How to get Smart Event set up on camera GUI to mark the Event on the NVR's playback timeline?

[triumph202]

I've tried searching for the answer to this, but haven't found the solution.

I've got a Hik camera with the "Smart Event" feature for "Intrusion" which includes a useful "Maximum"/ "Minimum" target size option. I've configured it on the camera the exact same way as a basic Event like "Motion" detection (ie. set the schedule and ticked "Notify Surveillance Centre"- after setting the area, max/min size etc.)

The problem is the Intrusions don't get marked on the NVR's playback timeline as an Event like the Motion detected does. I want them marked to be able to use the Smart Event playback feature. Is there something I'm missing that needs to be activated?

If I set up the Intrusion via the NVR there isn't the size option, so I'd like to get it working from the camera.

(Ignore the selected "Human" and "Vehicle" on the attached setup pic, I was experimenting. I'd ideally like to set it up to insects aren't picked up but animals like cats are. It's a Colorvu used with floodlights at night. Insects triggering normal motion detection are a PITA.)

It's a 7608NI-I2/8P NVR running the latest Euro firmware.

 

[alastairstevenson]

The problem is the Intrusions don't get marked on the NVR's playback timeline as an Event like the Motion detected does.

On the various Hikvision NVRs that I've used, I've never seen any intrusion detection or line crossing detection events showing in the NVR web GUI continuous playback timeline, despite them being selectable in the 'swizzler' at the left on the timeline.
Motion event markings show OK, just not smart events.

 

[triumph202]

I'll have to look into setting them on the NVR and see how good it works. Even without the max/ min size it appears to be sensitivity is the size control and Threshold the time the target spends in the zone.( From reading the manual.)

I upgraded it to the latest NVR firmware hoping that would fix the issue. I suppose at least the virtual host feature now allows me to directly access the ONVIF Dahua camera.

The camera picked up intrusions can be found but they need to be played back my iirc.

 

[alastairstevenson]

I'll have to look into setting them on the NVR and see how good it works.

You may find it useful to explore iVMS4200 for Windows.
From a poor start, it's actually quite a well featured app now, in my view.
Using the NVR as the data and event source, there are good search facilities including Line Crossing and Intrusion detection.
It shows the results on the timeline, though they can't be selected there, the search results must be used for that.
But that works OK.

Here is an example Intrusion detection search.
Triggered regions are in red.

 

[venturis]

I think the NVR and iVMS4200 search functions have improved markedly over the last few years.

The best feature, which I stumbled across by accident, is the ability to do retrospective ad-hoc smart event searches on the recorded video

By drawing a line-crossing, intrusion detection or motion detection region over the playback video the NVR and iVMS4200 will return the search result for only that particular part of the image selected.

The results returned from the searches appear in the playback timeline as red bars. Once the search is complete you can playback continuous video or VCA events only. The playback will skip over the "unconcerned" (Hikvision terminology) video and play only the search results.

The way to get this working is to enable the smart event feature in the camera but no need to actually draw a detection region. Once a smart event function is enabled it appears the VCA data is stored for the entire image. This then allows ad-hoc search criteria to be applied to the recorded video.

 

[triumph202]

The best feature, which I stumbled across by accident, is the ability to do retrospective ad-hoc smart event searches on the recorded video

By drawing a line-crossing, intrusion detection or motion detection region over the playback video the NVR and iVMS4200 will return the search result for only that particular part of the image selected.

Yes I came across that the other day. It would have been handy recently when I was searching for people/ a vehicle a couple of weeks backed. Instead I waded through Motion events that pick up flying insects, leaves blowing around etc.

You may find it useful to explore iVMS4200 for Windows.
From a poor start, it's actually quite a well featured app now, in my view.
Using the NVR as the data and event source, there are good search facilities including Line Crossing and Intrusion detection.
It shows the results on the timeline, though they can't be selected there, the search results must be used for that.
But that works OK.

Here is an example Intrusion detection search.
Triggered regions are in red.

View attachment 112738

My NVR is isolated from my home network and normally I use the NVR only for playback. I can bring up the camera's "Smart Events" on it (similar to above) by manually searching, but then I think you have to play back each one? They won't play back automatically in sequence- unless I've missed something?

 

[venturis]

My NVR is isolated from my home network and normally I use the NVR only for playback. I can bring up the camera's "Smart Events" on it (similar to above) by manually searching, but then I think you have to play back each one? They won't play back automatically in sequence- unless I've missed something?

I'm 90% sure when I play back directly on the NVR interface using "Smart Playback" setting only the search results are played, skipping over the continuous video where appropriate.

 

[triumph202]

I'm 90% sure when I play back directly on the NVR interface using "Smart Playback" setting only the search results are played, skipping over the continuous video where appropriate.

Yes, but they'd most likely only be "Motion" Events? That's the problem- "Smart Events" set up on the camera (e.g. "Intrusion", "Line Crossing" Events don't appear there), yet Motion Events will. It's almost like there's some sort of software glitch that stops them as you can set "Notify Surveillance Centre" which works with the Motion to place Event markers on the Smart Playback time line.

 

[venturis]

Yes, but they'd most likely only be "Motion" Events? That's the problem- "Smart Events" set up on the camera (e.g. "Intrusion", "Line Crossing" Events don't appear there), yet Motion Events will. It's almost like there's some sort of software glitch that stops them as you can set "Notify Surveillance Centre" which works with the Motion to place Event markers on the Smart Playback time line.

