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yeskeys
yeskeys
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Need streaming help - what hardware/software?

Mar 15, 2012 6:11 AM

Our client is an estuary – like a state park .  We have built them an interactive application in Flash.  It is a compiled executable running on Windows 7.  It has been coded in Actionscript 2.0.

They want a camera fixed on a section of beach.  The feed from this camera must be delivered as a stream to the kiosk hosting the Flash application.  I am the one actually finishing up the Flash programming on this project.

We need to know what hardware to install, and how to configure it to feed the kiosk.  I assume Flash Media Server needs to be integrated, but I am not a video or streaming guy.

The kiosk has an internet connection.  I am pretty sure that Flash can only use FLV or h.264 (or some variety of it).  It’s not my area of expertise, but once I have a URL with the proper stream I can handle the interface, etc.

 

A security company has already installed a camera, but I am getting nowhere trying to make it work.

 

It HAS to be viewed in IE and requires an ActiveX Control:

 

http://owc2.ddns.specoddns.net/

 

Sorry I can't give out the credentials due to confidence issues.

 

I have been told it is connected to a facility, 50 yards away, via a CAT-5 cable.  This facility is not the location of the kiosk.  So the signal needs to get from the camera to the facility then to the kiosk location over the internet, but can’t use a browser to view, only a native Flash video format.  It is ok if the signal is delayed by a few seconds or minutes.

 

After inquiring I received this message from the current security camera hardware engineers (Speco Technologies):

 

“The DVR network stream uses ActiveX control to display video on Internet Explorer. The only other way to stream video is if you have access to our SDK as to understand the definitions of the streaming protocols such as HTTP or RTSP and he will have to integrate our SDK into his application.

 

We want to be selective of who we give out our SDK to and we like to closely monitor and be actively involved in any integration projects.

In order to consider giving out our SDK, I will need to know the following.

  • How much business does this customer do with us?
  • How big is this project that he is looking to integrate? From the email, it looks like it is for a 1 x D8RS.   “

 

 

We are prepared to replace the camera provided we can get a stream that Flash can decode natively.

Please let me know if you have any insights.  I'm at a loss and it's pretty important to the client.

Thanks!

 

Eric Vetterick


1041 Views   5 Replies   Latest reply: JayCharles, Mar 20, 2012 5:00 AM
 
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  • JayCharles
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    1. JayCharles,
    Mar 16, 2012 7:35 AM   in reply to yeskeys
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    Since FMS only supports RTMP ingest, I don't think you'll be able to use FMS for this project. You could do some sloppy hack like running the activeX control in a browser and using a screen capture driver to feed an RTMP capable encoder, but that would be messy and really inefficent.

     

    Wowza Media Server does support pulling in RTP streams from an IP camera, and assuming the IP camera is encoding video with a codec suitable for playback in flash, Wowza will be able to take the stream from the IP camera and deliver it to flash clients. This assumes the camera supports RTP, and assumes the network the camera is on is (or can be) set up to NAT or port forward requests from the internet to the camera.

     

    Since (from the sound of things) you don't need this video feed to be available to the public, it might make sense to run the wowza server at the facility where the IP camera is connected, rather than having it on a server in an external datacenter. That way, you don't have recurring expenses for the server.

     

    While getting this working with Wowza isn't rocket science, it can be a bit complex, and you can expect to spend some time developing a Wowza application (Java) to create administrative services so you can manage the camera (or additional cameras in the future) .

     

    By the way... the speco D8RS appears to be a DVR, and not the model number for the camera. If you can find the camera model number, I'll check to see if it supports RTP as Wowza would require, and whether it supports an appropriate codec for delivery to flash.

     
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  • Graeme Bull
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    2. Graeme Bull,
    Mar 16, 2012 11:07 AM   in reply to JayCharles
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    oohh, Jay. Pimping Wowza on Adobe's forum?

     
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  • JayCharles
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    3. JayCharles,
    Mar 16, 2012 11:21 AM   in reply to Graeme Bull
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    Yeah... shame on me .

     

    Then again, maybe not shame on me. I guess it would be sort of poor form to pimp Wowza here for things FMS is capable of, but in this case, FMS just isn't up to the task.

     
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  • yeskeys
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    4. yeskeys,
    Mar 19, 2012 2:26 PM   in reply to JayCharles
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    Thank you so much for your helpful advice Jay. 

    The camera is a Clinton Electronics CE-VX50.

     

    In a news flash, I think a buddy of mine has a solution that takes the S-Video feed off this camera, spits it into a cheap PC with a video capture card, then uses VLC player to transmit an FLV stream.  All this is a little over my head.

     

    Best,

    Eric

     
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  • JayCharles
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    5. JayCharles,
    Mar 20, 2012 5:00 AM   in reply to yeskeys
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    Looking at the specs, the camera is not IP accessible as it would need to be for use with Wowza. Looking back at the D8RS doc, it does have nework connectivity and H.264 encoding support, but the document I found doesn't specifically say if it supports RTP publishing.

     

    As for using a capture card and VLC, yes, that is an option (assuming the D8RS has a suitable output), but it means that someone at the facility may need to restart VLC from time to time if it crashes or becomes disconnected from the server. You could do the same with Flash Media Live Encoder.

     
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