Table of Contents
Release Notes for Cisco Video Surveillance High Definition IP Cameras, Release 2.0.1
Installing Licenses for Custom Apps
Uploading a Custom App to a Camera
Restoring the Application Manager
Minimum Installation Requirements
Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request
Release Notes for Cisco Video Surveillance High Definition IP Cameras, Release 2.0.1
These release notes provide important information for the Cisco Video Surveillance High Definition IP camera, Release 2.0.1, which applies to the following Cisco IP camera models:
For information about firmware compatibility and Cisco VSM releases that new cameras require, see the current Cisco VSM Release Notes at the following URL:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10818/prod_release_notes_list.html
What’s New in this Release
Cisco Video Surveillance IP camera firmware release 2.0.1 supports the following new features:
- Camera Support
- Local Storage
- Custom Apps
- PTZ Preset Enhancement
- Day/Night Mode Optimization
- Camera Tamper
- PTZ Auto Tracking
- Expanded Browser Support
Camera Support
This release supports the following new Cisco IP cameras. These cameras require Cisco VSM 7.5.
Local Storage
This firmware release provides updates and enhancements to the local storage features on the IP camera. Updates and guidelines include:
- Continuous recording—This feature enables VSM to “auto-merge” video archive that has gaps due to network or other issues (assuming that camera was not affected), using camera storage as a temporary archiving medium. It also enables archiving only video that is close to generated events. Either the primary stream or secondary stream can recorded in this mode.
- Grooming—Starts when continuous recording is enabled and operates as follows:
1. Groom files that are marked as deleted.
2. Groom the oldest files on the local SD or MicroSD card when available space on the card is less than 1 GB.
- The IP camera supports an SD or MicroSD card with a maximum storage capacity of 32 GB. For efficiency and performance of the local storage feature, Cisco recommends that you use a SD or MicroSD card with a storage capacity of 32 GB.
- 1 GB of the storage capacity on an SD or MicroSD card is reserved for system use and is not available to store recordings.
- When you put an SD or MicroSD card in the IP camera for the first time, the card is formatted automatically if the card does not have the ext2 file system and if the directory structure that is required for recording is not present on the card. In this case, any data that is on the card is permanently deleted. A card with a storage capacity of 32 GB can take up to 15 minutes to format.
- If you move an SD or MicroSD card from one IP camera to another, the IP camera to which you moved the card does not format the card automatically. This feature allows you to manually recover any video that is stored on the card by downloading the video from the IP camera user interface. You must format the card before you enable recording for it in the new IP camera.
- If you are not using the IP camera with Cisco VSM, set the system time and time zone from the IP camera user interface before you enable recording to an SD or MicroSD card. If you are using the IP camera with Cisco VSM, enable recording through the Cisco VSM user interface, which synchronizes the camera time with the NTP server. Changing the system time after recording starts can cause issues.
- An IP camera has limited bandwidth for simultaneous reading from and writing to an SD or MicroSD card, which can affect the amount of data that you can copy from the card when recording to the card is enabled. For optimum performance of the IP camera, set the maximum bit rate for the recorded stream to 6 Mbps or lower. At higher bit rates, video may not be copied from the card before the video is groomed.
- Recording MJPEG streams to an SD or MicroSD card is not recommended because the relatively high bit rate of these streams can affect system performance. If you do record MJPEG streams, Cisco recommends that you stop recording before you use the IP camera user interface to copy MJPEG recordings from the card.
- The system allows one active download of video from an SD card or MicroSD card at a time. If VSM is copying data from a card (due to a user or system initiated copy operation), you cannot initiate another download from the IP camera user interface until the VSM download completes. Similarly, if you are using the IP camera user interface to download video from a SD or MicroSD card, video cannot be downloaded from VSM until this download completes.
To access the Local Storage window from the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link, click Feature Setup to expand the menu, then click Local Storage .
Table 1 describes updated Local Storage window.
