• Server fatal condition after upgrading to 4.3.0 or above on machines where I/O device handling is configured. (T#1741, T#1742).

• PTZ icon on added non PTZ camera in OM. (T#1787).

• No connection to camera lost event generated in certain situations. (T#1685).

• "Assigned iCAT definitions" can not be set other than all the definitions are assinged. (T#1775)

• Privacy mask is not working alone, without any other iCAT definition is set. (T#1139)

R4.3.6

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.6

• Support for Barix Barionet 50 device (T#1363).

R4.3.5

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.5

• Alternative Session handling in Starter (T#781). It is possible to specify an alternative connection for a session, so in case the starters fails to connect to the first session, then it will connect to the other one automatically.

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.5

• Starter Session Editor Window jumps to the center. (T#1682).

R4.3.4

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.4

• Random FATAL condition in the recording subsystem. (T#1578).

• In situations, when the servers can't communicate with each other from time-to-time, it is possible that the event statistic won't contain events from the unreacheable server, since the statistic is generated before the events arrive from the remote server. (T#1247).

• NNS failure on complex system. (T#1654).

R4.3.3

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.3

• Unable to record on NFS partitions in unbundled systems if the pathname of the image direcory is not the mountpoint itself. (T#1559).

R4.3.2

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.2

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.2

• Client could not start if other 3rd party applications already used all available SNAP licences.

• PTZ control fixes (T#1528, T#1529, T#1531).

• Slow or unreliable network could cause the event management subsystem to get overloaded and start throwing events away (T#1526).

R4.3.1

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.1

• Archive image protection could be turned on only for disjunct intervals. For protection reset one had to select the protected intervals one-by-one (T#891).

• Warning/info dialogs displayed a "Yes" instead of an "Ok" button (T#1048).

• The type of a preiously defined schedule operation could be changed after adding and deleting a new schedule operation (T#1027).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.3.1

• PTZ mode control menu does not work (T#1405).

• The redhat.pool.ntp.org doesn't exists (T#1456).

• Former port forwarded access still works (T#1466).

R4.3.0

List of enhancements in Observer 4.3.0

• I/O device control from LNT. It is possible from now to display and control I/O device pins from LNT. There is a new control type I/O device pin which can be used to display I/O input pin statuses and to display and control I/O output pin statuses. After creating a new I/O device pin control, the user can drag and drop the created control and select the associated device port. (#T1327)

• Easier install parameters. The bigdb parameter has been removed from install, this is the default value, also the Observer will be installed with 25 GB database storage size. This value will be reduced to 5 GB if the first hard disk's size not exceeded 40 GB. (#T1323)

• Admin menu (23) doesn't handle larger than 2 TB drives correctly. (#T1384)

Known limitations in Observer 4.3.0

• The current LNT I/O implementation can handle only the server local I/O devices, so it is not possible to see the NCS's I/O devices on the NUS.

R4.2.0

List of enhancements in Observer 4.2.0

• Secure channel (HTTPS) communication between client-server (including LNT) and server-server (T#624). After the installation a self-signed certificate is installed under the web-server. For compatibility with earlier versions, both the unsecure (HTTP - 80) and secure (HTTPS - 443) ports will be opened. Users connecting via the HTTPS channel will be informed about the untrusted certificate. If you would like to avoid this message or achieve a higher level of trustyness please apply for a certificate e.g. at Verisign and install it using our nadmin script.
  The client connection encryption can be enabled in the Starter, while the server connection encryption can be enabled in the host administration tool.

• In case a camera can provide MJPEG stream but it is not enabled in Observer (but multi streaming allowed), then LNT can still display the MJPEG stream from the camera (T#1246).

• This version includes the possibility to connect to Observer via HTTPS connections. Therefore during the install/upgrade we automatically install a self-signed certificate. If you want higher security you might want to install your own. In order to do it we have added a new menu item (28) to our admin menu system. With this menu it is possible to request a certificate (which is needed by a provider) and update the certificate (which comes from a provider) (T#1360).

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.2.0

• No error event has been sent when an AD server was not reachable (T#1161).

• Video annotation sometimes does not appear in live or archive view (T#1337 - see ticket comment).

• "Cancel" and "Save" buttons became disabled in PTZ routes administration after pushing the "Previous" button (T#1382).

• Several changes of the Event Search Dialog (T#1290).

• Fixing the missing langenv setup of the "Scroll to last Event" checkbox.

R4.1.1

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.1.1

• Fix for "Archive Playback: We loose some viewports at changing size" (T#1316)

Known limitations in Observer 4.1.1

• In some (still unknown) situation with Axis cameras when the motion detection is very frequent, the saving switches to continuous recording.

• Server fatal condition when playing encrypted video meanwhile the encrytion parameter (in host admin tool) is set to 0 (T#1163).

R4.1.0

List of enhancements in Observer 4.1.0

• HolidayCalendar function. This function allows to override recording setup. Switching on/off ContRec, ICATRec and EventTriggerdRec functions can be forced on a daily basis. To activate this function, please download the file HolidayCalendar.SAMPLE.xml from the server's Customizer Web page. Edit the file according to description and upload to the server as HolidayCalendar.xml (not SAMPLE!). NETAVIS has to be restarted to activate a new HolidayCalendar (T#1071).

• Event driven video export. This function allows to export videos based on camera specific events with defined pre and post time. The function can be accessed from the event search dialog.

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.1.0

• Protect button is always disabled in archive calendar (T#1024).

• Remember to the user defined column order and width in the Event list (T#1130).

• Munin packages fix (T#1140, T#1178).

• Client on Server USB export rework (T#1188).

• Memory leak fix of the old style camera tree (T#1219).

• Archive could be exported even when button was disabled (T#1302).

• Disk details information panel in the system information tool sometimes did not work (T#1156).

• Video and PTZ administration was possible without the proper rights (T#1315).

• Multi-camera SAFE export does not work (T#1322).

Known limitations in Observer 4.1.0

• In some (still unknown) situation with Axis cameras when the motion detection is very frequent, the saving switches to continuous recording.

• Server fatal condition when playing encrypted video meanwhile the encrytion parameter (in host admin tool) is set to 0 (T#1163).

R4.0.1

Bugs fixed in Observer 4.0.1

• Protect against archive deletion does not work (T#1106).

• It is not possible to logout and log in as a different user on client on server (T#1148).

R4.0.0

List of enhancements in Observer 4.0.0

• New client technology - enhanced GUI

  • GUI is easier to use and more intuitive

  • Windows are resizable

  • The layout can be adapted to customer needs

  • Flexible preference settings on a per user basis stored on the server

• Multi screen operation

  • Very easy multi screen setup: Drag /drop windows to different screens

  • Multiple online monitors and special configuration of alarm monitors possible

  • Window positions are remembered between sessions and per user

• Enhanced camera views

  • View ports control is much easier and more intuitive

  • Drag and drop of cameras to view ports

  • Freely definable view port aspect ratios, also support for HDTV(already in 3.5!)

  • Flexible stretching and cropping to fit aspect ratios(already in 3.5!)

• Event handling improvements and event priorities

  • Priorities for events (e.g. informational event messages have lower prio than failure messages)

  • User definable prios for custom events like video analytics and motion detection events per event trigger

  • Improved event list that allows sorting according to various criteria (prio, cam name, etc.)

  • Multiple event lists with different filters and sorting can be set up

  • Event details dialog now with Previous and Next buttons

• Extended support for encryption and HTTPS(already in 3.5!)

  • Optionally encrypted communication between cameras to server and server to client(already in 3.5!)

  • The recording archive can be encrypted with standard AES encryption(already in 3.5!)

• Improved support for the setup and maintenance of big projects

  • Similar cameras can be cloned with full settings (fast setup of many cameras)

  • The recording archive can be encrypted with standard AES encryption(already in 3.5!)

• Enhanced built-in iCAT video analytics(already in 3.5!)

  • Dual streaming video analytics for improved performance(already in 3.5!)

  • Configurable automatic export of iCAT statistics data to 3rd party systems(already in 3.5!)

• Support for Active Directory/LDAP

  • Easy and powerful configuration options

  • Support for complex setups of domains and groups

  • Powerful mapping of Observer rights to AD/LDAP domains/groups

• Video stream annotations

  • Video streams for live viewing and recording can be annotated with text. The annotations can come from external data sources and can be stored in the event database for later retrieval and search

  • Annotations can be created via the easy XML interface or a simple shell command with command line options. Examples applications are POS cash register data, logistics data, or access control data

• Further performance improvements

  • The overall performance of Observer including data throughput has been further increased

  • The default image partition's filesystem type is now XFS. This can be changed to EXT4 during install, but later no more changes are possible (T#756).

Unsupported features

• Overlay painting does not supported from this version.

R3.5.14

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.14

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.14

• Upgrading from versions 3.5.3.158.439, 3.5.4.158.445 and 3.5.2.154.426 to 3.5.13 was not possible (#1113).

• At the unbundled installation there are error messages (#1154).

R3.5.13

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.13

• The following cameras have been added (merged from 3.4.32):

  • Sony SNC-DH110, SNC-CH160, SNC-CH180, SNC-CH220, SNC-DH220, SNC-CH260, SNC-DH260, SNC-CH280, SNC-DH280 (T#991, T#1019).

  • Cellinx MR310 (T#804). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.13

• Server status is running but no client connections are possible. (T#1005).

• Bad usability of http or ftp uprgade. User may interrupt downloading of files too early. (T#1050)

R3.5.12

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.12

• Event statistic may not counted correctly in distributed system (on the NUS) (T#922).

• SSL support for all 5th generation Sony cameras (T#992).

• All bugfixes and new cameras from 3.4 line (up to 3.4.31) have been merged (T#1046).

R3.5.11

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.11

• Further fixes to server-server communication in low-bandwidth and/or unreliable WAN environment (T#807).

R3.5.10

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.10

• The feature Snapplet has been added. Snapplet is an MJPEG live video streaming Java applet which can be embedded into any Web page. The embedding html code can be generated by using the link "Generate applet tag for the Snapplet application" on the server's customizer page. The following parameters can be specified:

  • Applet width and height: specify the applet width and height in pixels (default: 640x480)

  • NETAVIS server address: the ip-address or domain address, where the Observer server is running (default: server ip)

  • Username and password: If username or password are given, the applet will automatically connect and login to the Observer server. If username or password are missing, a login window will appear, when the applet is starting. A user for the applet can be defined in the Observer User Admin Tool. All the cameras which are enabled for this user will be available in the applet. (default: guest)

  • Enable camera tree: By default a button in the lower right corner will appear, which shows the accessible camera tree. Set it to false, if you want to disable the camera selector option. (default: True)

  • Default camera ID: Default camera will be shown first after staring the applet. If you have disabled the camera tree then only this camera will be shown. You can look after the camera ID in the Observer client Camera Administration Tool. (default camera ID: 2)

  • Image quality and image size: Camera image preferences (default quality and size: medium)

  • FPS: Desired framerate, an integer between 1 and 25. The real FPS depends on the speed of the network and the server load. (default FPS: 5)

  After pressing Generate Applet Tag button, you will get an applet tag which can be inserted into the appropriate part of your Web page. Pressing Demo button will open a window where the generated applet tag can be tested (T#802).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.10

• Result of automatic event statistic export for duration value "all" may differ from any other duration. Some records may contain different event count values for the same time period (T#764).

• Server-server communication problem of 3.5.9 fixed (T#807).

R3.5.9

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.9

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.9

• After upgrading from 3.5.3 no camera information is available (T#744).

R3.5.8

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.8

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.8

• After big upgrade, the operating system level login is sometimes not possible (T#731).

• After upgrading from 3.5.4 no camera information is available (T#744).

• Big upgrade (with Operating System change) from 3.x up to 3.5.8 does not work (T#762).

• Fixes and enhancements merged from 3.4, including the fix: Event statistic does not work properly in distributed system. Events are inserted witch wrong timestamp into the statistic database after the connection between NUS and NCS is broken for a longer period of time.

• NAS configured server fills up the root parition when the NAS device is not connected (T#779).

R3.5.7

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.7

• All fixes and new fetures merged from 3.4.24.158.481 including the fix for fatal condition caused by Sony H.264 stream break-down.

R3.5.6

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.6

• The key for IDB AES encryption can be stored on USB stick (formatted to FAT32). The USB stick must be inserted into any usb slot of the server. Entering the value of 2 (two) in the "Image database encryption" field in the Parameter page of the Host Administration tool will force saving the encryption key on the USB stick. Prior to inserting the UBS stick, a writable directory "nek" (Netavis encryption key) must me created on the stick (can be done under Windows, for example). Observer will search for this directory, and store the key file in it. After the USB device is detected and the key has been written to it, an event with following text is generated: "IDB encryption started, USB stick can be removed now for creating backup copy". At this time the USB stick can be removed from the server, and a backup copy of the directory "nek" can be created. Note, that the stick must be inserted again before any archive query is started. IMPORTANT: Loss of key stored on USB stick will make archive playback impossible! Note, that in unbundled systems the commands /bin/mount, /bin/umount, /usr/bin/udevinfo has to be added manually to /etc/sudoers for arms user with NOPASSWD flag. (T#701).

• NNS syncronization of LNT data, XML config files and other system resources (custom gifs, sounds) is implemented. Note that the syncronisation period of this data is 2 minutes (T#702).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.6

• The bugfix level of this version is the same as of 3.4.23.148.473 (T#703).

R3.5.5

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.5

• The Netavis-to-Netavis synchronization (NNS) feature has been added (T#137, T#677). With this feature the user can organize servers into groups among which user and camera data synchronization is done. This can also be understood as data mirroring between the computers of the group. Although, care must be taken that these servers are of equal types in a given network group, as data are copied from the group's master computer, and imported into databases of the group's slave computers without any type check. Therefore it is important that e.g. NUS only or NCS only types are put into one group.
  
  All NNS group administrations can be done in the Host Administration tool. Make sure that for all computers - planned to be part of one single group - are assigned the same group name and only one master flag is set within it. For setting up an NNS group you have to add member computers the following way:

  • On the master computer all slave computers must be added (with no additional flags set).

  • On the slave computer the master computer must be added (with no additional flags set).

  There are two types of machines within a group: a single master and any number of slaves. Within an NNS group data modification is enabled only on the master computer. For any other (slave) computer the modification will be denied. When a group temporarily contains more than only a single master, the data modification will also be disabled. This situation can happen when e.g. a pre-configured computer, which was a master of an other group, or maybe an earlier master of this group is put back into the group. In this case the administrator has to manually solve this problem by turning off the master flag on all the offending master computers. This situation is also detected automatically by each master and a dialog is presented to the administrator to resolve this situation. The dialog will appear on all clients which are connected to a group master computer. The administrator should execute the dialog only on that machine which should be the master of the group. On any other master the dialog should be dismissed. After pushing the master's data to all other master computer the administrator should login into all other master computers and unset the master flag. The following is a short example of problem resolution in such a situation:

  • Login into a client which is connected to the computer you want to make the master of the NNS group.

  • Wait until a dialog appears with the list of offending hosts.

  • Click on the "Push data to all servers" button to spread your computer's database to all other master. When finished click on the "Exit" button.

  • Login into each offending host and turn off the "Master of the sync group" checkbox in the Host Administration.

• Event propagation between NUS computers is now possible when the computers are in the same NNS group and the "Send local events to remote server" flag is set (T#678).

• Image Database encryption using 128 bit AES method. The encryption can be activated by entering the value of 1 (one) in the "Image database encryption" field in the Parameter page of the Host Administration tool (T#681).

• HTTPS camera communication has been added and enabled for the Sony SNC-DH160 camera (T#682).

• Generate event when (for some reason) no system backup has been made (T#687).

• Server side USB Disk Utility has been implemented for saving persistently the secret private key of the video encryption. Be careful, the private key is a very sensitive information! Without it the video decryption won't work, all encrypted video files are going to be unusable in the future! In the other hand, without video encryption your system is open for E.g disk thieves.
  The encryption will work while the USB Flash Disk is available on the server, and stops if there is no more available USB disk or the USB disk is not usable for some reasons E.g. read/write defect, invalid or unsupported format, unsupported OS or distribution...
  Restrictions of the utility's usage:

  • USB Flash disk must be vfat (FAT32) formatted

  • It is highly recommended to use one at a time USB Flash disk on the server and have only one vfat partition on that disk you want to use as your video encryption master. If you have more than one disks or partitions after all, the Observer server are going to look for and use the first caught 'netavis' directory (all lower case letters without quotes) from the available USB Disks, otherwise the very first USB disk and its very first partition will be used. It is the user's admin responsibility to create the 'netavis' directory on the USB Disk you want to use or the system are going to create it on the very first partition of the very first available USB disks.

  • The 'arms' user (or the runner of the Observer server) must have the sudo with NOPASSWD rights on the following functions:

    • /bin/mount - on linux generally

    • /usr/bin/udevinfo - on CentOS and Red Hat

    • /sbin/udevadm - on SuSE

    All of them are granted by default on a bundled Observer distribution, but it is the user's admin responsibility to setup and allow this right on un unbundled distributions.

    Hints: use the following entry in your /etc/sudoers file on SuSE:

    arms ALL = NOPASSWD: /bin/mount, /sbin/udevadm

  • The utility tested under the following distributions:

    • CentOS CentOS release 5.5 (Final)

    • CentOS 5.4

    • RedHat Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 4 (Nahant Update 3)

    • openSUSE Version 11.2

    Other distributions or versions are may also usable, but it is not supported and/or tested at the moment.

  • Both under a bundled and under an unbundled distribution it is not necessary to mount the USB Falsh Disk, the utility are going to mount it automatically. The unmounted disks are going to be mounted under the arms' home directory with tier device and partition names E.g. ~/arms/sdb1. Otherwise if the disk and all its partitions are already mounted the utility will use it where they are mounted and won't change its mount points.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.5

R3.5.4

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.4

• All bugfixes and feature implementations from 3.4.15.157.440 to 3.4.17.158.444 are merged into this version.

R3.5.3

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.3

• Choice for 25fps has been inserted in online monitor and recording setup tools (T#289).

• Choice for "Strech image" and "Crop image" has been added to the dialog "Create new view" in the Online Monitor. If "Strech image" is selected then aspect ratio for the video frames is adjusted to the view port. Thus, the image fills the view port in any case, but it may be distorted. Selecting "Crop image" will cut top/bottom or left/right edge of the image, if the aspect ratio of the video frames and of the view port are different. This mode fills the whole view port without image distortion, but some parts of the image may not visible. It is possible to adjust the crop window (even zooming is possible) by the menu "Define crop area..." under the view port's "Qual" menu. Deselecting both Strech and Crop options, the image will not fill the entire view port (or the bottom of the image is cutted) if the aspect ratio of the image and the view port are different. (T#387).

• Activating PTZ via ClientControl action ACTIVATE_PTZ from EMS, the Joystick will control the last activated camera regardless of the mouse cursor position. Sending any DEACTIVATE_PTZ to the client or activating/deactivating any camera's PTZ via user interacion in the client will move Joystick focus back to the view where the mouse cursor is over (T#388).

• Fps control of live streams in a view port via EMS ClientControl action. The view port can be selected by row/col coordinates. Upper left viewport has the coordinates 1,1. The view port coordinates and fps value must be specified by the last parameter (attribute) of TargetAction as a string of three comma separated numbers like "rowIdx,colIdx,fps". The fps value 0 stops the stream, while the value -1 will resume to the last fps value before stop. Eg: "2,1,0" will stop stream in the view port 2nd row 1st column. The parameter "2,1,-1" restarts the stream. Defining row/col as 0 will perform the action to all view ports. Eg: 0,0,5 will set fps to 5 on all streams in the current view panel. It is also possible to specify the view port by cameraID (first parameter of TargetAction). If the cameraID parameter is not 0 and row/col are 0 then fps will be set in the view port where the given camera is currently shown. Note that fps control is working only for MJPEG stream, though stop/resume is working for MPEG-4, H.264 and MxPEG streams as well. (T#389)

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.3

• ABS frame geometry distortion problem when the aspect ratio of the view port and the video stream differs. (T#286).

R3.5.2

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.2

• Export all event statistic records in .csv file. A new option Duration=all has been introduced, see config file StatisticExportConfig.sample.xml. (T#267)

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.2

• The Commend ICX plugin could not load its XML parameters (T#182).

• ABS frame geometry distortion in distributed server setup. (T#283).

R3.5.1

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.1

• Extension to live view control action (ActionPropagator.ClientControl) to popup camera in a specific viewport (aka Vöst feature req Nr. 3). Before this version it was possible to popup a view panel in the OM using the ClientControl action SHOW_LIVE_STREAM with mode SHOW_IN_VIEW. The parameter "attribute" contains the name of the view panel. This version extends the action by providing the coordinates of the view port where the camera has to be shown. The parameter "attribute" may contain "panelName,roxIdx,colIdx", where rowIdx the row number (1..n) and colIdx (1..n) is the column number of the view port where the camera should appear. If the camera is not added to view port yet then it will be added by the action. Otherwise, the camera will be popped into the foreground (if more cameras are added to the view port). The view panel with name "panelName" must exist, it will not created by this action. (T#103)

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.1

Technical notes for Observer 3.5.1

• This version is bundled with CentOS 5.4

R3.5.0

List of enhancements in Observer 3.5.0

• New aspect ratio settings and image cropping in the Online Monitor. The new aspect ratio settings are:

  • "Fill available space" - This setting will produce a view port layout covering the whole space reserved for live viewing. The aspect ratio of the view ports depend on the geometry of the application window. This is the default aspect ratio setting from this version on.

  • "Custom aspect ratio (W:H)" - This option allows to setup any view port geometry by defining the proportion between width and height of the view ports (eg: 16:10).

  Camera images always fill the whole view port area. Camera images with aspect ratio different to that of the view port will be cropped to fit into the view port. Cropping will hide some parts of the image. Parts on the top/bottom region or left/right side will be hidden, depending on the difference of the aspect ratios. A new menu item "Setup crop window" is added under the icon "Qual" menu. Selecting this menu, the view port enters the crop configuration mode. It is possible to move the image and zoom in as well. This function allows clipping and showing the most interesting part of the image. Crop configuration is saved for each camera in the view port separately.

• Automatic periodic event statistic export in .csv format. Statistic information for any event type can be exported for different time periods (eg.: hourly, daily, weekly,...) in different resolutions (eg.: 15 minutes, hour, day,..). The parameters of the export function can be defined by editing the file StatisticExportConfig.sample.xml. Please download the file StatisticExportConfig.sample.xml from the server (Web interface - Start customizer - Download configuration files) to get more information about export parameters, output file format and how to activate (T#79).

• Installed license keys can be displayed in an Internet browser using the following URL command (T#40):
  http://server-IP/arms/servlet/BrowserServlet?cmd=showlicensekey

• External I/O plugin for Commend ICX TCP/IP communication has been added (T#83). Customization of the plugin can be done via downloading, editing and uploading of the common.utils.ExternalIOPluginMappings.default.xml file. The entry for the plugin looks as follows:

  	<plugin id="15" valid="0">
  		<pluginClass>server.externalIO.commend.CommendICX</pluginClass>
  		<deviceParameters>host;port;pwd;timeout;eventName</deviceParameters>
  	</plugin>
  

  where the deviceParameters are positional (separated by a semicolon) and have the following meaning:

  • host - name or IP of the Commend device.

  • port - numerical port number on which the device is listening for connections.

  • pwd - password for authenticated login (currently not implemented).

  • timeout - number of seconds within which a life-signal should come from the device. If such a signal is not coming, the plugin closes the current session and tries to reconnect the device again.

  • eventName - optional parameter, describing the name of the custom event which will be generated for each incoming Commend message. If it is omitted, the default "CommendGeneric" will be used.

  Please note that currently only the no-authorization login is possible into the device. The plugin is disabled by default. If you want to use it please do not forget to set the "valid" attribute to one.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.5.0

• During the deletion or modification - in most of the tools - the enable/disable mechanism was not working properly.

• Server fatal condition when some ports (eg.33332, 33335,...) cannot bind.

• Permission problems on the client PC when the user has not enough rights to create files under the installation directory (T#81).

• Version number was mistyped in the release notes (T#53).

R3.4.42

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.42

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.42

• Fatal condition in image database maintenancer. (T#1723, T#2053)

R3.4.41

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.41

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Alinking ALC-9751 camera (T#1533).

  • Canon with WebView: VB-M700F, VB-M600D, VB-M600VE (T#1206, T#1207, T#1208).

  • Axis Q1604, M1144, M7014, P3354, P7210 camera (T#1903, T#1935, T#1937, T#1959, T#1958).

  • Samsung SPE-100, SPE-400 video encoders (T#1926, T#1963).

  • Added audio for the Eneo FXC-1201M camera (T#1431).

  • Added audio, PTZ and I/O support for Canon VB-M40 camera (T#1205, T#1835).

  • Added audio, and I/O support for Canon VB-C60 camera. (T#1898)

  • Added I/O support for Canon VB-C500D camera.(T#1899)

  • Added I/O support for Canon VB-C500VD camera.(T#1900)

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.41

• Sending mails with attachement problem (T#1896)

R3.4.40

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.40

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Vivotek IP7153, IP8162, SD8121, SD8322 (T#1417, T#1557, T#1564, T#1680). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

  • Vision Hitech IPM13 (T#1407). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

  • Basler BIP2-D1920c-dn, BIP2-1280c-dn, BIP2-2500c-dn, BIP2-1600c-dn (T#1188, T#1442, T#1555, T#1558).

  • Sony SNC-EP521, SNC-ER521, SNC-EP550, SNC-ER550, SNC-EP580, SNC-ER580 (T#1462, T#1472, T#1473). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

  • Panasonic WJ-GXE-500E, WV-SF332, WV-SF335, WV-SC385, WV-SW355 (T#1563, T#1565, T#1604, T#1627, T#1630). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

  • Eneo FXC-1201M, Hikvision DS-2CD852F-E (T#1431).

  • Alinking ALC-9852 (T#1534)

  • iPux ICS1030, ICS1330, ICS2330 (T#1591, T#1592, T#1593)

  • Axis M5013, M5014, M7010, Q1602, P3367, P7214 (T#1597, T#1602, T#1612, T#1622, T#1625, T#1709)

  • Zavio F210A, F531E, F3101, F3201 (#1438). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

  • Moxa VPort 16 (T#1750)

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.40

• Joystick function does not work with 64bit Java (T#1333). The fixed client must be reinstalled to resolve this issue.

• It is not possible to set stream resolution for Mobotix M10D camera in dual view mode (T#1554)

• H264 support for Vivotek FD6181 (T#758)

• Upgrade problem between version 3.4.1 and 3.4.8 (T#1487)

• Unreachable Brickcom camera causes fatal (T#1573)

• Framerate setup does not work for Sanyo HD2300 camera (T#1515)

• Speaker support for Axis M1031, M1054, P1311, P1343, P1344, P1346, P1347, P3301, P3304, P3343, P3344, P3346, P5512, P5522, P5532, P5534, Q1755, Q6034 (T#1520)

• Cannot set 5th generation Sony camera's framerate to 12(T#1701).

• Live streams periodically restart in online monitor in certain cases(T#1653).

• PTZ does not work for Canon VB-M40 camera(T#1835).

R3.4.39

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.39

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Zavio F3105, P5110 (T#1432).

  • Fitivision CS103A, CS2330 (T#1199).

  • Axis P5512, P5522 (T#1199, T#1449).

