Introduction
This latest release of EdgeVis includes two key complementary features: support for transmitting ONVIF Profile M (an addition to the ONVIF video standard to handle analytics data from edge devices) and the new Digital Barriers Object Detector, which analyses video content to highlight people and cars.
Key features include:
Smaller features, fixes and known issues for EdgeVis encoders, EdgeVis Server, EdgeVis Client, and VMS Gateway.
EdgeVis 8.7 firmware can be installed on:
EdgeVis Video Router 1/1R/1RL
EdgeVis Video Router 4/4RL
EdgeVis HD-IP200
EdgeVis HD-IP470*
EdgeVis MiniCam
* The HD-IP470 does not support Object Detector due to hardware limitations.
Support for ONVIF Profile M video analytics
ONVIF Profile M is the latest standard from ONVIF, designed to allow a vendor-agnostic way of passing analytics events and metadata between devices and VMS. Many new cameras coming to the market now include analytic capabilities (e.g. object detection, ANPR, facial recognition) and expose those through the new ONVIF Profile M standard.
The EdgeVis encoder now simplifies video and analytics use cases by directly supporting the new ONVIF Profile M protocol. This removes the need for complex VPN setups by creating both a single video and analytics bridge between your camera and VMS.
The following diagram shows how the ONVIF Profile S video and ONVIF Profile M get from the IP Cameras to the third-party VMS.
The top line shows the standard EdgeVis video transfer, where the ONVIF Profile S video from the IP cameras is encoded into EdgeVis Video for transfer and then decoded back into ONVIF Profile S for delivery to the third-party VMS (via VMS Gateway).
The bottom line shows the new ONVIF Profile M analytics stream coming from the cameras, passing through the EdgeVis pipeline and onto the third-party VMS.
Both data streams are integrated and transmitted over the single EdgeVis stream and take advantage of the standard EdgeVis encryption and security mechanisms.
For more information please visit the ONVIF Profile M feature page.
A new Digital Barriers Object Detector
EdgeVis encoders can now have a new extensible analytic architecture, which will allow Digital Barriers to enhance your encoder with new video analytics. The first of these, the Object Detector, detects objects within the video stream coming from the IP Cameras.
The initial release of Object Detector can identify objects such as cars, trucks and people and use these as the basis for alerts and meta-data collection.
It enables several use cases:
Object Detector operates the same way as Safezone 2D within EdgeVis and can be used as a trigger within the EdgeVis Central Alarm Management System. This allows users who predominantly work within the EdgeVis software applications to send alarms or perform encoder actions when an object is detected.
VMS Gateway will receive and interpret Object Detector metadata/alarms and convert it to an ONVIF M data stream that your VMS can understand:
For more information, please visit the Object Detector feature page.
Object Detector is provided in addition to the current SafeZone 2D analytic and is included in the analytic licensing extension you already use!
Safezone 2D is also now implemented using the same extensible architecture, and you'll notice the advanced options have changed slightly - we've removed a rarely used option to invert the detection area!
VMS Gateway changes...
It's now part of standard EdgeVis Releases
VMS Gateway is now fully aligned with EdgeVis releases, so updates will be available on the normal EdgeVis release cycle.
As part of the 8.7 release and its support for ONVIF Profile M, VMS Gateway has been enhanced to support the ONVIF Profile M standard so that your analytics data can now be consumed by third-party VMS.
Now runs on Red Hat
We've added support for Red Hat (RPM based) installations - so you now have two platforms to choose from:
EdgeVis Server has been rebranded
As part of bringing EdgeVis in line with our new corporate look and feel, we've updated EdgeVis Server's web management interface:
Users should not see any practical differences in usage!
Additional Fixes, Improvements, and Known Issues
EdgeVis Encoder
New features
The EVVR-1RL now officially supports two output video streams (previously this was limited to one).
The encoder's local web interface can now show live bandwidth stats, broken down by output video stream and data type:
The encoder's diagnostics page now shows GPU usage - this is now an important encoder metric for diagnosing performance issues as our video analytic architecture takes advantage of your encoder's graphics processor.
Fixes
The performance of quad-view on HD-IP470 was lower than expected - this has now been resolved.
Fixed an issue when users were unable to access the SFTP recording folder with a "permission denied" error.
SecureConnect now uses the correct port when connecting to ONVIF cameras that are using non-standard web ports.
Resolves a rare issue where the use of private network sims could crash the encoder's modems.
Resolves an issue when using multiple recording disks that caused the encoder to write to the wrong disk after repowering.
Fixed an issue where changing the Local Viewer password meant the RTSP server did not use the password until the next boot.
Fix an occasional issue when the encoder would not correctly start the modem-based GPS receiver.
Known issues
Due to architectural change, Safezone 2D users can no longer utilise the Invert region option when setting a detection zone. A user upgrading to version 8.7 that used this option will find their detection zone has reverted to using the full image to ensure no alarms are lost after the upgrade.
Users with cameras that support multiple inputs may find that after selecting a specific input the Friendly name selected by the encoder does not match up to the input selected. If this occurs, you can manually rename the encoder input.
HD-IP200 users with an older Edimax N100 USB Wi-Fi dongle may find stability issues if they also add their USB recording disk through a USB hub. It is recommended to directly plug any USB recording disk into the encoder.
Users upgrading to firmware version 8.7 can only downgrade their encoder to version 8.6. As always, a factory reset is recommended after any firmware downgrade.
EdgeVis Server
New features
EdgeVis Server has been rebranded. Users should find no functional difference between this version and previous versions.
EdgeVis Server now supports licences for Object Detector. The old licence extension specifically referenced Safezone 2D - this has been renamed to the more generic Integrated analytics, as the licence includes both Safezone 2D and Object Detector:
We have updated the minimum requirements for EdgeVis Server and now provide considerably more comprehensive guidance on operating system and hardware requirements for both on-premises and cloud deployments.
Users with Windows Server 2016 are no longer supported and will no longer be able to install EdgeVis Server.
Fixes
The permissions for the built-in roles Encoder Administrator and Domain Administrator were missing two permissions in the EdgeVis Server 8.6 installation. This version will correct permissions for these roles.
Resolves an issue where encoders could temporarily get stuck in a reconnection loop after a network blip.
Known Issues
During Windows installation, while the server is initialising, it is possible for issues to occur (e.g. your web browser crashed, or an installation issue occurs). When reopening/refreshing your browser, the setup wizard may continue but fail when entering a new administrator password with the message "The passwords do not match".
If this occurs, it is recommended to uninstall and reinstall EdgeVis Server.
EdgeVis Client
New features
EdgeVis Client for Windows now includes the ability to configure Object Detector within the Change analytics menu options.
EdgeVis Client (all platforms) now displays metadata from Objector Detector onscreen when display bounding boxes:
Fixes
EdgeVis Client for Windows - improves the reliability of configuring RDC nodes.
EdgeVis Client for Windows - resolves a UI issue where the notification view button is hidden on smaller screens.
All - Fixes an issue where input switching for multi-stream encoders was not working.
Resolves an issue where Local Viewer would not stream when the password has special characters.
Known issues
EdgeVis Client for iOS - using both Virtual PTZ and Object Detector is currently broken. The bounding boxes for bounding boxes are not scaled properly within the Virtual PTZ viewing window.
VMS Gateway
New features
We now allow users to multi-select encoder streams for deletion.
Known Issues
Milestone sometimes stops processing metadata for EdgeVis streams when you perform various operations, including:
Using Milestone's Replace or Update hardware options when managing your recording servers.
Changing the video/audio settings in VMS Gateway