Overview
This document answers many questions about the new v9 licensing scheme that is managed using our Central Licensing Service (CLS).
Why does Digital Barriers now use online licensing controls?
Digital Barriers has been selling its hardware products on a SaaS basis for a number of years, but our previous licensing system did not provide the proper controls to fully manage these licenses.
With the introduction of EVVR Containers, it was necessary to more tightly control the number of licences used by customers, in line with their licence purchases. There is no Digital Barriers-supplied hardware involved, meaning that without tighter controls, there are more potential ways to abuse the system.
What are the advantages of the new licensing system?
You will now have a central location that will list your licensing entitlements.
You can now install EdgeVis Server without contacting Digital Barriers for a new licence.
You no longer have to allocate licences or licence extensions to encoder accounts - this process is now automatic.
You can now directly manage which licences are used by your encoders.
Any changes to your licence entitlements (licence counts or an updated expiry date) can be applied by Digital Barriers to your licensing pool, making them immediately available to your installation.
Is the new licensing system compatible with my encoders?
Devices with v7.X firmware are not supported in v9.
Devices with v8.X firmware are supported in v9, and will be automatically granted a perpetual legacy EdgeVis Licence.
Devices with v9.X firmware and EVVR Containers are supported in v9, and will automatically acquire the appropriate licence if you have the necessary licences available in your pool.
Where are my licences stored?
Within CLS, all your licences are stored in a licensing pool, which contains the count of licences you have purchased and the expiry date of those licences.
How are licences allocated to my encoders?
When you add a camera to your v9 encoder, it will automatically acquire an appropriate licence from your licence pool if available.
Can I have more than one licence pool?
Yes. For example, if you have made two different purchases with different expiry dates, then these can be in separate pools. Both of these will be listed in your licensing account.
Can my server support more than one licence pool?
Currently, servers can only use one licence pool at a time. If necessary, you can change the licensing pool your server uses to a different licence pool.
Can I run my EdgeVis installation without an internet connection?
EdgeVis requires an internet connection, but in a very limited manner.
The only component of the system that requires an internet connection is EdgeVis Server, when it makes a licence request to CLS. There are no additional ports opened on EdgeVis Server, it is an outgoing connection only.
There is no communication from your encoders to CLS.
No operational part of EdgeVis requires an internet connection, and you can configure your proxy/firewall to limit your server's internet connection so that it can only connect to CLS.
Security
How does EdgeVis Server communicate with CLS?
All communication with the CLS is made via industry-standard secure TLS web requests to port 443, to the following endpoint: https://licensing.digitalbarriers.com.
More info: EdgeVis Licensing Architecture
How often does EdgeVis Server connect to CLS?
1. When a new encoder instance is added to the server
2. When a new camera is added to an existing v9 encoder
3. A daily check for each encoder to verify that its licence is up to date
Can the connection to CLS be traced as ‘Digital Barriers’ traffic?
When making a request to CLS your server will connect to an AWS Content Delivery Network (CDN) endpoint, which will use a variety of IP addresses. These IP addresses are widely used by other cloud providers/web services and are not linked to Digital Barriers in any way.
Can the licence requests be intercepted by a man-in-the-middle attack?
No. The server uses certificate pinning to ensure that responses it receives back come from a trusted server.
Can a bad actor make requests against my licence pool in CLS?
No. Only servers authenticated with CLS can make licence requests to CLS.
Is the system resilient to internet outages?
Yes. Any encoders that are already set up will continue to operate for roughly a month without issue. However, after a week, your server and encoder web interfaces will warn you that your system has been unable to connect to CLS, and that you need to take steps to resolve this issue.
You won't be able to provision new servers or encoders if your internet connection isn't working.
What information is collected and stored by CLS?
The only information that is stored by Digital Barriers is the information required for us to enforce licensing, and for you to manage your licences. No IP addresses are stored.
Hardware encoder licensing
There is currently no v9 firmware for encoders!
Currently, only EVVR Containers utilise v9 licensing. In early 2026, we will release a new firmware update. The following information is provided to help you prepare for EdgeVis v9.2.
Will hardware encoders use CLS?
Currently, no hardware encoder can be upgraded to v9.
However, in early 2026, we will release v9.2 that will use the new licensing system. This will broadly follow the same rules and processes that are applied to EVVR Containers.
Will I be able to upgrade my encoders to v9.2?
All EVVR encoders will be upgradable to v9.2.
We are currently undertaking a technical derisk on the HD-IP200, HD-IP470 and MiniCam products, with the expectation that these will also be upgradable to v9.2.
Will I be forced to upgrade my hardware encoder to v9.2?
No, however, for products that have a v9.X firmware available, there will be no further v8.X firmware updates. Any customer wanting to take advantage of new features and fixes will need to upgrade to a v9.X firmware.
Can I buy hardware products with v8?
When v9.2 firmware is released, all new products will ship with v9.2.
Can I downgrade from v9.2 to v8.X?
No, once a hardware product has v9.2 installed, it can’t be downgraded.