• MPEG-4 and H-264 support for Canon VB-C60, VB-C500D, VB-C500VD and VB-M40 (T#1202, T#1203, T#1200, T#1205). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

• MPEG-4 support for Vivotek IP7134 (T#1418)

• Vivotek FD8134 (T#1414), FD8133 (T#1415), IP8362 (T#1416), IP8162 (T#1417), IP7133 (T#1419), MD7560 (T#1420).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.39

• Force reinstall with OS fails (T#1060).

• Standard link config is 100Mbit/s (T#1318).

• Admin window freezes sometimes after pressing save. (T#1292).

• Recording parameters of a deleted camera appears at a newly added camera. (T#1459)

• MxPEG streaming does not work for Mobotix M10. (T#1128).

R3.4.38

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.38

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Canon with WebView: VB-C300PA, VB-C500D, VB-C500VD, VB-M40 (T#1200, T#1203, T#1204, T#1205).

  • Samsung SNV-5080 (T#1425).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.38

• Some video annotations are missing in archive. Note, that annotations arriving more frequent than key-frames (MPEG4 or H.264) might still be lost. So please set appropriate GOP size. (T#1337)

• Missing frames in dual stream iCAT H.264 or MPEG-4 recording. (T#1410)

R3.4.37

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.37

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Axis M3113, M1103, M1104, Q6035, Q1921 (T#1348, T#1368).

  • Canon with WebView: VB-C60 (T#1202).

  • Fitivision CS103A and CS2330 (T#1199).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.37

• Audio dropouts from ACTi camera (T#1283).

• Connection loss to NFS mounted image partition cause recording stop on that device, even if the connection has been restored. The current version retries writing in every 30 seconds (T#1362).

• Rollback in distributed upgrade doesn't remove the newly added tables from database (T#1396).

• After ~1 minute RTSP streamer runs on 100% CPU with Sanyo cameras (T#1374).

• The mailqueue can fill up the root partition (T#1388).

• Dual stream iCAT recording does not work (T#1410).

R3.4.36

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.36

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Axis Q6034 (T#1085).

  • Brickcom VD-130, OSD-040E, OB-100, MD-100, FD-100, FB-130, FB-100, CB-100 (T#949).

  • Vivotek IP7160 (T#785), IP7330 (T#786), IP8151 (T#787).

  • Shany SNC-10000, SNC-WD2112 (T#803). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

• Audio support for Panasonic NF284 (T#757).

• MJPEG and audio support for Cellinx MR310(T#804). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.36

• Discrete zoom for the Sanyo VCC-HD5400 (using a joystick) seemingly did not stop (T#1108).

• The NAS settings are not enough understandable (T#1138).

• VideoAnnotation makes server FATAL (T#1146).

• Client is hanging after changing customer data in ASP system (T#1232).

• After marking all recordings of all cameras of a customer as non-deletable, ASP system may delete recordings of other customers (TA-ASP platform, T#1248).

• No recording on NAS devices (T#1235)

• iCAT recording may change to continuous recording, though it is not scheduled. It my happen randomly with MJPEG alarm recording if post alarm time is specified shorter than 10 seconds (T#1239).

• Propagation of some camera related information (e.g. used storage size) in large scale distributed environment with large amount of cameras may cause system slowdown (T#1266).

• The FTP upload bit has been added to all 5th generation SOny cameras (T#1174).

• The admin menu's [16], not work corretly. The function does not stops the NETAVIS process, and does not starts after the settings. (T#1371)

• Netavis not starting after setting network parameters

• Client fixes for platforms other than Linux/Windows e.g. Mac OS X (T#1294)

  • Archive MJPEG playback possible

  • Zooming in the view port and in archive view have been disabled, because it is not supported.

R3.4.35

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.35

• The following cameras have been added:

  • LG LW-6424 (T#1112). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

R3.4.34

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.34

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Eneo GXC-1606M (T#1092).

  • Mobotix M24 (T#1020).

R3.4.33

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.33

• The following cameras have been added:

  • CNB IPM3063 (T#805).

• Eneo GLC-1601 audio and MPEG-4 support (T#800).

• PTZ support for Sanyo VCC-HD5400(T#1109).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.33

• Sanyo joystick PTZ works incorrectly (T#1108).

• Root partition is filled with multi.* files (T#1111).

R3.4.32

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.32

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Sony SNC-CH110, SNC-DH110, SNC-CH160, SNC-CH180, SNC-CH220, SNC-DH220, SNC-CH260, SNC-DH260, SNC-CH280, SNC-DH280 (T#991, T#1019).

  • Cellinx MR310 (T#804). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

• It is possible from now to enable/disable iCAT event propagation by custom event handlers. With this feature it is possible to setup a system where we only would like to record motion when some condition is exist (for example a traffic light is red). The traffic light can be connected to an I/O device and then the I/O device can be configured to send and event on I/O port changes(please refer to the I/O device setup XMLs for more details). The generated event can be caught in the custom event handler(please refer to the external event handler CustomEventHandler.java for an example) and based on that the event propagation can be turned on/off (or any other action can be taken). (T#1069)

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.32

• Bad usability of http or ftp uprgade. User may interrupt downloading of files too early. (T#1050)

• No archive overview image appears for H.264 or MPEG4 recordings when viewing overview images of JPEG recordings first. (T#1070)

• Bandwidth Limiter does not work on some processor types (eg.: i7) (T#1093)

R3.4.31

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.31

• The following cameras have been added:

  • ACTi TCM7811 (T#798). The digital I/O port handling has also been integrated. For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

  • Axis P1347 (T#997).

• The distribution media (DVD) can be tested prior to installation (#689).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.31

• PTZ was mistakenly enabled for the Sony SNC-CH120 and SNC-CH210 cameras (#946).

• Client on server can not mount the USB device for storing the archive (#971).

• Broadcom network card driver breakdown (#1016).

• Live stream stops for 1-2 seconds in the Online Monitor (#1023).

• The event ConnectionToCameraRestored may appear even if the connection to camera is not working (#1025).

• Camera and user administration over NUS may be unstable in large scale distributed system. Note, that refresh period of disk usage details (free space and allocated space) in the Observer client's Camera Admin Tool has been set to 5 minutes. (#1040)

R3.4.30

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.30

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Added missing megapixel resolution (1280x960) to JVC VN-X235U (T#777).

  • Axis P3346 (T#797).

  • Samsung SND-3080P (T#945).

• New update log has been implemented

  • A new update.log file is going to be created automatically under the users' netavisLibs directory to follow the downloading activities via the Observer Client.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.30

• iCAT "visual statistics" are not visible neither in the OM nor in the archive view (T#901).

• User login is not possible from a multi-client workstation (create 2nd,3rd,.. client session on the same PC) if all user licenses are checked out (T#984).

• Very low fps recording (eg.: 1 pic / 5 min) stops when iCAT recording is active as well (T#801).

R3.4.29

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.29

• At NAS storage, if the external device not mounted, the server writes full the root partition (T#779).

• H264 stream falls apart when stream is acquired continuously from the camera for a really long time(2-3month) (T#796).

R3.4.28

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.28

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Eneo NXC1401M, NXC1402M(T#755). For the list of limitations please consult our separate document.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.28

• Event statistic does not work properly in distributed system. Events are inserted with wrong timestamps into the statistics database after the connection between NUS and NCS is broken for a longer period of time (T#780).

• Tilting the head of the ENEO NTD-6101 with the reticle was moving the PTZ head in other directions, too (T#778).

R3.4.27

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.27

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Allnet ALL2205, ALL2288 and ALL2298 (T#709, T#710, T#711).

  • Sony SNC-DH210 (T#717).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.27

• During event replication (passing an event from NCS to NUS) a deadlock may occur when network is not reliable (T#763).

R3.4.26

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.26

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.26

• Distributed upgrade with large number of hosts in a quick network fails (T#737).

• Periodic fatal condition in NUS-only installation (every 6 hours) (T#752).

R3.4.25

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.25

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Panasonic WV-SP102 and WV-SP105 (T#732, T#733).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.25

• Length for the Identifier and Comment fields in the Video analysis (iCAT) administration tool was too short (T#734).

R3.4.24

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.24

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Panasonic WV-SP306 (T#484).

• The format of the server.externalIO.deviceio.DeviceMappings.sample.xml file has been extended to enable definitions for: icons and sounds for events and communication lost and restored notifications. For further information please read the appropriate comments in the XML file (T#708). Because of the type of communication we use when you select HTTP_CLIENT as SenderRole in the XML file the communication lost and restored events will not be detected and sent.
  
  As you know the previous version has introduced a generic device I/O handling feature in Observer. With this solution anyone can easily add support for any I/O device (including cameras) just by simply supplying the appropriate XML files. To make our customers' life easier this release includes template files for two further devices.

  • Generic descriptor for Sony 5th generation cameras has been added (T#719). Note: Cameras with firmware version 1.07.00 might stop communicating after a few requests. If you face similar problems please upgrade to firmware version 1.26 which completely solves this type of problem.

  • Generic descriptor for Basler cameras has been added (T#399).

• VIP Control functionality has been added to LNT. To set up VIP control in LNT, just go to edit mode then right click on a control icon and then select modify. You can assign VIP control (as any other actions) to single click, double click, mouse hover and context menu. In order to activate the VIP control function on the server side please setup CameraMatrixMapping or CameraMatrixMapping2 (see also release notes 1.12.2) for LNT. The Matrix-View function can be activated for LNT control by editing and uploading the file server.utils.CameraMatrixMapping.LNT.xml or server.utils.CameraMatrixMapping2.LNT.xml (T#715).

• Optimized live stream handling for lower startup delay in distributed video systems (T#716).

• Display recording problem in the client.
  Display the status "Degraded recording" or "Recording stopped" in the server status field of the client. Degraded recording means that the server is not recording on one or more image partitions, but there is still recording on some other partitions. Recording stopped means that all image partitions are corrupt, no more recording is possible. Mouse over the status text will popup information about the corrupt partitions. If all image partitions are corrupt then the sever will reboot after a timeout of 15 minutes (bundled version with local disk image storage only) in order to do automatic filesystem check and repair. Note, that only that server's status is displayed to which the client is connected to. (no distributed feature) (T#721)

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.24

• Use an eye-friendly background color for JSP pages (T#611).

• High amount ftp upload from cameras may cause that server cannot start (T#714).

• Groundlessly high server CPU load. (T#718).

• Archive player has s problem with playing 5 Megapixel H.264 video (OutOfMemory). In general, the playback of high resolution video is optimized in this version (T#722).

• Client can not be started if Bandwidth limit is configured on the server (T#724).

R3.4.23

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.23

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Vivotek FD7132, IP8330, IP8332 (T#683-685).

• The Observer client is now use an environment variable for defining the top directory for the client side installation. The name of the variable is "NETAVIS_DIRECTORY" and the directory must exists prior to starting the Observer client. If the variable does not exist the installation will use the same directory as in any of the previous versions (T#693).

• New admin menu item [27] has been added to check SMART status of hard disk(s) in the server. Besides that the server executes automatic, periodic SMART check (every 5 minutes) of the local hard disks. In case of any SMART check failure the text "HARD DISK FAILURE" appears in the status info bar of every connected client. Some additional device info will be popped up on "mouse over" (T#697). Note, that

  • Only SMART-capable local disks, which have the device /dev/.d[a-z] (eg. /dev/sda) will be checked. A system info event is gererated once at Observer startup time, if there is any disk in the system, which cannot be opened for SMART check (eg.: an USB stick inserted into the server).

  • No SMART error of NCS servers will be reported on clients which are connected to NUS (smart check is no distributed feature in this version)

  • For unbundled systems the utility /usr/sbin/smartctl has to be added to /etc/sudoers for the arms user with the option NOPASSWD

• Integration of the Axis P8221 I/O device (without audio) (T#447, T#553). The current implementation supports TCP/IP notifications from the device. For this you have to "program" the device so that it sends TCP/IP notifications to our server upon I/O port activation/deactivation. The syntax of this notification message is very important and will be described later.
  
  For listening to device notifications our external I/O server is using port 10100 which should be opened on your firewall if you are using Observer in an unbundled installation. The file server.externalIO.deviceio.DeviceTypeDescriptor.Axis_P8221.xml under the config directory describes the port direction settings and commands which are sent and received. There is only one part of this file which should be customized by you. This is the <PortMappings> part which should reflect the current I/O direction settings for each "leg" you have in your device.
  
  Let's setup now a device together which will send activation/deactivation notifications on "pin" one and as an action we will raise "pin" two on the device as a reaction to activation and lower "pin" two for deactivation. For all modifications you do you have to download the corresponding XML file from our server, edit it and then reload it to the server.

  • First edit the server.externalIO.deviceio.DeviceTypeDescriptor.Axis_P8221.xml file to reflect port directions:

      <PortMappings>
        <Port Number="1" DevicePortID="1" Type="DIGITAL_INPUT" />
        <Port Number="2" DevicePortID="2" Type="DIGITAL_INPUT" />
        <Port Number="3" DevicePortID="3" Type="DIGITAL_INPUT" />
        <Port Number="4" DevicePortID="4" Type="DIGITAL_INPUT" />
        <Port Number="5" DevicePortID="5" Type="DIGITAL_INPUT" />
        <Port Number="6" DevicePortID="6" Type="DIGITAL_INPUT" />
        <Port Number="7" DevicePortID="7" Type="DIGITAL_INPUT" />
        <Port Number="8" DevicePortID="8" Type="DIGITAL_INPUT" />
      </PortMappings>
    

  • Then edit the server.externalIO.deviceio.DeviceMappings.sample.xml (or defaults) file and add your physical device to it:

        <Device DeviceID="3" Type="Axis_P8221" IP="192.168.4.163" Name="AxisIO" >
          <PortMappings>
            <Port Number="2" DevicePortID="2" Type="DIGITAL_OUTPUT" />
          </PortMappings>
          <Communication Type="HTTP" User="root" Password="pass" />
          <Port Number="1">
            <Event PortValueCondition="1" Type="BarrierOpened" BarrierName="VeryLargeParkingLot">
            </Event>
            <Event PortValueCondition="0" Type="BarrierClosed" BarrierName="LargeParkingLot"/>
          </Port>
        </Device>
    

    Take care that the DeviceID is one higher than your last device's ID and the Type matches the name of the above XML file's "last" name (in this case Axis_8221). Use the proper IP address and user/password combinations of your device. The <PortMappings> tag used in the DeviceTypeDescriptor XML file gives a vendor global assignment. If you want to overwrite some port-direction settings for a concrete device use the same tag within the DeviceMappings file (as in our example above).
    
    If this was the first case you have edited this file you don't have a file with default.xml extension on your server. In this case you have to upload the edited file as server.externalIO.deviceio.DeviceMappings.default.xml. Please carefully read the comments in all XML files for further information. Please also read the Barionet section in the list of enhancemetns for release 3.1.0.

  • Now open a connection to your device e.g. in an Internet Explorer and go into Setup->Events->EventServers. To add your Observer server as TCP server click on Add TCP... and enter the address of your server and 10100 as port. Click on OK, then select Event Types and click on Add triggered.... Select Input ports for Triggered by..., Active for Input 1.
    
    Note: Use Active for low-to-high, Inactive for high-to-low transitions. The third option (Change) has no affect for Observer, so please avoid using it.
    
    Check Send TCP notification, fill out the send to box with the name of your server you have defined previously and carefully enter the following text into the message box:

        statechange,3,1,1
    
        where
          statechange - is a fixed string
          3           - must match with the DeviceID number (in this case 3)
          1           - port number
          1           - port value (1 for activated, 0 for inactivated)
    

    Now add another event for the input port's inactive state with message:

        statechange,3,1,0
    

  • After uploading all XML files to the server please restart it. Setting "pin" one to high should trigger an event in Observer and set "pin" two to high state in the device, while turning "pin" one to low should turn "pin" two to low and trigger an other type of event.

  Note: The syntax of the XML files have been changed. If you have started using the new syntax, please do not interchange it with the old one.

• Popup live view of cameras upon an MotionDetection or other iCAT event (T#700)

  The implementation works as follows:

  • To invoke this feature the Observer admin must setup the name or the comment field of the event in the following format:
    pop:<MODE[,VIEW_NAME]>;[ADDITIONAL_CAMERA_IDS];[USER_NAMES];[IP_ADDRESSES] - where

    • MODE[,VIEW_NAME] =

      • if MODE = 1 - shows camera(s) in a large view where all of them is included or create a new for them (view name is prohibited in this mode)

      • if MODE = 2 - shows camera(s) in the type of most formerly used view, named after the comma (view name is mandatory)

      • if MODE = 3 - shows camera(s) in the type of shifted fifo view, named after the comma (view name is mandatory)

      • if MODE = 4 - shows camera(s) in the type of dynamic view, named after the comma (view name is mandatory)

      • if MODE = 5 - pairs every cameras in order to a user from the list of cameras and users and shows all of this pairs in a large view. (The logged in user's view will be changed to a large view of the ordered camera) If the camera list is empty than it works as MODE 1. If one of the camera or user list is longer than the other list than it creates pairs only from the shorter list. (view name is prohibited in this mode)

      • if MODE = 6 - pairs every cameras in order to an IP address from the list of cameras and addresses and shows all of this pairs in a large view. (All views of the Observer client from the corresponding IP address will be changed to a large view of the ordered camera) If the camera list is empty than it works as MODE 1. If one of the camera or IP addresses list is longer than the other list than it creates pairs only from the shorter list. (view name is prohibited in this mode)

      • if none of above - the popup is not going to be executed or shown

    • ADDITIONAL_CAMERA_IDS = an optional comma separated list of camera IDs which should be shown in addition to the camera which triggered the event

    • USER_NAMES = an optional comma separated list of user names to notify. If not defined then all users are going to be notified.

    • IP_ADDRESSES = an optional comma separated list of client workstation IP addresses to which the notification has to be sent. If not defined then all connected workstations are going to be notified.

  • Note: If both, USER_NAMES and IP_ADDRESSES are specified for filtering then only the first elements of both lists are going to be used in AND relationship!

  • Examples of directives to be used in any iCAT comment field:

    • pop:1;;;

      popup live view of the camera which triggered the event in all connected client sessions

    • pop:2,my_queue;3,4;;

      popup live view of camera which triggered the event and the camID 3, 4 in the view named 'my_queue' in all connected client sessions

    • pop:3,my_fifo;3,4;mike;192.168.7.12

      popup live view of camera which triggered the event and the camID 3,4 in the view named 'my_fifo' where the ip address of the client workstation is 192.168.7.12 and user 'mike' is logged in.

    • pop:4,my_dynamic;3,4;;

      popup live view of camera which triggered the event and the camID 3, 4 in the view named 'my_dynamic' in all connected client sessions

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.23

• It is not possible to get MJPEG stream from 5th generation Sony cameras in Observer with higher framerate then it is set in the cameras webconfig (T#674).

• FPS settings are reset to the "default settings" value when an already defined scheduling is opened for modification (T#676).

• Setting the speed parameter to 10GBs of the NIC was not possible (T#686).

• Remote licensing showed only one of the licensee's camera number when remote host's local address was set to loopback (T#691).

• Could not generate license when demo key was 14 characters long (T#692).

• Server out of memory problem (T#690).

• MJPEG recording has lower framerate than specified. This may happen if there is a large frame delay variance in the network (T#698).

R3.4.22

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.22

• Observer client applet does not start if Java 1.6.0_21 is installed on the client PC (T#661).

• Default recording time (1 day) is too short. It has been increased to 30 days (T#664).

• The English user manual is shown when German user interface is selected (T#606).

• Observer can not start if some partitions are full. This version improves the cleanup process of unnecessary files on root and netavis partitions (T#653).

• Admin menu item "Add image storage hard disk" doesn't recognise new hard disk (T#668).

• If the procedure "Checking free space on disk" cannot ensure enough space on disk then Observer restarts endlessly. (T#669)

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Axis P5532 camera (T#673).

Technical notes for Observer 3.4.22

• CentOS 5.5 is used for the bundled version (T#662).

• Automatic reboot for Hikvision DS-2CD7153 when the substream was set to H.264 but Observer starts MJPEG (T#665).

• After a longer streaming period some camera models (eg. Axis P3304) may deliver audio frames only (no video frames). Observer detects this situation and the stream will be restarted automatically (T#672).

R3.4.21

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.21

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Hikvision DS-2CD886BF-E, DS-2CD752MF-E, DS-2CD852MF-E (T#656-658).
    Limitations:
    DS-2CD7153 - in case no MJPEG stream is coming from the camera a camera reboot is required.
    DS-2CD886BF-E - certain setup of H264 streams can result in incorrect MJPEG images.
    DS-2CD752MF-E - produces invalid images in higher resolutions (1600x1200, 1600x912).

  • Sony SNC-DH160 camera (T#660).

• Digital PTZ for the Vivotek FD8361, IP7361 cameras (T#655).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.21

• Picture is broken with 5th generation Sony cameras (T#659).

R3.4.20

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.20

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Basler BIP-1000C-dn and BIP-1300c-dn (T#610).

  • Sony SNC-CH210, SNC-CH120 and SNC-DH120 (T#616).

  • Axis P3304 (T#642).

  • MJPEG support for Hikvision DS-2CD7153 (T#635).

  • Support for 1024x576 MJPEG streams in Sanyo cameras (T#644).

  • Vivotek FD7141, FD8361, IP7134, IP7142, IP7151, IP7361 (T#646-648, T#650-651).

  • H264 support for Vivotek IP8161 (T#495).

• New SNAP request VideoStreamAnnotation has been added. Sending a VideoStreamAnnotation request to the server will add annotation text as a label to the live and/or archive video stream of the specified camera. Appearance parameters (color, font type and size, position within the image, duration) can be defined in the request. Please find more details in the SNAP documentation. In addition, a new event VideoStreamAnnotation will be generated when receiving a VideoStreamAnnotation SNAP request. The event appears in the event list and the event search tool allows filtering on VideoStreamAnnotation events, as usual. Selecting VideoStreamAnnotation in the event type filter, the annotation text can be searched for by SQL type wildcards. This feature allows external devices (POS terminal, ATM device,...) to attach any text to the video stream and the possibility to search for annotation text and corresponding video sequences. As an example, a sample application has been added to the Observer bundle. The file annotate.zip is downloadable from the server's Web page ("Start customizer" > "Download configuration files"). It contains a sample program (annotate.exe with command line interface and Java source code of it) for a SNAP client sending an Annotation request to a Observer server. Please refer to annotate-readme.txt. Note, that some parameters (font size, color, label position and "stop on click") of the annotation have no effect in this version. The text label appears always at the bottom of the video with white font on gray background. Next versions will fix these limitations (T#637).

• Default settings for JPEG and streaming formats (MPEG4, H.264 and MxPEG) can be set independently. JPEG settings are possible only for those cameras from which Observer can pull only one JPEG stream at a time, or if "Multi stream allowed" is not selected. The FPS value given in the JPEG default setting is the maximum which can be chosen from Online Monitor or Schedule page of the Camera Administration.

• DigitalCameraFailure event is generated when a camera is not able to deliver the stream of selected type, resolution and/or fps. The event text contains information on requested stream type and resolution, and the HTTP error code received from the camera. The event is repeated every 30 seconds until the situation is fixed (resolution and/or fps is changed to a value which is supported by the cameras current setup). Note, that some dual-codec cameras can not deliver every resolution/fps combinations on both codecs at the same time (T#638).

• If "Multi stream allowed" is selected, but only one streaming video type (MPEG-4, H.264 or MxPEG) is selected (no JPEG!) then Observer will deliver the selected MPEG-4, H.264 or MxPEG stream to every stream consumer (Online monitor or Recording), but it will pull one QVGA MJPEG stream for dual-stream iCAT processing (eg. for server MD) (T#639).

• The license purchase dialog automatically copies the returned host-key into the clipboard for further use. It is also possible to send a license request using the same host-key information (T#598).

• Show iCAT event costraints in the Event Dialog when mouse is over the image area. (T#645).

• A new plugin was added to the External I/O server to handle Diebold ATM transactions via the serial port. Parametrization of the plugin can be done via editing and uploading a simple XML file. For details please download and read the contents of the common.utils.ExternalIOPluginMappings.default.xml file from the server (via customizing Web access). NOTE: Do not forget to set the valid attribute to one (valid="1") to enable the plugin (T#652).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.20

• No joystick driver was available under 64bit Windows (T#555).

• It is not possible to stop, halt or reboot a server from the System information tab (T#565).

• No result is returned for the event search when the search is made for an event field detail (T#618).

• Mobil client installer now points to iStore to enable download of our iPhone client (T#629).

• Distributed rollback may cause inconsistent DB and program environment (T#630).

• Bad tables during system backup will not be repaired (T#631).

• Script errors in the unbundled distributed upgrade.

• Corrupted Hikvision H.264 streams (T#617).

• SAFE Player playback problem with high resolution H264 streams (T#640).

• SAFE Player flickering (T#641).

• OM video sometimes delayed (T#620).

• Audio saving flag was enabled (in the schedule tool) even when no audio was allowed from the camera (T#643).

• System overloaded message appears in the client DOS console, although client CPU is not very busy. (T#633)

• Some MPEG/H.264 decoding error messages in the client DOS console. (T#633)

• Cannot remove camera from view port when the camera is attached to a zoom-area. Dragging zoom-area outside of the view does not remove camera from view port to which it was assigned to. (T#608)

R3.4.19

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.19

• The following cameras have been added:

  • Vivotek FD8161

  • Hikvision DS-2CD7153 (H.264 only) (T#609)

  • Axis M1011, M1054, M1113, M1114, M3011, M3114, M3204, Q1910-E (T#586,T#588)

• The number of fatal dumps stored on system, has been reduced from 30 to 5 to spare storage space (T#556).

• The Observer server can now function as an NTP time server. There are two possibilities to service other hosts with time, one (when no external time server connections can be made) is to service other hosts with our own (CMOS) clock as reference time, second (when external time server connections are possible) is to service other hosts (including ourselves) with the time of an external time server. An Observer server is now able to synchronize with up to three time servers. Giving the first time server is mandatory, the next two are optional. If you do not want to use the second or third server, give 0.0 as IP address and the entry will be ignored (T#570).

• The Observer server monitors the usage of the main partitions. If the usage of such a partition reaches a given high water mark, then it starts to delete the unnecessary files from them, or if the data base storage is near full, it sends a warning event (T#571).

• The languages has been sorted - based on UTF-8 order - in the list (T#572).

• The following new languages have been added: Japanese, Korean, Traditional and Simplified Chinese (T#596).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.19

• 64bit Observer Client may crash when decoding a corrupt H.264 stream (T#552).

• The "Add image storage hard disk" menu item causes error if the added disk is a NAS device (T#559).

• The start script of Observer checks the available space on the netavis partition. If it is not enough to start the application, it first cleans the fatal dump directory, and then the directory containing FTP alarm images from cameras, until there is enough space to start the application (T#574).

• At the end of finalizing the reported server IP address is 127.0.0.1 (T#595).

• No archive playback is possible on Client-on-Server systems (T#592).

• Server file system full due to frequent Java heap dumps (T#591).

• Camera tree is now sorted (top-down) by name (T#507).

• No audio could be sent to an Axis camera (#T530, T#577).

• Live video stream over port 33331 may get broken if the network connection is unstable. Some kind of error recovery has been added which makes the stream more robust. (T#537).

