The Generic RTSP integration has been developed to connect to modern devices that stream using a standard RTSP or HTTP stream. We do not have a complete list of all the devices in the market that have the capability to stream via RTSP or HTTP, however most of the devices available today will have the ability to stream via one of these methods.

 

Supported Features

• Event Receipt
•  Video
  • Live
  • Recorded

 

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Alarm Configuration

In order to configure alarms for a device that you want to use with the generic streaming integration, please view the device's specific support page for correct setup of SMTP alarms.

Generic Stream accepts two formats of SMTP Alarms:

Format 1: Subject Decoding

Alarms to be configured using the 'Sx.Ay@SureviewAlarms.com' email format, where x relates to the 'S' number given in the Sureview Setup report and y relates to the input number of the alarm in Sureview.

If the subject matches one of the pre-defined Sureview Standard Alarm Types (See 'Event Types' below). It will come in with the appropriate Event Type and an individual Alarm Response can be created (i.e. MotionDetected will be decoded differently to VideoLoss).

If the Subject does not match one of the pre-defined Sureview Standard Alarm Types. The subject will become the alarm Text (but the alarm will be triggered without a corresponding “Event Type”)

Format 2: SureView XML Format

The SureView XML Format allows you to send a fully customised alarm into the Sureview System. The body of the SMTP alarm must match the XML format given below:

Note: This will need to be a plain text email containing the XML in the body. If The XML is incorrect it will not decode and instead Generic Stream will fall back on decoding the Subject of the SMTP Alarm.

<Alarm>
<VersionInfo>1</VersionInfo>
<Input1></Input1>
<EventType></EventType>
<ExtraText></ExtraText>
<DateTime></DateTime>
<Location></Location>
<URL></URL>
</Alarm>

 

Element Details
Element Name	Description	Example
VersionInfo	This must be set as 1	<VersionInfo>1</VersionInfo>
Input1	This is the Alarm Number, it can be any integer	<Input1>1</Input1> or <Input1>2</Input1>
EventType	If you are sending one of our pre-defined Event Types include it here (i've listed the possible types below)	<EventType>PersonDetected</EventType>
ExtraText	Any extra info you would like to include you can enter here, this will be displayed to the operator with the alarm	<ExtraText>Additional Alarm Information</ExtraText>
DateTime	You can include the DateTime of the alarm here DateTime format used in the email needs to be the same format used on the Sureview server otherwise it will not be decoded. Invalid dates are not decoded.	<DateTime>23/06/2015 16:59</DateTime>
Location	You can include the physical location here (this will show up as a Map in Sureview). Please note that you cannot use a negative coordinate value and a direction input in your location value.	<Location>51.62001435507171,-3.9325847625732</Location> <Location>SA1 8PH</Location> <Location>51.620014N, 3.932585W</Location>
URL	You can include a web link here that the operator can see and click on	<URL>http://www.google.com</URL>

 

Event Types

MotionDetected	VideoLoss	InputAlarm	CounterChanged
SensorAlarm	AccessGranted	AccessDenied	IntruderDetected
DoorForced	FireAlarm	PanicAlarm	Duress
DeviceArm	DeviceDisarm	TamperAlarm	HDDFull
DeviceShutdown	DevicePowerup	DeviceInvalidLogin	SystemEvent
TestAlarm	PersonDetected	VehicleDetected	ObjectDetected
UnknownAlarm	ObjectEntered	ObjectExited	ObjectAppeared
ObjectDisappeared	ObjectStopped	ObjectDwell	ObjectDirection
ObjectSpeed	ObjectAbandoned	ObjectRemoved	ObjectColour
Tailgaiting	LineCounter	LogicalEvent	ConfigChanged

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Control Configuration

Setup Introduction

To begin using the Generic Streaming integration all you will need is either an RTSP or a HTTP stream from your device. The method of retrieving this stream differs depending upon the device, however below are a few examples.

 

After you have the streaming URL from the device, you can proceed with filling in the Sureview device setup information as follows:

Host	The external IP address of the device provided by the installer
Port	The port used to connect to the RTSP stream of the device
User	The username provided by the installer
Password	The password provided by the installer
RTSP & OptionNames	The RTSP url of the device and the options to use when connecting

Default Behaviour

By default, the integration will use the Host/Port/User/Password fields, so any details added here will take precedence over the same values in the 'RTSP & OptionNames' field.

