MET-ECOM Problems

Costas Theoharis

Hi all,
we have installed several Met-Ecom units. All our customers are compaining of poor sound quality and often a few drops in sound that really makes the Met-Ecom useless. And since it's a very important component of a house our customers are getting angry in a point of completely returning the system back. We have talked with AMX and promised a firmware upgrade since mid September. Now it's near October and as you understand the issue is so important for us and our market.
Do you have any ideas-suggestions-solutions for this problem?
One AMX technician told us to use a managed switch and apply QOS to the ports used from MET-ECOM. Has any one of you done anything similar to show us the way?

Regards,
Costas

vining

If you use multiple switches use managed switches that allow setting up ports as trunking ports for connecting between the switches. This will allow support for VLANs across all switches. Create 2 VLANs one for voice & the other for data and set up the voice to have the higher QOS and I think higher level of COS (class of service) which I think is a lower number (check your switch). In the switch/switches designate the ports the appropriate VLAN for the connected client device. Phone/Voice use the VLAN set up to provide the higher QOS (quality of service) and all data devices on the other. In this case that will probably mean all AMX gear, MET-ECOMs and SIP phones on the same VLAN and PC's, etc on the other.

It's been awhile since I did my Cisco cert and haven't yet really had a chance to implement anything. I intended to use this training to integrate the MVP5200i with Cisco phones but in the time it took AMX to come out with the capability for the 5200i (just released) the deal fell through. Had the advertised specs of the 5200i been correct I would have sold TPs that actually had the capability when I needed it. On an even sadder note I now have $15,000 worth of Cisco gear that I was to use for testing, set up & eventually some for the install and the remainder for the shop but alas the 5200i's were incapable of this feat.

ericmedley

Costas Theoharis wrote: »

Hi all,
we have installed several Met-Ecom units. All our customers are compaining of poor sound quality and often a few drops in sound that really makes the Met-Ecom useless. And since it's a very important component of a house our customers are getting angry in a point of completely returning the system back. We have talked with AMX and promised a firmware upgrade since mid September. Now it's near October and as you understand the issue is so important for us and our market.
Do you have any ideas-suggestions-solutions for this problem?
One AMX technician told us to use a managed switch and apply QOS to the ports used from MET-ECOM. Has any one of you done anything similar to show us the way?

Regards,
Costas

We're having similar problems. This with enterprise level swtiches. They seem to require better QoS settings than movie servers. That doesn't jive. I've never gotten them to work anywhere near acceptible.

khurram

Cisco with AMX

I have done some experiment with Cisco. I use Cisco 2821 Router as a Gateway with Cisco 7911,Tandberg 7985 working on SCCP and on SIP I use Grandstream GXV3140,MVP_8400i, MVP_5200i, MET-Ecom. Every unit can call each other. MVP_5200i Voice is Good with all device. But MVP_8400i and MET Door Phone TX voice is very Choppy with GrandStream and Cisco-7911. But tendberg voice is good. I did not understand why like that. Even after I use AMX CSG-580 sip gateway but same issue.

Second Thing How we can operate MET-ECom door release relay from IP Phone. Normally every Analog PBX have this feature.

vining

khurram wrote:

I use Cisco 2821 Router as a Gateway with Cisco 7911,Tandberg 7985 working on SCCP and on SIP I use Grandstream GXV3140,MVP_8400i, MVP_5200i, MET-Ecom.

Would you mind posting your cisco config file?

As far as getting the doorphone to work I would think you might need to set up a server on AMX and on the IP phone put a URL to connect to this server w/ a GET / DoorRelay HTTP/1.1 type a thing. Then in your server code just look for that "get" and the run the door relay code.

I've been meaning to get a handle on this stuff including almost the identical Cisco set up but I just haven't been able to find the time.

[Deleted User]

If you want to eliminate networking as an issue, consider using Wireshark and grab the audio stream. Wireshark can re-create the audio stream and allow you to play it from your PC. You can choose between the streams so you can isolate a transmit side vs receive side problem pretty quickly - assuming it isn't both.

I'd start at the closest switch to the doorbell, then work your way in.

Wireshark should give you statistics regarding packets per second, jitter, latency, and dropped packets - all of which can provide clues to the root cause.

Other things you may consider (from a debug perspective) are your endpoints. Is audio quality a problem only in panel<->panel (intercom)? Or are you going to a SIP phone thru a gateway. It is always choppy? Or only at 'peak' times when there is potentially heavy network traffic.

