Release notes: Alta Video 1.2

Last modified: Friday July 24, 2020.

Learn about new features and any issues found in testing for the Alta Video software 1.2.

About this release

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The Alta Video software provides the features for your Alta video security systems.

Table 1 – Software release details

Release labelRelease dateAlta Video software build number
Alta Video video management system software
version 1.2
December 5, 2019191205_04282

Table 2 – Previous software release details

Release labelRelease dateAlta Video software build number
Alta Video video management system software
version 1.1.1
November 15, 2019191115_04099
Alta Video video management system software
version 1.1
November 14, 2019191114_04084
Alta Video video management system software
version 1.0
October 31, 2019191030_03905
Alta Video video management system software
version 1.0 RC1
October 25, 2019191024_03824

What's new

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This release includes the Avigilon Alta Alta Video video management system 1.1 software. In this release, Alta Video provides the following features.

Table 3 – New features — Alta Video video management system software release

FeatureDescriptionAdded in
Enhancements to the Video view

This release combines the live and playback features into a single pane.

You can also now choose to view bounding boxes on objects (people, and/or vehicles) detected by the Avigilon Alta analytics, and display a count of people and vehicles.

See:
View live video or play back recorded video,
Enable additional information in Video view, and
Enable basic object counting in Video view

Alta Video 1.2
Option to delete data for a camera

The ability to delete the data from a specific camera, perhaps in response to a privacy compromise or a breach of regulations, has been added into the Alta Video software.

See Delete recordings from a camera

Alta Video 1.2
Improvements to the Alarms tool

The way that the Alarms tool handles long lists has been improved. Additionally, you can now use advanced search to more easily find specific alarms.

See:
Alarms tool
How to: Review Alarms created by Alta Video

Alta Video 1.2
Support for webhooks

Alta Video 1.2 introduces the ability to configure webhooks to enable Alta Video to sent alerts using the communication or messaging tools of your choice.

See Create webhooks to send Alta Video notifications

Alta Video 1.2
Tools to enable a camera to be easily swapped

In the event of a camera failing, Alta Video now includes options to replace the camera, synchronize the video from the original camera, and to add the new camera on the Video view and Map view.

See Swap out a broken camera in Alta Video

Alta Video 1.2
Area masking for analytics

You can now define areas of a view where analytics should not be run.

See Define areas without analytics

Alta Video 1.2
Visual indication for upgrade statusWhen upgrading the Alta Video software, you are now shown a progress indicator so you can monitor the progress of the downloading and installing of the Alta Video upgrade package.Alta Video 1.2
Map view now includes a timelineAlta Video now includes a timeline on Map view.Alta Video 1.2
Improved logging featuresThis release includes improvements to the way information about the health of your Alta Video video management system and your cameras are collected.Alta Video 1.2
User permissions

This release introduces fine-grained access permissions, so that you can define roles and decide which permissions are assigned to each role.

Using this feature, you can now define access on a per-site basis.

See Users tool

Alta Video 1.1
Assign roles to sites or camera groups

From this release, you can apply a specific role to a group of users for specific sites or camera groups. This enables you, for example, to create an administrator role just for devices within a single office or region.

See Users tool

Alta Video 1.1
Improved Alta Video logging

Error logging has been improved so that more information useful in diagnosing issues is captured in the log files.

See Download log bundles from your Alta Video deployments

Alta Video 1.1
Improved NTP settings

You can now configure multiple NTP servers for use by your Avigilon Alta clusters, server groups, and servers.

Alta Video 1.1
Improvements to Map view

You can now use Map view to track vehicles in the field of view of your cameras.

The choices of icons you want displayed on Map view has also improved.

See View additional information on your Map view

Alta Video 1.1
Improved search options

This release includes improvements to the search bar used in the Devices tool, and Video view. These search bars now include a filter option enabling you to search for detailed information, for example, the Manufacturer, or the IP address of a camera.

See Devices tool

Alta Video 1.1
Improved user interface feedback for camera stream and analytics

If Alta Video does not receive suitable video streams from the cameras connected to it, the analytics might be degraded or not available. This release provides better feedback to users in this situation.

See Alta Video Video stream requirements

Alta Video 1.1
Video stream rotation

To maintain compatibility with the widest possible number of third-party cameras, Alta Video can now rotate the video being supplied from the camera, to ensure the correct image orientation when displayed in Video view.

