Hikvision Ensures "Fun Safe Philly Summer" for City of Philadelphia

September 12, 2014


Hikvision, a leading worldwide provider of video surveillance equipment, teamed up with the City of Philadelphia to ensure success of their “Fun Safe Philly Summer” initiative. The program connects youth and their families to free and low-cost summer activities, including many events at the recreation centers spread throughout the city. With the safety of the community in mind, the city council has pledged significant budget investment to outfit all 140 centers with CCTV by 2016. After careful evaluation of all the products on the market, Hikvision’s high-performance cameras, NVRs, and VMS technology were selected as a cost-effective solution to protect the city with cutting-edge video surveillance.

 

With over 600 facilities serving thousands of people each year, the Department of Parks and Recreation worked closely with City of Philadelphia Engineer Pedro Pinto to develop a high standard for CCTV design criteria. A primary concern was finding a system that could stay intact as existing infrastructure was gradually upgraded throughout the city.

 

"The system needed to be scalable and had to be networked at some point in the future,” explained Sheeba Money, Special Systems Designer at Arora Engineers, Inc., a firm involved with CCTV design for the City of Philadelphia. “With every department of the city operating on a different system, it was crucial to provide a video surveillance solution in the rec centers that could be linked into a central management system.” Because Hikvison’s Video Management Systems easily communicate with each other and with systems made by other manufacturers, the feature-rich, reliable, VMS 4200 was a perfect fit.

 

The video surveillance systems have been hugely successful in keeping the centers safe. In most cases, the presence of the cameras alone has been enough to prevent crime. Susan Slawson, Deputy Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, noted: “Where we were faced with vandalism, loitering, and burglaries before, the numbers decreased immediately once we outfitted our facilities with cameras. We don’t just want a ‘fun, safe, Philly summer;’ we want a fun, safe, Philly. With introduction of Hikvision video surveillance equipment, not only are we covering our sites, we can tell what’s going on in the streets and coordinate with the police department if need be,” Commissioner Slawson, herself a 20-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, affirmed. Superior image quality from the Hikvision cameras plays a key role. “We have good video,” Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey confirmed, “that should help us a great deal.”

 

Fidelity Alarm installed the DS-2CD7254FWD-E 3MP Outdoor Network Camera in several of the rec centers due to the camera’s wide dynamic range and true day/night functionality. “In addition to gathering footage from the immediate vicinity, it captures clear images from as far away as across the street,” explained Pat Phillips, Sales Manager at Fidelity Alarm. This month’s shooting at the Dell Music Center is a tragic example of criminal activity dealing a blow to the community, but the police had a head start on the investigation due to cameras stationed on the building’s exterior by Fidelity Alarm. Footage was provided to the police and images were released to the public so that the perpetrators could be swiftly identified.

 

Jeffrey He, president of Hikvision USA, remarked, “Hikvision is proud to provide versatile, convenient, and efficient video surveillance solutions to the City of Philadelphia. Hikvision technology protects our society’s most invaluable asset – our young people – in municipalities across the U.S. and Canada. As we continue to rapidly expand, we look forward to bringing even more success stories to the North American market.”

 

IMPORTANT! This model requires non-standard firmware. Do Not Install standard firmware (e.g. v.4.1.xx) on this model. Doing so will permanently damage your system. You must use custom firmware v.4.1.25 from the iDS-9632NXI-I8/16S product page.

View the most updated version of this document here:

https://techsupportca.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/17000113531-i-series-nvr-firmware-upgrade-instructions

 

The I-series NVR (such as the DS-7716NI-I4) is one of Hikvision's most popular and feature-rich recorders. As such, many firmware revisions have been introduced over the years to continually ensure the product is compatible with the newest technology available. Due to the many revisions, we recommend that the user closely follows the instructions below in order to reduce the amount of time spent as well as the chance of failure.

 

Database Optimization and Repair

As more affordable IP cameras are introduced over time with greater video resolution and data sizes, more efficient database management also becomes necessary. The introduction of firmware v4.0 brought about a new database architecture in order to be futureproof.

 

After upgrading to v4.X, the recorder database will need to be converted and optimized. If you are experiencing issues where playback is expected but not found, make sure "Database Repair" is performed as indicated in the procedures and scenarios below.

 

Preparing the Upgrade

Before proceeding with upgrade, it is recommended that NVR configuration file is exported from the NVR over the network or on to a local USB drive.

