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Knowledge Support Support Categories exacqVision Webservice Products

Using exacqVision Web Service with Edge Cameras

Edge cameras cannot run the exacqVision Web Service. If you want to connect to an Edge camera using the Web Client or the Exacq Mobile 3 app you will need to install the exacqVision Web Service on another machine.

The web service can be run on other machines but you will need to enter the Web Service Configuration to change the default server address from the loop back of 127.0.0.1 to the address of your Edge device(s).

Unlike an NVR installation of the exacqVision Server, the Edge Server application does not permit changing the default listening port for incoming client connections. Therefore, if you need to use the web service with Edge cameras you will need to configure the proper port forwarding for these connections. The addresses and port forwarding used depend on where you are placing the web service, and whether you are using multiple Edge devices behind the same router.

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Web Service Inside LAN

If the web service is inside the same Local Area Network as the Edge cameras, you may use the Server Connections page in the Web Service Configuration to connect the web service to each Edge camera. This requires minimal port forwarding in the router.

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Web Service Across WAN

If the web service is placed outside of the Local Area Network the Edge cameras are on, you will need to configure port forwarding as well as port translation. Port translation is used because the listening port of the Edge servers cannot be changed from their default port numbers. 

NOTE: Some home or small business routers may not be capable of port translation.

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Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Client Categories Products

Changing the OS admin password on exacqVision Linux machines

The process to change the admin password for the Operating System varies depending on which version you are using. The OS version can be found by entering the following command in a Terminal:

cat /etc/issue

Use the Contents menu to the left to go directly to the version of your operating system.

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Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04

1. Log in to the Desktop as admin, then select “System -> Administration -> Users and Groups”

2. Select “Change”, adjacent to Password

3. Enter the current password, then enter your new password

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Ubuntu 16.04

1. Log in to the Desktop as admin, then select “Applications -> System Tools -> Administration -> Users and Groups”

2. Select “Change”, adjacent to Password

3. Enter the current password, then enter your new password

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Ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04

1. Log in to the Desktop as admin, then select “Applications -> System Tools -> System Settings”

2. Scroll down and select “User Accounts”

3. Select “Unlock”, then enter the current password and select “Authenticate”

4. Click directly on the “Password” field.

5. Enter the Current password, then type your new password twice in “New password” and “Confirm password”

6. Select “Change”, then close the “User Accounts” dialog.

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Ubuntu 10.04

1. Log in to the Desktop as admin, then select “System -> Administration -> Users and Groups”

2. Select “Change”

3. Enter the Current password, then type your new password twice in “New password” and “Confirmation”

4. Click “OK -> Close”

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Debian 8

1. Launch a Terminal window.

2. Switch to the admin user with the following command:

su admin3. Type the current admin password and press ‘Enter’.

4. Use the following command to change the admin password:

sudo passwd admin
5. Type your new password and press ‘Enter’, then repeat to confirm.
NOTE: The terminal will not update characters as you type.

6. Close the Terminal

<br>

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Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Client Categories Products

How to Record Video and Audio with a Single Button

A common request from exacqVision users, especially those monitoring interview rooms is to be able to toggle on and off recording of video and audio. It can become inefficient and confusing to create multiple soft triggers to record both video and audio, and even more so if you have multiple cameras or microphones in the same room.

In the following example, we will show how to set up a single soft trigger to record video and audio from multiple cameras and microphones. A soft trigger is a button used in the software to activate some action. You could use other event types to trigger recording, such as Video Motion, but for this example we will be creating a soft trigger. We will also show how to apply this trigger as a camera association. Camera associations were introduced in Client version 7.0.

NOTE: As always, consult your local laws/ordinances regarding the legality of recording audio.

Start by navigating to the Event Linking page.

Press the New button at the bottom to make a new Event Link.

From the Event Type panel, select Soft Trigger.

Because we don’t already have a soft trigger to select, we need to click the New button under the Event Source panel to make one.

In the pop-up window, give the soft trigger a name, something descriptive so that in the future you can remember what it does. In this example, we will call it ‘Record Room 1’. Click OK.

Our new event in the main Event Linking panel is now listed with ‘Record Room 1’ as the source. Now we need to choose an action to tell it what to do. From the Action Type panel select Record Video.

When you select this, the Action Target panel populates with a list of cameras. Select the camera you want to record.

Click the Apply button at the bottom of the page to save your Event Link.

Now in the main Event Linking panel we see the entire link we created.

The event above only records video when activated, but we want to record audio too, and without pressing a second button to record audio. To do this, you’re going to select the New button at the bottom of the page again and select Soft Trigger from the Event Type panel again.

We’ve already created a soft trigger called ‘Record Room 1’ so select this from the list in the Event Source panel.

In the Action Type panel, you’re going to select Record Audio. Now the Acton Target panel shows a list of your audio inputs. Select the one you are going to record with this video.

Our list of Event Links now looks like this:

We can test this new soft trigger by going to Live Mode in the client. Bring up the camera that you selected in Event Linking and choose the Soft Trigger icon from the tool bar at the top of the client window.