If no details are set for the standard Sureview fields, the information is taken from the device's extra value. For example, if this value is set to:

rtsp://ADMIN:admin@lab.sureviewinternational.com:554/main/live1

then the Sureview values would be set as:

Host	lab.sureviewinternational.com
Port	554
User	ADMIN
Password	admin

IMPORTANT: Please read the troubleshooting section on Ecare before using blank values in the Sureview device fields.

Extra Value Format

The format of the extra value for the Generic Streaming Integration is as follows:

<streaming url> <option name 1>:<option value 1>;<option name 2>:<option value 2>;...

For example:

rtsp://lab.sureviewinternational.com:55491/live/0/mpeg4.sdp probe_size:4096;rawaudio:true;

Please note the space character between the streaming url and the list of options - this is required for the integration to connect correctly.

The streaming URL can also use a wildcard of {#} to replace a camera/stream/channel number so that you can have multiple cameras added to the same device. eg.

rtsp://lab.sureviewinternational.com:55466/h264/ch{#}/main/av_stream

This is very useful when dealing with DVR's or multiple input decoders, as you do not have to add multiple devices in order to add all of the available cameras into Sureview.

Device Compatibility (Advanced)

This integration uses SureView.Media and by extension, FFMPEG, as such it implements FFMPEG's RTSP client protocol. This means that if a stream can play through FFPLAY.exe (which is bundled as a simple media player with FFMPEG and the Sureview API) it will theoretically play through this integration.

 

You can pass in the same options you might use to get a stream playing in FFPLAY.exe as you would in the integration. FFPLAY.exe might look like this:

>ffplay.exe -x 640 -y 480 rtsp://lab.sureviewinternational.com/main/video1

In the integration you can specify these options by setting the ExtraValue to:

rtsp://lab.sureviewinternational.com/main/video1 x:640;y:480;

The default options that are always passed to the integration are:

rtsp_transport:tcp

probe_size = 1024

connection_timeout = <DeviceProxyWorker.exe.config setting>

Although there are several other options which can be used which are specific to SureView.Media, and these are: (default values are given as bold)

-rawaudio=true/false	(do not try to decode the audio, just pass the raw audio data back out to the integration)
-requires_stream_analysis=true/false	(try to detect the codec type to use and prepare them for use)
-interruptclose=true/false	(force the read thread to close - do not use unless you are getting unexpected results on closing the integration)
-fmt=value	(specify a particular codec to use with FFMPEG - this is essentially the same as using the -f option when using FFPLAY.exe). N.B. FFMPEG Cannot Auto Detect MJPEG streams. To use an MJPEG stream you must specify the format

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Troubleshooting

Ecare will not recognize that my device is online

Ecare will only correctly diagnose connection issues when a host and port value has been entered into the appropriate fields in Sureview. In order to resolve this issue, ensure that the host and port used in the RTSP url for the device is duplicated in the host and port fields in Sureview.

High CPU usage

If the integration is using a large amount of CPU, please verify the settings on the device currently streaming - our integrations are tested using 2CIF resolution at 4 FPS.

I cannot find the RTSP or HTTP stream URL for my device

If you cannot find the streaming URL for your device after searching the manufacturer's website, the following links may prove useful as it lists the URLs for a number of different devices.

• http://www.wowza.com/forums/content.php?102-Common-IP-Cameras-RTSP-...
• http://www.soleratec.com/support/rtsp/rtsp_listing

My stream URL works via VLC but not in Sureview

Our generic Stream integration uses FFMPEG as the player, in order for the stream to work it must also work via FFMPEG/FFPLAY from your Sureview server. Using VLC will not guarantee compatibility. As such testing must be performed against FFPLAY, the easiest way to install this is using the FFPLAYER program which contains all the required files into a single package.

 

This can be downloaded here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ffplayer-and-converter/

 

Once installed you can run the stream against the player from Command Prompt by CD'ing to the folder with the ffplay.exe file and then writing ffplay.exe STREAMURL