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23.11 Watcher
In this latest release, we focused on enhancing functionality of the Watcher Web Client UI. Users can add the Watcher Client UI as a PWA to their device main screen. We also made significant improvements to DVR storage, optimizing the management of calls and enhancing the performance of Flussonic RAID for video recording and storage. Furthermore, users can now conveniently export and share controls for the DVR player from their mobile devices, adding to the overall mobility and functionality of Flussonic Watcher.
In addition to these user-facing improvements, Watcher introduces a number of other features aimed at enhancing user experience.
Watcher Web Client UI
PWA (Progressive Web App)
Without the need to install a separate app, users can add the Watcher Client UI to their device main screen, making it easily accessible with a single tap, like a native app. Just log into your Watcher Client UI and tap http://your-host/watcher/client/.
To not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of the Watcher Client UI on Android devices but also to easily identify and access the application, we provided he ability to use a custom icon when adding the Watcher Client UI as a Progressive Web App (PWA) to the main screen on Android devices.
‘Try a new UI’
To let our users explore and evaluate the new Watcher Client UI on their desktop and mobile devices, we enabled an option in the Watcher sign-in page and the main menu ‘Try a new UI’.
Push notifications
To instantly respond to alarming situations detected by the camera, instead of navigating through the interface to find the relevant episode, users can simply click the provided link in the push notifications to access the needed episode.
Users stay informed for motion and analytics events detected by their cameras through receiving real-time web push notifications on their mobile devices.
Branding of Watcher Client UI
For convenient operations within the new UI, we support keeping the branding settings in the Watcher Client UI, as they were customized by a user earlier.
‘Favorites’
To improve the display on mobile devices, the ‘Favorites’ page was placed as a separate menu item in the Watcher Client UI.
VSAAS.IO and other cluster installations
To simplify user experience and provide a unified interface for users across various installation types, we added the support for the use of Watcher Client UI for VSAAS.IO and other cluster installations.
Episodes
Users can now easily save and access recorded episodes of surveillance footage with the added feature of their downloading from the episodes list in Watcher Client UI.
Episodes list design
To enhance operating with episodes we improved and episodes list design with:
- Episode is now highlighted when being clicked on
- Stream.title is shown instead of stream.name
- Date and time text color changed to black
- Display thumbnails are fixed
- Icons in the list of episodes are updated
Camera
To provide clear and reliable visual cues, reducing confusion, and helping users quickly identify the status of their cameras in the Watcher interface, the indicator accurately reflects the camera status, showing it as gray when it’s disabled and green when enabled.
What is available to the client in the Watcher Client UI
We added a special “Switch to to Watcher Client UI” button that allows users to easily navigate to the Watcher Client UI.
OpenTelemetry
For enhanced observability and monitoring capabilities we added the support for OpenTelemetry tracing in Flussonic Watcher. It allows for the collection of telemetry data that can be used to analyze and optimize the performance and reliability of the surveillance application.
Notification parameter
To equip our customers with more control and customization options for their video surveillance system, let our customer tailor their notification preferences within Watcher environments, we added the ‘notification_enabled’ parameter, that allows user to enable/disable notifications about camera events, to streams_save and streams_list methods of Watcher API.
Airmix camera support
To extend the compatibility of the software with a broader range of camera models, we added Agent support on Arimix BA32 cameras. This enhancement benefits users by providing them with more options for selecting and integrating cameras into their surveillance systems.
Central update in Watcher
For a more seamless installation process and improved compatibility between Watcher and Central, ensuring that they work together smoothly and effectively, the Central version was updated to ‘latest’ in flussonic-watcher deb package dependencies.
Configuration parameters
To facilitate effective monitoring of the cluster status and capacity, contributing to the efficient management of media streaming infrastructure, we empowered Flussonic Central with the feature of retrieving agent statistics as part of the response to a GET /config request (https://flussonic.com/doc/api/central/#tag/config/operation/config_get/response%7Cstats%7Ccluster_stats%7Cagents).
