OmniTouch 7

[Bushy]

Hi,
 
Excuse my ignorance... I just upgraded to a OT7. How do I send announcements to it??
 
Thanks
 
Cheers
Scott

 

[StarTrekDoors]

You cannot, hence the reason my post before yours was for that function as a feature request (should Leviton be monitoring this forum).

 

[longwa]

So far, 1.12 is stable indeed.

The camera responsiveness is greatly improved, which is a welcome change.

The "chuffing" sound that was denied to exist by Leviton, then specifically addressed in the release notes for 1.12, is unfortunately NOT fixed, and in fact subjectively now sounds louder than before according to our clients.

But on the whole, 1.12 was an uneventful release - hurray!

 
On my first OT7 panel, the chuffing sound (that's a good word for it) eventually turned to an annoying hiss that my wife could no longer stand. I called their support and they indicated that it was an incompatibility with some of the early chipsets and the speaker driver. With no fuss whatsoever they sent me a replacement panel which, of course, has the exact same chuffing sound. Eventually, I assume it will turn into a loud hiss and I'll be back to square one.
 
I'm going to apply this update today, but I have pretty low confidence that it will fix anything, especially since they told me it was a hardware issue to begin with.

 

[longwa]

Ok, I stand corrected. Once I applied the kernel update 1.1, the chuffing sound actually did go away (sort of). Whenever you do something that causes the thing to make a noise, it starts making the chuffing sound for a second or so and then stops.
 
It seems like they may have fixed it by just disabling the speaker driver completely and then enabling it as-needed for making a sound. Seems like a reasonable compromise. When I'm not touching the thing, it's completely silent now.
 
Couple of other observations:
 
1. The cameras definitely come up faster but I swear I think they look "fuzzier". Obviously they aren't using the H.264 stream (I wish) but it seems almost like they've applied some kind of smoothing or noise reduction to the full screen view. There's also a weird little icon flicker when you switch cameras and every now and then it still does the thing where the camera doesn't actually come up (just the black screen with the text).
 
2. Again, it's hard to say without a side by side comparison, but it seems like maybe they increased the size of the keypad on the Security tab. I've always thought the on screen keys were way too small given the amount of wasted space on either side. I could just be imagining. Maybe someone can snap a before and after screenshot before updating?
 
-Aaron

 

[wkearney99]

I'm no amp circuit expert, but I've encountered my share of poorly implemented audio output devices in my days.  Most seem to fail due to the difficult balance between responsiveness versus power consumption and cost.  Somebody in the design cycle made a choice for one of those and the end result wasn't helped by it.  In other words, "good, fast, cheap... pick two".

 

[AndrewRubin]

Hello,

I have been spinning my wheels over trying to get my IP cameras on my Omnitouch 7 keypads for the last couple months and had given up on it since I tried everything. I noticed tonight there was an update for the Omnitouch 7 Keypad (Version 1.12). I downloaded it and hoped it would have resolved my IP camera issue, but it didn't. I discovered this website and saw a handful had helped with getting IP cameras working. I tried several suggestions that were made to other posters, but I was unsuccessful. So maybe someone out there can help me out.

I have an Omni II panel with Omnitouch 7 keypads. I have a Honeywell NVR (http://www.honeywellvideo.com/products/video-systems/recording-devices/nvr/performance-series/797971.html) and 4 Honeywell IP Cameras (H2D1PR1). The cameras can be viewed through a web browser, but requires a plugin.

I have configured the sub stream on these cameras as follows (see below).

Code-Stream Type: General
Encode Mode: MJPEG [Other options H.264 and H.264H]
Resolution: D1 (704*480) [Other options CIF (352*240]
Frame Rate (FPS): 20 [Other options 1-20]
Bit Rate Type: CBR [Grayed out, unless Encode Mode is selected with H.264 options]
Bit Rate: 2048 [Can be customized]

On PC Access, I have tried every single option on FPS(1-20), Quality (Low, Medium, High), Resolution([320*240][640*480]), and including a username and password as well as leaving it blank.

For the address, I have used the IP of the camera (http://192.168.1.201) and I have also tried using the cameras RSTP string(rtsp://admin:[email protected]:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1)

I have confirmed this string is working through VLC player.