• Client download is slow on some Windows 7 and Vista configurations. (T#602)

• Showing cameras via URL control (#T594). A new URL control has been added which allows the user to show a list of cameras in a view panel of the Online Monitor. The following mandatory parameters are to be used along with the command:

R3.4.18

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.18

• The following cameras have been added to Observer:

  • Vivotek IP7139, IP7161, SD7323 (T#485, T#493, T#494).

  • Arecont Vision generic driver (replacing former AV-3100M driver) (T#535).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.18

• The status information provided by the system is not comform to clustered Linux environment. The status "not running" or "unknown" was returned whenever the server was in software fatal condition. This version does not return "not running" or "unknown" in case of a single fatal contition, but if the fatal condition is permanent (occures repeatedly). This feature can be swiched on or off at installation time (T#342).

• Security warning when the applet is running in a Java 1.6.0 update 20 virtual machine (T#465).

• Server fatal condition (OoM in maintenancer) on heavy recording systems with many cameras (over 100) and large archive (over 10 TB) (T#511).

• Server is not responsive (very slow connection) after a client connection breakdown during client session initialization phase. Only Observer restart helps (T#512).

• Added some missing resolutions for the Sony CH140 and DH140 cameras (T#529).

• It is not possible to get MPEG4 and H264 streams from Basler cameras, when UDP communication is blocked for some reason (e.g. firewall) (T#534).

• Starter application crashes (NPE) and writes the message "No Java installed on your machine!". Note, that the starter application has to be replaced on the client machine in order to get this bugfix. It will be replaced automatically when the system is upgraderd to this version and the client is successfully started. If the client cannot be started (due to this bug) then the client has to be re-installed. (T#526)

• Zooming in the archive with H.264 / MxPEG format does not work properly. Zooming works only when you replay the scene, if you have a freezed image, zooming is not possible. You can only move the green frame (T#524).

• Server FATAL condition (OutOfMemory) (T#546).

• If LNT user has no event access right then active zone highlighting does not work (T#514).

• Admin menu repeats last entered command after 5 mins of timeout (T#551).

R3.4.17

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.17

• Support Dual-stream iCAT processing for cameras which are able to deliver MJPEG and at least one of H.264 or MPEG4 or MxPEG streams in parallel. If the checkboxes "Multi-stream allowed" and "Allow JPEG streaming" are set in the Camera Administration then the camera is allowed to do dual-stream iCAT processing. If alarm recording (server MD or other iCAT functions) parameters are set to H.264, MPEG4 or MxPEG with high framerate (higher than 5 fps) or high resolution (bigger than 640x480) stream then teh server will pull a second, low resolution (QVGA,fine) MJPEG stream for iCAT processing. The framerate of this second stream depends on the iCAT function. This is useful because the server CPU load of iCAT processing is much lower with low framerate QVGA MJPEG. Note, that Dual-stream iCAT processing will no tbe activated automatically after enabling the Multi-stream capability. Please stop and start (disable/enable) all iCAT funtions of the camera in order to activate Dual-stream iCAT after changing the Multi-stream choice. (#490)

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.17

• ABS is activated for a client session, even if the client is connected over a NIC which IP adress is not matching the address entered in the field "IP adress of NIC for banwidth limitation". This happens only if "Total outgoing bandwidth limit [kbps]" is not specidied for that NIC. Otherwise, it works correctly. Workaround: specify 999999 as total outgoing bandwidth limit. (T#166).

• Query in event list is not working. (T#489)

• Install "nlis" with a connected NAS as archive doesn't work. It is not possible to add recording for cameras. (T#491)

• Server FATAL condition if requested recording time of a camera is set to 0. (T#497)

• iCAT visible info in OM disappears after switching to camera admin iCAT setup tool. This bug has been marked as fixed in a previous version, but is was not really 100% fixed, so the ticket was reopened. The problem is fixed 100% in this version. (T#461)

• Selecting modify option in Host Administration switches back to the main host parameter panel. (T#498)

• ABS works in distributed system only if the host parameter "Total outgoing bandwidth limit" on NCS is set to 0 or if the field "NIC address for bandwith limit" is set to "NUS" and "Total outgoing bandwidth limit" is set to a value > 0. In this version ABS is activted in a distributed system between NUS and NCS even without setting any of the parameters "Total outgoing bandwidth limit" or "NIC address for bandwith limit". If NIC address is set to "NUS" then only streams over the NUS will be transcoded, but streams between client and NCS will not be transcoded in this case. (is related to ticket T#166)

• After the client rebuilds connection to the server after a connection loss, live streams are started immediately even if the Online Monitor tool is not selected. Streams are running in the background eating network and CPU resources on the client. (T#499)

• Connection to camera lost/restored event is not generated for MPEG4 and H264 streams for some camera types (eg. Sony) (T#492)

• Pre-alarm fps selector is enabled for H.264 MPEG4 or MxPEG streams. Pre-alarm fps is always the same as post-alarm fps, so the choice must be disabled, and show the same value as post-alarm fps.

Technical notes for Observer 3.4.17

• Do not check filesystem of image partitions at boot time if the system was correctly stopped. Partitions will be checked on if linux shutdown ws not clean or the partitions are not mountable. This makes linux boot much faster in case of using large image partitions (T#496).

R3.4.16

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.16

• PTZ support for Bosch VG4 camera (T#475).

• Recording performance has been increased. The system is able to record video streams up to 35 MBytes/sec in total (using SATA disk subsystem), which is more than 20% increment compared to previous versions. Note, that the full performance increment can only be reached on systems which has been installed with this version. Although upgraded systems will be faster as well, they will not reach the performance increment mentioned above. In order to reach optimal performance please reboot the server after the upgrade (reason: image partitions will be re-mounted with new parameters) (T#476).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.16

• No red markers in the archive calendar if MPEG4,H.264 or MxPEG server MD and continuous recording is running parallel.(T#471).

• Server OutOfMemory FATAL condition (MAINTENENCER) if the storage access is slow and there are several (>4) image partitions mounted in the system. (T#474).

• iCAT controls disappear in online monitor after changing some iCAT paramaters. (T#461).

R3.4.15

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.15

• The Axis P5534 camera has been added (T#293).

• Dstat utility is installed on the server (T#446).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.15

• Even the highest continuous PTZ movement speed of the Axis camera was slow (T#435).

• Admin menu item 23 "Add image storage hard disk" handles only one new disk (T#437).

• Only I frames are displayed during ABS archive playback for some cameras (e.g. JVC VN-X35) (T#442).

• MPEG4 or H264 stream hangup (camera not responding) after frequent stream start/stop (T#458).

• Image database performance optimized (parallel remove of images on all partitions, more writer threads and larger buffers (T#470).

R3.4.14

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.14

• The following cameras and video servers have been added to Observer:

  • JPEG, MPEG and PTZ support for the Vivotek PZ71x2, IP7154, IP8161 cameras (T#354, T#355 T#361). Note: Video mode for IP8161 must be selected on the camera's configuration page. Each mode has its own limitation (these limitations are described on the camera's page and in the camera's user manual).

  • Axis P3343 camera (T#423). Note: Digital zoom limits the maximum image resolution.

  • Bosch VG4 camera (T#233). Limitations: It is not possible to set the video quality since the camera produces corrupt video streams if video quality not set to auto. Only QCIF and CIF resolutions are supported in H264 mode. Currently available documents contains no infromation about IP based PTZ control so PTZ is not supported.

  • Sony SNC-DM160, SNC-RH164, SNC-RS84, SNC-RS86, SNC-DH180, SNC-DH240, SNC-CH240, SNC-RX570 cameras (T#415). Note: None of the cameras were in our QA laboratory for testing.

• Notification emails sent for in-picture (e.g. motion detection, iCAT) events now contain the first image of the archived video sequence (T#358).

• Frame level step to next/previous frame in archive player for MPEG4, H.264 and MxPEG recordings. Note that continuous playback still starts always at IFrame (GOP start), so frame-jump is possible when starting continuous playback after singe frame stepping. Note that continuous backward playback still plays IFrame only (T#298).

• Lastly saved continuous and iCAT scheduling parameters can be used for upcoming camera setups. Parameters from the last save operation are used as default startup parameters when you add a new continuous or iCAT scheduled recording. With this feature you can save a lot of work when adding new scheduling parameters for cameras. Of course these parameters can be overwritten before save. The Enable interval checkbox is also turned on by default and an interval validity check is also done.
  
  When no previous parameter set was saved and you add a new scheduling interval, all days of the week and the Enable interval checkbox will be turned on by default.
  
  When you want to add the same set of multiple scheduling intervals to more cameras then the best approach is if you add the first interval to all cameras first then you add the second interval starting over with the first camera, etc (T#380).

• Warning dialog after adding a new camera is not shown any longer, but please be aware that changing the time-zone setting after adding a camera is still not possible (T#404).

• Use VGA/4CIF image by default when adding a new camera (T#409).

• Two new methods have been added to all event handlers' base class to query the ID or name of a camera based on its IP address (getEntityIDByIPAddress(), getEntityNameByIPAddress()) (T#369).

• Increase allowed server startup time from 30 seconds to 2 minutes (T#419).

• Added the possibility for the EMS handler writer to log into a separate custom logfile (T#411, T#418). The methods (setupCustomLogger() and log_custom()) are available from all user editable handlers. If the user omits the call to setupCustomLogger() before calling log_custom() a default custom logfile will be created under "/tmp/EMS_custom.log" with a maximum 5 MB size and rotate count two (total of 10 MB). The setupCustomLogger() call can be put into any constructor of a handler class to setup the environment of the logging system, although the directory MUST exist where the logfile will be created and the total amount of space for the logs can not exceed the 10 MB limit. If you make multiple calls (from multiple handlers) to the setupCustomLogger() method only the first will take affect. The signature of the two methods are as follows:

  	/**
  	 * Sets up path, size and rotate count for custom logging. Total number
  	 * of logged MBs can not exceed 10 MB.
  	 * 
  	 * @param path path where the logs are written. Please make sure
  	 * the directory you are supplying already exists before using it from
  	 * one of the handlers.
  	 * @param sizeMB size in megabytes for each logfile
  	 * @param fileCount number of files
  	 */
  	public void setupCustomLogger(String path, int sizeMB, int fileCount) ...
  
  	/**
  	 * Write informational, debugging info into a logfile as custom message.
  	 * The file (by default) can be found under /tmp/EMS_custom.log. Its size,
  	 * rotate count and path can be tailor by calling the
  	 * {@link #setupCustomLogger(String, int, int)} method.
  	 * 
  	 * @param msg the message to be printed
  	 */
  	public void log_custom(String msg) ...
  

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.14

• Parameter value sharing between the Default settings and the Scheduling panels in the Camera Administration tool was not always correct (T#352).

• Frame geometry distortion when ABS live stream is displayed in a client without overlay painting (T#362).

• Scheduling parameter controls for IQEye cameras were always disabled (T#363).

• Mount XFS file-systems without the noatime option (T#366).

• After upgrading from a Observer version with no DHCP support the DHCP setup option is not available (T#367).

• Observer client crashes in overlay painting mode (T#371).

• Live stream of some cameras is not re-starting in some cases after the NUS / NCS connection is lost and restored again (T#372).

• ABS live stream may stop random in a distributed system (T#373).

• From time to time Sony H264 streams become corrupted (grayed) (T#374).

• If customer's short name contains a "/" character, then no recording is possible (T#381).

• Observer client crashes on corrupt MPEG4, H.264 or MxPEG frames (T#395).

• Web upgrade with username and password in URL doesn't works (T#284).

• Showing a zoomed view when clicking into a view port and any zoom area (of an other viewport) was deleted (dragged out of the view port) just before (T#295).

• Multi-stream flag was not selectable for cameras with multiple (different quality) JPEG streams (T#401).

• Too short timeout between FTP image upload (~1 minute) caused that too many trigger images were reported in the image archive. A new value of 5 minutes is used now (T#403).

• The generated URLControlEvent did not contain the IP address of the source sending the URL control (T#369).

• Slow Observer client startup on Windows Vista and Windows 7 when only port 80 is accessible on the server (T#420).

• Image database manager can be overloaded on systems where the disk controllers write performance is rather low compared to the bandwidth of the video stream which has to be recorded. This version contains some optimization but of course overload situation can still happen if the disk write performance is lower than required (T#421).

• It is not possible to get MPEG4/H264 streams from a camera whenever its password contains special characters (T#424, T#410).

• In an AS system all users received notifications (e.g. Email) about the activity of the super-user which had the corresponding privilege turned on (T#333).

• Starter does not check that the user lacks privileges for installing the new starter.jar (T#427).

• NUS startup fails if more than 3 NCS are connected, or if there are more than one mount points in the camera tree per NCS (T#428).

• Random stop of ABS live stream connection in distributed system (T#433).

• Server swapping if ABS live stream is running over a longer period of time. (T#332).

• Continuous recording and parallel server MD (any iCAT function) MPEG-4, H.264 or MxPEG recording may stop. (T#425).

• Sony H.264 stream sometimes gets broken (T#436).

Technical notes for Observer 3.4.14

• Extended logging of server status request, including process ID's (T#386).

R3.4.13

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.13

• The following cameras and video servers have been added to Observer:

  • JVC VN-X235 camera (T#101)

  • Axis P1346 camera (T#304)

  • Allnet ALL2272, ALL2281, ALL2282, ALL2297 camera MJPEG, MPEG-4 and audio support (T#119) (T#128). NOTE: ALL2281 and ALL2282 needs rebooting to apply stream parameter changes, so it takes a lot of time to start the stream after changing any stream parameter.

  • Panasonic WV-NW502 audio, MPEG-4 and H264 support (T#126) and support for 2048x1536 resolution in MJPEG mode. NOTE: Changing to 2048x1536 or changing back from 2048x1536 requires a camera restart which takes approximately 1 min. 2048x1536 supported only in MJPEG stream and 1280x960 supported only in MJPEG and H264 streams.

  • H264 and audio support for Sanyo VCC-HD2100, VCC-HD2300, VCC-HD2500, VDC-HD3100, VDC-HD3300 VDC-HD3500, VCC-HD5400, VCC-HD5600 (T#116). NOTE: camera firmware must be upgraded to the latest version.

• Disable main control button ("blue ball") in Online Monitor and all camera selection choices in view ports if the user has no privileges to modify anything in the Online Monitor (no privilege to create view, add/remove camera, hide controls, and save changes) (T#205).

• New ClientControl actions START_SMART_GUARD and STOP_SMART_GUARD. START_SMART_GUARD can be used with an optional attribute string, which is the name of the Smart Guard Tour to be started. The last active tour will be started when no name is given (T#318).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.13

• Could not handle that a camera was not able to deliver more than one stream with different format or quality (e.g.: JPEG and MPEG4) at the same time. In previous versions we allowed the user to setup different streams in the Online Monitor and e.g. for archiving, although the camera was not able to handle it. As a side-effect, the recording stopped when the user started viewing online images from the camera. With this version you will be able to handle such cases via selecting or deselecting the Multi-stream allowed checkbox (in the Default settings part of the Camera Administration) according to the capabilities of your camera. Deselecting the Multi-stream allowed checkbox will make sure that only one stream is requested from the camera regardless of the number of users. Please be aware that for some cameras the same type behaves differently with different firmware versions. Please check with your vendor that multi-stream capability for a given camera is available (T#22, T#76, T#112, T#230).

• JVC cameras often go to "Camera not responding" state on stream startup (T#224, T#249).

• Large delay when starting MxPEG live stream when MxPEG based continuous recording or iCAT is already running on the server. In general, this version provides better MPEG-4, H.264 and MxPEG live stream startup behavior when continuous recording or iCAT is already running on the server (T#247).

• If the viewport in Online Monitor is smaller than 160x90 pixels then ABS stream does not work (since 3.4.11) (T#281)

• In some (currently unknown) cases - on Windows 7 - the fresh-install stops. After recognizing this situation a message informs the user which lock-file he should remove manually (T#282).

• Entering username and password is not allowed when doing HTTP or FTP upgrade over the Internet (T#284).

• User data changes were not updated correctly on the GUI of other users (T#299).

• Image Database fatal condition when long-time archive spread over many image partitions (e.g.: storage with 38 partitions at OeSD) are being shortened significantly (T#306).

• No recording of some in-camera MD frames transported over FTP if there is a very long delay between transferred frames (very slow network connection between camera and sever) (T#326, T#308).

• Robustness of stream recovery after network problem in distributed system has been improved (T#327).

• Host data changes were not updated correctly on the GUI of other users (T#334).

• When two administrators have modified user records parallel, although the one which tried to lock the resource later have been declined, he was not able to start any new transactions later (T#339).

• Sony MPEG-4/H264 stream can't start in certain situations. (T#348).

R3.4.12

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.12

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.12

• Zoom was not working properly for the Sony DH140 (T#276).

• An ABS stream between NUS and NCS could stop when content of image did not change (T#277).

R3.4.11

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.11

• The following cameras and video servers have been added to Observer:

  • MJPEG, MPEG, H.264 and audio support for Sony SNC-RH124, SNC-RS44, SNC-RS46, SNT-EX101, SNT-EX104, SNC-DH140, SNC-CH140 cameras (T#125, T#220).

  • Audio support for the Bosch NBC-255 camera (T#117). NOTE: Limitations mentioned in 3.4.10 have been solved.

• The 1280x800 resolution has been added to Axis P3344 and P1344 cameras (T#272).

• New aspect ratio 16:10 (eg.: 1280x800) in Online Monitor (T#).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.11

• Server fatal condition when MPEG4 of H.264 streams are very unstable, thus the streamer process has to be restarted very often. The fatal condition happens quite rarely, so it is not reproducible in the test labor. This version contains a preventive fix which will prevent this kind of fatal conditions (T#219).

• A server could not be removed when cameras were still mounted from it but the server itself was not reachable on the network (T#229).

• Multiple event records were generated to one single sabotage occurrence (T#264).

• The installed client will be automatically restarted when Windows crashes the Java VM (T#265).

• Camera sabotage event "focus lost" occurs without having the focus really lost on the camera (false-positive detection) (T#266).

• Client OutOfMemory when the client receive corrupt or incomplete frames. Some more sanity check for JPEG frames added (T#191).

R3.4.10

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.10

• The following cameras and video servers have been added to Observer:

  • Bosch XFM4 (JPEG support only), NBC-255 (T#117) Limitation: Resolution setting for NBC-255 is not working, the camera will produce MJPEG stream with the resolution last set for H264.

  • Panasonic WV-NW502 (JPEG support only) (T#126)

  • MPEG, H.264 and audio support for Sony SNC-DF85, SNC-DS60 (T#127, T#133)

  • JVC VN-V225U (T#101)

• The 4 megapixel image resolution has been added to the appropriate Sanyo cameras (T#245).

• PTZ functionality has been added to the Sanyo VCC-HD5600 (T#246).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.10

• The FTP poller could not handle the symbolic image sizes (e.g. 4CIF) of the Axis camera (T#252).

• FTP poller could cause FATAL when too many cameras were not responding at init time (T#253).

• Some 64 bit installations do not work with grabber card (T#256).

• Webmin upgrade doesn't work (T#257).

• Cannot get MPEG-4 streams from camera due to invalid RTSP port handling (ACTi, Basler cameras) (T#232).

• Random live stream hangup in online monitor. After several hours/days of live viewing, some streams are hanging. Robustness of long-term live streaming has been improved in this version. (#260)

• Some random server fatal conditions (occuring mainly during Observer system shutdown) have been fixed (T#244).

R3.4.9

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.9

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.9

• The address of an URL control host could not be saved in the Host Administration (T#217).

• The FTP alarm image reader did not retry to query event parameters from the camera for which the username/password has been changed (T#157).

• Fatal server condition if the server-server communication timeout is set higher than 3 minutes (180 sec) and the servers have no connection for longer than 3 minutes (T#167).

• Fatal server condition may happen (NPE, very random) after the server-server network connection is lost and restored again (T#199).

• No video stream and no motion percentage indication during Simple Motion Detection setup of some camera types (T#226).

• Some customer sites reported random stopping of iCAT (especially Simple Motion Detection) processing. This may happen if the recording format is MPEG-4, H.264 or MxPEG. Robustness and stability of iCAT processesing has been improved in this version (T#227).

• Post alarm frames are not recorded if the format is MJPEG and the pre/post alarm fps are different (T#235).

• iCAT processing does not work when alarm recording has MxPEG format (T#234).

• Observer installation on a 32-bit machine with 4 GB or more memory cannot mount Image disks (T#223).

• Default pre/post alarm recording time (3/5 seconds) is too short. The default alarm recording time has been changed to 5/15 seconds (T#236).

• Unprivileged user could not upgrade the client installer on Windows 7. Please note that the bugfix requires that the complete Windows side starter envoriment is to be reinstalled. After the reinstallation you will be able to use the "run as system administrator" feature of Windows after receiving the message "...you lack the necessary privileges..." for the installation (T#237).

R3.4.8

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.8

• The following cameras and video servers have been added to Observer:

  • Samsung SNC-B5368P and SNC-B5399P cameras (T#118)
    
    NOTE: As none of the above cameras were in our QA laboratory we could only test the JPEG capability of the SNC-B5368P via the Internet while the second camera has never been available for tests.

  • Axis P1343 and P1344 cameras (T#132)

  • Sony SNC-DF85, SNC-DS60 (T#127, T#133), Sony SNC-RH124, SNC-RS44, SNC-RS46, SNT-EX101, SNT-EX104 (T#125)
    
    NOTE: The current version implements only the JPEG support. Please also note that these cameras are not yet listed in the Supported Video Sources document.

  • Sanyo VCC-HD2100, VCC-HD2300, VCC-HD2500, VDC-HD3100, VDC-HD3300 VDC-HD3500, VCC-HD4000, VCC-HD4600, VCC-HD5400, VCC-HD5600 (T#80, T#116)

• Support of DHCP server, to determine network parameters (T#52).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.8

• Server fatal condition when camera has been deleted during rebuild of Image Database (T#51).

• Permission problems on the client PC when the user has not enough rights to create files under the installation directory (T#81).

• Recording is possible even though the server is installed as NUS (T#91).

• When URL control request came from unauthorized host no HTTP 403 error message was sent back (T#105).

• Remote host IP address text field was too short at mounting a remote camera or group (T#122).

• User login name and password is stored in a configuration file on the client workstation in human readable form (T#114).

• The boot menu option "noraid" has been changed to "hwraid" (T#176).

• The language of the installation is eligible (T#192).

• The database alter mechanism was not working properly when the patch version number was not used (T#170).

• Although the recording is continuous the image allocation line in the archive player is showing disjoint recordings (T#198).

• Barix Barionet not working and floods the event bar with error mesages after turning it off and on (T#168).

• Stability problems while client displays MPEG-4 and H264 streams (T#202).

• Big upgrade from version 3.0.8 or earlier doesn't work (T#202).

• The MPEG and H.264 streams do not work in the 64 bit version (T#204).

Technical notes for Observer 3.4.8

• Logging of server fatal conditions has been improved. Reason for OoM fatal conditions can be localized more easily (eg.: T#131).

• This version is bundled with CentOS v5.4 and Apache Tomcat v5.5.28 (T#155).

R3.4.7

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.7

• Archive player cannot playback MPEG4 or H.264 archive which was recorded with GOP size 1 (T#84).

• The network parameter setting (menu (9b)) tries to set the parameters at wrong NIC if there are more than one NIC in the server (T#99).

• Some mega-pixel resolutions were missing for the Axis 209MFD camera (T#100).

R3.4.6

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.6

• Support for network parameter setup over admin menu. A new menu item has been added (9b), where the speed, duplex mode and auto negotiation can be set for a NIC. The parameters are stored persistently, thus after rebooting the server the actual parameters will be activated. If the NIC doesn't support setting of any parameter then no changes will be done, only an error message will be issued. (T#93).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.6

• Some mega-pixel resolutions were missing for the Axis P3344 camera (T#90).

• ABS live stream over NUS is not working properly. (T#59).

R3.4.5

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.5

• JPEG support for the following Sanyo cameras has been added (T#80):

  • HD2500, HD3500, HD2100, HD2300, HD3100, HD3300, HD5400, HD5600

  NOTE: This is only a preliminary version of the driver. Please also note that no information is added for the above cameras in our Supported Video Sources document.

• SIPORT specific extension: Extension in standard CustumEventHander for SIPORT event prcessing: parameter1 may contain user name as option. Please look at description in the function handleSIPORTEvent() in server/event_manager/internal_handlers/CustomEventHandler.java for more datails (T#88).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.5

• A newly installed license was not checked against local machine's identifier and version number of the locally installed software (T#38).

• More than one host could be added with the same identifier (T#39).

• After relogin - via the Info button's Logout item - into the installed client, no sound was generated for events (T#56).

• Incorrect image and mysql partition size setup for NUS or NLIS installation (T#63).

• H.264 and MxPEG recording formats were not selectable in the ActionPropagator.setArchivingState() method (T#85).

• No all supported images sizes were selectable in the ActionPropagator.setArchivingState() method (T#86).

R3.4.3

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.3

• New method of live video streaming between client and server over port 33331 has been introduced. Reliability of MPEG4, H.264 and MxPEG streams has been increased, frame dropping situations (synchronization on next key-frame) has been minimized.

• Support AAC sound with 8kHz sampling rate for Axis cameras. Previous versions of Observer supported AAC with 16kHz sampling rate only. This version is able to work both with 8 or 16kHz sampling rates.

• Default framerate of MJPEG video of a camera added to a view port (manually or over any ClientControl action) will be set to the fps value which was set in the view-port before adding the camera. Setting default fps value for all viewports of a panel is possible via menu "Set parameters of all view ports". Use menu "Save all view settings" to make the setup persistent between user sessions.

• FPS choice in Online Monitor and Camera Administration has been extended (12,15 and 20 fps choices have been added).

• Set parameters of all online monitor views of the current user. Pressing CTRL-key while clicking on any submenu of the global menu "Set parameters of all view ports" will set the selected parameter not just for the current view panel, but for all view panels of the user. Thus, it is possible to set parameters like video type, quality, framerate, iCAT visual appearance,... for all view-ports just by one single click.

• PTZ support for Axis M7001 video server.

• Support for the following Axis cameras and encoders: Axis Q6032-E, Axis 209MFD, Axis P3344, Axis Q7404.

• New attribute "CameraName" for custom button definition (client.user.sample.gui.Tools.xml). Comma-separated list of identifiers is allowed for the attributes CameraID and CameraName. Only one of the attributes CameraID and CameraName can be used (T#26).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.3

• In-camera motion detection over ftp transport is not working in version 3.4.2.

• Auto-login with secondary password was not possible.

• During the modification of parameters in the Video analysis (iCAT) tool the camera tree was not disabled.

• During the deletion or moving a camera in the Camera Administration the camera tree was not disabled.

• iCAT tracking object boundaries are visible in the PTZ Administration.

• Continuous recording may stop without any special reason. It starts again when any scheduling parameter has been changed.

• Login of a user with secondary password and the auto-login feature enabled did not work in some special situations.

• Custom text, date and time does not appear in Axis video stream.

• Continuous PTZ control stops working after changing view panel (eg.: after double click in a view port where PTZ was activated).

• If continuous recording is started in MPEG-4, H.264 or MxPEG format and in parallel to that iCAT post alarm recording in setup in MJPEG then MPEG-4, H.264 format or MxPEG sequences are mixed with MJPEG frames, which is suboptimal for archive playback and export. This version disables mixed recordings. Mixing continuous and iCAT alarm recording is only possible if both recordings are MJPEG. Otherwise, continuous recording will not change quality or format in case of an alarm event.