Definitely works with Line Crossing and Intrusion detection...I've done it myself on the NVR but I prefer to use iVMS4200 since the NVR is too difficult to access in my case.

Using the same process as iVMS4200 draw over the playback footage the region of interest and it will highlight only those results on the timeline. The smart playback function will play only the highlighted search results.

 

[triumph202]

Definitely works with Line Crossing and Intrusion detection...I've done it myself on the NVR but I prefer to use iVMS4200 since the NVR is too difficult to access in my case.

Using the same process as iVMS4200 draw over the playback footage the region of interest and it will highlight only those results on the timeline. The smart playback function will play only the highlighted search results.

Do you know what settings you've enabled?

 

[venturis]

Do you know what settings you've enabled?

Ok. I've just tested my NVR to make sure I'm not giving you bad information. Happy to confirm that it's working exactly as I described.

In the Playback menu on the NVR, select "SMART" playback mode. Once the camera you want to search is selected and playing back in continuous mode the default timeline will show Motion Detection events as you mentioned.

Next move the mouse cursor just above the time/date text above the playback timeline and small pop up menu will appear.

From here one of the menu icons resembles a two squares connected by a short line. Hover over the icon and three more menu icons will pop up corresponding to "Delete", "Intrusion Detection" and "Motion Detection"

Select the Smart event you want and draw over the playing video your choice of Line Crossing or Intrusion detection region.

Just below the image will appear a box with three icons. The middle icon resembles a magnifying glass. Hit the magnifying icon to initiate the search trigger and wait for the results.

Once the search is complete the playback timeline will update showing red bars where the smart events were found corresponding to your selected search region. I've confirmed that the timeline does indeed update for each and every search.

Playback will automatically skip over the continuous video and start playing from the beginning of each smart event result one after the other.

Below are a couple of screenshots of the menus mentioned above.

My setup is a Hikvision 7608NI-I2/8P running the latest firmware 4.60.00 which was released in the last week or two but I know this worked on the two previous firmware versions and possibly earlier releases.

No particular settings needed that I'm aware of.

 

[triumph202]

Thanks. I'll try it out later.

I did discover (after updating from Euro 3.93 to the latest firmware) that the NVR camera Intrusion menu has actually got "Vehicle" and "Human" detection options for the ColorVu camera. So I've enabled that and will see what happens.

I used the search function to find marked Intrusions logged from the ColorVu and they then played back sequentially. I think with your method above it's possibly the NVR doing the Intrusion/ Line Crossing processing? I came across that function before the firmware update. With the new GUI it is hidden - as you showed above, thanks.

 

[triumph202]

So I've been running the V4.60.000 firmware for a while. It offers the NVR based set up for the camera intrusion capability (at least for people/ cars) but there are some rather undesirable "features":
1. There are no visible Event makers on the timeline when in "Normal" mode. So you can't have a camera (or multiple cameras) playing in Normal mode and manually skip to each Event marker.
2. The Events are visible in Smart mode (i.e. when playing back a single camera) and you can switch between "Smart" to "Normal" quickly if you want to view footage around any event.... But if you try switching from "Normal" back to "Smart" playback the selected camera will always default back to playing from midnight again.

The above makes it a nightmare to try and view events if you want to view footage around an event, or when wanting to switch between different cameras for differing viewing angles. etc

Another forum had someone posting exactly the same problems. Reverting back to 4.51.025 was said to get rid of the later firmware bugs. There's a Euro 4.60.005 version listed, but apparently that doesn't fix the above issues.

Have other people had similar experiences with V4.60 firmware and the later version/s? (I'm stuck on Euro firmware due to region locking on my 7608NI.)

 

[triumph202]

So I've been running the V4.60.000 firmware for a while. It offers the NVR based set up for the camera intrusion capability (at least for people/ cars) but there are some rather undesirable "features":
1. There are no visible Event makers on the timeline when in "Normal" mode. So you can't have a camera (or multiple cameras) playing in Normal mode and manually skip to each Event marker.
2. The Events are visible in Smart mode (i.e. when playing back a single camera) and you can switch between "Smart" to "Normal" quickly if you want to view footage around any event.... But if you try switching from "Normal" back to "Smart" playback the selected camera will always default back to playing from midnight again.

Another forum had someone posting exactly the same problems. Reverting back to 4.51.025 was said to get rid of the later firmware bugs.

So that didn't fix the problems- 4.51.025 is the same. Plus now I've got one camera not wanting to connect to the NVR and the 8MP Colorvu doesn't have an image appear on the NVR or web interface when trying to set up Events or Smart Events.

 

[triumph202]

Back dating to an older version has given the NVR the ability to set the recording parameters for intrusion on the new ColorVu by both max/ min size and human/ vehicle. Plus it doesn't reset the time back to 12:00am when changing between Smart/ Normal. The Smart markers are missing off the timeline in Normal mode, but it's a more workable solution for me.

 

[triumph202]

I'm using V4.40.017, build 201124 and with all Events disabled on the NVR for the 8MP Colorvu I'm now getting the alert markers through on Smart playback from the camera. For some reason the detecting of the "Intrusion" with only "humans" or "vehicles" selected doesn't seem to be as accurate? I'm getting other spurious markers e.g. from shadows and birds, so I need to adjust the settings a bit.

Does anyone know if "Intrusion" should work with only "Humans" and "Vehicles" selected within an "Area" - leaving the "Max" and "Min" sizes blank? Or do the sizes need to be filled out too?