Any suggestions?

 
work out what the mpeg string should be not rtsp

 

[pete_c]

You can also use fast JPG images with the PCA setup.   It will probably never do H.264 or RTSP as PCA. The OmniPro 2 can only do so much with the legacy OmniTouch, IP Omnitouch and newer Omnitouch 7's.
 
You can add much more bells and whistles with external software running and chatting with the OPII. 
 
IE: Space mentioned above.  Here my old tabletop touchscreens running embedded XP do Omnitouch Pro, HD streaming and microsoft SAPi voices just fine with the OmniPro 2 panel.
 
That said too the Omnitouch 7 is already an antiquated piece of hardware these days.

 

[StarTrekDoors]

The OT7 does support H.264 (and could work properly someday), but currently only for intercom function, not for cameras.

Basically the underlying Android OT7 software for the cameras just needs to be modernized or Leviton could switch to a different camera client and would be cool to see SIP with H.264 since many cameras support two-way audio.

Camera performance is independent of the OP, as the stream runs directly to the OT7 so the slow OPII only needs create the OT7 pointers to the camera streams so the Android client can stream video.

For those with questions about RTSP strings - an RTSP string is NOT the solution for the MJPEG camera stream so don't bother.  Anyone looking to add cameras needs to know if their camera supports MJPEG (motion jpeg) and the correct connection string which unfortunately varies by brand of IP camera and/or media converter.
 
A post by a new poster in another thread on the same date as my posting here indicated all the OT7 issues were to be fixed soon, but I wonder about the addition of features......... ( http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/27974-omnitouch-7-intercom-upgrade/page-2 )

 

[pete_c]

Thank you StarTrekDoors. 
 
The OT7 does support H.264 (and could work properly someday), but currently only for intercom function, not for cameras.
 
It is pretty dumb of Leviton to introduce a product that could do this someday and sell it as a functional console for the OmniPro 2.
 
Then what really needs to get fixed is the OS of the OPII sections related to video while concurrently continuing to support the Omnitouch Pro touchscreen software or the Omnitouch 5.7e's and the new Omnitouch 7's.
 
To date while fixing the OmiPro 2 firmware to work with the Omnitouch 7 they have trashed the OS on the OPII on the assumption that everyone would flock over to using the Omnitouch 7 which is really some mickey mouse assumption.
 
I noticed the other day installing a room with PCA (meant for the OmniTouch 7) that it trashed my OmniTouch 5.7e's making them disfunctional.
 
Really then you do get much more bang for your buck purchasing software that connects to your OmniPro 2 panel with its own mechanisms of console touchscreens (like an Ipad, generic Android tablet touchscreen or Windows touchscreen tablet) than purchasing just one Omnitouch 7,
 
I am streaming Axis IP video easy enough here but it is SD and using Grandstream for my IP HD cameras which also works fine using JPG or MJPEG.  It is primitive as the only options are 640X480 and 320X160. 
 
The Omnitouch Pro software video doesn't work at all for CCTV unless you are using their old Axis based IP server or the HAI Touchscreen designer software.

 

[AndrewRubin]

What new features would you want?

 

[StarTrekDoors]

So 1.12 definitely stopped the lock ups while just sitting idle but not much of anything else. 
 
We really could use H.264 support for cameras, would be nice to have a pin lock or app lock to keep unwatned persons, burglars, and kids out of the currently unsecureable consoles, and why can we not "hear" announcements on the OT7, just beeps?  Could use that feature too!
 
Leviton - any thoughts on this or is there a road map of upcoming features?

