Stand alone video server

Post by **MindBender** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:14 pm

For everyone who's interested in a stand-alone webcam; These are the video servers I'm using:
http://www.webgateinc.com/wgi_htdocs/en ... _eng&no=12
I have four of them, two are already installed, two are still on the shelf. I'm using them in combination with professional pan/tilt/zoom cameras made by American Dynamics (formarly known as Sensormatic), the SpeedDome Ultra VII:
http://www.americandynamics.net/product ... raVII.aspx
I've been searching for months before I've found something worth while. I've considered Pete's Mobotix camera too because it has an excellent resolution and night vision, while my cameras are bound to the resolution of the PAL (Phase Alternating Line) or NTSC (Never The Same Color [:p]) standard. There's much more to resolution than just the number of pixels. Many cameras boast high resolutions, but have a poor lens and produce a fuzzy image (with many pixels though [:p]). The SpeedDome camera's do very well in this. They have slow shutter modes for good nightvision and the Day/Night version even has a retractable infra-red filter for an even better night vision; I had one and it sees better in the dark than I do, but unfortunately it broke down [:(].

The interesting thing about these webservers is that they have four electrical inputs to trigger any of the following actions: Go to a pre-defined position, take a picture, make a movie, upload it using FTP, send it by email. This is excellent in combination with X10. Unfortunately it lack an electrical output, but it does have motion detection, though it's useless with PTZ cameras.

If anyone is interested, feel free to contact me and I'll give you an URL and password for a test drive. Support is typically Korean; Not very thourough and many communication problems, but eventually they'll get it to work. On of their engineers even logged into my camera to fix the firmware.

Even though these servers run Linux, they do violate the GPL: I have requested the source but they refused to give it to me [:(!].

Post by **Bwired** » Sun May 14, 2006 11:13 pm

Hi Henk,
Its about time you open your Domotica to the world [;)]
I had the privilige to look at your cam and the quality is great and zooming posibilties are very good!

For the forum information I use the AXIS 241Q http://www.axis.com/products/cam_241/index.htm standalone Videoserver which has four PAL/NTCS inputs and motion detection for each channel. The best option on the AXIS 241q howeever is the great API interface, the videoserver can be totally controlled by my Home automation system. If an event uccors like somebody is ringing the doorbell, I can easely take a picture or record a video off every channel. At the moment I have four camera's attacted to the AXIS 241Q
<ul><li>Sony EVI-D100 PTZ CCD Visca Camera 10 x optical zoom</li>
<li>Sony EVI-D30 PTZ CCD Visca Camera 12x optical zoom</li>
<li>Sony FCB-IX47P CCD Visca Camera 18x zoom </li>
<li>Sunkwang SK-D105 Dome camera with a 1/3 Sony CCD</li>
</ul>My Day and Night security camera is Mobotix MD10-Night http://www.mobotix.com/eng/products/m10 ... era_series This camera has its own webserver, motion detecting, a dual lens and also a complete API interface.

Pieter Knuvers
www.bwired.nl Online House in the netherlands. Domotica, Home Automation.

Post by **bktabinga** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 8:39 am

I love that webcam page. So clean and organized. Question, if I were to buy that same cam server (the Axis), would I be able to control it with Homeseer or maybe some other front end GUI like MainLobby which has support for webcams, but I think only by a web interface.

Would programming be required for Homeseer interaction with any other kind of videoserver? Reason I ask, I'm not much of a programmer.

Do you know any webcam/video servers that Homeseer would work right out of the box with?

Thanks, of all the HA sites, yours is by far the most impressive!

Post by **Bwired** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:48 pm

Hi
The Axis 241q Videoserver comes with a built in webserver. If you open this webserver You see all the attached camera's in one shot.[img]images/icon_paperclip.gif[/img] axis241screen.gif Also offers this webserver some examples on how to implement the live streams in your own software. I think its easy to make a new menu in a homeseer webpage where you can view the camera's attached to the AXIS 241Q Camera server.

This javascript in your Html page and you have live video
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
// Set the BaseURL to the URL of your camera
var BaseURL = "http://ipadres of your server!";
// DisplayWidth & DisplayHeight specifies the displayed width & height of the image.
// You may change these numbers, the effect will be a stretched or a shrunk image
var DisplayWidth = "352";
var DisplayHeight = "288";
// This is the path to the image generating file inside the camera
lf var File = "axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cgi?resolution=CIF&camera=4";
// No changes required below this point
var output = "";
output = '<APPLET ARCHIVE=AxisCamApplet.zip CODEBASE="';
output += BaseURL;
output += 'java/"';
output += ' CODE=AxisCamApplet.class HEIGHT=';
output += DisplayHeight;
output += ' WIDTH=';
output += DisplayWidth;
output += '>';
output += '<PARAM NAME="StreamLocation" VALUE="/';
output += File;
output += '&showlength=1">';
output += '</APPLET>'
document.write(output);
</SCRIPT>

This Camera server also has a great API interface which can be called upon from within different program languages like VB or C+.