• The "Add image storage hard disk" admin menu function can not handle new, uninitialized disks.

• It was not possible to enter text into the archive access reason dialog when the dialog was opened over the Online Monitor tool (T#1).

• The "SMS number" field in the User Administration tool accepted any characters. Now the user can type in only digits and the '+' (plus) sign (T#3).

• No event "Host Connection Lost/Restored" is generated by the NCS when the connection to NUS is broken/restored.

• Timeout for generating "Host Connection Lost" event is shorter than defined in the Host Administration (field "Timeout for server-server communication"). Note, that setting timeout shorter than 30 seconds has no effect, since the minimum value of server-server communication timeout is 30 seconds.

• Distributed upgrade servers did not refresh host information in some cases. Starting of more than one server on one machine was not handled correctly. Overall robustness of the distributed upgrade mechanism has been increased in this version.
  
  NOTE: The above mentioned fixes will be effective only when upgrading this version with any future releases.

• Showing iCAT event trigger lines/boxes in the online monitor is enabled by default. The default behavior is changed to "Do not show" in this version.

• The choice "Save audio" in Camera Administration Schedule tool becomes enabled (editable) just by clicking in the list "Time intervals".

• Audio is recorded even if the option "Save audio" in Camera Administration Schedule tool is set off.

• Basler cameras with empty user/password deliver no video stream.

• Export in the Archive tool overwrote output file regardless of the state of the "Overwrite old file" checkbox.

• In some cases the mouse wheel zoom-in and out was very harsh and fine movement was not possible.

• Finding the PTZ focus for an Online Monitor view-port was not always working.

• Timestamp of live video frames pushed over SNAP is 0. As consequence, live stream is not working in the ViSNAP integration.

• Server fatal condition (NPE) when some PTZ resources are allocated in a distributed system and the connection between NUS and NCS is broken for a while.

• Password change dialog can not be canceled in a client-on-server client.

• Starting digital/analog encoding (Axis 292 device) on several devices in parallel takes too long time (couple of seconds). This version starts encoding on Axis 292 devices in parallel, which makes stream startup faster.

• No camera access right is checked in SNAP request "Get camera tree". This version inserts a camera in the camera tree only when the snap user has either live or archive view access right for the camera.

• Mix video frames of different cameras, or show corrupt frames in a view port after switching from MPEG4, H.264 or ABS to MJPEG.

• Sometimes buttons do not react for the first mouse click.

• The comment field of iCAT event definition is missing from event text.

• In a distributed system two Observer client applications cannot show the same live video stream (same camera, same frame size and same quality). One of the two clients does not show the stream.

• Archive playback, started from the Online Monitor does not work.

• No camera access right is checked in Online Monitor when the request comes via an action (it could have caused a NullPointerException as a side effect).

• Archive player could freeze up in synchronous playback mode.

• Observer client produce OutOfMemory messages in the DOS console window when view panels of the online monitor are changed very frequently for a longer period of time. (eg. when "Smart Guard" is activated for a longer period of time)

• Password dialog did not disable controls in the background.

• Status printback during distributed upgrade throws exception when MySQL is not running.

• Previously exported SAFE file is removed when "Overwrite old file" is selected and user canceled the action.

• Make font for event printing smaller so that we can fit more columns on a portrait page.

• Event manager server used too many memory when purged old (unused) records from the event-database.

• User login logic with secondary password and auto-login feature enabled did not function always as awaited.

• When a new MPEG scheduling operation is added to a camera, the "Save audio" option is selected (in the background), although the user has not selected the checkbox. The selection of this option is visible only after saving.

• The "Auto-login after 1 min timeout" flag is not saved when a new user is added (T#27).

• Adding a new customer in an AS system could cause a NullPointerException (T#28).

• The client does not synchronize the icons when a new has been added to a server installation (T#29).

• Some corrupt video frames can crash the MPEG decoder (used for iCAT) on the server. Some more sanity check on MPEG-4, H.264 or MxPEG frames have been added in this release (T#30).

• Center camera does not appear in ClientControl SHOW_MATRIX_VIEW (VIP function).

• The client application is loading very slow if there are many view panels defined for the user. In this version the view panes are loaded on demand, so the startup is faster. Note, that global view parameter operations (CTRL-Click on submenu items of "Set parameters of all view ports") will apply only on view panels already visited (T#31).

R3.4.2

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.2

• Significant performance tuning in Observer server and client application. Peformance of continuous recording and live streaming has been increased.

• Performance and robustness of MPEG4, H.264 and MxPEG live streaming, archiving and server motion detection has been increased.

• Enhancements for the pre- and post-event recording algorithms:
  Pre-event recording in MPEG format (MPEG-4, H.264, and MxPEG) is now possible. The algorithms for pre- and post-event recording have been tuned. For further details please refer to the according description in the User Manual.

• Script for starting Observer client on 4 monitors downloadable from server. (START-NETAVIS-on-4-Monitors_v2.bat)

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.2

• MPEG4 streamer processes are not killed after fatal server condition.

• Client started on second monitior comes up with white screen, no controls are visible. The Java option -Dsun.java2d.d3d=false has been inserted in this version.

• When live view was started in the event dialog then live streams are not restarted in the online monitor after closing the event dialog.

• Camera connection lost/restored messages are not always generated. The message "no connetion to camera" does not appear in the live view.

• Barix Barionet driver don't execute setIOPortValue commands in some cases.

• Observer upgrade over http network connection does not work.

• Server fatal condition (NPE) after perfoming a SetIOPort action.

R3.4.1

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.1

• Support for the Mobotix Q24M camera.

• Any user can change his own password via the password change dialog which can be launched from the System information button.

• Transcoded archive export (SAFE or AVI). Setting the host parameter "Transcoding bandwidth limit for archive export streams" will activate transcoding for SAFE and AVI export of MJPEG archives. This feature can be useful when an MJPEG archive has to be exported over a low-bandwidth connection.

• Some frames are transported twice between NUS and NCS in some distributed system setup. This causes higher load on the network and the servers, and it may cause a broken MPEG-4 or H.264 live stream in the client.

• New ClientControl action deactivate PTZ. (Actions.DEACTIVATE_PTZ)

• New mode "show next/previous view" for the ClientControl action SHOW_LIVE_STREAM. (Modes.SHOW_NEXT_VIEW and Modes.SHOW_PREV_VIEW). Note, that this actions are walking trough the view history, like the green arrow buttons in the online monitor.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.1

• Transcoded archive access in single server and distributed environment is not working.

• Zoom indicator button in Online Monitor. Zooming can be reset by clicking on the button.

• HTTP upgrade did not work with http port other than 80.

• Live and archive video stream may have very large delay when the server is accessible only via port-80 (when the ports 33332 and 33333 are closed).

• Eneo and Sony cameras produce invalid frame stamps sometimes which causes video stream "freezing" in Online Monitor.

• JVC MPEG-4 streams often stops in Online Monitor.

• MPEG-4 stream gets corrupted when the live video is viewed in more than one client applications in parallel.

• When the PTZ head of the JVC VN-V686 camera was about to wrap around (a transition from 359 degrees to zero), the "crosshair" PTZ movement was not working.

• FATAL server condition in image database management (long sleep problem).

Technical notes for Observer 3.4.1

• JVC VN-X35U(1.04a) cameras have several seconds startup delay with MPEG4 streams.

R3.4.0

List of enhancements in Observer 3.4.0

• ACTi ACD-2200 video server support.

• Dutch and Greek languages have been added.

• Manual recording control from online monitor. Camera access right "Manual recording control from online monitor" has been introduced. If this right is granted to the user for a camera and there is a continuous recording time interval defined for the camera then the recording control button (red spot on green background) appears in the camera's viewport. Clicking on recording control button, the user is able to switch on/off continuous recording. Using recording control button has the same effect as the control "Enable interval" in the Schedule panel of Camera Administration. Recording control button shows current status of recording: Intensive colors show recording on, light colors (button is faded out) show recording off. Note, that the button does not appear outside of continuous recording time intervals. Appearance/disappearance of the button at the start/end of continuous recording time intervals can be delayed by a maximum of 1 minute. Events RecordingSwitchedOn and RecordingSwitchedOff will be generated.

• ABS transcoding in distributed Observer system. In this version only camera servers (NCS) servers can be setup as transcoding server. NCS can produce transcoded stream, which is transmitted to the clients by the NUS. NUS cannot transcode in version. Thus, bandwidth parameters for transcoding must be set on the NCS only. Future versions of Observer will support transcoding on NUS as well.
  
  Known bug in this release: archive transcoding in distributed environment does not work.

• Priority based PTZ handling has been introduced as new feature. Gaining or loosing PTZ control can now be fine-tuned by defining:

  • priority (from 1 - least, up to 10 - highest). A user with higher priority can take the PTZ control over from a user with lower priority. In Observer we have two invisible (virtual) users: the event manager (to execute the SetPTZPosition action) and the (scheduled) automated router. Both users have priority four (in the middle of the range) so you have a nice playground of assignable priorities.

  • maximum use time. This is the maximum time until a user can hold a PTZ resource. Giving a zero value means that the user can hold the PTZ resource forever. The timer for a user with a non-zero maximum use time will not run up if he is alone in the wait queue and no other user wants to take control of the same device. As soon as an other user is waiting for the same device the run-down mechanism will take affect.

  • maximum inactivity timeout. This is the maximum time until the user can hold the PTZ resource without any PTZ activity. When this timer runs up the PTZ resource will be freed. Giving a zero value means no inactivity timeout is defined and the user can hold the resource without any PTZ activity.

  • automatic PTZ resource queuing. When a PTZ resource is already in use by an other user the user who wants to gain access to the same device can tell whether he is willing to wait (stand in a queue, ordered by priority) for the resource or not. If he waits and the resource is in use he will periodically be notified about the approx time when he can gain control of the PTZ resource.

  The above mentioned parameters can be set in the User Administration tool for each user of the Observer client.

• New menu item "Add image directory" has been added to admin menu.
  This function enables to add any external storage for storing images, if the device is mounted anywhere in the system. The mount point and the amount of usable storage [MBytes] must be entered.

• New menu item "Configure replaced disk" has been added to the admin menu.
  This function will configure the disk drive which has been replaced. This function looks for any unused disk drive in the system, and tries to configure the unused disk to have the same setup as it was before replacing the disk. Only one disk will be configured at one time. This function is usable only in systems with two or more hard disks.
  This automatic repair feature can only be used when the initial installed version of Observer was at least 1.8.10 (or higher). Older versions or custom partitioned systems can only be repaired manually!
  Warning!
  The partitioning form of the disks will not be modified by upgrading Observer. The machine will have the partitioning form of the first installation, independent of which version it is upgraded to.

• Performance of Image Database recovery has been increased in case of using external storage.

• PTZ support for Eneo NTD-4101.

• A new action has been added to EMS which allows the handler writer to send any CGI command to a camera (see function ActionPropagator.sendURLControl()).

• Default framerate of cameras delivering MJPEG video stream in online monitor has been changed from 5 fps to 10 fps.

• Device type descriptor files now can specify which incoming and outgoing values represents the digital 0 and 1(instead of assuming that "0" means 0 and "1" means 1).

• New menu item "Show unusable disks" has been added to admin menu. This function lists details (vendor, type and serial number) of those disks which can not be used by Observer for storing video data. This happens if the disk has a hardware failure, or it is unusable because of any other reason. This function helps to identify the physical device by serial number, which is printed on every disk label.

• Mobotix D22M and Q22M added to supported video sources.

• Search method in the Online Monitor's Camera selector has been changed. The old search tried to locate the entered text only from the beginning while the new will search for the pattern starting at any place. We have also changed the camera ID search. With the new search there is no need to start the ID search with a dor ("."). We prepend the ID virtually to the name thus you can mix name and camera's ID the searches.

• New install option has been added "bigdb", to the install menu. After using this option the installer will be 5 times larger database storage reserving (see "Server Install Admin" manual).

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.4.0

• Video stream startup problem in distributed systems with more than one user server and several clients viewing MJPEG streams of the same camera with different image size, quality and fps. Video stream startup delay up to 1 minute has been experienced.

• Barionet device stopped sending events after reconnection. SF case: 1382

• Even in case the user had no rights to view the Online Monitor the application has been started with this tool selected.

• The joystick was not deactivated after switching the PTZ functionality off in the Online Monitor.

• Live stream in online monitor stops after displaying more than one event without closing the event detail dialog.

• The server may get inaccessible over the network when the whole system memory is allocated due to a system failure or because there is less RAM in the server than required. In this case, some processes are swapped out to the system disk. If the size of the swapped memory is larger then 500 MB (which is not possible in a properly working system) then Observer will be restarted (fatal condition).

• When the same camera has been added to more than one view port of the Online Monitor the PTZ control button was not refreshed (inactivity and run-down timers) correctly.

• Java SNAP API login isn't working with some passwords.

• Eneo MPEG-4 frames displayed in invalid order or skipped sometimes.

• Joystick status information in the Online Monitor was not saved after deactivating the PTZ functions.

• Daylight saving information was missing for time-zone GMT+3.

• Axis M7001 video server was defined as a multi-quality stream camera. Acquiring two streams with different quality settings restarted the streams periodically.

• SNAP channel over TCP port 33333 may break down if there is no traffic on the channel for a longer period of time. SNAP SDK for .Net and Java in this version make sure that the connection does not break down in such situation.

• Adding a new camera right after modifying the I/O setting of a previous camera caused that the I/O values of the modified camera has been taken over into the new camera's I/O values.

• Sever fatal condition (NPE) when a client is logging in during server shutdown process.

• Client control actions (different types of show live view action) switches to online monitor even if the user is doing some system administration. This version will not react on client control actions if admin tools are visible in the client.

• Upgrade from HTTP server, can be use not default port. SF case: 1498

• Framerate of cameras may change to 30 fps when the client re-connects after a server restart.

• The applet was always asking for an installation media or installation over the network when started.

R3.3.5

List of enhancements in Observer 3.3.5

• Observer client shows runtime parameters of the server which it is connected to. The following parameters are displayed in the control panel on the right side of the Observer client window:

  • CPU load of the server in percent: "CPU: n %"

  • Load of Image Database Engine: "IDB: n %". This parameter shows how busy the server is with saving video data on storage. The amount of video data saved on storage per second is displayed below the IDB token (Megabytes/sec or Kilobytes/sec) IDB token does not appear if the server does no recording. Note, that IDB load percent will increase if the server does removing video data (storage is full or recording time limits are reached).

  • Overloaded state of the IDB engine. The IDB engine is overloaded if the server receives more video data from the cameras than it can save on storage. In this case the server will drop frames. This situation is shown by the token "OVR: x %". OVR shows the percent of dropped frames. If the label OVR does not appear then the server can save every incoming frame.

  • The token "SWP: n MB" appears if the server starts heavy swapping, which means that the amount main memory of the server is insufficient.

  CPU load value is updated every 5 seconds, IDB details are updated once in a minute.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.3.5

• Large fluctuation of framerate in the online monitor when the client application is overloaded. In extrem stituation the stream may even stop and strts again after changing the view. This happens mainly in case of Client-On-Server installations, but fluctuation of framerate may also happen in case of standalone client.

R3.3.4

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.3.4

• Live stream startup delay up to 30 seconds in distributed system.

• Observer client application download from 64-bit server architectures may be broken.

• Closing Observer client application takes long time (over 15 seconds) if no live stream is active in the Online Monitor tool.

• Luminance change detector (LCD) of the Simple Motion Detection algorithm disables motion detection when a large dark object appears close to the camera covering a significant part of the image. Thus, large objects moving close to the camera might not be detected. The sensibility steps of the Simple Motion Detection engine has been tuned in this version. Please set lower sensibility if large objects may move close to the camera covering a significant part of the image (mostly in some indoor situations). Using higher sensibilities is recommended for scenes where small content changes has to be detected, ojects moving far from the camera (mostly outdoor).

R3.3.3

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.3.3

• Pre-alarm framerate and pre-alarm recording length for MJPEG alarm recording is lower than specified in the Camera Administration's Schedule tool.
  
  Note, that frame size and image quality of pre- and post-alarm MJPEG recordings may be different. By default, pre-alarm frames have QVGA (or CIF) size, low compression (same frames are used as input for the iCAT processor). There are two possibilities to force pre-alarm frame size and quality larger than QVGA (or CIF):

  • Setup continuous recording in parallel to iCAT alarm recording. The frame size and quality set for continuous recording will be used for pre-alarm recording too. If the framerate of continuous recording is lower than requested for pre-alarm then the framerate of recording will be increased to the pre-alarm fps during pre-alarm time. It works even if continuous recording is set as slow as 1 frame pro 30 minute. Such low-fps continuous recording setup can be useful if the storage should not be filled by continuous recording when no iCAT event happens.

  • Set pre-alarm fps to the same value as post-alarm fps for MJPEG alarm recording. This forces the system to use the same MJPEG stream (same frame size, quality and same fps) for pre- and post-alarm recording.

  Note, that the server CPU load of iCAT processing does increase if the frame size requested for pre-alarm is larger than QVGA (or CIF). This happens since the same MJPEG video stream is used for pre-alarm recording and iCAT processing (this will change in future releases of Observer). The reason for the increased CPU load is that decoding of larger frames needs more CPU, and the frames has to be downsampled. The CPU load of analyzing frames after decoding and subsampling is the same as for a QVGA stream. Thus, the overall relative increment of CPU load (relative to QVGA stream) is higher for less CPU deminaing iCAT process (e.g.: Simple Motion Detection) and lower for more CPU deminaing iCAT process (e.g.: Object Tracking). The increment of CPU load is not very significant for VGA, 4CIF or D1 resolution pre-alarm stream, but it can be significant for megapixel resolutions, first of all in case of configuring a large number of Simple Motion Detection cameras, for example.
  
  Note, that no pre-alarm recording is possible for MPEG-4, H.264 and MxPEG alarm recording. This limitation will be resolved in future Observer versions.

• The sigle image forward and backward buttons in the archive player first moved into the opposite direction.

R3.3.2

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.3.2

• Initial video stream startup may be delayed up to 30-40 seconds in heavy loaded distributed Observer system.

R3.3.1

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.3.1

• There is no way to disable setting of video stream parameters for non-priviliged users. Bugfix in this version of Observer: The user who has no privilege to save view parameters (User Administration,privileges: "Save view layout") does not have the privilege to change video format, fps, frame size and image quality as well.

• Fps setup (camera admin default parametes) for Mobotix MxPEG stream does not work.

• Observer fatal condition after changing time in admin menu.

• AVI export of MxPEG recordings have 1 fps regardless of the framerate of original recording.

• Setting camera name label position for all viewports (Set parameters of all viewports) is not saved.

R3.3.0

List of enhancements in Observer 3.3.0

• With this version a new purging strategy has been introduced for archives containing JPEG images. Archives can now be splitted into two parts, where one part holds images with the original recording frequency while the other part is shrank to a smaller frame rate (Reduced Frame-rate Archive), thus saving disk space. The duration and frame rate parameters for this feature can be set in a dialog which is to be started from the Camera Administration's Scheduling page. (new button "Reduced frame rate settings") The duration of reduced archive - supplied in days and hours - must be smaller than the total recording time, and the target archive image frequency should also be smaller than the original recording. For example, setting 30 days of requested recording period with 25 fps, and 20 days for reduced archive with 3 fps will maintain an archive containing recent 10 days with 25 fps, and the remaining 20 days will be automatically reduced to 3 fps. If disk space is short then the oldest, reduced part of the archive will be truncated. NOTE: Purging of archive with this algorithm starts ONLY after installation of 3.3.0 and activation of the "Reduced frame rate settings" feature. None of the images will be purged before this time and no recording will be purged which has been recorded when "Reduced frame rate settings" was deactivated (0 days 0 hours for reduction period). No MPEG4, H.264 or MxPEG recordings are affected by this feature.

• iCAT objects, like object tracking bounding boxes, region boundaries, motion detection boxes or privacy masks are also displayed in SAFE export files. Note, that this version does not support visualization of the blue/red colored statistics overlay in the SAFE export.

• This version implements a new disk partitioning strategy, which can handle any number of hard discs. Opposed to previous versions, the disks may have different capacity. In case of having two or more discs, the first two disks will contain all partitions need by the system. The system partitions are in software RAID-1 (mirror), the remaining space of the disks will be used for video storage. All further discs are used only for video storage, containing only one partition for the images.
  NOTE: The upgrade process will not change the existing partitioning scheme.

• AVI export from MxPEG archive has been added.

• New HDTV 16:9 aspect ratio for online monitor has been added.

• When a PTZ action is activated for a camera via the keyboard input mechanism, the joystick (when available) is automatically switched on.

• NIC selection for bandwidth limitation has been moved form installation procedure and from the Administration to the host parameters tool in the Observer client.

• ABS transcoder quality and performance has been improved.
  
  ABS transcoder optimizes live and archive video streams between Observer server and client for a specified bandwidth. Observer client sessions having low bandwidth connection to the server (e.g. 128 kbps or even lower) are able to view live or archive video stream, also from megapixel cameras. When ABS is activated, the zoom commands in the online monitor (mouse wheel scrolling or zooming box) will be executed in the ABS transcoder on the server. Thus, having a closer look on details of a megapixel video is possible without transferring the whole video resolution to the client. The geometry (image width and height) of the transcoded stream depends on the size of the view port in the online monitor. Viewing a camera in a smaller view port requires less bandwidth. The quality of the transcoded stream on a given bandwidth -especially the resolution of moving parts of the video- depends on the framerate selected in the view port. Reducing the framerate in the view port results sharper images (see menu item "Set frame refresh rate" in "Qual" menu of the viewport, or the same under "Set parameters of all view ports" of the blue-button menu). It is recommended to select MJPEG video stream for live viewing (see menu item "Set streaming format") in order to get best possible transcoding performance and quality.
  
  This version includes an ABS implementation which allows transcoder parameter setup on server level. Setting bandwidth constraints for individual user sessions will follow in futures releases.
  
  To activate the ABS transcoder, some values on the parameters page in the Host Administration tool must be set. Entering a non zero value in field "Total bandwidth limit for live view" will activate the transcoder for live viewing. For activating ABS for archive playback the field "Total bandwidth limit for archive playback" has to be filled in. The kilobit per second (kbps) values entered in the two fields above are either assumed as maximum usable bandwidth per user session or in total for the server. Which mode is selected depends on the value of the field "Total outgoing bandwidth limit". Entering a non-zero value in field "Total outgoing bandwidth limit" will limit the total amount of data transported from the server to its client applications. It means that all concurrent live or archive viewing clients will share the bandwidth value entered in this field. So, if "Total outgoing bandwidth" is limited then one client session may get less bandwidth than it is specified as maximum value for live or archive viewing. Otherwise, if "Total outgoing bandwidth" is not limited, each client session is granted the full bandwidth as specified for live and archive viewing.
  If the server has more than one network interface card (NIC) then "Total outgoing bandwidth" limit can be assigned to a specific NIC. The IP address of the limited NIC has to be specified in the field "IP address of NIC for limiting bandwidth". In this case, video streams for all client sessions connecting the server from a network segment over this NIC will be transcoded (in total to the value specified in "Total outgoing bandwidth"), but streams for other client sessions will not be transcoded. This feature is useful to separate access of local clients (accessing the server in LAN) and remote clients (access over low bandwidth WAN connection). The limited NIC is normally connected to a router over which remote clients are accessing the server. Using a limit on "Total outgoing bandwidth" will prevent the server from overloading the network by video data in any case, ensuring a predefined amount of bandwidth for some other applications.
  
  Note, that transcoding is a CPU intensive process. Reducing framerate and view port size on the client will reduce CPU load of the server. ABS transcoder has been significantly tuned in this version, but it is still recommended to use fast CPU with high L2 cache when ABS is activated. A server with low end Intel Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2140 1.60GHz processor is able to transcode 10-12 MJPEG VGA streams with 5 fps each, for one client session with normal screen resolution (e.g. 1280x1024). Such a setup will give a quite good video quality over a 128 kbps connection. Note, that it is often better to set lower bandwidth limits than your network's nominal bandwidth (e.g.: uplink speed of ADSL). This will provide a reserve bandwidth for the stream in case of unbalanced network throughput.
  
  

• Limitations of ABS in the current version (will be removed in future versions):

  • ABS is not working in distributed environment. Thus, transcoding is possible between NCS and Observer client, but it is not possible between NCS and NUS. Video stream for clients over a NUS will not be transcoded in the current version.

  • No audio is transmitted when ABS is activated.

  • No iCAT event visuals (bounding boxes, object markers, etc.) are transmitted when ABS is activated.

  • No reverse playback in archive player (reverse play button is disabled).

  • Transcoding is not working for video export (SAFE or AVI). It has no effect if some non-zero value is entered in the field "Total bandwidth for archive export". The exported video will always have the original recording quality and size.

• New cameras and video servers supported:

  • ACTi ACM-4200(MPEG4 only)

  • Axis P1311, M3011, Q1755, M7001
    NOTE: PTZ is now supported via the Q7401 video encoder.

  • IQEye 701, 702, 703, 752, 753, 040, 041, 042

  • Samsung B2315, B5395, M300. Audio is not yet supported since current camera firmware produces invalid RTSP audio stream. M300 camera can produce MPEG-4 only in 640x480.

  • New resolutions for Mobotix M12 and M22 cameras. For a complete list of supported resolutions for these cameras please consult our separate document.
    NOTE: Dual eye mode not supported in 2048x1536 mode.

• The possibility of saving archives to an USB pen-drive in a client-on-server environment has been added.

• The possibility of parallel usage of camera PTZ control and zooming functions in online monitor is added. While camera PTZ control is activated, holding down Ctrl key will pass control (mouse wheel, click and drag) to online monitor zooming functions.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.3.0

• Exporting JPEG images from an MxPEG archive was not working.

• No MPEG-4/H.264 resolution could be set for newer Axis cameras (firmware version 5.0 and above).

• Server (NUS) fatal condition (NPE) when starting PTZ operation on a camera which is hosted on an NCS which is not reachable on the network.

• A demo code snippet has not been commented out in the GUIControlChangeHandler and was issuing IR cut filter commands.

• Requested recording period in the Camera Admin has been reset to one day when no changes were made to the Scheduling page only to other pages.

• One could not enter the license key when the dialog has been opened when Online Monitor was open.

• Can't decode H264 stream produced by Sony cameras with firmware version 2.22 or above.

• Basler BIP-1600 camera producing corrupt H264 stream (which can cause client crash) in higher resolution.

• In some cases the mouse wheel zooming was not functioning, only after the mouse was first moved out of the view port and then back again.

• Observer has treated the warning message (HTTP error code 206 came when the requested frame rate could not be fulfilled) from the JVC VN-C215 camera as error.

Technical notes for Observer 3.3.0

• Until now the client installer of Observer has used a fixed path - the home directory of the user - for installing the components of Observer. We have found that sometimes - due to some security considerations - access to this path had limited permissions or disk space was limited by quotas.
  
  To overcome this situation, Observer is now trying to find place under:

  • bootdrive:\Documents and Settings\All Users

  • in the root partition of all devices from C: to Z:

  If none of the above directories would have enough free disk space or permissions, the installation will quit with an error message.
  
  To understand why Observer needs predefined installation paths you have to consider that our client program must be able to run as an applet from any Internet browser program as well.

R3.2.0

List of enhancements in Observer 3.2.0

• Danish language has been added.

• New cameras and video servers supported:

  • Basler 640c, Basler 1300c

  • Eneo NTS2104 4 port video server. Note, that NTS2104 supports a so called quad-view mode which is mapped to port 5 in Observer.