See Adjust camera video parameters from Alta Video

Alta Video 1.1
Avigilon Ava camera support

This Alta Video release includes features to upgrade the camera software from Alta Video. You can also use the manual and auto-focus controls in Alta Video to change the Avigilon Ava camera focus.

See Devices tool

Alta Video 1.0
Clustering of Alta Cloud Connectors

Create clusters of Alta Cloud Connectors that work together to provide multi-site coverage.

Alta Video 1.0
First time experienceSee important information about the Alta video security systems the first time you log into Alta Video.

Alta Video 1.0

Retention period improvementsThe settings to enable you to better configure how your video is stored and retained have been improved.

Alta Video 1.0

New Firmware available notifications Administrator users are notified when new versions of the Alta Video firmware are available.

Alta Video 1.0

Camera credentials improvementsYou can now add notes to each set of camera credentials.

Alta Video 1.0

Digitally-signed exportsWhen you export video and metadata, the files are digitally-signed (watermarked) so that you can prove they have not been tampered with.

Alta Video 1.0

Encryption of exported filesWhen you export video or metadata, or send links to recorded video, you can choose to apply AES-256 encryption so that only those authorized can view the recordings.

Alta Video 1.0

Secure LDAPUse secure LDAP when importing users using your LDAP servers.

Alta Video 1.0

Improved recording controls

You can set the recording quality for important and unimportant occurrences based on specific values for resolution and frame-rate.

Alta Video Beta 3
vcloud features

Enable Remote access to your Alta Video software, to access, manage and view video remotely.

Also, Link sharing (introduced in Alta Video Beta 2) can now be accessed remotely via the Alta Cloud.

Alta Video Beta 3
User interface for panoramic cameras

Use the new user interface options to view panoramic cameras using different methods of dewarping the image seen from the camera.

Alta Video Beta 3
More Video view Playback layout choices

From the Video view Playback layouts, you can now select 1 & 5, 3 x 3, or 4 x 4 layouts.

Alta Video Beta 3
H.265 playback transcoding

Alta Video now provides support for Axis cameras that use High Efficiency Video Coding (H.265) to allow recording using H.265 compression. Alta Video transcodes the stored stream into H.264 for playback from the Alta Video user interface.

Alta Video Beta 2
System level alerts

This release introduces system level alerting, informing users of important system events, such as Alta Video starting up, being shut down and being upgraded.

Alta Video Beta 2
Vivotek protocol support

Native support for Vivotek cameras is now included.

Alta Video Beta 2
More Video view live video layout choices

When viewing live camera feeds in Video view, you can now select from the existing 2 x 2 or 1 & 3 layouts, or use the new 1 & 5, 3 x 3, or 4 x 4 layouts.

These new layouts only apply to watching live feeds. To maintain the quality you need for detailed analysis in playback view, choose either the 2 x 2 or 1 + 3 layout.

Alta Video Beta 2
Link sharing

From Video view playback, the Search tool, or Alarms, you can now create and share links to video clips. When the recipient receives the link, they can access the relevant video clip using direct network access to Avigilon Alta Alta Video.

Alta Video Beta 2
Alta Video Appliances tool — Backup and Restore

Back up your Avigilon Alta configurations, and restore them to recover your Avigilon Alta Alta Cloud Connector to a known working state.

Alta Video Beta 1
link local address

If, when you have your Alta Cloud Connector configured to operate in DHCP IP Mode, if DHCP fails, the server now falls back to using the link local address (as specified in RFC 3927).

Alta Video Beta 1
Alta Video Map view

Map view improves the timeline, making it easier to identify when alarms and events occur.

Alta Video Beta 1
Alta Video Devices tool

The Devices tool includes improvements to the user interface for the timeline.

Usability improvements have been made to the Configuration and Credentials work-flows.

Alta Video Beta 1
Anomaly detection

The anomaly detection in Alta Video Beta 1 has been updated to include detections relating to the 'time of day' and 'day of week'.

Anomalies now also trigger events in the Alarms tool.

Alta Video Beta 1
Alta Cloud Connectors

The first-time configuration work-flow simplifies setting up your Alta Cloud Connectors.

Alta Video Alpha 3
User interface

This release includes the addition of tooltips to help identify the icons used in the user interface.

