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CVEDIA-RT Integration with NX Witness

The integration of CVEDIA-RT with Nx Witness server from Network Optix (and any of its flavours) is facilitated through a plugin that can run on various platforms. The CVEDIA-RT plugin enables powerful analytics capabilities in your Nx Witness system, enhancing the effectiveness of your surveillance operations.

This guide will take you through the process of setting up and using this integration.

CVEDIA Box

The CVEDIA Box, though an optional part of the setup, provides a powerful and streamlined solution for deploying the Nx Witness server and the CVEDIA-RT plugin in a hardware-optimized environment. Follow the steps in the 'Box set-up' section if you are using a CVEDIA Box.

Box set-up

  1. Connect the box to your router LAN port using the ethernet cable.
  2. Plug the box power supply cord into an electrical outlet
  3. Allow a couple of minutes for the box’s software to load and for the status indicator light stops flashing.
  4. Make sure that the computer you plan to use for operating the box and the box itself are both connected to the same network. Note: If they are not on the same network, but the PC can reach the box network, you can still use it, but you might need to enter the box IP manually.

Local Setup on a custom machine

Windows - Installer

The installer is available in our download portal. Click on the NX Witness logo, then downlaod and run the Windows Installer.

Please be sure to have a compatible VMS already installed before installing the plugin.

Command Line

If you need to run the installer without user interaction (for example for automating the setup of new devices), you can use the command line from the Windows Terminal.

First, start the the installer downloaded from . After all files have been downloaded, you can cancel the installation process. You will find all the required files in the Downloads folder.

From the Windows Terminal you can now run the setup using the /SILENT or /VERYSILENT option.

Example:

.\CVEDIA-RT-Plugin-Setup-2024.1.2.exe /SILENT /LOG=setup.log /TRIAL=false

Options:

  • /SILENT to show the UI but don't wait for user interaction to proceed
  • /VERYSILENT to hide the UI completely
  • /VMS=name to specify for what vms to install the pluing. This is needed only if there are multiple vms installed on the same machine. Values:
    • NxWitness
    • NxMeta
    • Watchdog
    • Hanwha
    • Piko
    • AlphaVS
  • TRIAL=false|true (default: true) to immediately activate or not the trial license.
  • LOG=filename to create the log file of the installation process. It could be useful to investigate possible issues.

Linux - Native

Linux installation guide

Linux - Docker

Unpack the .tar.gz file and call

./run.sh --nxw

This will run the NX Witness server.

Different NX Flavors

CVEDIA-RT supports the following NX flavors:

  • Nx Witness (default): --nxw
  • Nx Meta: --mtv
  • Wisenet WAVE: --hwv
  • DW Spectrum: --dwg
  • Piko: --pik

Please check ./run.sh --help for additional information.

Connecting to the VMS Server

  1. Download and install the Nx Witness client from this link. You may download a differerent flavor of NX, but the following steps do not change.

    Tip

    If you're running a different flavor of NX the setup process is the same, except for the client you will download.

  2. Run the Nx Witness application, a New System with pending status will show up:

  3. Click on it, then click Setup New System

Adding a new device

  1. Locate the list of servers on the left side of the application, and right-click on the one we just connected (eg. CVEDIA-RT) to add a new camera.

  2. Paste the URL of your camera or RTSP device into the address bar, enter login, password, and port if required, set as default if needed and when ready, click on search.

    Tip

    If you have IP cameras connected to your network, you can use the "Subnet Scan" option.

  3. Locate the device to be added to the list of found devices.

  4. Click on the Add all Devices button.

  5. Once ready, the camera will be shown as added and the add devices window can be closed to return to the main window of Nx Witness.

  6. Note that a new device is now shown underneath the server name on the left side of the screen.

  7. Double-click on the new device to open the viewer.

Info

For more information on the camera setup in Nx Witness application, please check the official manual: NX Witness User Manual

Activating / Deactivating CVEDIA-RT Plugin License

Activating the license - 2024.1.0 versions and newer

You can activate a license after you enable CVEDIA-RT Plugin (see the following chapter on Enabling the RT plugin) in the VMS device settings.

You can then use the last page in the left panel to activate the license: NX Plugin Activation

Deactivating the license - 2024.1.0 versions and newer

Once a license is activated, it gets bound to the specific device on which the plugin is running (the NX Witness server).

If you need to replace the device, you should deactivate the license before using it on a different device.

Simply click the Revoke key button in the Licenses window (see image above).

Activating the license - Prior to version 2024.1.0

To activate the CVEDIA-RT Plugin license, you may need to access the System Administration settings of the Nx Witness application. From there, you can add the license for the plugin:

  1. Click on the top-left icon with 3 horizontal lines, to access the System Administration window.

  2. Go to the Plugin section and select the CVEDIA-RT plugin if it's not already selected.

  3. Insert the license key in the first available slot and cick the Apply button.

    Please wait a few seconds until the Status field is updated.