Note To use the features in the Recordings area, ActiveX must be installed on your client PC. If ActiveX is not installed, the Recordings area displays a message with this information. To install ActiveX, see the “Installing ActiveX Client” section.
Caution To prevent corruption to data on an SD or MicroSD card or the inability of the IP camera to detect the card again, before removing an SD or MicroSD card from an IP camera, stop recording to the card and use the Unmount button (described in Table 1) to prepare the card for ejection. In addition, use care when inserting, removing, and handling the card to avoid damaging the card.
SD or MicroSD Card Health
SD or MicroSD cards can fail. If a card fails, the recordings that it contains can be lost. To protect the data on an SD or MicroSD card, take these actions:
- From the IP camera or Cisco VSM, periodically check the SD or MicroSD card to make sure video is recorded properly.
- Periodically copy the data from an SD or MicroSD card to another storage device. Cisco VSM provides a feature for copying data from and SD or MicroSD card to the VSM storage device.
In the IP camera Alert Notification Screen, you can configure the camera to send an alert notification if the SD or MicroSD card fails.
Custom Apps
Cisco offers an optional software developer kit (SDK) for the IP camera that allows developers to write custom apps and run these apps on supported Cisco IP camera models.
You can upload up to 16 custom apps to an IP camera. Depending on the complexity of an app, you may be able to run multiple apps simultaneously on an IP camera, but you cannot run two audio apps or two video apps at the same time.
Installing Licenses for Custom Apps
The appropriate license should be installed on a camera before the corresponding app package is installed on the camera. To install a license on a camera, follow these steps:
Step 1 From the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link, click Application Manager to expand the menu, then click App License .
Step 2 Click Browse next to the License file field and navigate to the license file that you downloaded.
Step 3 Select the license file and click Install License .
Uploading a Custom App to a Camera
To use a custom app on an IP camera, the packaged app must be uploaded to the IP camera. To upload a custom app, follow these steps:
Step 1 From the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link, click Application Manager to expend the menu, then click App Setup .
If you have not yet enabled app support for the camera, a dialog box appears that says “Application support is not enabled on this camera. You will be redirected to Configuration window where you can enable application support on camera.”
Step 2 If the Application support dialog box appears, take these actions:
a. Click OK to display the Configuration window.
b. In the Configuration window, check the Enable Application check box.
c. (Optional) Check the Enable Video check box and choose a resolution from the Resolution drop-down list if you will run applications that use the video features of the camera.
d. (Optional) Check the Enable Audio check box if you will run applications that use the audio features of the camera.
f. Choose App Setup from the Application Manager drawer.
Step 3 Click Browse in the Application Installation area and navigate to the app package that you want to upload.
The app file must have the extension .cpk.
Step 4 Select the app file and click Open .
Step 5 Click the Install button in the Application Installation area.
A dialog box informs you when the application is installed.
Step 6 (Optional) If you want to enable logging of events that the app sends, take these actions:
a. From the Setup menu in the web-based interface of the camera, choose Event from the Feature Setup drawer.
b. Check the App check box in the Event Triggering area.
c. Check the Syslog check box for the App option in the Event Triggering area.
d. Click Set All in the Event Scheduling area.
e. Click Save at the bottom of the window.
f. From the Setup menu in the web-based interface of the camera, choose Setup from the Log drawer
g. Check the Enable Syslog check box in the Syslog Settings area.
h. Enter the IP address of the server on which to log events.
i. Click Save at the bottom of the window.
Configuring a Custom App
After you upload a custom app to an IP camera, you must configure its operation.
To configure the operation of a custom app on an IP camera follow these steps:
Step 1 From the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link, click Application Manager to expend the menu, then click App Setup .
Step 2 Click the radio button for the custom app that you want to configure.
Step 3 Click the Configure button.
Step 4 In the window that appears, make configuration settings as needed and click the Save button.
Running a Custom App
To run a custom app on an IP camera, follow these steps:
Step 1 From the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link, click Application Manager to expend the menu, then click App Setup .
