Streaming Protocol

Streaming Protocols - Header

Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)

Streaming Protocols

Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) is a streaming protocol used to stream media content across a network. This protocol was designed to control video and audio streams without downloading media files, typically for fixed sites and CCTV security cameras. The benefit of RTSP is very low latency, however, it requires a very stable network connection. Commonly support video codes include h.264 and h.265. Common audio codes include AAC and mp3.

The RTSP protocol supports low-latency streaming but is not compatible with most devices and browsers. It can deliver low-latency streaming to a select group of small audiences from a dedicated server, making it a standard for video surveillance and CCTV systems.

Pros

• Segmented Streaming: Viewers are not required to download an entire video before watching it, the RTSP stream allows them to watch content before the download is complete.

Cons

• HTTP Incompatible: You cannot directly stream RTSP over HTTP, meaning there is no easy way to stream RTSP in a web browser. RTSP is designed for streaming video on private networks, like security cameras within a business

Common stream url format; rtsp://ip-address:554/descriptor or rtsp://192.168.10.101:554/live.

Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP)

Streaming Protocols

Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP). RTMP is a legacy protocol developed by Adobe to transfer audio and video files between a streaming server and the Adobe Flash Player. Due to its ability to stream over unreliable connections, such as cellular, it’s popular for streaming from users cell phones, action cams, or drones, directly to social media sites.

Pros

• Low Latency: RTMP ensures live video streams maintain a stable connection for the viewer, even if the internet connection is unreliable. It also allows them to easily resume the stream once their internet connection stabilizes.

• Adaptability: This protocols stream feed is adaptive and hosted on an RTMP server, meaning viewers can skip and rewind parts of the feed or join a live stream after it's begun.

• Flexibility: Developers can integrate a variety of video formats, like audio, video, and text, into one cohesive package with the RTMP protocol.

Cons

• Limited Support: Flash is a format quickly becoming obsolete, with HTML5 players taking its place. Flash currently supports RTMP, and this protocol cannot play on HTML5 players without a converter, like an HTTP-based video protocol.

HLS

Streaming Protocols

HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)

MPEGTS or MPEG-TS

Streaming Protocols

MPEG-DASH

Streaming Protocols

WebRTC

Streaming Protocols

WebRTC is an open-source project that delivers video streams to viewers with real-time latency. Initially developed for text-based chat apps and VoIP usage, its popularity has grown among video chat and conference app developers after being purchased by Google. The WebRTC protocol is a low-latency streaming solution that relies on peer-to-peer streaming (P2P); it is utilized by some of the most used apps like Google Meet, Discord, Houseparty, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.

Codec

Codecs - Header

A codec is a hardware- or software-based process that compresses and decompresses data. Codecs are used in applications to play and create media files for users, as well as to send media files over a network. The term is a blend of the words coder and decoder, as well as compression and decompression.

Codecs compress -- or shrink -- media files such as video, audio and still images in order to save device space and to efficiently send those files over a network.

A codec takes data in one form, encodes it into another form and decodes it at the egress point in the communication session. Codecs are made up of an encoder and decoder.

H.264

Codecs - video

H.265

Codecs - video

Advanced Audio Codec (AAC)

Codecs - audio

Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC)

Codecs - audio

Waveform Audio File Format (WAV)

Codecs - audio

Compression

Onvif

Onvif Profile

VMS

Video Management System. A Video Management System (VMS) is a software-based platform that is generally used to manage and control video surveillance cameras, recording devices, and other security components.

On-Premise

Aka On-Prem.

Cloud

Bandwidth

Bitrate

Time to Live (TTL)

TTL refers to a value set in the header of an Internet Protocol (IP) packet that tells network devices the maximum number of router hops the packet can make before it is discarded.

Cluster

Kubernetes (K8)

Edge Computing

Avatar

Edge device installed on customer location for processing and storing streams. A key component in videoNext architecture.

Stream

Add

Add a new camera. Or. Duplicate an existing camera.

Discover

Search for RTSP cameras, streams, sources on the network. Must be on the same subnet (IE 192.168.100.xxx).

Import

Bulk import multiple cameras at once by filling out the example .CSV file and uploading it.

Configure

Edits the camera’s configured settings.

Analytics

Edits the camera’s linked analytics settings.

Delete

Removes the camera from the system.

Destination

Destination for connecting camera. Options include Edge device or remote server for cloud direct (if not using an edge device).

Avatar

Select the Avatar (edge device) the camera will be add to

Name

Input a name for the camera.

Special Characters are allowed. Spaces are allowed. Maximum 256 characters, however, we recommend limiting to 50 characters or less.

We recommend using a naming convention for all cameras, to keep things consistent.

Example Naming Convention:
Cam01_Front Door_Fixed
Cam02_Back Door_PTZ
Cam03_Back_Door_Radar

State

Set the camera state, on or off. Camera state can be toggled on/off at anytime.