Pieter Knuvers
www.bwired.nl Online House in the netherlands. Domotica, Home Automation.

Post by **bktabinga** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 7:17 am

Thanks...great answer...I'll try it and see how to procure one of these Axis components. Hopefully its not priced for professional commercial grade surveillance and can be scaled for home user budgets.

Post by **MindBender** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:18 am

You can check out one of my WebEyes here:
http://delien.eu:81
(user: demo pass: demo)
After logging in, you will be directed to the low-performance webpage. Please don't press the focus buttons, for they will switch the camera to manual focus and it will require a power cycle to engage auto-focus again. I should remove these buttons, but I haven't found the time yet.

By selecting 'To Home' in the top bar, you will be directed to the high performance webpage where you can control the camera with a slide pad, offering vector control using multiple movement velocities. Using this method, it's easier to follow moving objects, but you need a high speed connection due to the lag.

I've had an Axis 241Q too, but I've sold it to a friend. The user-friendlyness is superior to that of the WebEye. Both come with tools to integrate them into an existing webpage, but Axis does a better job here. The axis has a electrical output, where the WebEye only has inputs. But the four inputs of the Axis aren't four real inputs: It's just one input with a multiplexer in front of it. So if you want to see more than 1 camera, you won't have full frame rate anymore, which is a big disadvantage for me. I've also found the SpeedDome control support less than ideal, so now I'm using four WebEye servers.

WebGate Inc. offers a (free) software package that allows you to record video streams from the camera's, centralize controls and a lot of other nice-to-haves, but I didn't try it yet. I expect Axis to offer such a package as well. My friend still hasn't uses his (my) Axis 241Q, so if you're interested I could ask him if he's willing to sell it. It's still brand-spanking-new in the box; I've only used it for a test with one of my domes.

Post by **Richard** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 12:00 pm

Hi MindBender,

I just take a look at the http://delien.eu:81 url but i have some problems with logging in.
I've received a message that the "authentication has failed".

Is this correct? or did i do something wrong?

PS. @BWired, this is a really great site, with lots of information and openness. Keep up the good work.

WR,

RLD

Post by **MindBender** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:58 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Richard
I just take a look at the http://delien.eu:81 url but i have some problems with logging in.
I've received a message that the "authentication has failed".

Is this correct? or did i do something wrong?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
You didn't do anything wrong: The camera is only open on request. I opened it for bktabinga, got no response for two weeks, so I closed it again.

Post by **Richard** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:21 pm

MindBender,

Thanks for the reply, i just thought is was an open public connection so i was a little bit currious

RLD

Post by **Snelvuur** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 12:27 pm

To revive an old topic.. although you guys both use a camera server, which can support say up to 4 camera's (non-ip) how do you let users take control of the camera (PTZ) if you didn't build your own piece of software like pieter. Since normally you just have 1 webcam hooked up to say usb port with webcamxp.. how would that go with the axis in between. The api allows streams like above example, but how to do for example presets?

Post by **Willem4ever** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:19 pm

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by snelvuur
 To revive an old topic.. although you guys both use a camera server, which can support say up to 4 camera's (non-ip) how do you let users take control of the camera (PTZ) if you didn't build your own piece of software like pieter. Since normally you just have 1 webcam hooked up to say usb port with webcamxp.. how would that go with the axis in between. The api allows streams like above example, but how to do for example presets?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

You use the RS485 port on the Axis box as the control channel to the (4) cameras. You use simple commands like http://192.168.0.125/axis-cgi/com/ptz.c ... ove=30,-30 to pan/tilt/zoom the camera. In the Axis box you can also define presets. Other advanced stuff like PTZ control Queue, number of user in the queue, control queue polltime it is all there. PTZ drivers for many populair cameras can be downloaded from the Axis website. It is an expensive device, but you get something for your money.

Post by **Snelvuur** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:37 pm

Well that makes a bit more sence, but how does it communicate to the ptz camera? i've seen only coax connections to it. Does it send data over the coax via a special way thats supported by the axis camera server?

I can see here http://www.axis.com/techsup/cam_servers/ptz/index.htm so i assume i have to buy then at least one of those ptz camera's right?

And on here you see the rs485 port http://www.axis.com/techsup/cam_servers ... .htm#24xqs , but does that mean that the utp port (meaning the internal webserver) is not adequate enough, thus you need to use a seperate program for it? (and if so, is that windows only?)

Reading some documents online now though..

Post by **TANE** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:13 pm

is someone familiar with the video server from Aviosys?

http://www.videofrank.nl/catalog/produc ... cts_id=378

Post by **Snelvuur** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:48 pm

willem, from what i can see the rs485 and rs232 can be used then right? This also means you can only have 2 PTZ camera's if you have a 241q (4 camera support) The other ones are then i.e. static cams.

Post by **Digit** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:00 pm

Hi,

I read something about multiple Sony EVI D30/D31's being daisy-chained to a single port. But i don't know if that is common or just a Sony 'feature'. I think it's best if the real experts elaborate on this...

Regards,
Robert.