Table of Contents
Q3 2024 Release Notes
July - September 2024
Highlights
This quarter focuses on ANPR improvements, recordings performance, and TetherBox management.
User-Visible Changes
Licence Plate Recognition (ANPR)
- Renamed LPR (Licence Plate Recognition) to ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) throughout the platform for clearer terminology.
- Enhanced ANPR plate validation to prevent duplicate entries for the same camera.
Tip: This reduces configuration errors during bulk plate setup.
Recordings & Video Playback
- Fixed timezone handling when searching recordings - ensures recordings appear at the correct local time regardless of server location.
- Improved recordings page performance with optimised pagination and database indexing - faster loading when browsing large recording archives.
- Fixed playback speed detection to prevent false warnings when bitrate data is unavailable.
- Added new database index for faster recording searches across time periods.
TetherBox Management
- Redesigned TetherBox details page with cleaner drive information display in a dedicated section - easier to diagnose storage issues during support calls.
- Added "Disable Network Joining" option to prevent TetherBox from automatically adding new Devices to the network - better control over managed installations with strict network policies.
- Improved time zone handling with proper Daylight Saving Time support for accurate recording timestamps.
- Enhanced SSL certificate management with new ACME v2 implementation using Let's Encrypt for automatic HTTPS.
Tip: This eliminates manual certificate renewal and reduces support overhead.
- Replaced legacy SSL certificate generation system with modern certificate handling and automatic renewal.
- Improved activation URL to use app.domain instead of my.domain for consistency.
Camera Compatibility
- Fixed Hikvision DVR/NVR streaming paths to use correct capitalisation for better compatibility with recent firmware versions.
- Added support for additional VMD (Video Motion Detection) event types from Dahua and Hikvision Cameras.
- Improved VMD event mapping for better detection of network changes, audio anomalies, and intrusion alerts.
- Enhanced Hik-Connect integration detection for DVR/NVR Devices.
User Interface Improvements
- Improved flash message handling to prevent cookie overflow errors when displaying multiple system messages.
- Flash messages now intelligently check size limits and discard oversized messages to prevent application errors.
- Better handling of subscription upgrade prompts without exceeding browser cookie limits.
- Improved error messages and user feedback throughout the application.
White Label Support
- Added support for Gazer brand with custom logo and branding configuration.
Performance & Infrastructure
- Added new caching system with Redis locking to prevent duplicate background tasks - improved system stability during peak usage periods.
- Improved database query performance with optimised indexes for ANPR and recording searches - faster search results across all modules.
- Enhanced time zone calculations for more accurate filtering based on user location - time-based filters now work correctly regardless of server timezone.
- Added middleware for better session logging and debugging.
Statistics
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Commits | 87 |
| Lines added | 1,547 |
| Lines removed | 778 |
| Net change | +769 |
Bug Fixes
- Fixed Daylight Saving Time calculation errors that caused incorrect time-of-day filtering - time-based searches now work correctly year-round.
- Fixed cookie overflow errors that occurred when multiple flash messages were displayed simultaneously.
- Fixed ANPR recording associations to properly link plates with their corresponding video footage - easier to review footage when investigating specific licence plate detections.
- Improved country code handling for Hikvision iDS Cameras (Great Britain workaround) - eliminates configuration issues with UK-market Hikvision Cameras.
- Fixed various permission checks to ensure proper access control for integrators and staff Users.
Other Changes
Time-of-Day Filtering
Improved user interface for time range filtering (originally added in 2018):
- Enhanced time range filter controls for Events and recordings with clearer layout - simplified workflow when reviewing overnight incidents or specific shift patterns.
- Time-of-day filtering now available across Events, recordings, and ANPR searches with consistent interface.
Internal Changes
Database Optimisation
- Migrated ANPR data from Items collection to dedicated collection for improved performance - faster loading of ANPR records, especially on sites with thousands of plates.
- Database restructuring reduces query overhead when filtering large datasets.