How do Audio Exception events work?

[macman]

Hi y'all: it's been a while…
I need to set up an old (DS-2DE2204IW-DE3) camera so that it records events to my SD card when triggered by a noise exception. I'm thinking I will need to play around with the Sensitivity and Threshold settings but should I be able to get an event recording whenever the neighbour's dog barks loudly?
The camera is close to the neighbour's yard but can't see over the fence so I need the recording to be triggered by noise alone. Is that how it works?
And will the audio exception event override my other parameters for Intrusion Detection zones and Line Crossing?
Basically, I don't care what the recorded video shows as long as it contains the dog barking audio with a timestamp.

I have been looking at some appealing noise detection monitor from Sensivic which is allegedly compatible with Hik cameras but it costs over a grand and is over-specified for me…

 

[Dan]

Hi @macman

You are correct about how the Audio Exception works (see page 43 of the camera user manual).

If you play around with the audio sensitivity, you should be able to get the camera to trigger based on loud noises like dogs barking.

On older cameras like this model you are using, I think it is only possible to have one smart event enabled.

So, enabling Audio Exception may stop you from simultaneously using other smart events like line crossing & intrusion.

 

[macman]

As ever, thank you @Dan. I have turned off the other smart events but assume that basic motion detection will continue to work while Audio Exception is active? Anyway, I'll find out soon enough.

 

[Dan]

Yes, Motion Detection is classified as a Basic Event, and you should be able to have one Basic Event and one Smart Event enabled at the same time, but not two Smart Events.

 

[macman]

Yes, Motion Detection is classified as a Basic Event, and you should be able to have one Basic Event and one Smart Event enabled at the same time, but not two Smart Events.

I’m struggling with this and would be grateful for any pointers.

I have set up the Audio Exception function on my “Garage” cam, as discussed above.

Those settings are:

I confess that setting up Triggered Cameras is above my pay grade and I’m not sure if/why I would need any triggered devices. In any event, I assume that the unchecked Trigger Alarm Output checkbox at the top means that no triggering will happen even though triggered cameras have been selected. The only camera I want involved is the Garage cam where ideally I want to find an event video recording whenever an Audio Exception is triggered.

When experimentally setting up this smart event on my Mac, I was delighted to note that the offending dog barked loudly at 18:15pm which audio spike was highlighted on the rolling soundwave display so should have triggered a recording to the Garage cam SD card. But it didn’t.

As the log below shows (I think), Garage cam did record an Audio Exception event at 18:12 – although I don’t know why my Patio cam is shown as the Trigger Camera. (I assume the green Play buttons indicate a video recording.}

But the 18:15 barking was recorded on my HighFront PTZ cam which confusingly was temporarily pointing at the dog and also had Audio Exception enabled (together with Line Crossing so presumably wouldn’t have been activated by two different smart events, even though this log appears to show both types of smart event working for that camera whereas Garage cam had only one type of smart event enabled).

I’m obviously very confused here. Why would Garage cam record an Audio Exception event at 18:12 but not the barking at 18:15? Is it possible that the same audio event cannot trigger two different cameras (in which case I need to turn off Audio Exception on HighFront cam). And why would I want any triggered cameras? Should I turn all triggering off?

 

[macman]

This morning I turned off Audio Exception detection on my HighFront cam (leaving only Garage cam with it enabled) and tried a test by sneaking up beside the camera - out of vision - and making some loud noises. These were not detected. No recording, no alarm, no notification. Is it possible that noise detection only works when the source of the noise is in front of the camera/mic? Surely not… Any ideas?

Checking back in the client logs for the barking noise the other evening, I see Noise Exception events recorded by the HighFront cam but nothing for Garage cam…

And the remote log for the Garage cam reveals nothing apart from a couple of Audio Loss Detection alarms, whatever they are (they can't be Noise Exception events because the option to detect a sudden drop in audio level is not selected. Maybe it's telling me that the microphone is faulty?

(I am incidentally also being frustrated by my inability to reduce the number of motion events being recorded by the Garage cam – one every couple of minutes even though I have restricted the detection zone to a small patch of gravel without any foliage.)

I have of course RTFM multiple times in a doomed bid to understand the explanations of smart events, trigger cameras, etc but it obviously requires a PhD since my MA doesn't cut it.

 

[macman]

Well, I'm a little wiser, but not a lot. I managed to stop my HighFront cam being triggered by alerts from my Garage cam and my Garage cam is now issuing an alarm notification when its Audio Exception alarm is triggered. However, the settings below don't result in any recordings to my Garage cam SD card – or anywhere else. I do see a pop-up alert notification which displays a static image with no audio but when I hit the button to play that recording, I get an error message saying that no record exists.

So, do I need to change any settings? Or am I chasing rainbows because it isn't possible to record Audio Exception events to an SD card?

As an aside, I am frustrated that my Mac iVMS-4200 seems incapable of remembering my chosen arming schedule. Having selected and configured Template 01 for this event, it doesn't seem to be properly saved above (the camera's config saves it as "Template 01" but not here in the Event Management tab because when I click on "Edit" it opens up the default All Day template.

I guess that all other Mac owners have given up on iVMS-4200…at least on my 2.0.0.12 version which seems to be the latest available on Hik's UK website although they are offering v2.0.0.18 elsewhere which is allegedly compatible with my MacOs High Sierra (10.13.6). If anyone can confirm I may give .18 a go as it can't be worse than .12.

 

[macman]

In the unlikely event that anyone else is interested in this saga, I had a breakthrough today.

I can now record Audio Exception events to my Garage cam's SD card.

The downside is that I had to turn basic motion events off* to make it happen. At least, that's what I think was the cure but I'm still testing so may have to update again.

For now, this camera does nothing except audio exception monitoring…but I can work with that pro tem.

[*Previously, nothing I configured in the basic motion detection settings reduced the high number of motion events being recorded (one every 10-30secs) so I guess it's possible that when a motion event coincides with a smart event, the latter gets relegated to a mere alarm notification.]