23.12 Watcher

Experience the latest Flussonic Watcher 23.12 release, featuring significant enhancements across the board. Enjoy improved branding options, push notifications, and archive export in the Watcher Client Web UI (PWA), streamlined monitoring and OpenAPI contracts in the Watcher Admin UI, and enhanced developer-friendly features in the Watcher API.

All this and other improvements, as well as bugs fixed are available in more details below:

Watcher Client Web UI (PWA)

As part of upgrading Watcher Client Web UI (PWA), we enhanced it with branding colors (as configured in Watcher UI), push notifications and archive export.

To easily access and view a list of persons in the Watcher Client UI (PWA), we implemented the GET /persons request in Watcher Client API.

For a convenient navigation, accurate and quick search of episodes in the camera list page, we added filtering the response to GET /streams by a camera name, title, and comment.

To allow ​​more usable space, we removed the frames on the sides of the screen in Watcher Client Web UI (PWA)

Watcher Admin UI

To explore and evaluate the Watcher Admin UI, users can refer to: http://WATCHER-IP/watcher/admin/

To monitor streaming infrastructure status, the display of a streamer list was implemented in the Watcher Admin UI.

To provide OpenAPI contracts for Watcher configurations, we implemented user management endpoints in Watcher Admin UI. This functionality can be used for billing integrations. Admins are provided with email configuration properties for its [customization].

Watcher API

For the developers to get necessary information from Watcher API, we implemented the ‘_like’ filter for a camera title in GET /streams method to allow for camera search by fuzzy match.

For operations in K8s environment and for the systems where the hostname is not FQDN-compliant or a different interface is specifically required, we added setting up API_URL in Watcher when configuring a cluster to indicate the address for Watcher to be accessed from the Internet, this parameter can be changed when auto set-up does not work correctly.

Video export

To provide an alternative option for scenarios where MP4 export may not be suitable or functional and to export long archive footage without its cutting or being downloaded not in the full volume, we added the “Download TS” option in the export menu.

Database management

To make it easier to manage a system database and not to set the DB variable anymore, we supported the use of the database path from /etc/watcher/watcher.conf when using the database management utility.

Episodes management

To review content efficiently, gain historical insights into content creation and updates, we added filtering of episodes by the time of their creation opened_at. With the filter enabled, the episodes are sorted by opened_at (ascending), and -opened_at (descending) without the filter.

Face recognition analytics

To reduce the load to the analytics server, the person updating procedure was improved, a photo is not sent to the identification server if its face fingerprint already exists.

For accurate operations of analytics, and informing Central of the persons existing in the Watcher database (even when analytics nodes are offline), person database synchronization between Watcher and Central was improved. Existing face fingerprints are passed from Watcher to Central that additionally leads to reduced load on analytics nodes and avoids waisting resources on regenerating fingerprints.

Users have the flexibility to save person profiles even if an analytics module is not responding or not installed.

VSAAS.IO.

The instructions on how to sign up and get started with VSAAS.IO. is updated and [set in order]

Central upgrade

To make the use of the latest version of Central functionality (incl Agent management), the Central version was upgraded in Watcher dependencies.

Bugs fixed

Watcher Client UI

We fixed an error ‘Failed to copy’ that was preventing users of Watcher Client UI (PWA) from successfully using the “Copy Embed URL” and “Share Selected” buttons.

Cameras with Agents

If a Central server loses connection to a streamer, it notifies the Agent to reconnect, avoiding situations when streams of cameras with Agents become unavailable after Flussonic restart while the Agents remain live.

To correctly add cameras to their end users, our customers can now set up cameras with Agents that properly connect to a server without the necessity to change a streamer or save settings.

To allow correct Agent deactivating the synchronization of deleted streams was improved in Watcher

Events API

As Central handles an ‘event_sink’ configuration, unnecessary calls from Watcher directly to streamers are eliminated.

License plate recognition

Since 23.12 the license plate recognition module returns the best or most accurate license plate detection result, instead of the first one found.

To find episodes with a specific license plate/location detected by a specific camera, we fixed the issue with filters in the event list applied with OR logical operator instead of AND.

Filtering by Organization is enabled for the LPR events list in the old Watcher UI.

Custom auth backend

To let end-users view cameras and archive on TVs with another software (like IPTVPORTAL), we added an ability to set a custom auth_backend with WATCHER_CUSTOM_AUTH parameter in Watcher config.

Person database

There is no more HTTP 500 error issue when adding a person in Watcher UI. The person is always saved in the Watcher database and then synchronized with the analytics module through Central.

Watcher API

The requirements for the ‘hostname’ to be specified for any role and cluster_key for vision and identification in the PUT /streamers/{hostname} request was removed.

Displaying event list

There is no delay in displaying an event list in Watcher Client UI, the excessive timing of the GET /episodes was fixed.

DVR limit for motion records

In 23.12 we fixed an issue where motion records with unlimited DVR limits were being improperly deleted based on [expiration] (https://flussonic.com/doc/api/central/#tag/stream/operation/stream_save%7Cbody%7Cdvr%7Cexpiration) settings instead of episodes_expiration.

Video analytics on Ubuntu

We resolved an issue that prevented the video analytics software from starting on Ubuntu 20.04.

Push-message delivery

In 23.12 we improved push-message delivery in the Watcher Client UI ensuring that important notifications and alerts are reliably delivered to user devices.

CSV files export

Since 23.12 event export in the Watcher UI ensures that users can initiate the process of exporting event data to a CSV format as intended.

The exported CSV files now contain accurate URLs for analytics episodes.

Managing episodes

“Back” button on the camera page in Watcher Client UI returns to the previous episode instead of a camera list when a user clicks several times on episodes.

Watcher Admin UI does not return HTTP 403 error. Administrators are subject to access control rules and can only access episodes or data that they have permission to view or manage.

Episodes are now reliably fetched and synchronized from Central to Watcher.

Flussonic API filtering capabilities were enhanced with a wider range of filtering conditions (gt, lt, lte, gte, _is, _is_not, and _like) when querying episode data opened_at. [Learn more about filtering in Flussonic API].

Watcher-episodes service loads episodes correctly after Watcher (re)start.

Episodes playback operates correctly on the event list page of Watcher Client UI.

Camera list display

We fixed an issue when not all cameras displayed in the camera list of Watcher Client Web UI (PWA). Now cameras are displayed in pages (12pcs per page).

The search by camera name is improved in Watcher Client UI with removing case sensitivity.

A camera list is now correctly displayed and accessed when tags are set for streams or streamers.

Tag mechanism

The use of tag mechanism became mandatory. This change provides users with a greater control over stream distribution, better security, and improved management capabilities.

Watcher update

When updating Watcher there is no more issue of Central not being restarted by a postinst script. To avoid any possible breakdowns and a prolonged shutdown of customer operations, we fixed freezing of a postinst script when Watcher is being updated.

Thumbnails

To reduce a server load, a thumbnail request is processed for active cameras only.

Episodes with thumbnails are correctly shown in Watcher Client UI.

Watcher installation We improved Watcher installation process in a newly installed operating system. There is no more encoding error appearing at PostgreSQL installation.

Watcher documentation

H.265 support

DB variable

The information about the need to set the DB environment variable has been removed since the database connection string is now automatically read from the configuration file.

Archive failover

The [Archive failover] article was added in the Watcher documentation.