Step 2 Click the radio button for the custom app that you want to run.
Stopping a Custom App
To stop a custom app that is running on an IP camera, follow these steps:
Step 1 From the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link, click Application Manager to expend the menu, then click App Setup .
Step 2 Click the radio button for the custom app that you want to stop.
Uninstalling a Custom App
To uninstall a custom app from an IP camera, perform the following steps.
If the app is running, you must first stop it as described in the “Stopping a Custom App” section.
Step 1 From the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link, click Application Manager to expend the menu, then click App Setup .
Step 2 Click the radio button for the custom app that you want to uninstall.
Step 3 Click the Uninstall button.
Step 4 Click OK in the confirmation window that appears.
If you do not want to uninstall the app , click Cancel .
Restoring the Application Manager
When you restore the application manager to the factory default condition, all custom apps that you uploaded to the IP camera are removed from the camera.
To restore the application manager on an IP camera, follow these steps:
Step 1 From the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link, click Application Manager to expend the menu, then click App Setup .
Step 2 Click the Restore button in the Maintenance area.
Step 3 Click OK in the confirmation window that appears.
If you do not want to restore the application manager, click Cancel .
PTZ Preset Enhancement
The number of presets that the PTZ IP camera supports has been increased from 16 to 100.
Day/Night Mode Optimization
To avoid frequent or unnecessary changes between day mode and night mode, the behavior of the IP camera has been optimized when the Switch Modes is set to Auto in the Day Night filter area in the Feature Setup > Camera window. This optimization helps improve performance in situations such as when an IP camera is set up on a street where car headlights cause constant changes between day mode and night mode.
With this optimization, when the IP camera detects that a switch from day to night mode might be necessary, the IP camera monitors the light level for 10 seconds. If the light level remains below or above the configured Day to Night Threshold for the entire 10 seconds, the IP camera switches modes. Otherwise, the IP camera remains in the current mode.
If the IP camera goes through 3 day/night mode transitions within a 60 second period, the camera stops detecting and implementing day/night changes for a period of 5 minutes from the point of the third transition. During these 5 minutes, the IP camera remains in the current day or night mode.
Camera Tamper
The new camera tamper feature lets you configure the IP camera to generate alerts when any of the following events occur and persist for a designated period:
- The IP camera view is changed
- The IP camera view is blocked
- The IP camera view is substantially out of focus
To access the camera tamper options from the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link, click Feature Setup to expand the menu, then click Camera .
The following options are available in the Camera Tamper area. If you change either of these options, click Save in the Camera window to save your changes.
- Enable camera tamper detection —Check this check box to enable the camera tamper feature.
- Minimum duration—Enter the minimum length of time that a tamper event persists before a tamper alert is generated. To prevent false alerts, the IP camera waits for this period after detecting a tamper event before it generates an alert. If the tamper event is resolved (the IP camera view is returned to its original setting, the IP camera view blockage is removed, or the IP camera is put back in focus), an alert is not generated. Valid values are 10 to 600 seconds.
PTZ Auto Tracking
The PTZ auto tracking feature lets you configure a PTZ IP camera to automatically track an object that is larger than a configured threshold. When tracking, the IP camera uses its pan and tilt features to keep the object in its field of view.
If there are several objects that are travelling in different direction within the field of view, the IP camera identifies each object that is larger than the configured threshold and tracks the object that is closest to the top left of the field of view.
When you enable PTZ auto tracking on an IP camera, motion detection, if enabled for the camera, is disabled automatically. In this case, motion detection reenables automatically when you disable PTZ auto tracking.
If you change the video resolution for an IP camera when PTZ auto tracking is enabled, the PTZ auto tracking configuration is deleted. In this case, you must reconfigure PTZ auto tracking if you want to continue using the feature .
To access the PTZ auto tracking options from the IP camera user interface, click the Setup link, click Feature Setup to expand the menu, then click PTZ Auto Tracking .