DVR storage
An improved DVR system with the optimized management of calls increases the reliability of Flussonic RAID for recording and storing video from a large number of cameras. Media Server now requires fewer resources for recording, storage and archive management. This reduces the risk of abnormal behavior during peak loads and ultimately leads to greater long-term stability at the same capacity.
DVR Player
To make it easier for users to precisely choose the desired section of the archive, the markers used for making that selection will now be displayed within the visible area of the timeline when users click the “scissors” control.
For enhanced usability and visual quality of the DVR Player when accessed through the Watcher Client UI PWA (Progressive Web App), we fixed an issue related to a gray layer appearing over the player during archive playback, which could obscure the video content.
With improved mobility and functionality of Flussonic Media Server and Flussonic Watcher, users can conveniently export and share controls for the DVR player from their mobile devices.
Bugs fixed
Watcher Web UI
We provide iOS users with an improved user experience, so that they can now reliably view thumbnails, enhancing their ability to monitor and navigate camera feeds and recorded episodes within the Watcher Client UI on their iOS devices.
The misleading error message was replaced with an appropriate one about the push notifications not supported. We keep working on the issue so that all our users enjoy this feature.
Watcher installation process
To avoid installation errors and inability to use the product properly, the Watcher installation process was corrected with forbidding to skip the license entering step.
To prevent potential data corruption or encoding-related issues that could impact the proper functioning of the Flussonic Watcher system, we fixed an issue, so that users can now rely on a correct database enforced with UTF-8 encoding in Watcher installation script.
DVR Player
When an error occurs during the dvr_save operation, the system will generate an error message that adheres to the JSON format standards. This makes it easier to parse and process error messages consistently, leading to more effective error handling and debugging.
Users can now watch recorded camera content (instead of the black screen) of the DVR player in the Watcher as intended, improving the effectiveness of surveillance monitoring and video playback.
Users can now effectively use player controls, that are now visible and functional within the embedded player (/vsaas/embed) of the Flussonic Watcher application, providing a more seamless and user-friendly surveillance viewing experience.
With the correction in 23.11, when users click on a specific day in the calendar, the displayed date and time will accurately reflect the start of that selected day at 00:00:00. This ensures that users can easily navigate and access content based on specific dates without any confusion regarding the timing of their selections.
The problem with navigating the timeline on mobile devices when selecting archive segments in Watcher was fixed.
Users can now edit and modify the start/end date and time fields when exporting video segments, making it easier to tailor the export to their needs.
DVR clean-up
When the system detects a damaged or corrupted blob, it handles the cleanup and recovery process correctly, ensuring that the DVR data remains in a consistent and functional state. This is important for maintaining the integrity of recorded video content and preventing data loss in DVR systems.
The 23.11 update resolved this issue with the logging of events when archive segments were deleted during the archive clean-up process, ensuring that the logs now provide clear information about the reasons behind archive segment deletions during the clean-up process. This enhancement enhances transparency and facilitates troubleshooting and storage management within the media server.
In Flussonic, users can set expiration times for both the entire archive and individual episodes within that archive. Since 23.11 when episodes have their own expiration time defined, they are not deleted prematurely if that time is shorter than the expiration time set for the entire archive. This improvement helps maintain content integrity and ensures that episodes are retained for the intended duration as specified by the user, even if it is shorter than the overall archive expiration time.
Since 23.11 if Flussonic cannot reach the config_external service for expiration updates, it will rely on cached expiration values to perform archive clean-up. This ensures that archived content will still be deleted according to the specified expiration rules, even if there are temporary communication issues with the config_external service.
Watcher documentation
PWA instruction
[Instructions] on using Watcher Client UI as PWA were added to the Watcher documentation.
Watcher system requirements
The documentation on Watcher system requirements was updated and available here: https://flussonic.com/doc/watcher/system-requirements-for-watcher/
Client Area
In 23.11 Watcher allows users to conveniently use “My Flussonic: Client Area” as a mobile app by providing the option to install it directly from the page when logged into their account. The benefit it brings is improved accessibility and a seamless user experience for managing Flussonic resources and services on mobile devices, enhancing convenience and efficiency for customers on the go.