Good luck.

khurram

I use separate Network switch for this experiment so there is no any network issue and I capture some audio stream with wireshark its attached in ZIP file in ZIP post. Plus you all can in picture Audio Graph. I try it on both sip gateway AMX CSG-580 and Cisco 2821 but the Voice issue is same. That?s means no problem in SIP Gateway configuration.
I think its problem in old release AMX VOIP Product why MVP-5200i is not giving problem and this TP SIP firmware release in last month.

khurram

ZIP

Zip Files Attached

khurram

Zip-2

Zip files Attached

[Deleted User]

I notice in that all the traces that seem to have a problem, there are 30% wrong timestamp errors. There was an issue in all SIP panels in which the timestamp was being computed incorrectly. That has since been fixed, although I don't recall the exact releases for each panel. I *know* the 8400 has been fixed - as should the 5200/500 in the latest releases, so you should not see any (or very few) timestamp errors between those panels.

I have not worked on the Met-Ecom specifically, so I'm not sure when that fix was picked up.

Verify you have the latest firmware available for all the units that are experiencing problems. If not, update and try again. If you do, then I'll go dig and see if I can find out when the RTP issue was addressed in the Met-Ecom.

Incidentally, the timestamp issue was only a problem in gateways that used the timestamp for monitoring/re-encoding. I don't think it was a problem on the AMX Gateway/Asterisk. And it shouldn't be a problem between AMX products (assuming an AMX gateway is used) since our RTP stack doesn't do anything w/ the timestamp anyway.

I'm sorry I don't know much about the Met, but if you are a savvy/techno kind of person, you could run the old-school intercom commands from the master to setup an intercom style call between the two panels that are having issues and see if the quality improves. If so, then the gateway is definitely the problem (or perhaps magnifying the timestamp problem). If not, then it could be the unit, the install, or some other gremlin at work.

khurram

Jtalley I recheck again firmware for panels and door phone all are updated and I again test it by using AMX CSG-580 sip gateway. But same Panel to panel and panel to door phone no any problem. voice problem with MVP-8400i to IP phone. And door phone to IP phone also. MVP-5200i is working fine with IP phone.

Can you check the difference between 5200i and 8400i is what. Why 5200i working fine with ip phone. If you see my first wireshark VOIP-RTP Player graph Picture (MVP_5200i_Cisco 7911_fine Voice) call between 5200i and Cisco 7911 ip phone. the timestamp error only 1%.
If you see second picture (MVP_8400i_Cisco 7911) the timestamp error is 30%.

[Deleted User]

The RTP fix was sourced for the 5200 in build 2.65.9. Anything later will obviously also have the fix. Hence, no timestamp errors w/ the 5200.

For the 8400/700vi/1000vi, you'll need 2.86.x or later. I think that is currently going thru PV - so it should be available ... soon. Sorry, I can't give you an exact date.

elytronic

Is there any update on this? We have a job with 3 MET-ECOM at the 3 house entrances and 3 x NDD500i on each floor. Will this work? How can I be prepared for an alternatice solution if we have problems? This is serious, we are talking about the gate and the 2 front doors of a 15000sq.ft. house and they will be depending on our intercom/access solution. Any help/advice on this is greatly appreciated.

khurram

if you are going to use MET-COM with only AMX VOIP TP there is no any problem its working fine.

If you want to use MET-COM with IP phone then there is problem. I test with Cisco and Grandstream Ip Phones I got problem in voice and second thing I don?t know how to release the door from IP Phone.
Even in MET-COM user manual there is Note not to use door phone relay for door release its not secure.
I hope the voice problem will be solve in coming new firmware release.

VladaPUB

I have similar problem. Installation consists of 23 metecom's and 4 panels (8400i).

Constantly, I have sound cutting and losing.

Any idea to solve this ?

vining

When these things are initally installed, powered and on the net shouldn't I be able to see video immediately when I log into the web config interface. At this point I only want to see the video to determine which one I'm dealing with for Netlinx addressing and setting up the IP address bindings in my router.

I log in but only get an x in the video box. Do I have to read every page of the install guide to find some obscure set up procedure just to see video through the network on it's own web pages? I guess I could just pull all the devices and read their MACs but my intended method seemed so simple and would be if the video works.

Also what device number are folks assigning these things? 100xx, 50xx or what? I sent these to start at 10011 but if there's an AMX intended number range I'd like to conform.