 

Upgrading from v3.4.92 build 170518 or Older

  1. All recorders must reach v3.4.92 before proceeding further. Upgrading from versions before v3.4.92 directly to any version of v4.X will likely cause the recorder to fail.
  2. If the recorder is already at v3.4.92, a full factory default is highly recommended before upgrading to any version of v4.X. There is a high chance of unit failure (requiring RMA) if the unit is not defaulted before upgrade.
  3. After reaching v3.4.92 and performing a full factory default, an upgrade directly to v4.50.00 is acceptable.
  4. After the upgrade is completed and the recorder is reprogrammed, it may be beneficial to perform a Database Repair. For details, refer to the section "Database Optimization and Repair" above.
  5. To verify repair progress, you may refer to the HDD status, or search the recorder log for repair started and stopped entries. Note that while the HDD is repairing, new recordings are still being made, but some existing recordings may not be searchable until repair is complete.
  6. If you continue to observe playback issues after database repair, ensure there are no power, network, or motion detection issues. Should the problem persist, contact technical support.

 

Upgrading from Any v4.X Build to v4.50.00.

  1. Any v4.X build can be upgraded directly to v4.50.00.
  2. Export configuration is highly recommended before performing the upgrade.
  3. If upgrading from any v4.X version that was not v4.22.005, a Database Repair is recommended. Refer to Step 4 and onwards in the previous section.

 

Downgrading

Downgrading is not recommended. Due to new features and parameters constantly being added, downgrading may cause the NVR to factory default itself or require a manual default to operate properly.

View the most updated version of this document here:
K-Series DVR upgrade instruction
The Turbo 4 Hybrid DVR K series has multiple models and across different platform and chipset. It also has similar firmware development of other recording product line; DVR K series has also introduced the GUI4.0 to ensure the series to be compatible to the newest technology available. The new database architecture is also brought into the DVR firmware v4.0 to be future proof and for better recording search experience. 
 


Database Optimization and Repair

As more affordable cameras introduced over time with greater video resolution and data sizes, more efficient database management also becomes necessary. The introduction of firmware v4.0 brought about a new database architecture in order to be futureproof.
After upgrading to v4.X, the recorder database will need to be converted and optimize. If you are experiencing issues, where playback is expected but not found, please make sure to perform "Database Rebuild" as indicated in the procedures and scenarios below.
 


Preparing the Upgrade

Before proceeding with upgrade, it is recommend exporting DVR configuration file from the DVR over the network or on to a local USB drive.

 

Action after firmware upgraded 

1. Upgrade the DVR according to the chart above. 

2. Reconfirming Channel's Recording Schedule 

    - Confirm channel's recording schedule is enable. 

    - Check if the channel is on correct recording schedule.

3. Double Check Storage Setting

    - Make sure all channel are assigned to record on its HDD group when the Storage setting is under Group Mode. 

4. Perform Database Rebuild locally. 

    • Some version above support Database Rebuild via web access - K51 and K72

    • Perform Database Rebuild regardless if system is having any database issue symptom. 

    • Database Rebuild process is average ~30 to 60min per TB. The process may still varies depends recording data.

    • After Database Rebuild - Check log to confirm Database Rebuild has went thru properly. 

    • If Database Rebuild Started and Stopped log has been log only within few minutes. Database rebuild may not has been completed properly. It is strongly recommend performing the Database Rebuild again.

    • To check log > System > Log > Information > Database Rebuild Started and Stopped.

    • If the log option is not available - access system via SSH can also obtain similar result.

5. Recording Data is still missing after database rebuild process. 

If the data has not been recorded or has been overwritten, Database rebuild process is not able retrieve those lost data. Have the system upgraded to the latest available firmware version above to prevent any future data lost is strongly recommended for all application.

 

 

 

 

In light of the global semiconductor shortage, Hikvision has made some hardware changes to the DS-76xxNI-Q1(2)/P NVRs, also known as “Q series.”

 

These changes do not have any effect on the performance, specifications, or the user interface of the NVRs. For the ease of reference, these modified units are known as “C-Version” units. This is clearly indicated on the NVR label and on the box by the serial number.

 

The only difference between the “C-Version” and “non-C-Version” is the firmware. The firmware is not interchangeable:

 

  • The C-Version NVRs must use firmware version v4.31.102 or higher.
  • The non-C-Version (Q series) NVRs must use firmware version v4.30.085 or older.

 

Please do not be alarmed if a “Firmware Mismatch” message pops up on the screen during the firmware upgrade. This simply means that the firmware does not match the NVR’s hardware. Simply download the correct firmware and the upgrade will go through without any issue.

In light of the global semiconductor shortage, Hikvision has made some hardware changes to the Value Express Series NVRs

These changes do not have any effect on the performance and specification of the recorders. For ease of reference, these modified units are known as “C-Version” units. This is clearly indicated on the NVR label and on the box by the serial number.

The only difference between the “C-Version” and “non-C-Version” is the firmware. The firmware is not interchangeable:

  • The C-Version NVRs must use firmware version v4.30.216 or higher.
  • The non-C-Version (Q series) NVRs must use firmware version v3.4.104 or older.

Please do not be alarmed if a “Firmware Mismatch” message pops up on the screen during the firmware upgrade. This simply means that the firmware does not match the NVR’s hardware. Simply download the correct firmware and the upgrade will go through without any issue.

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