Location

Enter the general location that the camera is physically set. (IE Office_Backroom)

Zone

Creating a zone allows to group cameras together based on criteria, most likely their location. Each camera can only be assignIPed to one zone. Allows for credentialing and access management.

Config Via

Choose the method to ingest the camera stream.

Onvif - from an Onvif Profile (if supported by camera). Onvif profile is managed on the camera side, then ingested to videoNext software. (preferred method).

URL - if Onvif is not supported,

Camera IP/Host

IP address of the camera/device. (IE 192.168.100.115).

We recommend using an overall schema for setting camera IP addresses. Use either static fixed on the cameras, or static DHCP leases set on our router. We HIGHLY discourage DHCP.

HTTP Port

HTTP port the camera or sensor is set to use (set on the camera side configuration). Port 80 is used by most manufactueres by default.

Check the device advanced network settings to verify. On more complex customer networks, the camera sits behind a firewall and uses custom port forwarding.

RTSP Port

RTSP port the camera or sensor is set to use (set on the camera side configuration). Port 554 is used by most manufactures by default.

Check the device advanced network settings to verify.
On more complex customer networks, the camera sits behind a firewall and uses custom port forwarding.

Username

Enter the username associated with the camera.

Multiple username/user accounts can be created on the camera side. We recommend using an account with full Administrator privileges.

Password

Enter the password associated with the camera

Force RTP over TCP

Generally do not select this option. The default of RTP over UDP is typically fine, unless you see issues like broken streams or dropped frames. Then, try TCP to see if it helps.

This option changes the network protocol used for streaming media from RTP over UDP to RTP over TCP.

By default, media streams use UDP as it allows for faster delivery of data. UDP is one way, fire-and-forget, across the network (network layer). This allows highest performance, but sometimes at the tradeoff of reliability.

RTP over TCP ensures delivery and ordering of packets (network layer) at every hop in the network. This increases reliability of a media stream, however, comes at the cost of a slight delay/lag (typically 0-0.5 seconds, but can be up to 1 second delay).

On a stable network, there is no additional latency with RTP over TCP. On networks with many hops and/or high network utilization, the increased reliability (packet confirmation at every hop) of RTP over TCP might result in degraded media streams, such as frame loss.

Follow RTP time

Selected by default. It’s recommended to have RTP sources (cameras) synced to an NTP source (IE pool.ntp.org) to maintain accurate timesync. Follow RTP time will then be able to accurately and smoothly stream video. If the RTP source (cameras) are unable to set accurate timesync, it's recommended to de-select Follow RTP time. Otherwise, video will be behave abnormal (objects will jump around in the scene erratically).

Storage Pool

Select your desired storage (archive) length for this device.

The archived footage is reset at the end of the storage period. (IE 14 days). In a 14 day pool, footage older than 14 days will auto-delete itself.

The advantage of having multiple Storage Pools allows different cameras to be saved for different periods of time. (IE Camera A-5 day storage pool. Camera B-30 day storage pool, Camera C-90 day storage pool).

Storage pools are created on the realm by realm administrators or based on SaaS subscription preferences.

Enable PTZ

If the camera supports PTZ (Pan-Tile-Zoom) function, it can be enabled here. PTZ must also be enabled on the camera-side.

There are two types of PTZ, digital and mechanical.

Digital PTZ allows for software based zoom and focus areas on the camera’s view area. Mechanical PTZ allows for steering the camera mechanical gimbal, and mechanical zoom lens.

Lat (Latitude)

Input the latitude of the camera’s physical location. These coordinates will display on the maps widget.

Lng (Longitude)

Input the longitude of the camera’s physical location. These cordinates will display on the maps widget.

Assign Sets

This button gives the option to assign Sets to the individual camera

Device Name

The field will populate with the cameras name

Stream

The stream/onvif profile that is in effect

Event Type

INFO - A passive event that is recorded. No actions necessary when triggered. Will be recorded in event log.
ALERT - Triggered events shown as Alerts. Alerts can be set to require acknowledgement, and often organizations will dispatch patrols to investigate alerts. Will be recorded in event log.

Acknowledge Required

This toggle enables/disables whether an alert needs to be acknowledged when triggered

Motion Detector

Analytic feature that monitors for any scene change or activity. Zones can be set (drawn on scene).

Face Recognizer

A NIST certificated face recognition analytics feature. Ability to detect all faces in a scene, and create whitelisted/blacklisted matches by uploading photos of persons of interest. Additional features include; gender estimation, age estimation, and emotion estimator. Supports both CPU and GPU acceleration.

Intrusion Detector

Full featured analytic library for detecting and classifying objects, custom tripwires and geofences, speed and direction filters, zones, counting, object left behind, and more. Hundreds of user-definable filters.