  • Axis M1011-[W], Axis M1031-W. Note: currently only the 16KHz AAC sound is supported by Observer.

• MPEG4 and H.264 support for Basler cameras.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.2.0

• NIC selection for bandwidth limitation in the admin menu (item 18) does not work properly.

• Audio stream does not work for cameras SONY SNC CM120, CS20, DM110 and DS10.

• Bringing up the archive calendar via LNT control didn't always work.

• Licensing of machines where no eth0 existed did not work correctly.

• Keyboard input for the camera selection via keyboard in MOM could get lost.

• JPEG export of the archive (depending on the playback direction) has exported the image before or after the currently displayed one.

• Archive access may not work after the O2 client was running for a longer period of time. This problem was caused by instability of the SNAP channel communication over TCP port 33333. The socket connection may get broken and not recovered properly.

• Memory leak in O2 client during MxPEG playback. The client freezes after a longer period of time of viewing MxPEG video stream (fixed in the Windows client, but not yet in the Linux client).

• Fast video playback in event dialog ("Short Event Reply") was sometimes not possible in case the alarm recording was made using MPEG4, H.264 or MxPEG formats.

• Zooming on analogue PTZ cameras connected to an Axis video server was not working.

R3.1.0

List of enhancements in Observer 3.1.0

• Client on server: Observer 3.1 offers a high-performance client-on-server solution that makes Observer suitable for installations with only a single server computer and no additional client hardware. The graphical client is running on the monitor connected to the local video graphics card of the server. The user is asked during the installation process whether the client should be started on the server automatically. It is also possible to change this setup later from the admin menu. Limitations of the current version of the Linux client:

  • No audio support in live view or archive playback.

  • No joystick support.

  • No audio playback or audio sending to the camera.

  • No layout navigation (LNT) support.

• All installation components of our client application have been added to our installation media under the "ClientInstaller" directory. Until now the needed components were downloaded from our server on demand but for the sake of our low bandwidth customers we have added the possibility of client component installation using the installation CD.
  For this feature to take effect please reinstall the client on your PC.

• At installation a new set of pre-defined user groups and users with different permissions are created. They are the Admin, System, Security, Viewer and Other groups. These groups model and cover the permissions of real-life users.

• Two new checkboxes have been added to the iCAT definition dialog:

  • "Save event in event list"

  • "Do not save event in event list"

  Selecting any of these options will override the setting "Save event in event list" in the scheduling dialog.

• A new module has been added to our servers to support easy event generation based on parallel port pin changes. Parametrization can be done via editing and uploading a simple XML file. For details please download and read the contents of the server.externalIO.ParallelInputMappings.sample.xml file from the server (via customizing Web access). After modification rename the file to server.externalIO.ParallelInputMappings.default.xml and upload it to the server.

• The following new cameras have been added:

  • Axis Q7406 video encoder, Axis P3301

  • Basler BIP-1600c, BIP-1000c

  • Arecont AV-3100M

  • Sony SNC-CS20, SNC-CM120, SNC-DS10, SNC-DM110, SNC-RZ50, SNC-RX530

  • Lumenera LE175C, LE275C, LE375C

  • JVC VN-C215, VN-X35 (w/o PTZ support)

• Limitations for Sony 4th generation, plus SNC-RX550, SNC-RZ50 cameras:

  • They can produce only 8 FPS with H264 compression in 640x480 resolution

  • Acquiring video streams with different encoding can reduce the framerate seriously. Please refer to camera manuals for further information.

  • It's not possible to get 2 video streams from a camera if one of the streams is a H264 stream with 640x480 resolution.

  • PTZ (the so called Solid PTZ feature) with all 4th generation cameras is possible only when image size is below or equals to 640x480. Be aware that positions are also image size dependent, so whenever you pick up PTZ positions (and routes based on these positions) using a given image size you have to use the same image sizes when you recall these stored positions.

  • The feature Zoom control via "mouse left/right click and hold" has been removed.

• A new GUI event type has been added with which one can activate a set of actions for a camera by knowing its name or ID. The feature can be accessed from the Online Monitor tool. When the user starts typing in letters in the Online Monitor, a small window pops up with a filtered list of cameras. Filtering is based on the characters the user has typed in. In case the user starts the typing with a "." (dot) and followed by digits the list will contain cameras for which the Observer IDs start with the typed in numbers. To reset the list simply depress either the DEL or Backspace keys. You can leave the dialog without selecting any cameras by depressing the ESC key. To select a camera and thus generate an event press Enter after selecting the camera or double click on it.
  To assign actions for this event please inspect and modify the sample mapping file server.utils.ActionDescriptor.sample.xml. To decide in which client the actions (defined in the previous xml file) should be executed please inspect and modify the sample mapping file server.utils.TargetActionMapping.sample.xml according your needs.
  NOTE: This feature is available only from the installed application.

• Support for Web IO devices (eg.: Barix Barionet). A new module has been added to our servers to support easy event generation based on IO device port changes. Parametrization can be done via editing and uploading XML files to server. For details please download and read the contents of the server.externalIO.deviceio.DeviceTypeDescriptor.sample.xml and server.externalIO.deviceio.DeviceMappings.sample.xml files from the server (via customizing Web access). DeviceTypeDescriptor for the device Barix Barionet is delivered with this version.

• Added new action: setIOPortValue. This action can control the digital outputs and relays on supported IO devices (eg.: Barix Barionet).

• Users can now be assigned to be auto-logged in. This mode can be enabled to only one user at a time. When the client application is started up with no user name and password and an auto-login enabled user exists the application will automatically login that user. When the client application is terminated via the logout button the auto-login user will be logged in only after a one minute timeout. Until then any other user can login.

• Results of an event search can now be saved into an HTML file on the local filesystem (#1232).

• A new version (v2) of CameraMatrixMapping function has been introduced (aka new "VIP-console" feature). For more details please refer the file server.utils.CameraMatrixMapping2.sample.xml file which can be downloaded from the customization Web page of the server. The Matrix-View function can be activated by editing and uploading the file server.utils.CameraMatrixMapping2.SINGLE-CLICK.xml (single mouse click in a view port activates the matrix) or server.utils.CameraMatrixMapping2.DOUBLE-CLICK.xml (double mouse click in a view port activates the matrix) to the server. The Matrix-View can be displayed either on the client monitor where the view port has been clicked or on any other client connected to the same server. Please refer the file server.utils.TargetActionMapping.sample.xml for more details.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.1.0

• Logout of user was not possible if password dialog has been executed too slowly (#1274).

• The camera tree panel could get overlayed by the archive thumbnail pre-view image in the archive application (#1272).

• Changing an existing host's ID to an in-existing one may crash the server.

• The accuracy of iCAT object tracking at sensitivity levels normal, high and very high in outdoor setup has been increased.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.0.8

• Due to some changes in the Sony camera firmware Observer cannot handle H264 video stream for Sony cameras with firmware version higher than 2.22.

• Wrong color rendering for MPEG4 and H.264 streams in overlay painting mode. Workaround in versions before 3.0.8: switch off overlay painting mode in the starter dialog.

• Updating Observer version 1.11 or earlier fails when event handlers have been modified by the user. It may cause fatal server condition (NPE in BROWSER_SRV).

• Zooming on analogue PTZ cameras connected to an Axis video server is not working.

• Slow recording (e.g.: 1 frame per minute) frame period does not match the requested value.

R3.0.7

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.0.7

• Archive recording time may not reach the requested recording length for some cameras, even if there is some free storage space available.

• Storage size allocated by one camera is not properly shown in the Observer client.

• Requested recording period in the Camera Admin has been reset to one day when no changes were made to the Scheduling page only to other pages.

• Fatal server condition (OutOfMemeory problem) for haevy loaded NCS severs.

• GUI control events like single or double click in a view port are stored in the database producing many useless events in the event list.

Technical notes for Observer 3.0.7

• It is recommended to use at least 2 GB RAM for servers doing recording for more than 16 cameras.

R3.0.6

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.0.6

• Mobotix MxPEG stream causes client crash after live viewing for a longer period of time (memory leak).

• O2 client application crashes on some workstations with Intel processors of newest generation.

• JVC VN-V25U, VN-V25U, VN-V686U are handled as multi-quality stream cameras. Thus, it is possible to set different image size and compression rate for live viewing and recording, but the camera always delivers the same video stream. If some iCAT function is activated then the camera switches to QVGA mode for all recordings.

• If continuous recording is combined with alarm recording having 0 pre-alarm and 0 post-alarm time then the archive player does not show images when started from the fast event view dialog.

• Image database write performance problem occures in case of low-framerate continuous recording, when some iCAT functions are also defined for the same camera, even if the iCAT function is inactive (not scheduled).

• Image database consistency check and recovery process takes too long when large-scale storage is used. Now, the image database consistency checker is optimized for huge storage with many image partitions.

• Not possible to login again when user logged out via the Info -> Logout button (#1300).

• Camera tree panel is overlayed by video preview panel in the archive calendar tool.

• The tool selector buttons remain disablad after clicking the "Go to archive" button (on event preview panel) when in data modification mode (#1301).

R3.0.5

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.0.5

• Double click does not popoup existing large size single view after client startup if the user has not selected the large size view manually before performing double click. Instead it will create a new temporary view (***). (#1291)

R3.0.4

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.0.4

• Memory consumption of the image database recovery process has been optimized for large scale databases spread through large number of image partitions.

• Pending user sessions remain active in the server when O2 client is running in a browser window and the O2 window will be closed but other windows of the browser remain on the desktop. User license may reamin allocated in this case.

• Loss of database connection may lead to fatal server condition. This can happen when no users have been logged in for a longer period of time.

• Double click does not popoup existing large size single view if the aspect ratio of the camera does not fit the the aspect ratio of the view. Instead it will create a new temporary view (***) with the correct aspect ratio. (#1291)

• Video stream type (MJPEG,MPEG4,H.264,..) was not always propagated to a new temporary view after double click. Now the video type is propagated, but only when a camera is just added to the view. If the camera is already in the view then the video type remains unchanged. (#1291)

• Video archive access may fail when the client was inactive for a longer period of time (no user interaction) and than archive playback is requested.

• Live video is somtimes not available in the Online Monitor tool (digital camera failure event appears) for cameras which cannot deliver MJPEG strem, but MPEG-4 only. (some ACTi and Eneo types).

R3.0.3

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.0.3

• User login was not possible via Info-button-menu after creating a new user and copying views of the admin user to the new user without adding live-view access rights for all cameras. (#1283, #1208)

• LNT status icon change has long delay (up to 1 minute) after activating in-camera motion detection from within LNT context menu.

• Server restart is mandatory after entering a new license key, otherwise no iCAT and LNT features are activated. (#1279)

• Server FATAL condition of the Image Database Maintanancer process fixed.

R3.0.2

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.0.2

• Event handlers cannot be compiled after upgrade from Observer 1.12 or earlier. (#1275)

• Initial check of large size Video Database (over 50 TB) takes too long at Observer startup time.

• A Observer server fails when working with more than 20 image partitions. Now, the number of image partitions is unlimited.

• Robustness of Video Database recovery has been improved.

• A warning message has always appeared when a 32bit Java was running on a 64bit CPU client workstation. Now, this message appears only once, at the first time after installing the client.

R3.0.1

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.0.1

• Client crash on PC with Mobile Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processors (#1142).

• Motion detection with ACTi cameras (MPEG4 capable only) leads to fatal server condition after a longer period of time (#1212).

• Archive player does not playback any video even if the calendar shows that there is recording available for the selected period of time. This happens in a very random situation, which is hard to duplicate.

• Archive player does not playback any video even if the calendar shows that there is recording available for the selected period of time. This happens in a very random situation.

• Live Monitor in Observer client may stop showing live video stream if any SNAP client connecting to the same server starts live stream of the same camera with same frame size and quality.

• Event type tree of the event list search dialog does not appear in some situation.

• Server may get fatal condition when adding or modifying some iCAT definition (#1233).

• Zoom area definition by click and drag rectangle in the Online Monitor view port is very sensible. It is very easy to draw a small zoom area just by a simple single click inadvertently.

• Custom event property filter is not working in the event list search dialog (#1231).

• After upgrading form 1.9 or earlier version to 3.0, some cameras may stop continuous recording. Workaround in 3.0.0: disable continuous recording, save settings, and enable again (checkbox "Enable interval" in Camera Admin Schedule tool) for all cameras.

• 100% full image partition may lead to periodic server fatal condition, if all cameras have the same requested recording time. (#1230)

• Robustness of iCAT Object Tracing increased.

R3.0.0

List of enhancements in Observer 3.0.0

• CAUTION: After installing Observer or upgrading to it you MUST obtain a new license! Observer will not run with the old license string.

• iCAT video analytics have been officially released with 3.0. Although some iCAT features were introduced in previous releases, this is the official release start of iCAT.

• MxPEG video/audio stream support for Mobotix M22,M12,D12 cameras. Note that the firmware version of the camera must be 3.1.0.21 or later. SAFE export is supported for MxPEG audio/video, but no AVI export is supported in this version.

• H.264 video/audio stream support for Axis Q7401 video server. SAFE export is supported for H.264 audio/video, but no AVI export is supported in this version.

• Zoom function in Online Monitor and Archive player. There are two possibilities to zoom into the video frames:

  • Drawing rectangle zoom area by click and drag mouse. Click inside the zoom area will zoom in to the selected area. Click outside any zoom area will zoom out to full frame size (zoom area is deactivated). The number of zoom areas is not limited. Zoom areas can be moved by click and drag, and can be resized by the mouse wheel when the mouse pointer is over the area.
    Zoom area can be removed just by dragging it outside the view-port.
    In the online monitor there is a possibility to assign a zoom area to an other view-port just by by clicking into the requested view-port immediately after creation of a zoom area.

  • Scrolling mouse wheel when the mouse pointer is not over a zoom area, if there is any. The location of the image area pointed by the mouse pointer is kept stationary as far as possible. Click and drag image will work in this zoom mode. Note, that existing zoom areas will be hidden by entering in this zoom mode, and will be visible again when the image is fully zoomed out (exiting this zoom mode).

• iCAT functions are available for cameras delivering MPEG4 only (no MJPEG), like ACTi cameras for example. Note, that iCAT processing on MPEG4 stream will cause additional delay of one GOP length in the live monitor video stream. Note, that in this version of Observer, object tracking bounding boxes and any other paintings in live monitor will be updated once for a GOP.

• New iCAT function: removed and abandoned object detection. Note, that the size of the region for removed or abandoned object detection should be at least twice as large as the largest object which should be detected. On the other hand, smaller regions decrease CPU load. Note, that an object can be detected as removed only when it has been existed for at least 5 minutes in the view of the camera.

• Flexible and powerful live viewing monitor control (support for video walls as well) via XML parametrization of EMS handlers without need of Java programming. Control of event-triggered live viewing in multi-monitor operator rooms is now possible for 9 different events without need of Java programming in EMS handlers. For more details please download the file server.utils.LiveMonitorMapping.sample.xml from the server (via customizing Web access).

• Support of Camera Groups for ICAT event triggered recording (e.g. Server Motion Detection). It is possible to define camera groups in which all cameras will start recording whenever any of the cameras in the group produce an ICAT event. For more details please download the file server.utils.CameraGroup.sample.xml from the server (via customizing Web access).

• The so called Extended edition has been added to our license. With this edition you can build multi-server, distributed networks with up to three servers and max 65 cameras.

• For extended login security we have added a secondary password to our login mechanism. The administrator may assign this secondary password to a user. When this password exists - after the normal login dialog - Observer will ask for this password. As this password is not known to the user, he has to ask the administrator to enter his secondary password.

• A new camera level access right has been added which forces the user to enter a reason string when accessing the image archive or exports images from it. With this reason an event is automatically generated and saved in the system.

• Observer now supports MPEG4 for the following cameras:

  • Sony SNC-CS11, SNC-P1, SNC-P5, SNC-RZ25, SNC-DF40, SNC-DF70

• Observer now supports the following cameras and video servers:

  • GLS-2104 (no PTZ support), GLS-2101, GLC-0501, GLC-1601

  • Axis 216MFD, Axis Q7401 video server

  • ACTi ACM-5601 (MPEG-4 mode only, no default video parameter setting is possible via Observer)

  • Panasonic WV-NW960 (including PTZ support) and Panasonic WV-NF302 (JPEG mode only).

For a complete list of supported features for these devices please consult our separate document.

To give more detailed system configuration information in case of server fatal situations we have added a BIOS configuration dump to our scripts (#1085).

• Distributed upgrade of Observer servers has been modified. After start upgrade the user will be asked for the following:
  "Do you want to rollback the whole system on error?"
  If you answer "yes" then the upgrade will roll-back all severs on any error. It means that the whole system will come back to the last working version. (as default operation before this version)
  If you answer "no" then the upgrade will continue on any error. After upgrade a part of the system may run on previous version level of the Observer, and the rest will work with the new version. In this case the machines with older versions will not be mounted into the distributed system, but they will work standalone without any problem. The operator may login to these servers directly via Observer Client and use any function of the system.
  
  The menu "Show log" (under admin menu 5b) has been replaced by the new menu "Show status". "Show status" will print a status report of the upgrade, as snapshot of the current situation. The report can be seen on the screen and also can be stored in the file "upgradeLog.txt" on the server. This file can be downloaded from "Start customize" screen "Download configuration file" section.

• The password protection on the boot menu is added to the bundled system.

• New menu item "NAS management" has been added to the admin menu. In this version the menu "NAS management" handles only NFS devices. Choosing this menu item a new sub menu will appear, which allows to show existing NFS connections, add or delete NFS connections and mount a connection which is already added, but not mounted yet.

• The parameter GOP size in Camera Administration Default Setting dialog can be set to 0, which has the effect that no video parameter will be changed by Observer in the camera whenever a video stream is started. Thus, no video resolution, quality, GOP size or bandwidth limit will be changed in the camera. This is a fast workaround for those problems where Observer changes some parameters which has the effect that any other manually selectable video parameter changes in the camera. Using GOP size 0, all video parameters has to be set in the camera manually.

Bugs fixed in Observer 3.0.0

• Privacy mask disappears from pre-alarm frames of recorded video in case of ICAT triggered recording. (#1080) Privacy mask does not appear on recordings triggered by In-Camera Motion Detection.

• Mouse wheel events sometimes got lost (the problem was a long-existing JAVA bug for which a workaround has been suggested by SUN).

• Because of device specific issues the zoom steps issued by Observer were very rough on the Axis 233 PTZ camera.

• The white-labeled distribution contains several fixes regarding product and company name in the Observer client, LNT and admin menu. (#1027, #1057, #1089, #1092).

• The 'screen' package has been added to the distribution (#1101).

• Webmin menu was not accessible. (#1115).

• The company name notation in boot menu has been fixed (#1117).

• The event type "In-camera motion detection" was missing from the event filter dialog of the event list tool. (SF#1177, point 6)

• The event details dialog allowed Online Monitor and Archive viewing for removed cameras (#1141).

• Entering a configuration name in the starter dialog of the installed client for the first time, the starter dialog could drop an exception (#1137).

• Core image files - produced after a JVM crash - can fill some disk partitions. (#1175).

• New nadmin functions like time setting and NAS support has been added to the webmin menu. (#1162).

• The field length in Directories table has been modified to hold long names of NAS devices. (#1132).

• An hour glass cursor was shown during the camera move operation (#1179).

• Video quality of exported AVI files has been improved. Note, that the size of the exported files has been increased.

• List of events in EMS API documentation and the events visible event filter tree was not identical. (#1198)

• Requesting "Large" frame size on a SNAP channel, does not send frames with maximum resolution of the camera, but VGA or 4CIF. This prevents to get megapixel video stream over SNAP.

Technical notes for Observer 3.0.0

• This version is bundled with CentOS v5.2.

• This version is bundled with latest webmin version 1-430. (#1164)

• Because of some white-labeling issues we have changed the bookmarkable URIs of our client application. If you have set bookmarks to start the client automatically with pre-set parameters you might have to modify them (the "netavis" path has changed to "video").

• MPEG-4 default streaming parameter (resolution, quality, GOP size or bandwidth limit) setting for Sony cameras is not working when any video stream is active. Thus, changing any parameter during recording or live viewing of Sony cameras may break down the connection to the camera. Restarting the stream will fix the problem.

R1.12.4

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.12.4

• Image resolution setup for video grabber card (IVC 200) is not possible. The server delivers QCIF size frames regardless of the requested image size in online monitor or for recording.

R1.12.3

List of enhancements in Observer 1.12.3

• Video decoder mapping (control for Axis 292 devices) has been extended for better control of video wall matrices. The attribute "MonitorPosition" has been introduced for the XML element which allows exact positional mapping between analog video matrices and matrix views in online monitor of Observer client application. Please read the file server.utils.VideoDecoderMapping.sample.xml for more details (read especially parts marked as "new in 1.12.3"). A new event has been introduced too. A new type of GUIControlChange event is propagated when the content of a line view panel is changing (eg.: shift caused by a matrix view operation (aka VIP function)). In order to activate matrix-view function mapped to analog video matrix, please upload a VideoDecoderMapping file (prepared with MonitorPosition attributes, no CameraID or CameraName is necessary) having the name server.utils.VideoDecoderMapping.VIEW-PANEL-CHANGE.xml to the server.

R1.12.2

List of enhancements in Observer 1.12.2

• Matrix-View function has been implemented (aka "VIP function"). Automatic popup of a NxM view panel representing a NxM size sub-matrix of a camera matrix map, which described in an XML file on the server. For more details please refer the file server.utils.CameraMatrixMapping.sample.xml file which can be downloaded from the customization Web page of the server. The Matrix-View function can be activated by editing and uploading the file server.utils.CameraMatrixMapping.SINGLE-CLICK.xml (single mouse click in a view port activates the matrix) or server.utils.CameraMatrixMapping.DOUBLE-CLICK.xml (double mouse click in a view port activates the matrix) to the server. The Matrix-View can be displayed either on the client monitor where the view port has been clicked or on any other client connected to the same server. Please refer the file server.utils.TargetActionMapping.sample.xml for more details.

• Setting video type (JPEG or MPEG), fps, image size and compression quality in a view port is taken as preferred setup for any further camera which is thrown into the same view port. This feature is useful especially for Matrix-View operation, since setting stream parameters globally for a view panel will force using that parameters for any camera shown in the matrix view.

• New "Continuous Mode" PTZ control method has been introduced. In this version of Observer, the new PTZ control method is implemented for Axis cameras, for JVC VN-V686U and for Eneo NTD-6101. Other cameras will follow. The new PTZ control method is available for joystick and for mouse-control (click and drag mouse in the ViewPort) operation as well. PTZ operation modes can be selected by using the new PTZ control button in every ViewPort of the Online Monitor.

• Observer network operations in distributed or in stand-alone Observer environment has been optimized for very low bandwidth operation like 128 kbps or even lower.

• Observer now supports the following JVC cameras:

  • VN-V25U

  • VN-V26U

  • VN-V686U

• Sensibility and robustness of iCAT sabotage detection has been improved.

• iCAT sabotage detection has been extended by detecting analog video signal loss on video servers. There has been no separate GUI control introduced to activate this kind of sabotage detection. Enabling any sabotage detection will activate this function as well.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.12.2

• iCAT Object Tracking has been stopped when significant luminance change happened in the monochrome video stream.

• Observer server may have crashed after sending a few SMS messages via modem connected to the server by serial line.

Technical notes for Observer 1.12.2

• Eneo GLS-2104 is able to send video stream in Mux-Mode or Quad-Mode. Observer can handle video stream only in Quad-Mode. Although Observer is able to set this mode but because it takes too much time (about 15 seconds) please make sure that you set this mode in the video server prior to Observer usage.

• Please note, that no date/time or any other in-video text label should be activated in cameras or video servers, otherwise Observer sabotage detection may not work properly. Next versions of Observer will offer a solution for this problem.

R1.12.0

List of enhancements in Observer 1.12.0

• A rich set of video analysis functionality has been introduced with the iCAT toolkit. Object tracking features and different event triggers are supported, enabling people and object counting solutions for example. Unique features like Smart Tripwire™ and Visual Statistics™ are part of the new iCAT implementation.
  Sabotage and lighting change detection, as well as several object tracking statistic features have been added. Please refer to the user manual for more information.

• The SAFE Player has been reworked. The new SAFE player is able to playback mega-pixel images and MPEG-4 video with audio. Zoom-in features especially for high-resolution videos has been introduced.

• SAFE export is available in the Linux client as well, although the exported file can only be played back on Windows.

• Video resolution setup has been changed. The three level choice (small,medium,large) has been replaced by a list of explicit resolutions supported by each single camera.

• Observer now supports the following IQeye cameras:

  • IQeye 510

  • IQeye 511

  • IQeye 705

  • IQeye 755

  Note, that IQeye has a generic camera API uniform for all IQeye cameras. We have tested the cameras listed above, but other IQeye cameras will most probably work fine as well. The resolution setup for IQeye cameras works different compared to other cameras. IQeye implemented a feature "Crop window", which can be set in the camera's Web interface. The size of the Video Frames received from the camera depends on the size of the "Crop window". Thus, there is no way to show explicit resolution values in Observer, only the ratio of the down-sampling factor.

• A new event has been added which is generated when a user exports a portion of the archive in SAFE, AVI or JPEG format.

• A new menu item [16] has been added to the admin menu for setting the server's date and time. The new time will be stored also in machine's hardware clock. (#850, #865)

• It is possible to set-up IP address and netmask for more than one network interface. If more than one network card is detected in the server, a new item [9a] appears in the admin menu, which enables the set-up of parameters of other network cards. (#865)

Warning! There is a restriction for cameras which are sending motion detection images to the server via FTP protocol. These cameras must be installed on the same subnet.

• A new submenu item has been added to the admin menu [5] for setting upgrade parameters. If you enter one (1) as answer to the "Force reinstalling the OS" question the script will force the system to make big upgrade (OS change too) during [5a].
  Normally the system can automatically decide (based on the version numbers), whether it is necessary to do a big upgrade or not. As "Distributed upgrade" [5b] never makes a big upgrade it is possible that this decision can not be made simply by looking at the version numbers. The menu item described above has been added to resolve such problems. If anybody would force re-installation of the OS - if it would not be necessary - nothing bad will happen, only the upgrade process will take longer.
  If no "Distributed upgrade" is used on the machine leave this parameter zero.

• Privacy masking of image areas has been added. A privacy mask is defined either by rectangle or polygon area. Via the scheduling feature it is possible to have different sets of privacy masks for different periods of time. Note, that privacy masks are not applied for SAFE, AVI or JPEG exports in this version.

• In 1.11 we have added a "last-minute" workaround for disabling overlay painting. The starter application of this version has been extended with the "Overlay painting enabled" check-box to solve this problem. Value of the check-box is saved into the configuration environment. Please note that the method explained in the 1.11 release notes have been removed!

• In the User Administration's Privileges and Camera Access Rights pages we have swapped the button with the descriptor text for better in-line readability.

• NOTE for high resolution videos: When starting Observer in a web browser it is possible that you will not be able to view archive images having 3 mega-pixel resolution or higher. In such a case please set your JVM parameters by hand in your operating system environment to the suggested values (180 MB or higher).