When the Soft Triggers window opens, toggle the state of the trigger by clicking in the check box on the left. You will see the Status column change from Normal to Alarm.

When you uncheck the box, the status will return to Normal. When the state is Alarmed you will also see the border around the camera view change to Red, indicating that it is recording due to an event.

Now to confirm that it recorded video and audio, navigate to the Search page. Select your camera and expand the navigation tree to select your audio input. Change the search range to the last few minutes. When you click on Search you should see the timeline display red bars for the time period you activated the soft trigger.

If you have multiple cameras and microphones that you want to record at once you can create additional Event Links all with the same soft trigger as their event source.

Once the soft trigger is created and the event links have been made you can end here. If you want to make use of Camera Associations to make this new soft trigger easy to find and activate when you need it, continue below.

Navigate to the Settings page for the camera you want to place the association button on and select the Associations tab.

The list of available controls is automatically populated and has an option for Record Video… but that is not the soft trigger we made earlier and will only record video and only for this one camera. If we want to use our fancy multi-camera, video and audio recording soft trigger we made earlier, scroll down towards the bottom where all system wide soft triggers are listed.

Here you can double-click, or highlight the soft trigger and click the Add button to move it to the Associated Controls panel.

When the soft trigger is moved to this window you will also see the new association appear in the camera panel above.

Right now this association icon is set to Sustained. That means it is a toggle. Press it once and it stays activated until you press it again. If the action permits you can use the drop down to change this to Display Only, which prevents you from pressing it to activate anything, or you may change it to Momentary, which only activates it for as long as you hold it.

To the right, you also have display options such as the background color, opacity and whether or not to display a label to make it easy for other users to tell what this does.

If your soft trigger records multiple cameras you might consider placing this same association on each camera panel that it records. This would make it easier to toggle on and off and see the status regardless of which camera in that room you were looking at.

Camera associations are a server side setting, meaning all users connecting to this server will see these. If you use custom user groups you can control whether or not specific user accounts can activate them.

But if your server administrator hasn’t applied camera associations, or if you plain don’t like camera associations on top of your camera panels there is another option for an easy to reach soft trigger, called an Event Button. Event buttons are client side, meaning only the user on this particular client instance will see them and you must be logged in as that user to create it.

In the Client settings, the Event Button configuration is on the right.

Click on the New button under the Event Button panel. Give the button a descriptive Tool Tip name and use the Change Icon button to select from a pre-configured set of ready-to-use icons. Optionally, you may choose to enter a shortcut key to press on the keyboard to activate it.

In the panel below you will select the soft trigger you want to associate this with and you may also choose to make it a sustained button (toggle) or momentary (press and hold). Click the Apply button to save.

After you’ve saved this, you will see this new button appear in Live Mode on the tool bar across the top of the client window.

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Categories
Knowledge Support Support Categories Products exacqVision Hardware

Illustra Pro Gen2 Domes 2/3/5 MP experiencing motion event issues

Description

Affects 2/3/5MP Pro Gen2 Dome with motion set to ON and could not be turned off. This only affected Pro Gen2 DOME models.

Models affected include:
IPS02D2OCWIT
IPS02D2ISWIT
IPS03D2OCWIT
IPS03D3OCWIT
IPS03D2ISWIT
IPS05D2OCWIY
IPS05D2ISWIY
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Tested Version

ExacqVision Server 8.0.4.104612

<br>

Platform

All platforms

<br>

Steps to reproduce

  • Connect to a 2/3/5 megapixel Pro Gen2 Dome with firmware 1.2.0.
  • Generate motion activity in the camera’s field of view.

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Expected result

  • Motion event is generated as expected.

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Actual result

  • Motion event is inconsistent.

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Work Around

The camera firmware group has recommended the following:

1. Video stream 1 or 2 has be H.264.
2. The illustra3 plugin does not allow changing of context stream 2 but have seen cases where the iAPI3 shows h264 and still not setting motion. One way to verify is go to the ‘Event and Actions’->’Analytics’->’Motion Detection’ of the camera web page. If stream 2 is not set correctly, it would show a popup dialog with message ‘Operation Failed: No H264 stream found or stream too large’. In this case, just make sure to set stream 2 to H.264 and resolution of 1920×1440 or lower from the camera web page and reconnect the camera from EV client.
3. Medium or Low motion sensitivity is recommended.
4. Stream 2 should be H.264 and set to a resolution of 1920×1440 or lower. 

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Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Server Categories Products

Example Network Diagram for Multi-NIC Systems

Best practice for servers with more than one NIC includes isolating camera traffic to a separate scheme. This practice not only isolates camera bandwidth consumption from other network traffic, but also adds an additional layer of security to prevent workstation users from accessing cameras and video streams directly.

Whether using separate network switches or creating a VLAN on shared switches, the concept is the same.