 
Desired Feature Additions

• Update DST without need of OT7 reboot for daylight savings time change
• H.264 Camera Streaming Support not just MJPEG
• Audio Support for SIP (direct SIP calls)
• SIP audio support for SIP-based IP Cameras
• Support for audio announcements similar to the generic speaker-based consoles/keypads with/wo mics (multicast module perhaps?)
• Intercom without need of a PBX (multicast broadcast [all intercoms] and direct SIP to SIP [station to station] would cover both scenarios)
• Screen Lock to limit access; user vs admin. User assignable access to specific controls

 
Needs Explained

• Why should one have to restart an OT7 console twice a year to update the time on time.
• Limiting support to older technologies limits sales and potential support for more installations where newer IP cameras are H.264 only
• The ability to directly call an OT7 like an IP telephone means the OT7's use can be expanded plus it already has that capability in Intercom (if intercom worked)
• Many IP cameras support SIP-audio, similar to the 2N doorstation recommended for Intercom.  Would be nice to have support to see and hear and potentially speak back to any IP camera
• Beeping only with a choice of only 5 beep patterns limits the console to beep, beep beep, beep beep beep, etc.... Why not allow audio announcements like speaker-based console/keypads. Talkback would be cool too but audio would be first priority. Should we install an OT7 and a keypad side by side to get both functions? Does NOT make sense.
• Personally I think every house should have an IP-PBX but that's not a reasonable expectation and a requirement of such limits OT7 installations/sales. Lose the requirement for a PBX (Android supports that) and life would be much better for intercom.  Using multicast to send a broadcast to all OT7s would be nice for mass announcements and direct OT7 to OT7 intercom (which is technically a SIP call) would suffice for intercom if it worked, especially without a PBX.  I'm OK with spending money on a multicast audio module but would like to see support for multicast on the network as well to leverage other investments (like streaming audio, music streams, IP telephones that can multicast, IP-PBX multicast paging, etc...).
• The big one - screenlock.  Customers don't want to allow unauthorized persons, burglars, or children to access OT7 consoles. A burglar should not be able to view cameras or check to see state of security. A child should not be able to switch heating to cooling and set the temp at 40 degrees. Persons flicking lights and devices off and on through the lighting section is chaos.  Macros may override controls that otherwise would have required a code, so access should be limited. Each category however should have the ability to assign a level of access, as some will want full access without a pin to view each category. Some will want to see security status but not allow a thermostat change without a pin, but others want full access with no pin. Screenlock and category access should be no problem to do given the underlying OS has that capability and of course security changes would by pin already. Perhaps three user levels - admin, user, limited user. (admin - no pins except security, user - pins assignable by app, limited to certain apps or certain rooms).
• Adjustable layout would be nice as the OT7 screen appears large enough to place each category icon on the same page without need to scroll sideways through the icons. The lighting section is horrible because it's not just lighting but devices AND sometimes just trying to scroll gets something inadvertently turned on. It would be nice to be able to scroll without accidental activation. The category name should not assume to be only "lighting" but I like the lightbulb icon.... perhaps the ability to "design" each category, assign custom icons and names, and change OT7 layouts would be prudent.  

 

[feobrien]

Hi
I just installed the OmniPro II, OmniTouch and Russound C5.  Everything working well, but I can't get the Audio logo (and hence control of the Russound) to appear on the OMNITOUCH. I have the serial cable connected between Russound and OMNITOUCH and I can control the Russound from the PCAccess Software (send command to turn zone on for example).  What am I missing? Done all my firmware upgrades on OmniPro and OmniTouch.  Thanks for any advice

 

[StarTrekDoors]

You mentioned "OMNITOUCH" above but I assume you meant the Omnipro.   Did you restart the OT7?  It does not update dynamically.  Every time you make a change, add a button or switch, or update other functions, you should always restart your OT7's.

 

[feobrien]

Sorry if I crossed things up. Yes it is an OMNIPRO II with two OMNITOUCH 7 screens and the Russound C5.  I did restart, which as you suggested should solve the problem. In the end, I "deleted" the OMNITOUCH 7, then "discovered" them again and all worked well. You are right, it still had something to do with restarting - no totally clear why my solution worked, but it did and I'm happy.  Thanks for the response and advice!  A camera will be this weekend's challenge

 

[rhombixt]

Can anyone confirm they get meta data (song and artist information) when using the DMS 3.1 to listen to internet radio on the OT 7 or OT Pro? I don't get any metadata and russound insists that it is streaming from the MCA-C5. They said that the C5 converts the RIO meta information for display on it's keypads and it also sends that data out via the RNET serial port. I don't see that happening. Can anyone here confirm they get meta data from internet radio via a DMS 3.1?