Alta Video Alpha 3
Search toolSearch tool

Improvements to the Search tool include a new timeline design, and similarity search for vehicles.

Alta Video Alpha 3
Devices toolDevices tool

Improvements to the Add Devices work-flow. When configuring new cameras, there are now user interface elements to allow the trusting of camera certificates.

Alta Video Alpha 3
Alta Video Settings

Users can now edit their own profile, and change their password.

Alta Video Alpha 3
Anomaly detection

This release now includes background anomaly training.

This is training only, anomalies do not trigger alarms or alerts in this release, and there are no configuration options available.

Alta Video Alpha 3
Video view PlaybackVideo view Playback

Improved exporting of video clips from the Video view Playback.

Alta Video Alpha 2
Sites and Map view mergedSites and Map view merged

From Map view, you can now add floorplans and position camera and other icons. This change makes setting up the Map view more streamlined.

Alta Video Alpha 2
Updates to the Search features

The Search tool has been updated with new similarity search features, and with the new export from search features.

Alta Video Alpha 2
Configuration of email server

This release provides the ability to configure Alta Video to communicate with an email server, so that Alta Video can send email notifications.

Alta Video Alpha 2
Rules tool

Rules can now be configured to send email messages as an action.

You can now import information from the Search history, to quickly define a new rule.

Alta Video Alpha 2
Devices toolDevices tool

The Devices tool now automatically detects available camera protocols and uses the appropriate protocol.

Alta Video Alpha 2
Dashboard

The Alta Video Dashboard provides a convenient place in the user interface to access all the tools and features of your Avigilon Alta Alta Video software.

See Dashboard for more information.

Alta Video Alpha 1
Devices

Add, configure, and manage your cameras from the Devices tool.

Create camera groups to help you organize your cameras in meaningful ways (by site, by floor, by wing) that are relevant to the areas you are protecting.

Use configuration profiles to apply common settings relating to the video quality, recording strategy and retention policies, and easily apply them to cameras in your installation.

Preview each of your cameras, to verify that you have chosen the correct camera when making adjustments.

For the proof of concept program, use passive mode to use your existing cameras in parallel between the Avigilon Alta video management system, and your existing VMS, without having to change camera profiles or other parameters.

Using existing cameras in passive mode might lead to some reduction in video quality or accuracy of analytics, as the cameras are not optimized for use with the Avigilon Altavideo management system.

See Devices tool for more information.

Alta Video Alpha 1
Appliances

TheAlta Cloud Connectors can be configured to connect to one or two networks, and can be configured to use either static addressing, or DHCP. Use the provided tools to set the Alta Cloud Connector hostnames.

Set up the certificates that you need to control access to your Avigilon Alta video management system, either using self-signed certificates, or generate certificate signing requests and then upload the signed certificates to your Alta Cloud Connectors.

Alta Video Alpha 1
Video view

The Video view provides the mechanism to monitor your connected cameras.

Create and save the layouts and views that best suit your environment and your operators.

Preview each camera before dragging it to the Video view to pin it in your chosen location.

Use dynamic rotations so that the Avigilon Alta analytics shows the camera views with the most interest, or set up manual rotations to pin several cameras to a single pane, and rotate through them.

See Video view for more information.

Alta Video Alpha 1
Playback

From the Video view, use Playback to review the feeds from your cameras. With anomalies and events shown in the timeline, you can easily pin-point the areas of interest.

Maximize the pane you are viewing, and use the digital pan and zoom to see the detail you need. Adjust the playback speed and direction to view and find exactly what you are looking for.

When you have found the video clip you need, export one or more clips for use as evidence.

See Video view for more information.

Alta Video Alpha 1
UsersUsers

Add and remove Users from the Alta Video user interface, and select the roles (either Administrator or Operator) for each user.

See Users tool for more information.

Alta Video Alpha 1
Sites

Upload your floor plans and site maps to the Sites tool, so that Alta Video can display the Map view of your site.

Add the locations of your cameras, together with their fields of view, to enable Smart Presence in Map view. Also add important details, for example, the locations of fire exits, first aid equipment, and fire extinguishers.

Link several site maps so that you can move between one area and another in Map view.

From the Alpha 2 release, the Sites features are now found in the Map view tool.