    The Status field will inform you that the license is valid and active. In case of errors, it will inform you of the failing reason, such as network issues, invalid license key, etc...

Deactivating the license - Prior to version 2024.1.0

Once a license is activated, it gets bound to the specific device on which the plugin is running (the NX Witness server).

If you need to replace the device, you should deactivate the license before using it on a different device.

To deactivate a license is enough to remove it from the text field and click the Apply button. Wait a few seconds until the Status field is updated.

Multiple licenses

Each license is configured with a maximum number of concurrent cameras where the analytics will run.

If you need to increase this limit, you can obtain a new license with the additional streams and activate it.

Enabling the CVEDIA-RT Plugin

  1. Right-click on the video stream and select the camera settings option.

  2. Navigate to the plugins section of the camera settings window and enable the CVEDIA-RT plugin.

    Warning

    As shown in the red banner at the bottom of the screen, the analytics will work only when the camera is being viewed or when the recording is enabled.

  3. From the left menu, you can now configure the analytics of your choice.

  4. Configure one of the analytics. For example draw an area in the Intrusion Detection.

  5. Click the OK to save the settings.

  6. Go to the OBJECT tab on the top right to preview the detected objects:

  7. To generate events, you need to define the camera rules in NX Witness. Right-click on the camera and click on Camera Rules, and add a new rule based on Analytic Events.

  8. Monitor the events in the events tab.

Recording Events

If you create a rule that has a Bookmark as an action, you can easily jump to the recorded event.

Don't forget to enable the recording in the Camera Settings. This requires an Nx Witness license, but you can easily activate a trial one.

Once you activate the recording, you can set days and hours. To save on space you can choose the Objects Only or Objects + Low-Res modality.

Checking Analytics

Once CVEDIA-RT plugin is enabled, you can check if it's running and which hardware it's using.

First enable Show statistics in the plugin Expert Mode:

Then, open the camera and go into Objects tab within NX, and you will see a large info panel:

This panel shows as follows:

  • Engine version: CVEDIA-RT engine version
  • Plugin: NX integration plugin version
  • Solution: CVEDIA-RT solution version
  • AI frame-rate: Should be always above 10 for analytics to perform correctly
  • AI latency: miliseconds spent doing inference, should be less than 100 ms for analytics to perform correctly
  • Camera frame-rate: Camera source frame rate, should always be above 10 for analytics to perform correctly
  • Run time: Runtime of CVEDIA-RT instance
  • # frames processed: Number of frames processed by our analytics
  • Accelerator: Accelerator(s) type and ultilization percentage (when available)
  • AI Model: Model(s) in use and accelerator(s) used to run it, some examples of accelerators are:
    • rknn: Running on Rockchip NPU
    • tensorrt: Running on NVIDIA GPU
    • openvino.CPU: Running on Intel CPU
    • openvino.GNA: Running on Intel GNA
    • openvino.GPU: Running on Intel GPU
    • hailo: Running on hailo
    • mnn: Running on CPU
  • Licenses: Number of CVEDIA-RT streams licenses in use / total number of licenses available

Configuring Analytics

Each analytics allows you to configure some operational options, such as the area of the line used to trigger events, and some other related parameters.

All the analytics offer the ability to specify for each area or line what type of objects to detect between Person, Animal, Vehicle, or Unknown motion.

An analytic is active only if at least one area or one line is defined.

Multiple Analytics

You can enable multiple analytics at the same time. This will not impact on the performance of the system.

Upgrading an existing install on windows

As of 2023.5.9 release there's no automatic plugin update process. To upgrade your current install you need to do follow this manual process:

  1. Download CVEDIA-RT .zip release
  2. Extract and rename the folder files to cvedianxplugin
  3. Stop your VMS service
  4. Open your VMS server install folder, for example C:\Program Files\Network Optix\Nx Witness\MediaServer\plugins
  5. Copy and overwrite cvedianxplugin folder with the one you just extracted and renamed
  6. Start VMS service

To check that CVEDIA-RT plugin is working, you can go to the camera settings, if the plugin shows up it means it's working.

Licensing

If you're upgrading from 2023.4.0 to 2023.5.x and newer you must add and validate a CVEDIA-RT license, please ask support if you need a trial version.

Linux - Native install (Debian package)

You must first install the cvedia-rt package (see the Linux setup page) from our repository.

Then (since the repository is already initialized), you can just run: sudo apt install cvedia-rt-nxplugin -y

If you want to use the .deb package, you can check the available NX packages here: cvedia-rt-nxplugin

License Activation

When you enable the CVEDIA-RT Plugin in the VMS, you can use the last page in the left panel to activate the license: NX Plugin Activation