Release notes: Ava video security systems 5.6.0 beta

Last modified: Tuesday January 17, 2023

Learn about new features, fixes and any issues found in testing for the Alta video security systems beta software.

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Aware Beta Program

The Alta Video Beta Program allows customers and partners to receive pre-release versions of the software containing the latest new features and fixes. As a member of the Alta Video Beta Program, you have the opportunity to provide feedback on these features and fixes, helping us to drive improvements to the product. To find out more about the Alta Video Beta Program, and to sign up, see https://www.avasecurity.com/video/aware-beta-program.

About this release

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Avigilon Alta no longer provides major software and feature updates for standalone on-premises Alta Video deployments.

(Alta Video deployments are not impacted by this announcement.)

See: Migrate your Ava Appliances to Alta Cloud Connectors

  • Alta Video and Alta Video video management systems
  • Avigilon Ava cameras and Avigilon Ava cloud-native cameras

Installing this release will upgrade Alta Video and Alta Video video management systems, and, if needed to maintain feature compatibility, any Avigilon Ava cameras associated with your deployment.

These software packages have been released to the Beta Upgrade Channel:

Release labelRelease dateSoftware build number
Alta Video/Alta Video software version 5.6.0 betaTuesday January 17, 2023Alta Video: 5_6_230116_16194
Avigilon Ava cameras/Avigilon Ava cloud-native camera software version 5.6.0 betaTuesday January 17, 2023Avigilon Ava cameras: 5_6_230116_19264

What's new

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In this release, Alta Video provides the following features:

FeatureDescriptionAdded in version
Support for additional languages

The Avigilon Alta products and documentation are being localized using a phased approach. You can now choose your preferred language for the Alta Video UI, login page, and system-generated emails. Alta Video now supports English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

See: Manage language preferences in Alta Video

5.6.0 beta
Filter Aware audit logs by time and date

When viewing Alta Video audit logs, you can now filter the logs by time and date.

See: View or download Alta Video audit logs

5.6.0 beta
Avigilon Ava Flex camera power-up mode indicator

When you power an Avigilon Ava Flex camera that has yet to be added to an Alta Video deployment, the white-light illuminator is lit at a low level to show that the camera has power.

See: Ava Flex adaptive white lighting

5.6.0 beta
Create rules to notify you when Avigilon Ava cameras enter Recovery mode

In addition to creating rules to notify key personnel when your cameras experience issues such as experiencing an analytics or SD card failure, you can now create rules to notify you when an Avigilon Ava camera enters Recovery mode.

See: Create rules for Camera issues

5.6.0 beta
Use the API to capture a live snapshot of a video feedUse the /api/v1/devices/{id}/sources/{source}/snapshot API call to generate a snapshot from the analytics steam of your chosen video feed.5.6.0 beta
Enable Wi-Fi connections for your deployment

Avigilon Ava Flex cameras include the ability to connect to your Alta Video deployment wirelessly. To use these cameras across Wi-Fi, enable Wi-Fi connections for your deployment.

See: Configure Alta Video deployment settings, Ava Flex power and connection options, and Manage credentials.

5.6.0 beta
Improvements to the Rules activation period settings

The concepts of rule activation and rule schedule have been updated. When creating a rule, the schedule contains days of the week and times of day that the rule is active, and separately to this, the whole rule can be activated or deactivated.

See the relevant Create rules for... and Pause a rule topics for more information.

5.6.0 beta

Known issues

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During testing, we have found the following issues in these software packages:

ReferenceIssueSoftware

Issue: As the localized text in the Alta Video user interface is added, there may be instances where some English terms still appear in the translated versions, or where the translated text might not correctly fit or align within the user interface design.

In addition, please provide feedback on instances where you believe the quality of the translations could be improved.

Alta Video
Avigilon Ava cameras
Alta Cloud Connectors
15802Issue: When using the Search from video object search, results are not being returned between Avigilon Ava cloud-native cameras and cameras connected to Alta Cloud Connectors. So, when searching for objects detected by an Avigilon Ava cloud-native camera, no results are returned from cameras connected to a Cloud Connector, and similarly, searching for objects detected by cameras connected to a Cloud Connector are not found on Avigilon Ava cloud-native cameras.Alta Video
15784Issue: When searching using the Repeated time frame and User time options, results from time periods outside of those defined might be shown.Alta Video
15782Issue: On deployments with the Globally limit microphone capabilities configured to Allow recording of audio snippets, you cannot play back the audio snippets that are recorded when a sound event is detected.Alta Video
15666

Issue: When recording the audio from compatible third-party cameras, the audio levels are not recorded until after the relevant Alta Cloud Connector is rebooted.