The following options are available in the Auto Tracking area. If you change any of these options, click Save in the PTZ Auto Tracking window to save your changes.
- Enable PTZ Auto Tracking—Check this check box to enable the PTZ auto tracking feature.
- Sensitivity—Drag the slider to designate the relative amount of activity that the IP camera must detect in the field of view before it start tracking an object. Move the slider to the left to designate less activity or to the right to designate more activity.
- Threshold—Drag the slider to designate the percentage of pixels that the IP camera must identify as changed in the field of view before it starts tracking. Move the slider to the left to designate fewer pixels or to the right to designate more pixels.
Expanded Browser Support
This release adds support for the following features through Chrome and Firefox on Windows, and through Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on the Mac. These features are in “Beta” on these browsers for this release to get feedback about the platforms and browsers are most important to users.
When you use one of these browsers, you can view video from the IP camera by using either the VLC Media Player or the QuickTime plugin.
- Log in
- Network Setup > Basic window
- Network Setup >IP Addressing window
- View Video window
- Home window
To access other IP camera features, use a supported version of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Important Notes
- To ensure that the new features display, clear the browser cache and reload the web page.
- If ActiveX is not installed on your client PC, the View Video window and the Setup > Local Storage window prompts you to install the Cisco Camera UI Control. This message can take some time to display.
- If ActiveX is not working properly after installation, close the browser and restart the machine.
- The following 802.1x authentication options are not supported:
– PEAP authentication with Validate Server Certificate
– EAP-FAST authentication with uploaded PAC files
In previous firmware releases, this option was disabled in the Web UI. In this release, this option has been removed from Web UI.
Upgrading to Release 2.0.1
If your IP camera has an earlier firmware release, you can upgrade it to firmware release 2.0.1 by using the Camera Firmware Upgrade feature in the VSM Management Console. For instructions, see the “Using the VSM Management Console” chapter in Cisco Video Surveillance Manager User Guide .
Alternatively, you can upgrade your IP camera to firmware release 2.0.1 by performing the following steps.
Note Upgrading to 2.0.1 formats the IP camera SD or MicroSD card, which permanently removes any data that the card contains.
Step 1 Take these actions to obtain the release 2.0.1 firmware:
http://www.cisco.com/cisco/software/navigator.html
b. Choose Product > Physical Security > Connected Physical Security > Video Surveillance IP Cameras > Cisco Video Surveillance serial_num Series IP Cameras > Cisco Video Surveillance model_num IP Camera , where serial_num is the IP camera series number and model_num is the IP camera model number.
c. From the navigation pane on the left, choose the 2.0.1 release.
d. Download the 2.0.1 firmware with the file name that applies to your IP camera:
- For 2830 and 2835 PTZ IP cameras: CIVS-IPC-283x-V2.0.1-30.bin
- For 3000 series IP cameras: CIVS-IPC-3xxx-V2.0.1-30.bin
- For 3535 IP camera: CIVS-IPC-3535-V2.0.1-30.bin
- For 6000 series IP cameras: CIVS-IPC-6xxx-V2.0.1-30.bin
- For 6930 PTZ IP camera: CIVS-IPC-6930-V2.0.1-30.bin
- For 7000 series IP cameras: CIVS-IPC-7xxx-V2.0.1-30.bin
e. Log in and follow the on-screen prompts to download it to your PC.
Step 2 Take these actions to display the Firmware window in the web interface for your IP camera:
a. Start Internet Explorer and enter the following in the address field:
protocol :// ip_address : port_number
– protocol is the connection that you use for your IP camera (either HTTPS or HTTP).
– ip_address is the IP address of your IP camera.
– port_number is the port number that is used for HTTPS or HTTP connections to the IP camera. You do not need to enter a port number if you are connecting through the default HTTPS port 443 or the default HTTP port 80.
b. Enter your IP camera user name and password when prompted, then click OK .
