Experience with Two-Way Audio in SS4

McJohn

Hi,

First of all I want to thank Ben for the great new SecuritySpy 4 version. A lot of work and nice new features.
We are experimenting with the Two-Way Audio function but it doesn't work.
We have the right Axis cams (M1031 and M1054) , right audio settings (full duplex, audio enabled), In SS4 Camera Info window microphone is on, Prefs in SS4 internal Mac mic, but nothing happened, we hear no sound from the cams (the sound from the cams to the Mac are working perfect).
Anyone experience with this?
Thanks for the help and kind regards,
John

Ben

Hi John, glad you like the new software!

Please could you check the Log file, which you'll find in the SecuritySpy folder within your Documents folder. Scroll down to the bottom - are there any messages there related to problems with two-way audio?

McJohn

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the fast reply.
Sorry to say, but in the Log file there are no problems with these cams and no error message about two-way audio.

Ben

Hi John,

Two-way audio problems should be fixed in the latest beta version of SecuritySpy (currently 4.0.2b5). Please confirm.

McJohn

- This version gives Two-way audio, thanks!
It's a little bit playing with the Audio Output gain of the cam (now -5dB) because otherwise there is a horrible singing sound between the microphone and speakers of the cam and the MacBook....

- Other problem of THIS version: constantly errors and black windows from different cams: here are some errors of a loooong list:
Error from camera "Mcp lift", it will be closed. (22185,268435468)
Error from camera "Frontdoor", it will be closed. (22185,268435468)
Error from camera "Ramp", it will be closed. (22185,268435468)
Error from camera "McP Hal", it will be closed. (22185,268435468)
SS 4x versions before this version didn't give these errors.
It doesn't matter if we use the new mic function or not.

- And is it right that the setting of an "open" mic don't will be saved and when SS is re-opened, the mic is closed again? Is it possible to enable this with a preference?

Kind regards,
John

Ben

Hi John, great to hear the two-way audio works now.

Sorry about the errors, I've just posted a newer beta (same link as above) that will fix this.

As for saving the mic state: generally you'll want the two-way audio to be transient - only as long as there is someone in front of the camera to have a conversation with - therefore we didn't think people would want the mic state to be saved across program restarts. Can you explain why you think this would be useful? Thanks.

McJohn

You are fast tonight Ben, thanks! Errors are totally disappeared, awesome!

We (and some of our customers) are using an Indigo solution with a front-door bell trigger. It activates an Applescript which start SecuritySpy, to see (remote) who is at the front door. It would be very handy when the microphone could be opened automatically at that moment to communicate with the visitor.
Now we have to do an extra action; go to the camera info window, select the right microphone in SecuritySpy an click to open the mic.

Ben

Good to hear that.

Thanks for the explanation, I see the utility here. I'll add to the "to do" list to remember the mic state across program restart.

McJohn

Thanks for listening to our suggestions.
We have tested the two-way Audio at another location and everything is working perfectly now, thanks!
Case closed.

jay

Hi Ben-

Thanks for all your efforts. Two-way audio is really important component of this upgrade for us... We want the functionality of "Ring" doorbell.

Can you give us some sense of what cameras, and when, will be rolled out for SS4 two-way audio. hope you'll strongly consider Hikvision.

jay

Ben

Hi Jay,

We'll support more camera models for two-way audio when we can (it's been extremely busy here since the launch of version 4 so we haven't had a chance to do this yet). Hikvision will be high on the list, as many of our customers use Hikvision cameras.