What impact does Region / Country have on camera setup?

[MrM83]

Dear All,

Thanks for taking the time to read my question. Following on from a previous thread, I am in the market for an ANPR camera. A friend has recently moved back from S Africa and has bought with him a camera (IDS-2CD7A26G0/P-IZHS) which he said worked well for him there and is now surplus to requirements and I wonder if it might be an option for me as appears to tick all my boxes. I understand from him that in the setup there is an option to set the region and the option apparently shows Africa & Americas, with corresponding countries underneath.

I asked if he could update the camera with UK firmware but he told me it resulted in an incompatibility error when he attempted it. Before I invest the time and effort in installing this camera and finding it doesn't work, does anyone have any experience on what the region/country settings do (I assume it might change the language in the GUI, but I'm not sure)?

I appreciate its a niche question but would appreciate any advice.

 

[Dan]

Hi @MrM83

Hikvision doesn't really give detailed information about the differences between regional firmware versions, language is one thing but also depending on the region there are some other settings & features that might be different from region to region and some that are added or removed depending on the region.

But all of the core functionality (live view, recording, smart events, etc...) should be pretty much the same whatever regional variation you are using.

 

[codlord]

I don't know the answer to your question but the "Country/Region" setting under the "Road Traffic" options does not change the GUI language.

FYI mine (in UK) are set to "UK" and there is also a further setting "UK Region Rules" with options "England/Scotland/Wales" or "Republic of Ireland".

I always assumed it set number plate detection parameters to something that best captures plates in the selected region (as plate shape/layout/fonts/character length etc change between various regions).

But having said that, my cameras often capture all sorts of text like signwriting on vans or even text on cyclists jerseys etc! So I would have thought you would still have some success. Although without trying it out or comparing that camera to a UK version there is really no way to know for sure how successful it will be.

 

[Dan]

Yes,

sorry I should have clarified that I was talking about the difference between some regional firmware versions being that they offer different language options for the GUI, the language/region settings in the ANPR settings are just so the camera knows what type of number plates it should be looking for (as @codlord has explained).

 

[MrM83]

Thanks for the quick replies! @Dan @codlord

I am not fussed on the auto-resolution of the number plate to car model, just to capture the plate would be sufficient. As per my previous post, the distance I am hoping to capture at would be ~30m and I dont know if this would make the optimisation to the correct country/region more or less relevant.

If you can humour me, do ANPR cameras take a snap photo of the plate, such that even if it couldnt be automatically read by the Hik system, that I'd still be able to read it myself (assuming conditions allow sufficiently good capture) by reviewing said picture?

 

[codlord]

The camera comes in 2 lens versions: 2.8 to 12mm or 8 to 30mm. Capturing at distances with the lesser zoom 2.8 to 12mm version is possible but you probably want the camera zoomed to the max. the 8 to 30mm would be better.

And yes, the snapshot photo can *usually* be manually read. I setup the cameras to FTP all snapshots to a server, if you don't do that I am not sure how you can retrieve the snapshots later. You can FTP and/or email the snapshots, although I think the email snapshot may be a lower resolution and you probably don't want hundreds of emails anyway.

 

[codlord]

@MrM83 I just remembered something which may be relevant to you:

Older HikVision ANPR cameras/firmware only capture a snapshot if they recognise a number plate.

The newer ANPR cameras/firmware can capture snapshots regardless - e.g. if they see a movement but can't capture a plate read they still capture a snapshot with a plate of "NOPLATE". This means you can look at the NOPLATE reads and possibly still manually read the number plate, but more importantly you still capture a photo of the vehicle

 

[MrM83]

Thank you @codlord

 

[MrM83]

Sorry if this is another daft questioned Is there a way that this could be tested if my friend were to hold a UK plate up to it and see if it would be detected or would it need a full install in situ to work?

Thanks again for all the help

 

[codlord]

Sorry if this is another daft questioned Is there a way that this could be tested if my friend were to hold a UK plate up to it and see if it would be detected or would it need a full install in situ to work?

I think if he ran around/past the camera at a sensible distance with a number plate it probably would capture something. There is a "Real-time LPR Result" section in the config which if enabled shows the most recent 20 captures (with a zoomed in capture of the plate, not the whole snapshot image).

BUT looking at one of mine which has "NOPLATE" capability, that real-time list excludes any NOPLATE reads. So if you want to see if it can do NOPLATE reads then I guess you would have to setup FTP.