This brings back the question, what are manufacturers doing to modernize browser access to security devices? All of the manufacturers have been affected by the shutting down of NPAPI plug-ins but none that I know of have offered any clue that they are updating anything, just "use IE". NPAPI plug-ins were discontinued because they are a huge security risk and potentially allow full access of a PC to the plug-ins. Chrome saw this and reacted to this breach back in 2015, but all anyone did was say "Oh well, scratch another browser off the list".
Why are we still using devices that have their web components developed a decade ago using ActiveX and have only had cross-browser ability developed since 2011 or so? HTML5 has been gaining steam for a few years now, but I have not found a SINGLE "security" industry manufacturer that has shown any real development in it. Sure, it's not going to be easy, every manufacturer puts their own twist on the way they encode their video or now are developing their own "special" H.265 variation, but we need this. HTML5 offers full browser independence, OS independence and you can even utilize it with smartphone browsers, which means no more half-baked attempts at apps.
I've preached on this for a while, I'm sure many of you will recognize the tone of my pose, but it's very frustrating to see an industry that absolutely refused to update their products in the least because they are more concerned with dropping their prices so they can sell 5 more cameras. I wish there was an alternative to the current offerings that would develop a solution with security (not only of the surveillance mission, but also the security of the device being used) as a their main goal. I know it's a pipe dream and that nobody would pay the extremely higher prices necessary to have this developed, but let's face it, the stuff we have now is stagnant, sure they try to stuff more "features" on to the same old platform ("smart features", auto-tracking, etc that are at best hit-or-miss) instead of making the platform itself worthy of being developed on. Maybe if this was done, it could generate a new tier of this industry that is truly professional and worthy of government contracts and large scope installations, but until someone decides to invest a large chunk of capital in this type of development, we'll continue to slog through the swamp with the leaky boat products they continue to give us.
I welcome any comments, retorts, suggestions, ideas or name calling if you need to, I just want to know if everyone else is thinking along similar lines or is it just "sell my 100 cameras today and worry about tomorrow's 100".