• The field for post-alarm recording time has been extended to three characters. Thus, it is possible to define post-alarm recording up to 999 seconds. Note, that entering the value 999 means 'endless' recording. It is important to mention in this context, that iCAT event triggers (object is crossing line/field, object starts/stops) deliver one event pro tracked object, which will start recording. The same tracked object will not produce any further events, so recording will not be prolonged (in opposite to Simple Motion Detection, where any new motion will prolong recording) if no new object appears. For this kind of alarm recordings it is useful to enter high post-alarm time, maybe even 999 seconds. iCAT event triggered alarm recording will be stopped automatically, when all tracked object are disappeared from the region, even if the the post-alarm time is not up.

• Simple Motion Detection field boundaries and the current pixel change value are painted in the online monitor and archive player. (menu "iCAT info display" - "Event trigger lines/boxes" has to be enabled)

• Firewall on the sever has been modified (port 123 has been opened) in order to allow time server (NTP) functionality. (# 1071).

• The midnight commander tool is now available on the server. (# 1038).

• A new PTZ control mode has been introduced for cameras attached to fast, local networks. The new, so called continuous mode provides finer control over the PTZ head of the camera. To choose between the different PTZ modes and screen controls a new popup menu has also been added to the Online Monitor tool. All these new settings are persistent between Observer logins.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.12.0

• Client/server communication during SAFE or AVI export may get unstable when using low-bandwidth network connection.

• In a distributed Observer system mounting of camera trees is not possible if any camera of the imported tree is already mounted. Observer checks this situation and do not allow mounting such cameras or groups. In some cases it was possible to double-mount cameras, or mounting was not possible at all, even when the camera was not mounted before.

• When one switches from the Camera Administration into the Detection fields tool while a camera group was selected sometimes the client throws an exception (# 1040).

• File names used for saving an archive export got truncated after the left-most dot and not after the right-most one.

• Users of Axis PTZ cameras and video servers having the new "Control Queue" feature built in and had this feature enabled could not control the PTZ head.
  Side effect of the fix: Observer will always switch off the queuing.

• Customer administrators could see the name of the AS machine from which their cameras were mounted (# 1039).

• Event parameter choice for Event Statistic filter dialog is not enabled for any event types. Is is now enabled for filtering on event name (identifier of MD field or event trigger name) in case of "Simple Motion Detection" or "iCAT object tracking" events.

• Event statistic values for 15 minute duration may get inaccurate in some cases (event count value of 30 min duration is cumulated to 15 minute, and zero event count is assigned to the next 15 minute's slot).

• Distributed upgrade on slow servers may produce the error message "Couldn't save Distribution" and starts rollback.

• Distributed upgrade may fail if the OS language was not set to English at installation time.

• Some frames may be missing in continuous recordings with low frame-rate (less than 20 frames per minute).

• Wrong archive frame sequence (step-back in motion) may occur in some combinations of server motion detection and continuous recordings. This problem is fixed now. Note, that combination of in-camera motion detection and continuous recording may still produce wrong frame sequences. This is because there is no common timebase between server and camera having precision of millisecond level.

• Percent sign (%) in user name or password caused failure in the starter application.

• Large amount of Axis 292 control requests issued in a short period of time caused fatal server failure.

• In case of using software raid, no boot record has been written to the second disk. (# 1061).

• Running admin script on SuSE as non privileged user fails. (# 1075).

• For sending Audio to the camera port 80 was always used. No other port was possible to configure.

Technical notes for Observer 1.12.0

• When the Observer client has been installed on Windows Vista by a user having administrator rights, it is not possible for a user with limited permissions to download and install new versions of the Observer "starter" application over the old one. Workaround: this (single) download should be done by a person who has administrator rights.

• The Observer client haven't been thoroughly tested under Windows Vista yet. If you face any problems please contact us.

• Usability of the Popup choice GUI component in the Observer client application has been improved. It is now more tolerant for inaccurate mouse movements.

• The number of parallel SNAP channels accepted on TPC/IP port 33333 from one client host is limited to 32. This limitation was necessary because some SNAP applications have overloaded the server by opening hundreds of SNAP channels in a very short period of time.

• The communication protocol of the starter application has been changed for reliable transfer through slow network connections. As a side effect, a starter application is no longer backward compatible (versions before 1.11). Workaround: please uninstall the Observer client application and install it again from the server you want to connect.

• Size limit for uploading system backup or configuration files has been raised form 1 to 5 MB (#1077).

R1.11.2

List of enhancements in Observer 1.11.2

• A new menu item [16] has been added to the admin menu for setting the server's date and time. The new time will be stored also in machine's hardware clock. (#850, #865)

• It is possible to set-up IP address and netmask for more than one network interface. If more than one network card is detected in the server, a new item [9a] appears in the admin menu, which enables the set-up of parameters of other network cards. (#865)

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.11.2

• System startup problem in case of large amount of short time recordings (typically server or in-camera motion detection recordings) for large amount or cameras.

• System startup problem in case of large amout of files for one camera (in-camera motion detection) in the ftp directory.

• Distributed upgrade problem in 64bit environment. (#1053)

• The system cannot boot from the seconady disk if the primary boot disk fails and software RAID is used. (#1061)

R1.11.1

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.11.1

• In distributed environment, double click in a view port of the online monitor shows the wrong camera in the large view, if the camera is mounted from an NCS.

• Some MPEG-4 video streams may stop in the online monitor (after a longer period of viewing time).

• Downloading the Obsever II client application over intelligent routers or firewalls may fail. One reason could be that the whole client application has been transferred in one single HTTP request. Now, the client application is splitted and transferred in several smaller chunks.

• Server may get a FATAL condition if a large amount of images are transferred by in-camera motion detection via ftp. This can happen if Obsever II is not running for a longer period of time, meanwhile cameras do ftp transfer of alarm images to the server. Starting Obsever II after that situation a FATAL condition may happen.

• In managed cluster environments the lifechecker of Obsever II has restarted the application after a FATAL condition. This behavior was not conform with the cluster. Thus, starting of Obsever II after a FATAL condition is disabled in unbundled installations, when the database system start/stop has been disabled too.

• In AS (application service) mode a NUS may get a FATAL condition after starting Obsever II on an NCS machine.

R1.11.0

List of enhancements in Observer 1.11.0

• LNT has been completely reworked: Status display system for cameras and zones with priority levels. Camera status as "Continuous recording started", "Alarm recording started", "Motion detection active"... etc. can be visualized by some colored geometric icons or images placed around the camera icon. Zone coloring with priority order is possible depending on camera status.

• LNT: Active layout changing on events can be controlled by project settings

• LNT: Visually acknowledged events appears in light-blue color. Visual acknowledgment can be done either by mouse click (or move over) on related camera icon or by pressing cancel button in the event info line.

• LNT: The event count is displayed on status bar.

• LNT: Define a primary camera layout for events. The first created control for a given camera automatically becomes the primary control. Every control can be set as primary in the camera's context menu (# 950).

• There is a new sensibility setting for server motion detection. The five-level sensibility setting controls how soon one pixel becomes a "moving pixel". The percentage limit of moving pixels vs. total pixels in region remains unchanged.

• For server motion detection region definitions polygones can now be used in addition to plain rectangles.

• The panel for specifying RGB level motion detection constraints has been removed. More sophisticated image analysis modules will follow in the next release.

• Unbundled Observer installations now conform to LSB (Linux Standard Base).

• Observer now supports the following Eneo cameras and video servers:

  • NTD 6101 (PTZ), NTD 4101 (PTZ), NTD 2101

  • NTC 4101 (Zoom), NTC 2101

  • NTS 2101 (one channel video server)

  For a complete list of supported features for these devices please consult our separate document.
  NOTE:It is not possible to setup PT(Z) positions or go to PT(Z) positions with any of the PT(Z) capable cameras. The so called "direct PT" function - which centers the point where the user has clicked with the mouse - is also not available. To switch the on-screen PTZ functionality on/off please use the <SHIFT-left click> key sequence.
  The only supported audio format is the PCM 16 bit, 12 KHz. No audio back to the camera is supported.

• Since MJPEG video is required for server Motion Detection, it does not work for Eneo cameras, which are MPEG-4 cameras. We will support MPEG-4 video analysis, including motion detection in future releases. In this release, SAFE Player export is also not available for MPEG-4.

• In addition to continuous and motion detection recording, a new recording mode "Event triggered recording" has been introduced. EMS handlers can be programmed to activate/deactivate this recording mode. (see functions ActionPropagator.startEventTriggeredArchiving() and ActionPropagator.stopEventTriggeredArchiving())

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.11.0

• Update from 1.10.0 to 1.10.1 lost data of LNT-Projects (# 930).

• LNT: Order of the items in the layout tree was not stored in the project (# 942).

• LNT: System events blocked navigation with the mouse (# 944).

• LNT: If in-camera motion detection is activated then camera icon in LNT does not blink (# 945).

• LNT: Clicking on delete project and answering "No" to "Do you really want to delete" question deletes the project.

• LNT: "Decode video to analog" and "Stop video decode" LNT action names appeared always in English.

• LNT: Control panel names appeared always in English.

• LNT: Some incoming event names appeared always in English.

• Some SAFE export was not playable when no images existed for the first second of the selected time period.

• Year choice of the date/time selector was limited to 2007.

• User entry with empty user name may appeared in the list of logged in users.

• Audio stream to camera may fail if connection to camera is unstable.

• PTZ route definition problem (# 976).

• Camera status change propagation between LNT and server was sometimes unstable and slow when status of many cameras has been changed in an LNT zone (e.g.: start recording for many cameras).

• Last element of the PTZ definition and PTZ route lists in the PTZ Administration was partially visible.

• Image disk partitions may get full (FATAL situation) if all cameras have "high-priority" recording setup or if requested recording time is set to 9999 days 23 hours.

• License checking failure in SNAP .Net API library. Create session was not possible (error message: no license) even if the server was licensed for SNAP.

• Log file overrun problem on the server. The root filesystem of the server could run 100% full after several months of Observer operation. (fixed since 1.9.5)

• Overlay painting of MPEG video stream may result in pink colored view port panels if the client is not running on the primary screen of Windows. A "last-minute" workaround has been introduced in this version to overcome the "pink-screen" problem: Insert the character sequence ### (three hashmarks) anywhere into the field "Full user name" for those users, who's client session must not use overlay painting. E.g.: logging in as user with full name "Jennifer Lopez ###" will not start overlay painting. This workaround can be used until the starter application becomes a checkbox "Enable overlay painting" in the next release of Observer.

R1.10.1

List of enhancements in Observer 1.10.1

• Observer is bundled with CentOS 5.1 operating system.

  To work correctly unbundled Observer on CentOS 5, the sysop must guartantee, that tcp ports between 10000 and 10023 are free for Observer, not used by other application (like: ndmp, scp-config and so on)

• Mapping between "Double Click Event" in the Online Monitor and the target action "Show Large View" is possible via .xml file, which can be uploaded to the server. This mapping binds an instance of the Observer Client (source of the double click event) to any other instance of the Observer client (where the large view will show up). The event handler of LNT events is prepared to use such mapping files, if they are present on the server. Sample mapping file (server.utils.TargetActionMapping.sample.xml) can be downloaded from the server. (Web: Start customizer - Download Configuration files) Please read the description in the sample file how to prepare your own TargetActionMapping file, rename the file to "server.utils.TargetActionMapping.SHOW-LARGE-VIEW.xml" and upload the file to the server (Web: Start customizer - Upload configuration files). The server needs NOT be restarted in order to activate the mapping file.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.10.1

• Server-server communication may fail in a distributed Observer system when port 33332 is not available, thus the servers must communicate over port 80.

• Client (SNAP) connection to a Observer server which has been setup as a virtual host of a Web server is not working.

• High resolution AVI export (eg. 1600x1200) has bad quality (resampled image) #926

R1.10.0

List of enhancements in Observer 1.10.0

• The new version of the Layout Navigation Tool is ready and delivered with this version of Observer. The most important enhancements are "Zone building" and "Project Concept". For more information please refer to LNT documentation.

• Observer can now handle the Axis 292 video decoder device. The Axis 292 is basically a digital to analogue converter. When it connects to a camera, it starts downloading images - using definable protocols - then converts the stream to its analogue output port. To start encoding a video stream you can use the ActionPropagator.startVideoEncoder() method from any event handler class. To stop it you can use the ActionPropagator.stopVideoEncoder() method call. For an example please visit the CustomEventHandler.java file. Some event handler classes are prepared to start/stop Axis 292 video decoding, depending on configuration files. Sample configuration file "server.utils.VideoDecoderMapping.sample.xml" can be downloaded from the server. (Web: Start customizer - Download Configuration files) Please read the description in this sample file how to activate Axis 292 for different events, prepare your own VideoDecoderMapping file (rename sample file according description!) and upload the file to the server (Web: Start customizer - Upload configuration files). The server needs NOT be restarted in order to activate a new configuration file.

• New action propagator ActionPropagator.setScheduleOperationState() has been introduced. It can be used to enable/disable any schedule operation like continuous recording, motion detection or PTZ route form within any event handler. The following two functions are prepared by default:
  Start/stop continuous or MD recording from LNT (zone or camera)
  CustomEventHandler is prepared to handle right button menu click events of LNT. According to that, LNT is prepared to add start/stop actions for continuous and MD recording for a camera or a complete zone via right mouse click. Thus, it is possible to control recording from LNT just by adding the proper right menu items to a camera or zone.
  Start/stop continuous or MD recording via Custom Button in the O2 client's Online Monitor
  The other possibility to activate such actions is custom buttons in Online Monitor of O2 client. The attribute "Action" of the custom button definition .xml file may contain the following texts:

  • SetScheduleOperationState:[enable|disable]:cont-rec

  • SetScheduleOperationState:[enable|disable]:md-rec

  • SetScheduleOperationState:[enable|disable]:ptz-route

  For example: The action "SetScheduleOperationState:enable:cont-rec" of a custom button will start continuous recording on the camera currently viewed, according to the continuous recording setup valid at that point of time.
  Note: If CustomEventHandler or GUIControlChangeHandler classes has been changed in a system which is upgraded to this version then the new handlers will not be installed, thus, the new and old handlers has to be merged manually!)

• View port panels of the Online Monitor can be grouped into so called View Groups. For each View panel you can assign a period of time (duration) for which the given panel will be visible before the next panel is scheduled. Each user can have any number of View Groups independent of other users.

• Event handlers are now split into the main parts: internal and external handlers. Users can add their installation specific action logic to the external handlers. Those who are familiar with handler editing will see that current external handlers are nearly empty and contain only commented examples.

• Support for the Axis 243Q Blade video server. Please note that although this device is named as a quad server it is actually a four-in-one server. This means that each port has a separate IP address and to reflect it, in Observer no more than one port is enabled in the Camera Administration when adding such a device. Also note that when you pick up cameras attached to the ports of this video server you have to supply individual IP addresses for each port.

• You can now logout the Observer application without exiting the client window. When you leave Observer via this method the login page will be redisplayed and a new user can login (#577).

• When using the unbundled version it is possible to give the full path to MySQL's data directory. Its default value is: /var/lib/mysql.
  Note:

  • Observer can not work without a valid MySQL data path. Please make sure that the path you've entered is valid.

• By default Observer manages the start and stop of the database manager (MySQL). When using the unbundled version it is possible to disable MySQL management at installation time.
  Note:

  • If the management is disabled, it is the user's liability to guarantee a consistent and non-corrupt database.

  • During distributed upgrade data maybe lost.

  • When backup from an other host is being restored and the name of the machine is changed MySQL might be in undetermined state. For such a case it might be that the only remedy is the reboot.

• Mapping between LNT events (e.g.: mouse click on camera icon or zone) and Observer target actions (e.g.: Show live view of camera in Online Monitor) is possible via .xml file, which can be uploaded to the server. This mapping binds an instance of the LNT application running on a PC to any other instance of the Observer client running on an other PC. The event handler of LNT events is prepared to use such mapping files, if they are present on the server. Sample mapping file (server.utils.TargetActionMapping.sample.xml) can be downloaded from the server. (Web: Start customizer - Download Configuration files) Please read the description in the sample file how to prepare your own TargetActionMapping file, rename the file to "server.utils.TargetActionMapping.LNT-ACTION.xml" and upload the file to the server (Web: Start customizer - Upload configuration files). The server needs NOT be restarted in order to activate the mapping file.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.10.0

• Eneo cameras are now listed separately in the Camera Administration (#868).

• Administration tool tabs were misplaced during language change on client systems built with slow video cards.

• Mounted camera tree cannot be removed (unmounted) if the exporter host is not accessible.

• Video database of non-existing cameras (e.g. system backup is loaded, where the camera does not exists any more) is not cleaned up properly. As result, images of this camera are not accessible by the user, but still allocate disk space.

• In earlier versions (e.g. 1.7.2) you might have faced problems during upgrade due to missing database tables in the system backup. This version recovers all tables and eliminates this problem.

• Event counts in event statistic .xls are not 100% accurate.

R1.9.5

List of enhancements in Observer 1.9.5

• A new Application Service (AS) model has been introduced in Observer. With the new, so called distributed model the ASP can add any number of camera server (NCS) hosts to an AS network. When customers are added/administered the administrator of the AS system can assign camera and disk space allocations per NCS machine thus optimizing and utilizing CPU and disk capacity between different customers. With this approach the AS administrator can see the tree of all cameras in the whole system (# 279).

• Unbundled Observer support for SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.

• A new string translation environment has been developed to ease the work of our translators. At the same time Observer is no longer using strings from the database but from property files. This enables the translators to directly load translated texts into the application for quick checks.

• Automatic save of newly created view panels in Online Monitor tool.

• Client-server communication breakdowns will not cancel the creation of AVI and SAFE exports. As soon as the connection is re-established the export will continue.

• The following new cameras and video servers have been added to Observer:

  • Axis 209FD-R, Axis 211M, Axis 211W, Axis 215PTZ, Axis 233D, Axis 247S

  • Eneo GLC-1401

  • Eneo NT series cameras and single port video server (MPEG-4 video only, no audio, no PTZ support)

  • Panasonic WV-NF284, WV-NW484

  For a complete list of supported features for these devices please consult our separate document.

• For better readability we have improved the background colours of disabled labels. Also the color of disabled popup menu items has been changed from white to gray.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.9.5

• In some cases one more camera could be added as defined by the license maximum (#856).

• The admin user could lock himself out by clearing his rights for user modification (#855).

• The permissions of the admin group had less rights then necessary (#855).

• Audio transfer to camera did not work.

• In normal case the Panasonic NS202 PTZ camera is mounted on the ceiling. In such a case the tilt direction was sent to the camera to the other way round.

• When the user has forgotten his password he had to enter the 'question' text, too (#779).

• During the upgrade to 1.9.4 the currently used IBM JAVA environment was not installed (#854).

• Keyboard focus was not gained to the input field "Identifier" in the panel "Detection Filed".

• ImageDatabase consistency check could result in green markers in the calendar where no recording was behind. Besides fixing this problem, the performance of the ImageDatabase engine has been increased.

• Server hangup (FATAL dump) when a larger Event Statistic .xls file was generated.

• Configuration in the starter dialog was saved only after typing "Enter" in the input field. Now it will be saved in any case when the keyboard focus is leaving the field.

R1.9.4

List of enhancements in Observer 1.9.4

• Support audio format G726 for Axis cameras. Note, from this version on Observer will not set audio stream format in Axis cameras. (Previous versions have set G711 as default audio format for some types of Axis cameras.) Now, it is the responsibility of the user to set audio fromat manually in the camera's Web interface. Following formats are supported:

  • G711 ulow

  • G726 24bit

  • G726 32bit

  • AAC 16bit

• Audio/microphone on/off buttons in the Online Monitor view will generate a GUIControlChange event. In the handler function of the GUIControlChange event is a sample code inserted (see function handleStandardControl() in handler GUIControlChangeHandler.java) to show how to deal with such events.(eg. send action for switching I/O ports of a camera triggered by an event. Note, that this version of Observer does not support action propagation to cameras in a distributed Observer network).

• Switching to large size view by double clicking in a view will remember the stream type (MJPEG or MPEG4). Thus, double clicking on an MPEG4 view will show MPEG4 stream in the large view as well.

• Redundancy level of the Image Database has been improved. As result, recovery time of the Image Database after a single disk failure (one disk crashes in a multi-disk server) is shorter.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.9.4

• Default language of the users admin and guest was Hungarian. Now it is changed to English. This is valid for new istallations. Upgrading to this version will not change any users default language.

• Starting the Observer client in Web browser, the selected language was not propagated to the application. The application was started with the current user's default language. Now, the language selected in the Web browser overrides the user's default language. The installed client application will still come up with the current user's default language. Unfortunately, for the users admin and guest the default language was set to Hungarian in previous versions, so it has to be changed to the required language in the User Administration.

• The attempt to start video stream from several cameras which are not accessible may cause fatal server condition depending on the length of the network timeout between server and camara.

• Mounted camera tree can get inconsistent (unreachable [thisHost] appears in the camera tree). This can happen, if Observer is re-installed on an NCS, which was previously mounted on a NUS. After re-installing Observer on the NCS, it will get a new HostID, which has to be inserted in the NUS Host Administation tool. This process leads to inconsistent camera tree. This version prevents inconsistency and repairs servers at startup time which are already in inconsistent state.

R1.9.3

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.9.3

• Date conversions for the German and Serbian language has been made conform to national standards.

• Texts for the Russian language have been improved.

• Although English was selected as language in the browser the upcoming pages were displayed in Hungarian.

• Preview thumbnail images of the archive did not appear in some situation.

• Check of overlapping date/time settings in the Camera Administration tool's Schedule panel was too restrictive.

• Communication between upgrade master and slave could fail if the hostname was defined as loopback address (127.0.0.1).

• Fps choice was selectable in Online Monitor in MPEG play mode.

• The field "Total free space" was not updated properly in the Camera Administration.

• Video Grabber Card driver may stop under certain conditions. This lead to fatal condition (Observer restart).

R1.9.2

List of enhancements in Observer 1.9.2

• A new feature has been added to Observer which enables external third-party applications to send Observer-internal actions via URL encoded strings (send http GET request to a Observer server). The server upon receiving these special URL requests converts them into internal actions and executes them as if they would have been generated internally.
  
  NOTE: For security reasons URL controls are accepted only from the following types of machines:

• An Observer client application is running on that machine where "admin" user is logged in.

• The IP address of the machine is listed (comma separated list) on the host variables in the Host Administration tool.

Actions executed via the URL control are similar to those which can be activated from within the JAVA event handler classes of EMS. For those who want to know more about the possibilities of customizing event handlers we recommend to read the Server Customizing documentation. URL control is currently available only to execute the "clientControl" action. Others will come later and will be announced as soon as they are available. Client control is an action which is used to control some functions of the Online Monitor and the Archive Player on those clients which are connected to that server machine (NUS) to which you are sending out this URL. Its parameters tells on which client application what action should be executed.

To define the target client you have to define the following parameters:

	selector.machine=	IP address of the target client PC (optional)
	selector.user=	name of the logged-in target user (optional, but if both machine and user are specified then only the client application is selected which fulfills both conditions)
	selector.tool=	name of the target tool in the client application (possible values: online_monitor, archive_tool)

To define the action you have to define the following parameters:

	action.cameraid=	entity ID of the camera which is involved in the action
	action.action=	the action to be executed (possible values: show_live_stream, show_calendar, play_archive, draw_bounding_box)
	action.mode=	further descriptor for the action (possible values: pop_if_exists, show_as_large, show_in_view)
	action.fromtime=	from time stamp (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS or millisecs since Unix epoch) of archive playback. Should be given only when action is play_archive.
	action.totime=	to time stamp of playback (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS or millisecs since Unix epoch). Should be given only when action is play_archive.
	action.idlist=	comma separated camera id list or single id for which we want the archive playback or want to place them in the current view of the Online Monitor. Should be given only when action is show_live_stream or play_archive.
	action.panelname=	name of Online Monitor panel which should be visible. Should be given only when mode is show_in_view.
	box.x0=	upper left x coordinate of box (valid between 0 and 1000). The values are in 1/10th percentages of the displayed image. Box parameters should be supplied only when the action is draw_bounding_box.
	box.y0=	upper left y coordinate of box (valid between 0 and 1000)
	box.x1=	lower right x coordinate of box (valid between 0 and 1000)
	box.y1=	lower right y coordinate of box (valid between 0 and 1000)
	box.linewidth=	line width which is used when drawing the box
	box.color=	color of the box (possible values: black, blue, cyan, darkgray, gray, green, lightgray, magenta, orange, pink, red, white, yellow)
	box.text=	text which is written into the box
	box.timeout=	seconds after the box disappears automatically (0 - click to disappear)

Let's create now an action which brings up images of camera ID 12 in a large view on the terminal where the "admin" user is logged in (we assume that the address of the server to which we are sending the URL control is 192.168.7.2):

	http://192.168.7.2/arms/servlet/BrowserServlet? cmd=clientcontrol&selector.user=admin& selector.tool=online_monitor&action.action=show_live_stream& action.mode=show_as_large&action.cameraid=12
	For those who are familiar with EMS handler programming in JAVA the same action would look as follows: ActionPropagator.clientControl(origEvent, new TargetSelector(null, "admin", TargetSelector.ONLINE_MONITOR, null), new TargetAction(12, Actions.SHOW_LIVE_STREAM, Modes.SHOW_AS_LARGE, null));

Create action which draws a red box (for two seconds) onto the frame of camera ID 12 in the Online Monitor of the "admin" user:

	http://192.168.7.2/arms/servlet/BrowserServlet? cmd=clientcontrol&selector.user=admin& selector.user=admin&selector.tool=online_monitor& action.action=draw_bounding_box&box.x0=100&box.y0=100& box.x1=500&box.y1=500&box.linewidth=2&box.color=red& box.text=MD&box.timeout=3&action.cameraid=12
	For JAVA programmers it would look like: ActionPropagator.clientControl(origEvent, new TargetSelector(null, "admin", TargetSelector.ONLINE_MONITOR, null), new TargetAction(12, Actions.DRAW_BOUNDING_BOX, Modes.NO_MODE, new EventBoundingBox(100, 100, 500, 500, 2, Color.red, "MD", 2)));

For testing this feature we have created a very simple page here which can be used as a reference for programmers of the URL control.

• Event processing performance of EMS has been improved.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.9.2

• Recording gaps for some cameras (mainly for those which are recording with lower framerate).

• Cameras with network address (no IP address) could not be connected.

• Archive Player tool does not work, if the client has no access to port 33333 of the server, and the server is behind NAT (port 80 is mapped to any other port).

R1.9.1

List of enhancements in Observer 1.9.1

• Minimized caching of MPEG buffers in the Online Monitor to speed up rendering during PTZ movement.

• Languages supported by a server can now be tailored by technical site administrators. To enable or disable languages the user has to login as root and set the Enabled column of the LanguageMap table in the MySQL database either to zero (disable) or to one (enable). Disabled languages will not be reachable to Observer users.

• First version which enables distributed upgrade on unbundled 64/32 bit systems.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.9.1

• Too many unreachable cameras attached to a Observer server could lead to server error.

R1.9.0

List of enhancements in Observer 1.9.0

• To further ease the administration of a distributed Observer server network a new new licensing mechanism has been introduced to enable floating licensing. With this solution licenses are stored only on the central server of a distributed network, eliminating the need for obtaining licenses for each of the servers. The license holds camera and user information for all hosts within the Observer network. Each distributed server checks out the needed licenses according to the camera and user setup.

