Introduction
EdgeVis v9 introduces a new licensing scheme that provides two key features:
It allows you to utilise and manage your SaaS licences for your v9 encoders. All v9 encoders will require a valid SaaS licence to operate for the duration of your contract.
It continues to provide perpetual legacy licences to your existing v8 encoders.
Licence Types and Supported Devices
For supported v9 devices
Each of the following supported products allows a maximum number of camera inputs and EdgeVis output video streams. You are allowed to add cameras and output streams up to that maximum:
| Input Streams Supported | Output Streams |
HD-IP200 | 1 | 1 |
HD-IP470 (special case) | 8 | 1 |
MiniCam | 1 | 1 |
EVVR-1R | 1 | 1 |
EVVR-1RL / EVVR-1 v2 | 4 | 2 |
EVVR-4 / EVVR-4RL | 8 | 8 |
EVVR Container | 16 | 16 |
If your product isn't in this list, it is not supported by v9.
There are two types of licence:
One-In-One-Out licences (previously known as Container licences)
These provide the ability to add 1 input video camera and 1 output stream.
(Our standard licence type that allows maximum capability)
Four-In-One-Out licences
These provide the ability to add 4 input video cameras and 1 output stream.
(A lower-cost limited licence that is designed to allow a user to stream 4 cameras in a quad view)
If your encoder has enough capacity, your encoder can use multiple licences of the same type to add more cameras/streams (until either your camera or stream usage hits the limit in the above table).
The licence type you can use follows these rules:
The HD-IP470 is a special case and only supports a single Four-In-One-Out licence, which will unlock all 8 cameras (no second licence is required as the device is not powerful enough to support 2 output streams).
If the encoder only supports one output, you must use a single One-In-One-Out licence.
If the encoder supports multiple outputs (marked as bold in the table), you can select between the two licence types, depending on your use case. During initial configuration, you will be asked to select which licence type to use. This choice can be changed at a later date by factory resetting your encoder.
We have built a handy online tool that shows the combinations of licences you can utilise on every supported product.
For v8 devices
There is a special licence type for older v8 devices - EdgeVis Legacy licences.
These are granted automatically by EdgeVis Server for v8 encoders (including body worn devices and Android mobile encoders), and allow the permanent and full use of any product features.
In summary...
When you connect an encoder to your EdgeVis Server v9, this is the expected behaviour:
Are there any new requirements for v9 Licensing?
Either during installation of a v9 server, or manually after upgrading a v8 server, you can authenticate your server with our cloud-based central licensing service (CLS).
To allow v9 encoders to...
Automatically acquire a licence, and
Perform their daily check that their licence is still valid
...your EdgeVis Server installations have to maintain a connection to our cloud-hosted central licensing service. The connection uses standard Internet web protocols.
More info: EdgeVis Licensing Architecture
How do I get started with v9 Licensing?
EdgeVis Server v9 will fully support all v8 encoders and will be our standard platform for both v8 and v9 encoders moving forward. We recommend all customers upgrade to EdgeVis Server v9, as all significant fixes/features will only be released on v9 moving forward.
Users with v7 devices should continue operating a separate v8 server to host v7 devices.
After installation of a fresh server, or upgrading an older server, how you proceed is based on what devices you have on your server:
For users who only have v8 hardware encoders or body worn cameras
Simply upgrade/install using the standard instructions. Any existing v8 licence is no longer required, and your server will automatically issue your encoders EdgeVis Legacy licences. While you are able to connect your server to CLS, it is not a requirement.
For users who have v8 Android mobile encoders
The same process applies as hardware encoders; however, you must authenticate your server to CLS, so that we can grant your server the ability to licence EdgeVis Mobile Encoders.
For users who also want to use v9 encoders
You will upgrade your server to v9, as above, and confirm your v8 encoders are fully functioning. Once you purchase v9 licences you will be supplied the appropriate login details for CLS to allow you to authenticate your server to CLS and access a licensing pool that contains your new v9 licences.
For users upgrading, If you have/want to authenticate your server with CLS, it's a two-step process:
After completing authentication, your server will be able to issue any licences you have entitlement to.
How are licences issued?
All of your v9 licences are stored in a licence pool, which tracks how many licences you have and the date of expiry for the pool.
More info: What is a licence pool, and what's stored in it?
There are several standard operations around licence management:
Licence allocation | Licence allocation is almost entirely automatic, regardless of your product type (v8 or v9). |
Freeing up licences | Freeing up an allocated v9 licence can be done by removing a camera from your encoder, but there are a number of other manual/automatic ways this can be accomplished. |
Licence pool expiry | When any of your licences approaches its expiry date (for v9 encoders) there are various warning messages displayed, followed by errors and a gradual cutoff of functionality as the expiry date passes. |
Licence renewal | If your licences expire, it is possible, once renewed, to have your system automatically fully operational within 24 hours. |
Managing your licence estate
To manage your licence estate, you will log into the CLS licensing portal.
Here you will:
See all your servers that are authenticated with CLS.
Be able to authenticate new servers with CLS.
For each authenticated server, the licence count used by each v9 encoder.
More info: How to use the licensing portal
By default, only one person within your organisation has access to the CLS licensing - this will either be the person who requested the licensing pool, or the person named on the purchase order for v9 licences.
You can however, add additional users who can also log in and manage your licensing pool.