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What are the differences between a hardware encoder and a EVVR Container?

Updated this week

The vast majority of EdgeVis features are available on both EdgeVis platforms, however you should be aware of some differences when selecting which platform to use.

Benefits of EVVR Containers vs hardware encoders

EVVR Containers are different to hardware encoders in that your organisation owns and controls the underlying hardware and operating system. This has advantages and disadvantages over traditional hardware encoders:

Pros

Cons

EdgeVis Hardware Encoder

  • Out-the-box fully managed appliance, where we manage the underying BIOS, OS, watchdogs, comms, security, patching,etc..

  • Limited to our hardware selection.

  • Can't run any other software.

EVVR Container

  • You aren't reliant on our hardware platforms and can provide flexible hardware suited to your environments.

  • You can use containers on unusual hardware like routers or Raspberry Pis.

  • You can use any comms methods that has Linux support (e.g. a 5G modem).

  • You can virtualise containers.

  • You can use high-performance desktop servers to produce large numbers of EdgeVis streams.

  • You can use your hardware for other purposes (as long as you have enough CPU/RAM available).

  • You must install and manage an operating system.

  • You are responsible for setting up/monitoring comms channels.

  • You must handle updates to both your and our software.

  • Some encoder functions (listed below) are now handled by your operating system (and by you).

EdgeVis features that are different to a hardware encoder

There are a couple of differences if using an EVVR Container that you should be aware of:

  • Integrated edge analytics (SZ-2D and Object Detector)
    These are not currently implemented, but will be available in the next release (v9.1). Please be aware that this feature will increase the CPU overhead required - if you are planning a sizing exercise on how many streams a particular platform may support and will require analytics, please contact us for further guidance.
    ​

  • You can't search for ONVIF cameras
    We currently can't use the camera auto-discover feature available in hardware encoders, as the networking features required are not available to software running inside a container.

EdgeVis features handled by your operating system

On an EVVR Container, you will no longer find options for the following hardware encoder features in our local web configuration interface - these are/can be handled by your operating system:

  1. Cellular/Wi-Fi/LAN configuration
    Linux should handle this for you. For example, Ubuntu has built-in drivers for Digital Barrier's usual Wi-Fi/modem devices (e.g. the Sierra Wireless MC7455 4G modem).
    ​

  2. NTP support
    This is part of the host’s operating system and is relatively straightforward to enable on an operating system like Ubuntu.
    ​

  3. Wireless access point
    This is built into your host operating system, and in some ways is more flexible as you are no longer constrained by the rules we implement on a hardware encoder.
    ​

  4. Recording storage management
    You can specify where your container sets its record location to - by default it is on the local OS drive, but you can set any location (e.g. a USB disk) that your underlying system can see.
    ​

  5. SFTP access to recordings

    You have the ability to share recordings with many different mechanisms that Linux supports (SFTP, Samba).

  6. Firewall settings / Disable local web configuration
    You must now manage firewall settings for your whole machine, as well as the EdgeVis ports you wish to shut down.
    ​

  7. Updates/restarts/reboots/factory reset
    As EdgeVis is now running inside a Docker container we don't have operating system level access to either update, restart, reset, or reboot your container.
    ​

EVVR Container Specification

For more information, you can download the EVVR Container fact sheet below

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EVVR_Container_v1.1_14-07-25 1.pdf
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