Spire_Jeff

It should work out of the box. Which browser are you using? Try using Internet Exploder.

As for device numbers, I put them just above the range of my touch panels.

Jeff

vining

Spire_Jeff wrote:

It should work out of the box. Which browser are you using? Try using Internet Exploder.

Did that but no joy.

As for device numbers, I put them just above the range of my touch panels.

That's kinda what I figured and did too.

Thx

vining

Installed another one today and this time went straight to the switchs integral to the router in order to bypass my managed switch just in case there was a config issue in one of them and still no joy.

I opened TPD4 input the prtotocol/IP/path/filname high lighted that dynamic resource and hit "Get Live File" and got the "Unable to Connect" bs. I'm using the user/pass I set up in the config pages for the device. http://user@IP/pages/stream_cam_wg.mjpeg?source=1
I opened WireShark and hit "Get Live File" and I see the traffic from my PC but no responses from the MET-ECOM. Ditto for all 3.

I restarted WireShark and opend the device web config pages and then selected the video tab and my PC issues the get command to view the stream

[truncated] Authorization: Digest username="vining",realm="GoAhead",nonce="6e51c23192ad3f88a9affc7720587dcc",uri="/pages/stream_cam_eth.mjpeg?source=1",cnonce="61c232154d1c6c91fc3149334bb8b69e",nc=00000049,algorithm=MD5,response="443cbffbe

but still no usual stream traffic returns from the device.

At first I thought maybe since this is a newer laptop (mac running xp) that maybe I'm missing an Active X or Java component that the device wed pages need but I should still be able to pull the image through TPD4>Resource Manager>Dynamic Images but nope, no such luck.

Should I just throw these in the trash and avoid waisting more time? I'd call TS but I can't see waisting another $1,200 above the $3k I already waisted on these things but what do I do with the holes in the exterior walls and how do get an alternative to work on the TPs as designed and sold?

Ok enough bashing, how do I get these to work since at this point there is no other options? Where's the hidden video on switch?

Spire_Jeff

I am not positive, but I don't think that getting the live file in TPD4 works on these. I don't have access to one today, but I can open one tomorrow and let you know. Which browser are you using? I vaguely recall having to do something extra to get the video to work on Firefox, but that was with the earlier firmware versions.

Are you running the most recent firmware on them?

Jeff

vining

I downloaded FireFox yesterday after reading e's earlier post (another thread) where he mentioned using FireFox. Using FireFox worked and I just didn't get around to posting an update yet. Of course that makes no sense for any one to develope a web interface that isn't supported by all the major browsers especially IE. Now it could also be how it's running on my mac/pc so I shouldn't immediately blame the developers but everything else seems to work so draw your own conclusions.

It was shipped w/ the most recent FW and I did download & re-load it once or twice.

"Get Live File" may not work? Hmmm, that would figure, getting dealt the double whammie, no IE or Get Live File. But why wouldn't "get live file" work? That would kinda byte if that were true and be counter intuitive.

Anyway I can see the image using FF so I'm happy now, we'll see what happens when I go to get these working on TPs and see first hand how bad these reported audio and video problems are.

What's your experience been like? I'd really like to hear at least one favorable report just so I know that there is hope and when it doesn't work I can immediately blame myself and not the gear. Ya know, the way it used to be.

vining

Ok, I can view the video from the MET-ECOMs in FireFox and I can display their dynamic images on a TP but I can't view using IE.

If I watch via FF the image flickers like crazy from image to white screen (no image) and if I change the "Wired Frame Rate" setting to 5 it stops. If I hit accept which I assume I should do to set the changes it crashes FF.

So these things don't work very well and if they did the image size is fixed and small at that. I would like to select the size of the image so can show quad views and then select a larger resolution should I desire. Regardless of how a network is set up these things are just piss poor quality and a disgrace. Currently there is little to no network traffic in this house, 100' runs of CAT-6 with the POE injector just after the managed switch.

Ok, so I'm currently viewing through a VPN tunnel (gateway to gateway) so it's not like I'm on the local network but the Axis cameras work fine and why does lowering the frame rate work with out hitting the "Accept" button and then when I do that why does FF crash. Why can't I view in IE. Why when I hit accept and then re-open the camera>audio/video>video are the settings back to default.

Why hasn't anyone posted anything good to say about these things since they've been released? Why haven't they been fixed? Why do I keep having to ask why?

Ok they look good, that's the only thing ever posted saying something good about these damn things.