Motion ALPR

Vehicle license plate recognition. Requires cameras properly positioned and calibrated to view vehicle license plates (from over 200 countries in respective languages). Additional features include identify vehicle make, model, color. Ability for Whitelisting/blacklisting vehicles of interest. (vehicle make, model, color first requires accurate license plate detection).

Object Tracker AI

Object detection of over 80 everyday items including people, vehicles, backpacks, cellphones, animals, etc. Includes maritime ship (commercial vessel) detection, and weapons detection.

The object tracker detects the above listed items, and assigns a unique object tracker ID to identify new verses previously detected objects. This also allows counting of unique objects.

QR Detector

An R&D project for scanning Quick Response (QR) codes using any camera source. QR Code can be linked to any URL of file of user’s choice. Possible use case for warehousing, logistics, pallet management, inventory management.

TF Detection

Niche high end face recognition with the highest NIST rating on the market.

VAX ALPR

Name

Name of the analytic in use.

Status

Whether the analytic is Online or Offline.

Uptime

Uptime of the analytic feature.

Restarts

How many times the analytic has restarted.

Requested FPS

Frames Per Second (FPS) requested for the analytic model to analyze. Example, camera stream is viewing at 30 FPS, however, the analytic feature is set to analyze 10 FPS to conserve system sources.

Avg Latency

need confirmation

Events per sec

analyzed events per second?

Metadata, bps

Add

Add a new sensor. Or. Duplicate an existing sensor.

Configure

Edits the sensor’s configured settings.

Delete

Removes the sensor from the system.

Destination

Destination for connecting sensor. Options include Edge device or remote server for cloud direct (if not using an edge device).

Avatar

Select the Avatar (edge device) the sensor will be add to.

Name

Input a name for the sensor.

Special Characters are allowed. Spaces are allowed. Maximum 256 characters, however, we recommend limiting to 50 characters or less.

We recommend using a naming convention for all sensors, to keep things consistent.

Example Naming Convention:

• Sensor01_Front Door_DoorSensor

• Sensor02_Back Door_Fence

State

Set the sensor state, on or off. Sensor state can be toggled on/off at anytime.

Location

Enter the general location that the sensor is physically set. (IE Office_Backroom)

Zone

Creating a zone allows to group sensors together based on criteria, most likely their location. Each sensor can only be assigned to one zone. Allows for credentialing and access management.

Category

Select the type of sensor being added.

Model

Select the model/make of the sensor

Sensor IP/Host

IP address of the sensor. (IE 192.168.100.115).

We recommend using an overall schema for setting sensor IP addresses. Use either static fixed on the sensor, or static DHCP leases set on our router. We HIGHLY discourage DHCP.

HTTP Port

HTTP port the camera or sensor is set to use (set on the camera side configuration). Port 80 is used by most manufactueres by default.

Check the device advanced network settings to verify. On more complex customer networks, the camera sits behind a firewall and uses custom port forwarding.

Username

Enter the username associated with the sensor.

Password

Enter the password associated with the sensor.

Assign Events

Assign Cameras

Lat

Lng

Assign Sets

Add

Add a new gateway. Or. Duplicate an existing gateway.

Configure

Edits the gateway’s configured settings.

Delete

Removes the gateway from the system.

Avatar

Select the Avatar (edge device) the gateway will be add to.

Name

Input a name for the gateway.

Special Characters are allowed. Spaces are allowed. Maximum 256 characters, however, we recommend limiting to 50 characters or less.

We recommend using a naming convention for all gateways, to keep things consistent.

State

Set the gateway state, on or off. Gateway state can be toggled on/off at anytime.

Location

Enter the general location that the sensor is physically set. (IE Warehouse_Garage)

Gateway IP/Host

IP address of the gateway. (IE 192.168.100.115).

We recommend using an overall schema for setting gateway IP addresses. Use either static fixed on the sensor, or static DHCP leases set on our router. We HIGHLY discourage DHCP.

Port

Port the gateway device is using or set to. Often port 8080.

HTTP Secured

HTTP (secured = no). HTTPS (secured = yes).

Gateway type

Select the type of sensor being added.

Gateway login

Enter the username associated with the gateway.

Gateway pass

Enter the password associated with the gateway.

OIDC token

Authentication token/key associated with gateway (if applicable).

Directories

Id

Device ID

Name

Device Name

Assigned Cameras

The cameras assigned to be associated with the specific gateway device or sensor.

(Example, front door sensor. Assign the front door camera to be associated with the front door sensor).

Show Mapped Events Only

Id

Event type ID number

Name

The name of each type of gateway event is discribed with different states.

Assigned Event Type

Choose whether the event type triggers an alert or is stored as info.

Configure

Edits the Avatar’s configured settings.