Workaround: From the Devices > <camera> > Edit settings > Audio settings dialog, disable the microphone, and then re-enable it.

Alta Video
15613Issue: For Avigilon Ava 360 cameras, after upgrading to software version 5.6, smaller objects might not be detected by the analytics.Avigilon Ava 360
15578Issue: In some circumstances, Alta Video might report that Avigilon Ava Flex cameras are connected over Wi-Fi, when the Ethernet connection is being used.Avigilon Ava Flex
15566Issue: The Counts tool might take some time to update with count data.Alta Video
15242

Issue: When creating a new deployment from the DMP, you cannot currently enable DMP access.

Workaround: The initial user that was created during the deployment creation (or other newly created users with suitable permissions) can enable DMP access.

DMP
15083Issue: When an Avigilon Ava Flex is powered up and connects to Alta Video, the sensor values are less accurate and take some time to stabilize.Avigilon Ava Flex
15052

Issue: After upgrading or rebooting Avigilon Ava Quad cameras, one or more sources might lose focus.

Workaround: After upgrading or rebooting Avigilon Ava Quad cameras, check that the sources are all focused, and if not, trigger a focus from Devices > <camera> > Edit settings > Focus for each affected source.

Avigilon Ava Quad
14822

Issue: when adding a new Cloud Connector as a secondary node to an existing Cloud Connector group, it is not automatically upgraded.

Workaround: Either manually upgrade the newly added Cloud Connector, or wait for the next system upgrade before adding devices to the Cloud Connector group. See Claim your Alta Cloud Connector for more information.

Cloud Connectors
14427Issue: For the Avigilon Ava Quad camera, you can configure the IR settings for each source, when they should be per device. This means that whichever source you use to make the final IR configuration settings is the one that is used, and the settings for the other sources are ignored.Avigilon Ava Quad
14122

Issue: You might observe glitching in Video view if the viewing station includes an Intel(r) Iris(R) Xe GPU, and your browser has Hardware Acceleration enabled.

Workaround: Disable Hardware Acceleration from within your browser. See Browsers supported by Alta Video

Viewing station compatibility
13925

Issue: If the Flex LED brightness is turned up, and the camera is placed close to a reflective surface, then the camera may oscillate between day and night mode.

Workaround: Either reposition the camera, or reduce the LED brightness.

Avigilon Ava Flex
13738

Issue: When adding third-party cameras to Alta Video using the Automatic protocol option, Alta Video might not be able to successfully add the camera.

Workaround: If a third-party camera fails to be added correctly, try again using the Onvif protocol option.

Alta Video
Due to changes we have made to the way audio is recorded and replayed:
  • Users of the Alta Video mobile app for Android version 2.9.0 and earlier will hear the audio recorded from Alta Video 5.0.3 and later at a higher volume than before.
  • Users of the Alta Video mobile app for Android version 2.9.1 and later will hear the audio recorded from Alta Video 4.9.7 and earlier at a lower volume than before.
Alta Video mobile app for Android
13171Issue: If you export the footage from an alarm that includes audio, the clip might stutter when switching between uninteresting and interesting video on some video players.Alta Video
12738Issue: If you have a map in Map view that includes inactive cameras, heatmaps might be the positioned incorrectly on the map.Alta Video
12274Issue: If you export a video clip that includes audio recordings, the volume of the audio is very low.Alta Video
12255Issue: You cannot currently associate an Avigilon Ava camera connected to one Cloud Connector with a third-party camera with inbuilt or connected speaker attached to another Cloud Connector, or associate an Avigilon Ava cloud-native camera with a speaker.Alta Video
12196Issue: In some circumstances, a camera may lose its overlay settings during an upgrade and the overlay might not show until you have toggled it off and then re-enabled it.Alta Video
11515Issue: When you edit any of the counts, for example, to add a new camera to an existing counts area, when you save the changes, the counts are briefly set to 0, before displaying the correct counts total.Alta Video
10410Issue: When you export video that includes footage that switches from one resolution to another, there is a small gap between the sections of video. Alta Video
10087Issue: When you apply a maximum streaming quality to cameras connected to an Ava Cloud Connector, the setting is ignored, and the maximum available resolution is used.Alta Video
General Issue: If third-party cameras do not support the multiple streams or the GOP profiles required by the Aware video management system, these incompatibilities might impact the accuracy of the Ava analytics. Alta Video