AUTODOME IP starlight 7000 HD & Genetec: Troubleshoot frozen image & no PTZ

[#1]

Possible causes and solution(s)

System overview:

• AUTODOME IP starlight 7000 HD camera (FW 7.10.0076) integrated in Genetec as VMS. Version 5.9.4
• Camera has only 1 H264 stream (either unicast, multicast or TCP)
• The camera is powered according to the Bosch guidelines

• Causes

After a few days, the CPU of the camera gets overloaded without using web interface, .mjpeg, watermarking
This results in bad frozen image and no PTZ, bad images, uncontrollable web-interface, stuck images in Genetec live/recording.
If the camera is downgraded to firmware 6.61, the issue doesn't pop up, the camera doesn’t show PTZ issue / freeze randomly

This issue appears when the camera (FW 7.10.0076) is viewed both in the Genetec as VMS. Version 5.9.4

• Solution

Possible:

1. The 'HTTP' thread could be higher than normal. In the latest CPP4 firmware there is a HTTP fix in it.
   →  So please update the AUTODOME IP starlight 7000 HD camera to the latest Firmware available at the Download Store.
2. Another possible cause that can be is the HTTPS certificate in the camera.
   → What you can do is create a self-signing RSA 1024 certificate and link the HTTPS server to that certificate. The camera will need less CPU power for the HTTPS connection and will reduce the cameras CPU load.
3. If you are using the WEBPAGE, how are you enter the webpage? HTTP or HTTPS? And to what stream are you watching? Stream 1, 2 or Mjpeg? (Proper active X installed)
   → Make sure that you connect via HTTP and don't use the Mjepg stream. This will increase the CPU load a lot!
4. How did you set up the stream viewing and recording? Stream 2 live view and Stream 1 recording?
   → If you did it like this, it will reduce the bandwidth.
5. Are you using VCA/IVA? 
   → If not please disable this option.

Note: CPU load down:

• When combining CPU-intensive functions like e.g. encryption, watermarking, or dual recording, with high quality and high frame rate encoder settings, tuning of encoder profile settings might be required to avoid overload situations.
• Forcing the camera into an overload situation may cause undesired behavior and in worst cases even recording gaps. It should always be ensured that the CPU load is not consistently around or at its maximum. This can be achieved by adapting encoder settings or avoiding too many tasks, e.g. client sessions, in parallel.

If you are still using your AUTODOME IP starlight 7000 HD camera (FW 7.10.0076) and Genetec as VMS. Version 5.9.4, it seems that Genetec does not recognize the new firmware right away and it is not updating the device capabilities.

You have 2 options:

✅ Option 1:

• remove your camera from Genetec
• factory default the camera
• update it to the latest FW version
• add back to Genetec.

Note: In Genetec there is an Update option to update the camera via Genetec.

*** if the update function is not working properly or you don’t want to use it, the only way to update capabilities remains the solution above (Option 1).    

✅ Option 2:

Install the new driver pack of Genetec that came with Genetec 5.10 that solved the issue.

⚠️ If none of the 2 options above solved the issue, please do the following and contact Central Technical Support team and provide them with the following information:

• We would like to see that you enter this command in the address bar while the camera has a high CPU load:
  http://<IP-address>/maintenance_log.log

and

• Try to get the Maintenance logs via CM when right click on the camera, File download, Maintenance log also when the camera has a high CPU load.

Only then we can see what is causing this high CPU load.

• How the cameras in question are connected to the network? Wired or Wireless?
  ***This is a vital info and you need to isolate the faulty camera first to rule out the wireless connection. It can be that in the firmware maybe something was changed that have a higher bandwidth that the wireless connection cannot handle

• Logs collection:

Please collect all logs of these cameras. And mark the logs with the issues you have with that log.

• Setup a syslog server with the debug commands in the camera: minorneterr cpuload lldp syslog_dbg

• Collect the syslog and if possible, with a date and time when the issue happened exactly

• Also, the maintenance logs are needed (as described above) not only the diagnostics and syslog from the camera.