Hikvision DS7716NI-E4 and using 2-way audio

[yorkie]

Hello,
I have been setting up this NVR on a test station with a few cameras connected to ensure it all works before committing to the installation, and have come up with a new problem.

All the cameras I have fitted, either using Hikvision or ONVIF protocol, have a full audio interface so as to support input recording and output to a speaker; one such camera is a Hikvision DS-2DE2A404IW-DE3 mini PTZ. In the web Gui for this specific camera, or using iSpy, I can fully use 2-way audio - there is a speaker directly connected to the sound output on the camera for testing, and whilst the output is a bit quiet it is enough to be picked up by the camera's internal microphone. So I know this one works and have been using this as the testbed.

In the NVR GUI I can go to the Live View page, click the feed for this specific camera, select the microphone icon to activate talkback - but there is no sound going to the camera speaker from the PC microphone despite being connected. If I connect a microphone at the NVR's audio in port then go to the Web GUI and select the talk icon then the speaker on the camera plays from the NVR microphone (which is right next to the NVR so you hear the sound of the fan whirring over the speaker) yet nothing from the PC microphone.

But what's more of an issue is on the local UI... if I click a camera (using this mini PTZ as an example) then the toolbar at the bottom gives the usual commands such as ePTZ/PTZ/Record/etc - BUT the microphone icon is disabled, and this is the same for all the cameras. There seems to be no setting at all in the local UI or web GUI to enable this icon.
Is this a hidden function or am I doing something wrong?

Firmware V3.4.106 b230306

 

[yorkie]

I've figured it out - mostly... the disabled icon is not actually a microphone but something else, and I couldn't see that because it was too faint to see what it was!

The 2-way audio on the Web GUI is only between the web client and the local control room (the NVR audio output) and NOT to the individual camera. This seems like something of a functional oversight, particularly given that the E series NVR is directed at small businesses and residential use where having outsourced CCTV oversight seems unlikely..... Ideally there'd be an option in the web GUI configuration (maybe on the page where VGA/HDMI outputs are chosen) in which the user can select "target for 2-way audio" with a radio button to select between "local control room" or "active IP channel", and that selecting the latter option then enables a microphone icon on the local UI so that at the NVR local control a direct audio channel to the camera feed being watched can be established. I'm not sure how to suggest that to Hikvision though.

As far as I can see, the only way to have direct 2-way audio communication to a specific camera is through Hikconnect; I have tested this using the DS-2DE2A404IW-DE3 mini PTZ and the Hikconnect mobile app, and sound does indeed come through the speaker (though an amplifier is required - I'm using a Kemo amp module for that as it was in a box of bits in my loft). I have 4 AHD cameras connected through a DS-6704HUHI-K encoder, and directing 2-way audio to any of those cameras will output the sound through the Audio Out on the encoder - and again it needs to be amplified, this time I'm using a Valcom amplified marine horn speaker.

BUT there's still problems. The ONVIF cameras won't output 2-way audio. For example I am currently trying to get a Wisenet XNF8010 to work audio through the NVR, but on Hikconnect if I select 2-way audio to the camera I get "operation failed". This is the same whether the camera is connected directly to the NVR through the PoE port or indirectly via a network switch; the camera audio interface can work with G.711, G.726, or AAC encoding - and NONE of them are working for output (in fact, the G.726 won't provide any sound input either, it goes completely mute). Admittedly in the live view for this specific camera when logged in to it's own web UI the microphone icon will not select - however this audio out problem is the same for my Samsung PNF9010 and Avigilon H3 dome