Live Streaming Time Limit Reached in Nx Witness: what it means and how to fix it

Short answer

What does “Live Streaming Time Limit Reached” mean in Nx Witness?

It means the number of connected devices exceeds the licence channels in your system. On the devices above your licence count, live view pauses for 30 seconds every ten minutes. Recording carries on as normal.

Network Optix introduced this in version 6.1. Before that, a camera without a licence could be viewed live indefinitely, it just couldn’t record. Now every device above your licence count gets the interruption, in the desktop client, the web client and the mobile app.

Network Optix’s own example: with 50 channels and 60 connected devices, the message appears on those ten extra devices.

Why

Why did Network Optix change this?

According to Network Optix, because of cost. Live video tunnelled through Nx Cloud runs on their AWS infrastructure, and that costs money per device. There is no switch to turn it off, not even for systems that only run on a local network. That has drawn a lot of criticism on their own forum, and frankly we understand why.

We mostly see it on systems that grew over the years. A camera at the back door, an intercom with video, a few cameras that only needed live view for reception. Nobody noticed on 6.0. After the update to 6.1, suddenly everybody did.

Fix

How do you fix it?

By making your licences match your devices. That starts with counting what is actually connected to your system.

1. Count every channel. Not just the cameras you know about. The one in the warehouse, the video intercom and every encoder count too.
2. Compare with your licences. On Nx Witness Professional you count channels. On Enterprise you count credits or services.
3. Close the gap. On Professional, add channels. On Enterprise, a device that only needs live view can get a separate Live Viewing service, which removes the interruption but does not record.
4. Or remove what you don’t need. A camera nobody uses is better taken out of the system than licensed.

Can’t or don’t want to buy licences right now? You can roll back to version 6.0.x. Network Optix confirms the message disappears there. We only do that with a plan in place, because staying on an old version also means missing security updates.

How we handle it

How do you avoid this on the next update?

Count first, update second. It is a fixed step before every update we run. We put every channel next to the licences, and the update only goes on once they match. If they don’t, you hear it from us beforehand, together with what fixes it. Not afterwards from reception, who suddenly see a message over the picture.

It is a small example of why maintenance is not a luxury. An update to a video management system sometimes changes more than the version number. Licences can be ordered via buy Nx Witness licences, and how they work is explained on Nx Witness licences.