  To enable this feature on each distributed host login into it with the client application. For the initial license dialog click on continue in licenseless mode. When you are in the client go into the Host Administration and add the host which is the NUS of the Observer network. Check the 'Request license from remote host' for this host and save your changes. From now on this host will request its camera licenses from the NUS machine. The floating license on the NUS machine is entered the usual way.

• Arabic and Russian have been added to the supported languages. If you want to select the languages directly via a bookmark use the following URLs http://ip-of-your-host/index.jsp?lang=ar or ...?lang=ru.

• Event statistics reports have been added. You can produce statistic report based on the event filtering mechanisms in Excel XLS format.

• A MS Windows-based layout navigation tool has been added that is installed together with the local Observer client. The layout navigation tool interacts with the Observer client and is optimized for multi-screen configurations. Please consult the User Manual for further information. (#295, #508)

• The following new cameras and video servers have been added to Observer:

  • Axis 207, Axis 212, Axis223M, Axis 240Q, Axis243SA

  • ACTi SED-2120

  • Panasonic WV-NS202

  For a complete list of supported features for these devices please consult our separate document.

• A global dynamic library loader has been introduced into the product which enables both application and applet users to utilize the advantages of the IPP environment. With this feature Observer is now able to display JPEG, MPEG (audio) frames with a much higher performance. Each tool requiring an IPP component will automatically download the wanted library from the server (if it was not already on the client machine) and use it.

• In the Camera Administration tool for cameras delivering images in CIF aspect ratio the user can choose between the PAL and NTSC video standards. The setting is then used in the camera drivers to setup the camera to deliver the properly sized image.

• The AAC audio format is now supported.

• Audio playback pitch distortion can be selected to any MPEG audio capable camera in the Camera Administration tool. When this flag is enabled audio playback in the Online Monitor and Archive tools, including the export of AVI videos will be played back or produced with distorted audio channel.

• The Archive tool has been completely reworked and now supports archive motion detection as well (currently only on MJPEG archive). (#221) For a better overview please consult the user manual. Export of single JPEG, AVI or SAFE (currently only on MJPEG archive) formats is now completely done on the client side using IPP libraries. (#452, #609) NOTE: Current limitation in mixed size MPEG and JPEG AVI export is that for each size a separate AVI file is created.

• Event bound audio playback is not limited to two seconds any longer. This version also supports the playback of WAV type audio files.

• Distributed upgrade of multiple Observer servers is implemented. The flag "Accept software upgrade from remote server" in the Host Administration tool has to be switched on for those servers which are to be upgraded (usually NCS servers). The upgrade process can be activated from the admin menu of the central upgrade coordinator host (usually a NUS).

• Observer installed client application supports automatic dynamic upgrade, which is fully transparent for the user. From this version on, the client application - including Layout Navigation Tool (LNT) - is able to work with any version of Observer server, which is higher than 1.9.0.110.194. Once this version of the client application is installed, it must not be upgraded manually for any further versions of Observer. Note, that LNT layouts implemented in previous versions of Observer has to be re-implemented after installing this version.

• In the Online Monitor of the installed client - whenever the hardware supports it and no other application has already allocated - Observer uses the hardware overlay technique for displaying flicker-free MPEG streams.

• Java 1.1 JRE (Microsoft Virtual Machine) is not supported by Observer client any longer.

• New methods are available to handler writers to set the background color of events appearing in the client application's tool bar (#718):

  • setEventBarNewStateColor(Color), setEventBarNewStateColor(int r, int g, int b) to set the background color of a newly arrived event.

  • setEventBarViewedStateColor(Color), setEventBarViewedStateColor(int r, int g, int b) to set the background color of an event which has already been visited and viewed.

  • setEventBarACKStateColor(Color), setEventBarACKStateColor(int r, int g, int b) to set the background color of an event which has already been acknowledged.

Limitations in Observer 1.9.0

• This version does not support distributed Observer networks - only single server - in an Application Service environment.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.9.0

• With some motherboards when a new network card was put into the machine the order of the cards (eth0, eth1, etc.) has changed and the license was made invalid.

• Custom event types registered via SNAP could not be deleted (unregistered) by sending SNAP PropagateEvent with empty EventText element. Deleting a custom event will now remove not just the event definition but all event records of that type from the event database. Note that in 1.9 the Observer server has to be restarted after registration or unregistration of a custom event via SNAP.

• In the Camera Administration tool's Default settings panel the enabled/disabled state of some controls was wrong when the Camera type was changed in the Properties panel. (#818)

R1.8.13

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.13

• SMS sender and gateway problems.

• Digital Joystick problem (two camera movements for one control).

• If unaccessible IP cameras are connected then server may produce fatal condition.

• Upgrade problem from 1.8.6. (relaoading 1.8.12 system backup fails).

R1.8.12

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.12

• Unable to unmount remote camera tree when remote server is unreachable. (#807)

• Client hangup in archive playback. (#819)

• Clicking on tab-control during modification in Camera Administration tool all controls became disabled. (#820, #808)

• PTZ or Camera-IO controls were not working after upgrading. (#822)

• Custom edited event handles were not incorporated into a running system after an upgrade. (#823)

• Client crashes when decoding corrupted JPEG image. (#825 - partially)

R1.8.11

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.11

• Some client hangup situation fixed.

• Socket handling problem on the server (too many open files situation with XSocket).

• The menu item "Add new disk" has been temporarily removed from admin menu because of various hardware environment problems. The function will be reactivated in future releases after extensive testing.

• Event sound playback is not limited to 2 seconds.

• Client control target selector used in event handlers accepts semicolon separated list of users or client host IP addresses. (EMS programming issue)

• Client login problem with wrong server IP or not accessible server. (#783)

• MD based PTZ positioning with multiple positions. (#784)

R1.8.10

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.10

• Panasonic WV-NP244 MJPEG streaming mode malfunction.

• Client-server communication failure sometimes caused client hangup.

• Cameras added to a view panel which have been just created may disappear after quit from client application.

• System upgrade on servers with more than one NIC can be broken (#781).

• System upgrade can be broken because of failure in the System Backup procedure (#743).

• Polling IO-port of IP cameras which are not responding will cause system restart.

• Observer handles Panasonic VW-NP1004 properly with firmware version 1.21 or newer.

R1.8.9

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.9

• Server may have been restarted in case of unstable network connection to cameras.

• Controls for setting post-alarm recording (seconds and fps) was mistakenly enabled for FTP based in-camera motion detection setup. Note, that length and framerate of FTP alarm recording depends exclusively on settings in the camera Web interface.

• The size of the FTP alarm images was not set correctly in case of archive playback of FTP in-camera motion recordings.

• Server may have been restarted if server motion detector received corrupt JPEG frame form a camera.

R1.8.8

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.8

• Memory leak in Observer client application which leads to 'Out of memory exception' in case of frequent archive playback of many different cameras.

• Server/server communication problem (fatal error and automatic server restart) in case of using very low bandwidth, unreliable network link between servers.

R1.8.7

List of enhancements in Observer 1.8.7

• This version of Observer is bundled with CentOS v4.4. The CentOS kernel is binary compatible to RHEL, thus RHEL device drivers can be used for better hardware support. (#762, #764, #766)

• Removing view panels in MOM will be executed immediately, so there is no need to save view settings after removing a view panel.

• Time limit of client application session for demo license has been removed.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.7

• MJPEG stream cannot be visualized in installed Observer client application (black images appear in MOM) for Axis cameras and video servers switched in Black&White mode (night mode). (#747)

• Not requested cameras appear in a new view panel if a view panel has been deleted before. (#752)

• After Observer startup the event "Could not find plugin setVideoStatus" appears. (#736)

• The root filesystem can be filled 100% by the mailserver logfiles if mails can not be delivered for a longer period of time. (#698)

• User login into the client application may not be possible after upgrading Observer 1.7 to 1.8.x.

• NIC is not setup correctly after changing IP address on systems with more than one NIC. (#759)

• Sending email is not possible in 1.8.6 (#767)

• Bad counting of allocated user licenses if multiple Observer clients started from the same workstation.

• Jumping camera pictures in online monitor. Pictures of different cameras are mixed up under some non-predictable circumstances. (#739)

• The client was not working properly with the latest Java VM (1.5.0 Update 9).

R1.8.6

List of enhancements in Observer 1.8.6

• The Axis 207MW and the Mobotix M/D12 cameras have been added to Observer.

• During a joystick calibration the zoom in and out can now be done using the joystick's Z axis as well.

• The click times for the mouse zoom feature have been lengthened. Now the smallest zoom is activated when the mouse button is hold between 0.5 sec and 1 sec, middle value is selected when the button is hold between 1 sec and 1.5 sec, while the largest zoom is selected then the button is depressed over 1.5 secs.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.6

• The same PTZ position can now be added to a PTZ route any number of times.

• When a PTZ route was activated via the Online Monitor although a direct click positioned the camera into the new position the router continued to move PTZ head into the next position. Now the direct click stops the currently active PTZ routing for the given camera.

• In the complicated situation when the same two PTZ cameras were in two different viewports of the Online Monitor it could happen that direct positioning on one camera caused the other camera to move as well.

R1.8.4

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.4

• Cameras can be removed from all view ports of a view port panel in the Online Monitor when saving changes which has been done in other panels.

• The center click has moved the camera to wrong position in the PTZ Administration tool of the installed client.

• The identifier of the camera which caused a custom event was not transported to the Observer client application and to SNAP clients correctly.

• When a PTZ position was set in an Axis PTZ camera the position was not correctly stored because of rounding errors.

R1.8.3

List of enhancements in Observer 1.8.3

• To quit the Observer application is possible via CTRL Right Mouse Button Click in any Online Monitor view. This is useful if the Observer client application is started without window decorations.

• In the Camera Administration tool the camera defaults setup page has been moved to the more logical second position.

• The System information panel in the Administration tool has been extended with license information stored on a given host. The string contains the maximum available and used user and camera licenses followed by characters describing the mode and type of the license. It is assembled as follows: the first letter tells the mode, where P stands for Permanent, D for demo. The second letter tells the type, where E stands for Enterprise, B for Basic, S for Small-business and AS for application server type. If the license includes SNAP access as well an S letter stands at the end of the string.

• Motion Detection triggered PTZ positioning command (ptz:...) can be placed in the comment field of the MD definition. In previous versions it had to be inserted in the name field.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.3

• If the Observer client application is started without main tool control bar, and the user jumps to the Archive tool from the Online Monitor (or from the Event Dialog) then it is not possible to change the view back to the Online Monitor, for example. Now, the controls for accessing Archive tool are disabled when no main control toolbar is visible.

• Mouse-wheel zoom control remains active even if the user has no PTZ control rights on the camera.

• Shuffle mode of a single view-port and shuffle mode of view-panels was not saved when "Save all view settings" is selected.

• Motion Detection triggered PTZ positioning in combination with PTZ routing was not able to stay at the requested position as long as specified. The automatic router moved the camera to the next position immediately after the MD-triggered position has been reached.

R1.8.2

List of enhancements in Observer 1.8.2

• Installed application starter dialog has been extended significantly. Is is now possible to start Observer in pure full screen Online Monitor mode without any controls, even without Window Decorations. Note, when Observer is started without Window Decoration it is only possible to quit the application by stopping (killing) it via Windows tools. Note, that it is possible to leave the Online Monitor (eg. go to archive) but where is no way back if the main control toolbar is not visible. These problems will be fixed in the next release. Named startup configurations can be defined. This allows starting an Observer application from the DOS command line as follows: "na.bat config_name" where na.bat is the Observer starter batch file placed in the Observer client installation directory. config_name is the name of a startup configuration which has to be previously created by the starter application. Creating a custom startup configuration is possible by filling a new name in the starter application's input field labeled as "Configuration:", and typing ENTER. Implementing auto-starting, multi-screen Online Monitoring clients is possible by using these new features.

• Double-wide VGA aspect ratio has been introduced in the Online Monitor especially for supporting dual-eye Mobotix cameras.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.2

• Client sessions are sometimes not released, even when the client application is not connected any more. This leads to consuming all user licenses even if no user is connected to the server.

• On some client workstations after a longer period of time frames are mixed-up in the Online Monitor. Unfortunately it is not possible to duplicate this effect at Netavis labs. This version fixes some bugs which may lead to mixing-up frames in the Online Monitor.

R1.8.1

List of enhancements in Observer 1.8.1

• Some dual-eye Mobotix cameras can deliver images from both lenses at the same time (the width of the image will be twice as wide as for the normal image, while the height remains the same, e.g. 640 x 240 for 320 x 240 images). Observer now enables this mode of image download. If your camera has this feature you can enable this mode by setting the Camera-server port to three in the Camera Administration tool.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.1

• Due to the introduction of absolute PTZ positioning mechanism in 1.8.0 the execution of the ActionPropagator.setPTZPosition() action was not correct. This had side effects to PTZ positioning via motion detection, the SNAP interface and to the content of the 'CameraPTZChange' event.

• When an FTP push alarm recording was set for a camera and a new alarm has happened during the parallel recording period this period was not prolongated.

• Overloaded server with high framerate recording could lead to disk-full situation.

R1.8.0

List of enhancements in Observer 1.8.0

• The first version of the Observer mobile client is available. The currently supported devices are:

  • PocketPC, PDA running Windows Mobile 2003 and 5 (we have tested e.g. T-Mobile HTC MDA compact II).

  • SmartPhone running Windows Mobile 2003 and 5 SmartPhone editions (we have tested e.g. T-Mobile HTC SDA II).

  • Any device with Java Midlet (J2ME) support (we have tested e.g. Sony-Ericsson K600 and Nokia N70).

  Please visit the dedicated Observer mobile client page for downloading the appropriate client for your mobile device.

• The .NET version of the SNAP interface is available to download from our Customizer page.

• The Serbian language support has been added to the country environments.

• To simplify adding a new language to Observer we have changed the language selection dialogs both on the Web interface and in the Observer application. When you are logging in via the Web interface you will recognize that the list has been replaced by a pull-down menu, containing the available languages. To select your language drop down the menu, make your selection and then click on the Start button. You can also select your language via supplying an URL parameter as follows:

  http://ip-of-your-host/index.jsp?lang=language-to-be-selected

  where language-to-be-selected is one of the following:

  • en for English

  • de for German

  • hu for Hungarian

  • cs for Czech

  • sr for Serbian

  • hr for Croatian

  If you set a bookmark to this URL you will be able to jump to the language selection page with your preferred language already pre-selected.

• A new dialog has been added to the Camera Administration tool for setting default Online Monitor and camera behavior per camera.

• The tool 'Motion Detection' under 'System Admin' has been renamed to 'Detection Fields'. This allows binding more Image Content Analysis functionality (see iCAT below) to a detection field, which is a region of the camera view (similar as used for Motion Detection before).

• First prototype version of NETAVIS Image Content Analysis Toolbox (NETAVIS iCAT) has been introduced. This version of iCAT supports the following functions:

  • Removed object detection

  • Abandoned object detection

  • Video content change detection (e.g.: camera moved)

  • Abrupt darkness detection (e.g.: camera covered or light switched off)

  • Abrupt brightness detection (e.g.: light switched on)

  Different iCAT functions can be assigned to Detection Fields. A Detection Field is a square region of the camera view, in other words: Region Of Interest (ROI). Detection Fields can be specified in the Observer client's 'Detection fields' tool under Administration Tools. As any Detection Field can be activated/deactivated for a period of time (see new feature below) so any iCAT function can be activated/deactivated for a specific period of time. For this prototype version of iCAT, all iCAT functions are bound to scheduled Motion Detection functionality. That means, scheduled MD has to be switched on for the camera and iCAT control parameters has to be entered into the comment field of the active Detection Fields. The following iCAT control parameters can be entered into the comment field of a Detection Field:
  
  icat controlParam1 controlParam2 ... controlParamN
  
  The control parameters following the keyword icat has to be separated by blanks. Each control parameter consists of a keyword, which specifies the name of the function and an argument list, which is optional. The name and argument list are separated by a colon character (:). The argument list consists of any number of arguments separated by comma character (,). An argument is either a single keyword or a key-value pair represented as key=value. The following iCAT control parameters are valid:

  • rod:argList - Activates removed object detection. Valid args: tmo=timeOutInSeconds (default value is 5, minimum value is 2).

  • aod:argList - Activates abandoned object detection Valid args: tmo=timeOutInSeconds (default value is 30, minimum value is 2).

  • vcc:argList - Activates video content change detection Valid args: tmo=timeOutInSeconds (default value is 5, minimum value is 2), perc=changePercent (default value is 50).

  • dar:argList - Activates abrupt darkness detection Valid args: tmo=timeOutInSeconds (default value is 2, minimum value is 1), perc=changePercent (default value is 30).

  • bri:argList - Activates abrupt brightness detection Valid args: tmo=timeOutInSeconds (default value is 2, minimum value is 1), perc=changePercent (default value is 30).

  Examples for legal iCAT control parameter lines:
  icat rod - switch on removed object detection with default timeout
  icat rod:tmo=10 - switch on removed object detection with 10 seconds timeout
  icat rod aod:tmo=60 - switch on removed object detection with default timeout, switch on abandoned object detection with 60 seconds timeout
  icat dar:tmo=1,perc=50 - switch on abrupt darkness detection with 1 second timeout and 50% change limit
  
  Note, if any iCAT function is activated for a Detection Filed, no Motion Detection will be performed for that field, but MD and iCAT fields can be mixed for a camera.
  Note that iCAT functions do not trigger recording in this version of Observer. Please switch on continuous recording for the cameras having iCAT functions activated. This will allow to playback video sequence which triggered iCAT events.

• At defining scheduled Motion Detection (or any iCAT functions) the user can attach detection fields which will be active during the defined period of time. Note, when a new detection field is added in the 'Detection Fields' tool, it will be automatically added to the active detection fields for each scheduling definition.

• Archiving MPEG video streams is now possible with or without the audio track.

• Zoom control for the Sony SNC-Z20 camera has been added to Observer.

• The following Sony cameras have been added to Observer:

  • Sony SNC-CS50. Its in-camera motion detection is also available and can be activated via the camera defaults panel in the Camera Administration tool.

  • Sony SNC-CS10, SNC-CS11

• The following Panasonic cameras have been added to Observer:

  • WV-NP472

  • WV-NS324 with full PTZ support.

  • WV-NP244 with digital Zoom support. Limitations: the maximum streaming framerate is limited by the camera setup. No image quality can be set from Observer.

  • WV-NP1004 with digital Zoom support. Limitations: the maximum streaming framerate is limited by the camera setup. No image size and quality can be set from Observer.

• The Axis 232D+ camera has been added to Observer. Limitation: MPEG can only be streamed using Multicast.

• Rendering for night-vision mode has been improved (#621).

• Support for the Megatron MACH V 551A15 type joystick's Z axis has been added to Observer. By turning the Z axis the user can zoom in/out in three steps depending on the amount of turn.

• We have introduced a new PTZ position storage model in this version. The solution explained below is valid only for those IP cameras which allow setting and querying absolute PTZ head positions. For all other cameras (for example analogue PTZ cameras attached to video servers) Observer still uses the old model, which stores positions in the camera itself. In the new solution when a new position is defined Observer queries the current position of the camera PTZ head and stores this absolute position in the database. When the head later directed to a preset position Observer uses this absolute position. This method has a lot of advantages, e.g. when a camera was reset to factory defaults it forgot all stored preset positions which was not known to Observer, causing positioning problems. As mentioned above, video servers still use the old method so when such a device is reset to factory defaults the positions stored in the server will be erased. In such cases unfortunately all positions known by Observer has to be deleted as well and positions must be defined again.

• The list of supported cameras has been revised and checked against the newly offered functionality of Observer. All supported cameras, along with their firmware versions, features and Observer support are now listed in a separate document which was added to our manual set. Please consult this file for product specific details.

• Nowadays many IP cameras support in-camera motion detection and download of these event triggered images via FTP/HTTP. This version adds a global mechanism to Observer to handle these cameras features, though setup of such an event and parameters should be done by the user.
  Each Observer server hosts now an FTP server where anonymous logins and uploads are possible. We propose that for login please use "ftp" as user name and any (e.g. a@b) short email-like string for password. For the FTP server's network address please always use the IP address of the machine where the camera is connected to (e.g. 192.168.7.2).
  For a complete list of supported devices and the method how to set up the event and FTP/HTTP parameters for the cameras please consult our separate document.
  

  NOTE: Do not forget to check and set the date and time of the camera to reflect your current time. After setup of your camera you have to enable the Observer side FTP/HTTP feature by checking Receive event images via FTP or Receive event images via HTTP in the Camera Administration tool.
  Please also note that the way as events, actions and servers can be defined in a given camera may change in the future.

• The following new methods are now available to handler writers:

  • event.setEventBarText(String) method to set the name of the event which is then displayed as name for the event in the client's event tool bar.

  • getIDForLanguage(String language) method to query the internal identifier for a given language (e.g. "hu", "en", "de"). For an example please look at the MotionDetectionHandler.java class.

  • ActionPropagator.attachEventToFrame() method to attach a message for a given period of time for the images coming from the camera. For an example please look at the MotionDetectionHandler.java class.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.8.0

• AVI output was not transferred to client when camera name contained special characters.

• When an accessible camera was inside an in-accessible camera-group the camera itself was not displayed.

• In the AS version the max. archiving length was limited to 9999 hours. Now it can be as high as 99999 hours (#668).

R1.7.3

List of enhancements in Observer 1.7.3

• Multiple user selection (Ctrl-Click) is supported when a view (or all views) of the current user is copied to other user(s).

• Existing Online Monitor views will be replaced (overwritten) when copying views to other user(s). (# 594)

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.7.3

• Night mode rendering fault in archive viewer. (# 621)

• MD picture sample frequency German translation failure (# 652)

R1.7.2

List of enhancements in Observer 1.7.2

• When the Java version of the client JVM is higher than 1.4 all password related information are sent to the server as MD5 encrypted string.

• Password field characters in the Camera Administration Tool are now typed back as '*'.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.7.2

• Staring an Online View for an MPEG capable camera from the event details dialog (after opening an event from the event bar) caused the applet to freeze (#629).

• The client plays sound even though no sound was assigned to a motion detection event.

• Setting and removing a named PTZ position in a Sony camera.

• Directing a PTZ camera into a position upon a motion detection.

• During the upgrade to Observer version 1.7.1 in some situations a context directory was not created.

• Motion detection and continuous recording in MPEG4 are not working together.

• Server restarts after a while if the MJPEG viewer wants to be connected, but it is not accessible.

R1.7.1

List of enhancements in Observer 1.7.1

• Recording length control has been changed. Instead of specifying the maximum allocated storage size per camera, the parameter "Requested recording period" (RRP) can be specified in the Camera Administration. The unit of RRP is days and hours. Unlike to previous versions, in 1.7.1 there is no possibility to specify the storage size in Megabytes. The system allocates storage automatically in order to get RRP on each camera.
  After updating the server to 1.7.1 the field RRP in the Camera Administration will show the value 9999 days 23 hours. The automatic storage allocation process is disabled as long as RRP is set to 9999 days 23 hours. In this case the server works with the latest storage allocation value shown in the field "Storage used by this camera (MB)". Setting RRP to any value lower than 9999 days 23 hours will start the automatic storage allocation process immediately.
  Adding a new camera to the system, RRP will be set to 9999 days 0 hours. The value 9999 days 0 hours means practically that the server will continue recording until there is any free disk storage available. The field "Actual recording period" (ARP) shows the length of current archive as days and hours. ARP is measured as time difference between the youngest and the oldest recorded frames, or time difference between the current time and the oldest recorded frame depending on the state of the control "Recording period is measured from now". The value of ARP will appear in color

  • black, if the value of RRP is 9999/23 (Automatic storage allocation is disabled)

  • green, if the value of ARP is greater or equal to RRP

  • red, if the value of ARP is lower than RRP

  Enabling the control "Priority over other cameras (if storage space is short)" will cause that the system removes frames from any other cameras before it starts removing frames form this camera if there is no more free storage space is available. Please be careful when enabling this control and having high value of RRP, because this situation can end up in dramatically reduced recording length at other cameras.
  The system generates a System Info Event with the message "Storage capacity exhausted before reaching required recording length" if there is no more free storage available and the required length of recording is not reached on any camera. In this case, the recording parameters can be changed or the storage capacity of the server can be extended by adding new disks. Note, that no event will be generated if RRP is set to 9999 days.

• A new backup/restore function for system configuration is added. The complete configuration of a Observer server can be exported via Web interface to a client PC, and imported to any Observer server on demand. All system configurations data is saved and restored, except the content of the event list and the image database. Please refer the Server Installation and Administration manual for more details.

• Camera audio input and output is now divided into two parts. Input is logically attached to MPEG input (audio input is embedded in the MPEG4 stream), while output is completely independent of that. As a reflection of this three new icons may appear (depending on the capabilities of the given camera) beside a camera view in the Online Monitor application. One for controlling the video stream, one for turning on/off the audio coming from the camera and one for turning on/off the audio going towards the camera. A camera can handle only one single audio stream coming from servers, therefore Observer checks whether clients connected to this server has already made an audio connection or not. However, this check can not be made when a camera is connected to more that one server.

• Support of the FutureNow FN485-8x16A I/O device. The device communicates over the serial port and has 8 input and 8*230V/16A output ports. When the plugin is enabled, the Observer server starts polling the device for its current states of inputs (every second) and generates an event upon states changes. Actions generated by this event can be tailored in the "CustomEventHandler" handler. To change any the states of the output ports the user should generate a DigitalOutputControl action setting the appropriate port and state values in the action. For an example please visit the "CustomEventHandler" class.

• On all messages containing video frames a proprietary encryption is used during network transfer for security reasons.

• A new Java class package was introduced and documented to support EMS handler writers. The documentation can be downloaded from this web page under "Start Customizer -> Download configuration files". The name of the document is EMSAPIdoc.zip.

• Support for the Megatron MACH V 551A15 type joystick has been added to Observer. In general, for all joystick buttons which are not mapped as zoom in or zoom out buttons a "GUIControlChange" event is generated. The control name is set to "Joystick" and the state name to:

  • "PUSH:" followed by a number corresponding to all buttons being pushed at the time when event is generated

  • "RELEASE:" followed by a number corresponding to the button being released at the time when event is generated

  Using this event, handler writers can generate actions to tailor the appearance and behavior of the client application or any other behavior of the system.

• Two new menu items have been added to the client application's System Information menu to enable users opening the User Manual or the web page with all the available manuals directly.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.7.1

• Although there are free user licenses available in the system, a user cannot log in.

• The message "Server not responding" appears sometimes in the Online Monitor in distributed systems even if the network connection between two Observer servers is up and running.

• When a user was added/deleted in the User Administration application the user tree in the Online Monitor did not reflect these changes.

• The repair function of the Observer CD is not working properly. This has been fixed with the following restrictions:
  

  • Damage of the partition information cannot be repaired. This means that the repair function will fail if the partition table of the boot disk (or of both disks in a raid) gets corrupted.

  • The repair function on the CD can repair only servers having the same software version.

• In version 1.7.0 using the Java VM 1.1 no archive playback was possible.

• In the Application Service version customers could select the Host Admin and System Information applications.

• Cameras without access rights appeared in the tree (#622, #623).

R1.7.0

List of enhancements in Observer 1.7.0

• A Java SDK for building SNAP applications in Java is included. Please download snapJavaAPI.zip (Start Customizer, Download configuration files) and check the README file for the first steps.

• The administrator of the Observer system can log into the system even if all user licenses have been checked out.

• The administrator can now forcefully log out users from the Observer system (#570).

