Since the manufactures don't seem to be sending out advanced notices on issues they are aware of, thought I'd help out (didn't see it posted yet).

As title says if you have clients using Mac viewer using Safari and they upgrade to V12 the plugin will no longer work. As of last week Snap was working on a fix with no ETA.

I believe it affects all Hikvision based NVRs.

The recommended solution as of today, is Guarding Vision software which actually works well so far.


On another note, I'd like to throw another atta boy to Control 4 who excels at sending out advanced notices on stuff like this as soon as it's known so we can protect ourselves against it and plan accordingly not sitting on job sites looking stupid and waiting on hold for 30 minutes with tech support.

All plugin support was dropped in the latest update to Safari.

Yay.

I will undoubtedly be getting a few phone calls over this

I've been burned too many times with Safari and camera plugins - I stopped promising it to customers.

WIndows is no cake walk either. Why cant NVR manufacturers just make their own viewer?

Every NVR I pull up on IE crashes my laptop. The IE tab chrome plugin is a little better

Came across that a couple weeks back with a client that wanted to replace another bullet with a PTZ. Had issues installing the VMS software too but he still pulled the trigger. A couple days later the email went out that claimed resolution would be available right, about, now...

Hey Everyone,

Great feedback and questions all around.

The central theme is YES with Safari 12 the browser no longer support plugins. This is the same path that Google Chrome took a couple of years ago.

We did our best to send out proactive notice to all of our dealers warning them about this upcoming change to Safari. The best option on Mac today to use Parallels or Bootcamp so that you can run Windows. I fully understand that is not always feasible.

If you need a Mac solution please give our Tech Support team a call. They have a few alternative solutions they can help you use and setup.

We are working on more long term solutions - dedicated Mac app as well as the major goal which is plugin free solution.

Yet another reason I stay far far away from surveillance.

There is just no money in it, the service portion sucks and installation usually sucks. The surveillance systems are whored out, cheap hardware and all around are just a pain in the ass to deal with. Not to mention there is zero fluidity between manufactures.

Not worth it, I hand it off to my security guy to deal with. Not to mention everyone seems to have in their heads that their surveillance system will provide image CSI type image quality.

I disagree 3P. Surveillance is profitable. Install is easy. Pic quality amazing. How are you finding there is no money in it? I dont see Luma whored out anywhere. Makes it pretty easy.

Another story you tell yourself. Surveillance is profitable. Nest and Ring are not.

I make ok money on surveillance.

What I do try to avoid is retrofit camera installations on older 2 story tract homes. No easy, err profitable way to bid them and remain competitive.

New construction and remodel, sure thing.

What I would like is a Cam/NVR solution that doesn't have security issues (Hikvision), has easy to use, intuitive software for setup and customer use instead of poorly written Chinese code (all) and that doesn't price itself out of the realm of reality for most customers (Mobotix).
Oh, and also isn't available to consumers for less then I can get it from my distributors.

Luma is a step in the right direction but still has a way to go.

I concur with the others on surveilence as a business segment. It is just like anything else we sell, it is all about managing expectations. We do just fine on our surveillance jobs. We have demo systems for both analog and IP systems so that we can show customers the app and the level of detail that they will get. It is pretty simple to sell against Ring from a network nightmare point of view.