The IP Camera Main window appears.
c. Click the Setup link to access configuration menus for the camera.
d. Click Administration , then click Firmware .
Step 3 In the Firmware Maintenance area, click Browse , choose the upgrade file, and then click Open .
The upgrade file may be stored on another PC.
Do not power down the IP camera during the upgrade procedure.
After upgrading to the 2.0.1 firmware, clear the browser cache, close and reopen the browser to ensure the changes from the new firmware are reflected correctly.
After you upgrade the firmware, the IP camera automatically restarts. It retains all configuration information.
Installing ActiveX Client
The following sections provide information about installing the ActiveX client:
Minimum Installation Requirements
– DirectX 9.0 installed with Windows XP
– DirectX 11 installed with Windows 7
Installation Procedure
If you go to the View Video window or the Local Storage window in the IP camera web-based interface and ActiveX is not installed, the window indicates that ActiveX is required provides instructions that explain how to download and install ActiveX
To download and install ActiveX, follow these steps:
Step 1 From the window IP camera web-based interface that instructs you to install the Cisco Camera UI Control , click Install in the yellow banner.
Step 2 If a Security Warning dialog box appears, click Install .
Backward Compatibility
If you downgrade firmware in an IP camera from Release 2.0.1 to a release earlier than 1.4.1 and if the configured number of presets is greater than 16, all preset configurations are cleared, and the IP camera does not reset after the downgrade. In other cases, the IP camera does reset automatically.
Caveats
The following sections provide information about caveats in this Cisco IPICS release:
Using the Bug Search Tool
You can use the Bug Search Tool to find information about caveats (bugs) for this release, including a description of the problems and available workarounds. The Bug Search Tool lists both open and resolved caveats.
Note Bug Search Tool is the successor to the Bug Toolkit.
To use the Bug Search Tool, follow these steps:
Step 1 Go to https://tools.cisco.com/bugsearch/ .
Step 2 Log in with your Cisco.com user ID and password.
Step 3 To look for information about a specific problem, enter the bug ID number in the Search For field, then press Enter .
Step 4 To look for information if you do not know the bug ID number, enter keywords which search for text matches in the following sections of a bug:
For more information about the Bug Search Tool, click Help on the main Bug Search Tool page:
Known Caveats
Table 2 describes the know caveats in this release.
Resolved Caveats
Table 3 describes the know caveats that are resolved in this release.
Troubleshooting
Symptom View Video page does not show the video stream after the installation is complete.
Recommended Action Reset Internet Explorer to its default settings.
– Under the Tools menu, select Internet Options.
– In the Reset Internet Explorer settings section, click Reset .
Symptom Unable to install ActiveX or view streaming video because of firewall settings.
Recommended Action To ensure the firewall is not blocking the installation of ActiveX or preventing streaming video, adjust your firewall settings accordingly.
Symptom Unable to view streaming video because of the firewall on the ports.
Recommended Action Check with your network administrator to ensure the following ports are open for streaming:
– Primary Stream—1024 (video), 1026 (audio)
– Secondary Stream—1032 (video), 1034 (audio)
Symptom Unable to install ActiveX or view streaming video because of an existing version.
Recommended Action Unable to install ActiveX or view streaming video because of an existing version.
– Go to Control Panel from the Start menu.
– Select Programs and Features.
MIB Support
SNMP Versions 2c and 3 are supported in Release 2.0.1.
Table 4 shows the supported and unsupported MIBs.
Related Documentation
For additional information about the Cisco Video Surveillance IP camera, see the Installation Guide and Configuration Guide for your IP camera. The documentation is available at this URL:
Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request
For information on obtaining documentation, submitting a service request, and gathering additional information, see the monthly What’s New in Cisco Product Documentation , which also lists all new and revised Cisco technical documentation:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html
Subscribe to the What’s New in Cisco Product Documentation as an RSS feed and set content to be delivered directly to your desktop using a reader application. The RSS feeds are a free service. Cisco currently supports RSS Version 2.0.
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