Alta Video Alpha 1
Map view

In Map view, click a camera icon to preview its feed, and see where people are on your site, and track them within the view of a single camera.

See Map view for more information.

Alta Video Alpha 1
Rules

Create Rules for people and for vehicles, including rules for appearance, line crossing and loitering.

Set areas of interest on your camera views, and define the schedules when each rule is active. (For example, you might configure a rule to only be active outside of your standard working hours for your site.)

Choose to be notified when rules are triggered, and have alarms pop up in the user interface when they are triggered. You can also configure your rules so that they have to be acknowledged by your operators in order to dismiss them.

See Rules tool for more information.

Alta Video Alpha 1
Search

Create Search for people and for vehicles, including searching for appearance, line crossing and loitering.

Select the cameras of interest, and set areas of interest on your camera views and define the times within which you are searching. When you find results that are of interest, use the Similarity search tools to further refine your search.

See Search tool for more information.

Alta Video Alpha 1
Alarms

View the list of Alarms that have been triggered either by the Avigilon Alta analytics or by the rules you have created. Choose individual alarms or events to see the details, including video playback in the details sidebar.

If configured, you can require that alarms and events are acknowledged by your Operator, ensuring that they are not missed. You can also view and add to the logs and comments for each alarm or event.

Maximizing the alarm or event opens the combined video and map view, showing the detail and the location of the event. You can then choose to export evidence from the maximized alarm or event.

See Alarms tool for more information.

Alta Video Alpha 1

Resolved issues

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These issues have been resolved:

Table 4 – Resolved issues

ReferenceResolutionResolved in
2818An issue where, when viewing Video view, if you moved to another browser tab and then returned to the Alta Video tab, all thumbnail views froze, and no video was displayed has now been resolved.Alta Video 1.1.1
2768An issue where renaming a map in Map view caused all the cameras to appear to be removed from the map until you manually refreshed the browser has been resolved.Alta Video 1.1.1
2584An issue where Alta Video intermittently lost connection to the Avigilon Alta remote access vcloud service has been resolved.Alta Video 1.1
2537An issue where existing Map view thumbnails were displayed in low resolution after upgrading the software from Alta Video Beta 3 to Alta Video 1.0 has been resolved.Alta Video 1.1
2526Issues where temporary stream conditions from some third-party cameras caused Alta Video to incorrectly report warnings even though analytics were functioning correctly have been resolved. Alta Video 1.1

2404, 2582

An issue where, if you attempted to export or link less than four camera views, the export or link did not work has been resolved.Alta Video 1.1
2499An issue where Alta Video incorrectly calculated time based on UTC rather than local time has been resolved.Alta Video 1.1
2259An issue where, when playing back video from some higher resolution cameras, the video intermittently stopped, paused, and then start playing again has been improved.Alta Video 1.1
1320An issue where, after setting a new hostname, a restart was required, but there were no notifications in the user interface, has now been resolved.Alta Video 1.1
2547An issue where, on upgrading from Alta Video Beta 2 to Alta Video 1.0 RC1 without first upgrading to Alta Video Beta 3, resulted in you being unable to view Devices or to view or search video due to the user permissions being incorrectly updated, has been resolved.Alta Video 1.0
2500An issue where, when using the Date & Time setting in Rules, the time was incorrectly set has been resolved.Alta Video 1.0

Known issues

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During testing, we have found the following issues in these releases.

These software versions have been extensively tested on the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system, using the Chrome browser.

Table 5 – Known issues — Alta Video video management system

ReferenceIssue
2477

Issue: When you have configured several Alta Cloud Connectors as a cluster, any pop-up notifications that should appear for each cluster node are only shown on the master appliance.

Workaround: All alarms and events are correctly listed in the Alarms & Events dialog.

2316Issue: Alta Video is limited to only maintaining a list of the last 100 alarms and events; you cannot see any older results.
1264, 1881

Issue: In certain testing environments, especially in smaller rooms where low lighting levels, shelving, rack-systems, cables, and other hard edges are in close proximity to the cameras, the Avigilon Alta software might display false vehicle detections.

266Issue: In clustered Alta Cloud Connector installations, you cannot export video from clustered nodes.
General

Issue: If third-party cameras do not support the multiple streams or the GOP profiles required by the Avigilon Alta Alta Video video management system, these incompatibilities might impact the accuracy of the Avigilon Alta analytics.