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IMPORTANT: DO NOT place both NICs within the same subnet. This is a poor network practice that WILL cause communication problems. Administrators that wish to attempt utilizing more than one NIC within a single subnet for redundancy or transfer speeds must configure NIC bonding/teaming. This is only recommended for systems with more than two NICs so that cameras may continue to be isolated from other network traffic.
See also:

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External Connectivity

For administrators seeking to connect from outside the local network, across a WAN or MAN, see also:
Remote exacqVision Connection Diagrams

<br><br>

Categories
Knowledge Support Support Categories Products exacqVision Integrations

Steps for changing the Company Name in Kantech post-install

The following steps as outlined by Kantech support and apply to all versions.

The company name is configured only during the installation of the applications, once is installed it cannot be modified from the software.

This is the procedure to change the company name that will display on the reports executed from Server workstation, Additional workstation or SmartLink.

If the reports are generated from the:

Server workstation:

1. Modify the entry in the registry:

32 bit OS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Kantech\EntraPass Global\Server
64 bit OS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Kantech\EntraPass Global\Server

2. Then modify the CompanyName key.

3. After modification is done restart the server and workstation applications.

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Additional workstation:

1. Modify the entry in the registry:

32 bit OS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Kantech\EntraPass Global\Workstation
64 bit OS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Wow6432Node\Kantech\EntraPass Global\Workstation

2. Then modify the CompanyName key.

3. After modification is done restart the workstation applications.

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Reports sent with Smartlink or requested through Mobile, Web or WebStation

1. Modify the entry in the registry:

32 bit OS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Kantech\EntraPass Global\Smartlink
64 bit OS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Kantech\EntraPass Global\Smartlink

2. Then modify the CompanyName key

3. After modification is done restart the Smartlink application

<br>

Steps-for-changing-the-Company-Name-in-Kantech-post-install.pdf
Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Enterprise Categories Products

ESM: On Mac with Safari, Camera Inspection thumbnails fail to show

Description

On MAC with Safari, Camera Inspection thumbnails, i.e. snapshots fails to show intermittently.

Version Introduced

4.4.0

Platform

ESM/Mac OS/Safari

Steps to reproduce

  1. From a Mac machine, using the Safari web browser, go to the Camera Inspection page.
  2. Refresh the page a few times, say 10 times.

Expected result

Thumbnails images for Snapshot show up every time.

Actual result

Users may see an error message displayed intermittently instead of thumbnail images.

Work Around

Use Chrome instead of Safari

<br>

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Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Server Categories Products

Second Reviewer

Second Reviewer is a feature available for highly sensitive areas which requires two users to authenticate in order to access recorded video.

This feature is hidden by default, and requires a special configuration file to make it visible.

  1. This configuration file is available at this link for download: activatesecondreviewer.settings<br><br>
  2. The configuration file is imported using the Import button at Configure System > System tab > Settings > Import

    NOTE: Once imported the Second Reviewer feature cannot be undone. You should consider backing up your server configuration prior to performing this import.<br><br>
  3. After importing the settings file, navigate to the Security tab. This will display new fields.

    <br><br>
  4. Check the Enable box and complete the fields for first and second reviewer passwords, then select the functions this is required for.
    • Live
    • Search
    • Export<br><br>
  5. Click Apply. A warning will appear advising you that these passwords will be required to access the checked items or to make changes in the future.
    <br><br>
  6. The exacqVision Desktop Client will prompt for both password when performing tasks that require using the functions you selected.<br><br>


NOTE: When Second Reviewer is enabled:

  • Archiving, auto export profiles, and email notification attachments such as .jpg and .mov files are disabled.<br><br>
  • Video preview may not be available on configuration pages.<br><br>
  • Using the exacqVision Web Client and Exacq Mobile 3 with any Second Reviewer function enabled is not supported as there is no way to authenticate via the web interface.

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Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Mobile Categories Products

Windows Phone 8 Deprecation

With the 8.2 release, we are deprecating Windows Phone 8 for mobile, making Exacq Mobile 3, version 8.0, the last release for Windows Phone 8.

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Categories
Knowledge Support Support exacqVision Server Categories Products

ESM API exacqVision Server License Filter by isCurrent does not work

Description

https://tyc100.exacq.net/api/servers/tyc100er1249023085/licenses/?isCurrent=True

When using the above API, the isCurrent filter does not properly filter out the old licenses. A similar filter works on the generic API for all servers.

https://tyc100.exacq.net/api/servers/licenses/?server=tyc100er1249023085&isCurrent=True

<br>

Version Introduced

4.1.7.95208
<br>

Platform

  • All Platforms

<br>

Steps to reproduce

Verify that the link:

https://tyc100.exacq.net/api/servers/tyc100er1249023085/licenses/?isCurrent=True

only returns licenses with isCurrent field set to true
<br>

Expected result

  • Only license with isCurrent field set to true are returned

<br>

Actual result

  • All licenses with isCurrent field set to either true/false

<br>

Work Around

https://tyc100.exacq.net/api/servers/licenses/?server=tyc100er1249023085&isCurrent=True

<br>

ESM-API-exacqVision-Server-License-Filter-by-isCurrent-does-not-work.pdf