• From the Camera Administration tool one can jump directly to an IP camera's home page. This works only if the camera is visible in the network segment where the Observer client application has access to. (#571).

• Observer is now able to archive and show MPEG streams coming from the:

  • Axis 210A and Axis 211A cameras

  • Axis 241QA four port and Axis 241SA single port video servers

  The firmware version of the above devices has to be at least 4.3 (both audio and video are streamed via RTP). For viewing MPEG images you have to use the installed client application. This feature is not available in the applet versions. When a camera is accessed Observer automatically sets all necessary parameters for proper MPEG streaming. Setting the following parameters can effect the quality of the audio-video stream and should be set by hand:

  • Important! In case you change the IP address of an MPEG Axis device, you have to restart it otherwise multicast streaming will not function correctly.

  • Important! If you have more than one multicast streaming MPEG Axis device in your network you have to set different audio and video ports for each device. Multicast ports are used in pairs which means that the audio port should be higher by two than the video port. A device normally streams video using port 50000 and port 50002 for audio. For each device you have to set different values (increasing by two) for these ports. For example, taking that you have three devices multicasting MPEG, then you should set 50000 for video port, 50002 for audio port in the first, 50004 for video port, 50006 for audio port in the second and 50008 for video port, 50010 for audio port in the third device. To set the port values go into the Setup page of the device, select System Options -> Advanced -> Plain Config. From the group menu select Network, roll down to the Network RTP R0: section and change the Video port: and Audio port: entries according the above mentioned algorithm.

  • For optimal video stream functionality go into the Setup page of the camera, select Video & Image -> Advanced -> MPEG-4. In the GOV Settings part use IP as structure and max 10 for (GOP) length. Then save your settings. As you might know the camera collects images and sound until a GOP is "filled" thus effecting the time between GOPs. If delay between camera and client display is to be minimized use smaller values for the length parameter (but use 2 as minimum).

  • In case you use the internal microphone set at least +12 for Input gain that sound volume is acceptable.

  • Important! The Axis 241QA device has only one audio input for four attached cameras, to select which camera will receive the audio stream you have to go into the video server's Setup page and associate the audio with the needed video input.

• Added support for the Sony SNC-P5 Pan/Tilt/Zoom camera.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.7.0

• Cameras with dynamic (dyndns.org or similar) network address lost connection if the IP address has been changed. (#563)

• SNAP: function Unregister Custom Event (remove event definition and all events of the specified event type) does not work.

• SNAP: the whole camera tree is delivered for AS customers instead of the part which belongs to the customer.

R1.6.5

List of enhancements in Observer 1.6.5

• New SNAP licensing policy implemented. One user license can be allocated by a user logged in to the Observer client application (or applet) and by a SNAP session in the same time. Thus, no extra user license has to be bought for SNAP.

• New SNAP request "PerformAction" introduced. SNAP clients are able to start standard Observer actions. The only action implemented in this release is 'SetCameraPTZPosition', which allows to move PTZ camera to a predefined position. Another new SNAP request "LifeSignal" is introduced. It has to be used by SNAP clients which do not have any "Channel" open (not sending ReadChannel periodically), but still want to keep a "SNAP Session" open for longer period of time. Please refer the SNAP documentation (v1.6 included in this release) for more details.

• PTZ control via MotionDetection (MD). It is possible to assign a sequence of PTZ positioning actions to each MD field definition. Once the MD field gets active, the associated PTZ action is fired. PTZ action can be assigned to a MD field by appending the following sequence to the MD field name: "ptz:CID:PresetName:WaitTime:PresetName:WaitTime...", where CID is a cameraID (number shown in Camera Administration next to the camera name), PresetName is the name of a preset position (as entered in Observer) and WaitTime is pause time in seconds. There can be any number of "PresetName:WaitTime" pairs added. If CID is 0 then the MD field's camera is controlled. Triggering PTZ action is blocked until the previous PTZ action is running. For example, a motion detection in a field with name "MyFieldName ptz:4:Pos1:5:HomePos:10" will move the camera with ID 4 to the preset position 'Pos1', wait 5 seconds and move the camera to the preset HomePos and wait 10 seconds. Further PTZ positioning actions are blocked for 15 seconds in total. This is useful if the controlled camera is the same as the camera with the MD field. PTZ action will not be executed if the PTZ resource of the camera is locked by other user.

• The camera/user/event display panel is now scrolling one line at a time instead of one pixel.

Known limitations in Observer 1.6.5

• Zooming with the mouse wheel is not working in the installed client application running under the Java 1.5.0_05 environment. Please use Observer from the browser or use Java 1.5.0_04 if mouse wheel zooming is required.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.6.5

• Memory consumption problem of the client applet/application.

• Saving of event search results into an HTML file was not possible due to a directory access rights problem (#551).

• For selecting one element on the display panel one had to click very close to the item.

R1.6.4

List of enhancements in Observer 1.6.4

• A new event (CameraPTZChange) has been added. This event is generated whenever a PTZ camera moves to a preset position. This event is not propagated to the normal Observer client application by default, but it is propagated to any SNAP client.

• New menu elements 'Copy current view to other user' and 'Copy all views to other user' were added to the global view menu in Online Monitor. The user must own User Administration rights in order to copy view panels to other users. Note that the user will see the views only after a new login. Important note: view properties, which are not saved will not be copied to other users. So please save your changes before copying views. If the user who receives the view already has a view with the same name then this view will not be copied.

• Dimension of SNAP command attribute <OpenChannel><DataLimit> changed from MBytes to KBytes. Specifying 1 for DataLimit will force termination of <ReadChannel> request frame by frame. This is useful if we need to get just one single frame of the live stream, or if we have to avoid buffering problems on the client side.

• Timing parameters for 'click-and-hold' zoom in/out functions has been changed. This allows more tolerance for "slow-clickers" and provides better and faster zooming capability. Mouse-wheel zooming is also tuned to be faster.

• Optical feedback for zooming level. 1,2 or 3 red dots show current zoom-action level in the view. Level 3 zoom is tuned to do 100% zoom in/out.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.6.4

• Server communication in a distributed Observer environment with three or more servers gets unstable if network connection between NUS and NCS is slow or unreliable.

• In the Online Monitor when the PTZ was active for a camera the mouse double click did not open a big view for it.

• In the Host Administration Tool the user could assign timezone names to the server which were not known in Observer causing that Observer could not successfully be started. For the list of known timezones please visit the Camera Administration Tool.

• Axis cameras with older firmware version (2.x) deliver poor image stream.

• SNAP attributes <OpenChannel><DataLimit> and <OpenChannel><TimeLimit> have no effect.

• Switching Axis IR-Cut-Filter on/off did not work. This was because the EMSState() function in the event handler routines did not work properly.

• Applet/application hangs after doing frequent PTZ actions on more cameras in parallel.

R1.6.3

List of enhancements in Observer 1.6.3

• New PTZ input devices and controlling style has been introduced. This new behavior is now the default, although you can toggle between the old and new style via clicking with the mouse into the camera panel while holding the SHIFT button. The new features are as follows:

  • The new controlling style (which is the default behavior now) is the so called direct PT (Pan/Tilt). This is achieved by shortly clicking with the mouse in the image. After the click Observer commands the camera to center the point where the click landed (if possible within the PT limits). If the left mouse button a hold for a longer period of time a zoom in will happen. Holding the button even longer the zoom will move with a bigger value. The same operation using the right mouse button will cause the camera to zoom out. This feature is available with all Java versions.

  • From Java JVM 1.4 and upwards both the applet and application versions of Observer are able to handle the mouse-wheel as an input device. It is used for zoom-in (forward scroll) and zoom-out (backward scroll) during PTZ control.

  • From Java JVM 1.4 and upwards the application version of Observer is able to handle USB joysticks as input device. It can be used for panning, tilting the camera, while its buttons for zoom-in and zoom-out operations (which button is used for which operation is assigned during calibration). The joystick must be calibrated (found in the System Information menu, beside the language change menu) before use. To "assign" the joystick input focus to a camera, click into the frame while holding the SHIFT and CTRL buttons. This is visible via an in-picture icon drawn when the assignment is successfully done. To enable this feature please reinstall your Observer client application (download it from here).

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.6.3

• SNAP: An extra empty line was inserted into the HTTP header before the 'Content-Length' attribute. HTTP header must contain only one empty line, which terminates the header.

• If the communication between two servers in a distributed Observer environment is blocked (network connection lost) then user login/logouts and other server communication has been blocked too.

• Heavy Motion Detection activities on a server with 3-4 IVC 200 grabber cards could lead to server restart once a day.

• Uniqueness of network address in the Host Administration tool was not handled properly. Therefore it was not possible to change the network address of a host.

R1.6.2

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.6.2

• Due to some memory leaks the Motion Detection process could be stopped after a couple of days operation. The internal watchdog process checked this situation and the server has been restarted automatically. The memory leak problem is fixed in this version.

• Host name choice for remote hosts in Camera Administration tool (Mount remote camera or group) cannot show all host names if there are more than 25 hosts.

• Firmware version check may fail on some older Axis camera types.

• Filesystem repair did not work when power-loss occurred before the journal-file synchronization.

R1.6.1

List of enhancements in Observer 1.6.1

• SNAP V1 implementation completed. SNAP commands PropagateEvent and StartArchiveEventStream has been implemented in this version, which were missing in the version 1.6.0. Please find the SNAP-V1 documentation under the link Documentation on the main Web page of this server.

• The Observer English PDF documentation is now available on the CD kit under the "/doc" directory (#491).

• Operating system messages could fill up the root partition. Via configuring a better message storage policy this problem is fixed (#521).

• For the sake of more stable booting the new version of GRUB has been installed. Also, the boot record is now copied onto the mirror disk. When you fail to boot from your primary boot device you have now the option to boot from the second device. For details on how to boot from the second device please read the motherboard's manual (#522).

• The Observer install CD now contains a 'repair' mode which can be used when you can not boot from your hard disk. This mode reinstalls the operating system and the boot partition and tries to repair the other faulty partitions. For this mode to work you have to have at least one image partition to be read and mountable.

• An automated partition check and repair function has been added to the boot procedure which ensures data disk integrity.

• The following new IP camera devices are now available in the Camera Administration tool. They are as follows:

  • Sony SNC-DF40, Sony SNC-DF70

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.6.1

• Digital I/O port of a camera was handled only when both the input and output pin monitoring were selected (Fix #532).

• No user login/logout event is generated when the network connection between client and server brakes down temporarily. (Fix #542).

R1.6.0

List of enhancements in Observer 1.6.0

• Simple NETAVIS Access Protocol (SNAP) Version 1 is implemented. SNAP is a HTTP/XML based communication interface allowing access to camera tree details, live or archive video stream, live or archive event stream and allows propagation of external events to the server. Restriction in this version: commands PropagateEvent and StartArchiveEventStream do not work.

• Observer is using now Tomcat version 5.0.28 as web server. This step - which was essential with the introduction of SNAP - enables us to step to a higher level in security and support.

• The camera tree in each tool is now built on access rights of a given user. This means that different views of the same camera tree is seen in the Administration, On-line Monitor or Archive Applications according to different access rights settings.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.6.0

• In the synchro-playback panel of the Archive Application some camera frames were not correctly repainted when the Microsoft Java 1 Virtual Machine was set in the Internet Explorer. This release fixes this problem.

R1.5.4

List of enhancements in Observer 1.5.4

• The Axis-221 IP camera is now supported and available in the Camera Administration tool.

• Now it is possible to query the currently used "camera months" at AS customers via a HTTP request.

• The Observer application is signed with an authentication key in order it can save image/movie data on the local PC or print event lists on the local printer. The key we receive from VeriSign expires and should be renewed annually. Unfortunately this caused that older versions of our application - signed with the key which was valid at the time we deployed the application, but expired after a year of usage - started to send warning messages that the application is not trusted any longer. In the new releases we use a special time stamping authority mechanism which eliminates this behavior.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.5.4

• Due to an AWT widget level optimization we unfortunately introduced a bug into the Java 1.1 version of the Observer applet. This release fixes this problem.

R1.5.3

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.5.3

• Due to an Application Service feature in the User Administration Application the access to user-group properties was temporarily blocked. This release fixes this problem.

• Fixed Sony SNC-RZ30P PTZ position set/clear bug introduced by new camera firmware. The currently tested and supported camera version is 3.02. Please make sure before use that your camera has the same version number.

• The motion definition and PTZ definition image panels showed wrong image size when the downloaded image was bigger than the panel. This problem is now fixed.

R1.5.2

List of enhancements in Observer 1.5.2

• Support of distributed camera administration. All camera related operations are allowed for remote mounted cameras and camera groups too. Limitation: one level of mounted devices can be handled (no mount of mounted cameras or groups is possible).

• The format of the Observer host ID in the Host Administration application has been changed from the simple digit notation to a more readable hexadecimal, colon separated string notation.

• New system variables were added to the Host Administration tool with which the user can tailor the:

  • Camera read timeout value. When a camera does not respond after this number of seconds Observer sends an error message.

  • Camera retry count. When a camera does not respond after reaching this retry count (using the timeout value for each try) Observer generates an event.

  • Session timeout value for the "guest" user. This user will automatically be logged out after timeout value is reached.

• An external communication plugin was developed to interconnect Observer and the GEMOS system. Parameter configuration of external plugins is now done via XML files. To read more about it please visit your server's "Start Customizer" webpage. After successfully logging in as administrator click through into the "Download configuration files" page, then click on the file you want to read.

• Enhanced SCSI device support (e.g. AHA2400).

• In the camera Administration application you can move cameras or complete groups of cameras into other groups in the camera tree.

• Open/close states of the camera tree groups are saved for each user at logout time. When the same user logs in again the layout of the created camera tree will be identical with the one the user had during his previous session.

• A new package type - Small Business - was added to our licensing policy to enable flexible licensing for the < 8 camera range business cases. Choosing this package the end-user will have the following limitations:

  • only one-node Observer networks can be built

  • max number of cameras is 8

  • max save rate is 3 fps, max Online View refresh rate 5 fps

  • zoom is unavailable (independent of the camera capability)

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.5.2

• The restriction of mixing cameras and camera groups in the camera tree is eliminated.

• SAFE export player crashed if only a couple of frames were exported. This bug is fixed now.

• The server produced fatal-dump if network timeout (4 minutes) occurred while communicated with some Axis camera types. This bug is fixed now.

• A security loophole let users change their own privileges without having the proper rights. This bug is now fixed.

Known problems in Observer 1.5.2

• When this version is first installed it translates your current external I/O plugin settings from the database into an XML file. Unfortunately when you do an install again for some reason this merge can not be done again as the corresponding table has already been dropped. Thus the newly created XML file will not contain references to your old plugins. Luckily the previous version of this XML file is preserved with the ".orig" extension. Please copy this file over the new one or do a merge on it, then restart the server anew.

R1.5.1

List of enhancements in Observer 1.5.1

• The Sony SNC-RZ25 IP camera device is now available in the Camera Administration tool. Please note, that the image quality and size of MJPEG streaming mode MUST be set manually using the camera's own Web interface. Observer does not set these parameters. This will be fixed in the next release.

• In this release the user can choose between two performance optimization methods in the Online Monitor. One optimizes for better image quality (and is a little slower) while the other for better speed (and a little less image quality). The difference in image quality can be seen mainly in scaled images. This optimization can be selected for individual view ports or for all of them. The default value is optimizing for quality.

• The administrator of an Application Server (AS) environment is now able to administer his own groups and users. In the earlier version only customer level administration was possible.

• Camera types are now grouped by vendor. Camera types Vivotek and Intellinet have been removed from the list of supported cameras.

• We kindly advice you for using Java 1.5.0_02 or higher as client runtime environment for improved quality and stability.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.5.1

• Users without the necessary privileges could look at archive images of a camera (attached to a motion detection event) via the short replay button in the event details dialog. This is now fixed.

R1.5.0

List of enhancements in Observer 1.5.0

• Important note: this version of Observer does not support multi-server installations! This feature will be available in the next release.

• Java 2 runtime environment is now supported. This also means that Observer is able to run now on the Windows machine both as an applet and as an application. Prerequisite: Java 1.4.2 (or higher) must be installed.

  Using Java 2 on the client computer the following Java VM parameters have to be set:

  -XX:+UseTrainGC -Xmx256m -Xms128m -Xmn64m

  These parameters are necessary for optimum client performance. Please make sure that they are set for the browser plugin.

• For analog cameras attached to video digitizer cards on the server (NDS cameras) it is now possible to set brightness, contrast and saturation values in the Camera Administration.

• The title line of the Observer client application window is now showing the IP address of the host the client is connected to.

• The Observer Mail Server has been extended to read mails. All mails addressed to the user "ems" are read and processed by the server. After extracting the sender, sent date, subject and plain text body part of the mail the server generates an event to the Event Manager Server. Actions generated by this event can be tailored in the "EmailReceivedEventHandler" handler. Currently the default behavior is as follows: in case the subject line contains the keyword "SendSMS:" followed by a space-separated international mobile phone number (i.e. +36309871234) then an SMS message sending action is generated.

• The timezone abbreviation of the server machine can now be set via the Host Administration Application. All event stamps and also the client applications' timer will be converted using this timezone. Please use the same timezone abbreviations as in the Camera Administration tool.

• A new set of IP camera devices are now available in the Camera Administration tool. They are as follows:

  • Axis-213, Axis-231D

  • Sony M1, SNC-CS3P, SNT-V501, SNC-Z20P, P1

  • Panasonic BB-HCM381

• With this release the operating system of the Observer server has been changed to RedHat Fedora Core 3. Please read the Server Installation and Administration Manual for supported server hardware components.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.5.0

• During the autumn daylight change (in October) we actually miss one hour as we set back the time at three o'clock in the night to two o'clock. The Observer Archive Application's day calendar shows this time as overlapping ranges. Previous versions were not able to replay images belonging to the two o'clock summer time period. This problem is now fixed.

• The Schedule Server stopped the archiving at midnight on the autumn daylight change. This problem is now fixed.

• Although the user had no permission to look at the archives or the online view of a camera, when he had access to the events he was able to switch to any of these views. Now this problem is fixed.

Known problems in Observer 1.5.0

• Analog cameras connected to the server via the NDS drivers: After upgrading from Observer 1.4 to 1.5 the NDS camera port mappings for analog cameras are mixed up. This happens because the video device mapping of Fedora Core 3 differs from the previous version. As a workaround for quick fixing this problem we provide a camera port swap feature in the Online Monitor for NDS cameras. To swap the ports of two cameras do the following:

  • Make sure that all cameras for which the swap should be made are present on one single view.
  • While pressing <CTRL> click into the view port of the first NDS camera you would like to swap (the shape of the cursor changes to a hand).
  • While pressing <CTRL> click into the view port of the other NDS camera you would like to swap with. After a few seconds (approximately 3-5 seconds) the ports (camera-mapping) are swapped.

R1.4.2

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.4.2

• Due to backward compatibility problem of the event database, some event queries could break the query engine on the server. This could happen after upgrading Observer servers with large existing event base.

• Robustness of the server-server communication in distributed systems has been increased. Mixed usage of cameras connected over fast (100MB LAN) and slow (ISDN,DSL) network connections is now possible without breaking the image stream between Online Monitor and cameras.

• Zoom support added for cameras connected via Axis Video Servers (2400,2401,241,241S,2411).

• Mounted cameras were not removed from the camera tree after removing a host from the host list.

• The Observer startup process is hanging on some hardware platforms, the system does not start automatically.

R1.4.1

List of enhancements in Observer 1.4.1

• Server-server communication performance has been increased (distributed systems).

• Event query performance has been increased.

• The hourglass icon appears in the Online Monitor in each view port after switching between views. It disappears immediately after painting the first image in the view port.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.4.1

• Archived images attached to serial port events (especially "Keba Pasador" card reader device) cannot be retrieved in a distributed system.

• Online Monitor does not show any images after removing a camera from the system.

• After upgrading 1.2 or 1.3 systems with large event database, the event query may take very long time (up to 1-2 minutes).

R1.4.0

List of enhancements in Observer 1.4.0

• Concept of Distributed Observer has been introduced. It is possible to mount cameras of a remote Observer server to the local camera tree. Mounted cameras behave like local cameras. Observer allows instant access to online and archive images of any remote camera mounted to the local system. PTZ control of mounted cameras is also possible. Event propagation and accessibility monitoring between interconnected Observer servers is also implemented.

  Limitations of this version:

  • No remote administration of mounted cameras is possible.

  • No access to PTZ preset positions and routes of mounted cameras.

• Online Monitor has been reworked. The new monitor supports full screen size views. Up to 100 cameras can be monitored on a single view panel. Total number of cameras is theoretically not limited. Hierarchical view naming allows easy navigation between views. Frame rate and image size control has been introduced.

• The search engine of the Event Browser application has been completely reworked. The new interface allows explicit search for events, cameras or users. It is also possible to select multiple nodes (via control click) of each tree. Selection can be done on cameras or groups of cameras. When a group is selected then the search will happen for all cameras in that group. This behavior is in effect for the event and user selections.

• A new trusted applet has been introduced in place of the old one enabling the application to save exported archive images and movies directly on the client's machine. Using this feature we are now able to print the currently viewed list of events from the Event Browser application on any local printer attached to or reachable by the client machine.

• A new archive export file format has been introduced. The new format - called SAFE (Self-contained Archive Format for Export) - contains images of the selected time span and the MS-Windows player executable in one single file. At creation time the user can select any number of cameras for export which then be played back in synchronous mode.

  The file can be protected by a password and contains a proprietary watermark (for the whole length of the movie) for proving the movie's origin.

• A new set of IP camera devices are now available in the Camera Administration. They are as follows:

  • Axis-210, Axis-211

  • Axis-241S (*), Axis-241Q (*), Axis-2411 (*)

  • Axis-206, Axis-206M (mega pixel), Axis-206W (wireless, same as Axis 206)

  • Panasonic KX-HCM230, KX-HCM280, WV-NP472

  The Axis camera servers (marked with a '*') support non-interlaced image mode, too. This mode can be turned on for these devices in the Camera Administration tool.

• A new application was added to enable host administration. Adding, deleting and modification of Observer hosts can be done with the help of this tool. In case of a remote host, different types of 'attributes' (i.e. whether the given host can mount cameras remote from my host) can also be assigned with the tool.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.4.0

• AVI export was not possible for the Axis 205 camera, now it is fixed.

• Selection of small image mode for scheduling and motion detection was possible even though the camera was not able to handle it. This problem is now fixed.

• Missing event markers (red triangle) in archive calendar is fixed.

• Many small bugfixes and improvements

R1.3.1

List of enhancements in Observer 1.3.1

• The SMS sending feature is now available in Observer. To use this feature please note that the SMS numbers have to be supplied in the full, international way (e.g. +36 for sending to Hungary). Observer currently supports only the Siemens M35 terminal. The phone card put into the terminal has to be setup with disabled PIN code and preset SMS center call number (SMS call center of the mobile provider).

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.3.1

• The image queue was not flushed when scheduling was stopped. This caused that the last few seconds of the recording was missing from the archive. This problem is now fixed.

R1.3.0

List of enhancements in Observer 1.3.0

• Input output support for Axis cameras. The camera administration application has been extended to allow user level enabling/disabling of input and output handling of each camera.

  When input is enabled the server - handling the I/O - starts polling the camera for its current pin state (input #1) and generates an event upon state change. The poll interval can be adjusted in the camera administration application, though value for the interval can not be shorter than 500msecs (0.5 sec). In this release the handler of the incoming event (CameraIOStateChangeHandler) starts image recording on input pin high and stops recording on input pin low events. For testing and using this feature do not forget to assign storage for the camera. If you want to modify this behavior please edit the above mentioned handler.

  When output is enabled for a camera the "Camera port control" menu item in the Online Monitor tool is highlighted and the user can send output signals to the camera. A possible method of tailoring this action can be seen in the "GUIControlChangeHandler". In this release the handler generates a 2 seconds long active high pulse on the output pin of the camera.

• When any of the disk partitions get corrupt Observer starts an automatic repair procedure and also sends a notification event to users. If the given disk partition could be repaired the user will receive an event about it, if not then a new event on the next day will warn the user again about the still corrupt filesystem. This situation means that the automated repair could not be completed and manual user interaction is needed.

R1.2.2

List of enhancements in Observer 1.2.2

• Exported AVI files are not contain the name of the camera and the creation stamp.

• Search results of the Event Browser Application can be 'redirected' into an HTML file. An Internet Browser window is then brought up with this HTML file to enable printing.

• Video streaming of the Mobotix camera is now supported. When this feature is enabled though, users may watch only one 'eye' of the camera with one quality and size.

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.2.2

• License string generation for machines where the Ethernet card's MAC address has fallen into a special range was not possible. This problem is now fixed.

R1.2.1

List of enhancements in Observer 1.2.1

• Driver for HICAP-100 and HICAP-200 type 16 input PCI video grabber cards with a maximum total framerate of 200 fps (CIF frame size, minimum Intel P4 2.6 MHz CPU).

Bugs fixed in Observer 1.2.1

• The driver of Conexant BT878 chip based PCI video grabber cards has been reworked for better performance, stability and increased image quality. The interlace effect (line shift) has been eliminated in case of QCIF,CIF and 4CIF frames.

• February in a leap year was not displayed properly in the Archive View.

• In case a camera had only "Server Motion Detection" parameters set in the "Camera Admin" panel, the archiving FIFO space was not checked. In this situation the disk could be filled up which finally caused an unwanted stop in the saving.

• In certain cases the Server Motion Detector did not mark the fact of the event in the database. As a consequence of this the archive view did not properly show intervals having motion events.

• Events generated after a camera name change still referred to the old name.

• It was not possible to step from the 1st of January to 31th of December only after changing to the month or year view.

• Newly created PTZ positions were not displayed in the Online Monitor's PTZ menu.

• User authorization settings were nor checked when modifying Motion Detection and PTZ parameters. The problem is fixed now.

• When a popup blocker was installed in the client's browser no jump to the download page or to the home page of Netavis was possible. Now the new client recognizes this and pops up new windows according to this situation, though with some blockers the user has to enable at least the first window to be opened (e.g. with a ctrl click).

• When the user exited the client program before logging into the Observer system, a second start - without exiting the browser itself - was not possible.

• Apostrophes in motion definition and PTZ definition names caused server malfunctions.

• Setting up a motion detection for a Mobotix camera caused server malfunction. The problem is fixed.

• The list containing the results of an event search was left at the bottom after displaying the new lines.

• If anyone of the synchronous frames in the Archive View application was activated/deactivated during image loading into another frame led to an error situation.

• Button text at camera selection dialog in the Archive View application was changed from the misleading "Add camera" to "Select camera".

• When a camera was not responding from the first time in the Online Monitor its name was not shown. Now this problem is solved.

Known limitations in Observer 1.2.1

• The possible frequency values for camera scheduling and motion detection has been changed. A few were removed and quite a lot were added. During the update from the previous release to the current one no attempt is made to convert any previously existing - and now removed - frequency values to new ones. In order to use the currently available new values please go into the camera administration part of the client program, set then save the chosen new scheduling frequency values.

• Most PTZ cameras have administration user interfaces (UI), independent of Observer. Using these UIs the camera's administrator is able to add/delete/set PTZ positions and values stored in the camera. In the current version of Observer we do not cross-check our own 'knowledge' about these values with the ones stored in the camera itself, therefore direct UI administrations can cause malfunctions in the Observer PTZ control.

© 2002 - 2024 Netavis. All rights reserved.