USER MANUAL

AXIS M3007–P

Media Streams

Media Streams

The Axis product provides several video stream formats. Your requirements and the properties of your network will determine the type you use.

The Live View page in the product provides access to H.264 and Motion JPEG video streams, and to the list of available stream profiles.

Other applications and clients can access video streams directly, without going via the Live View page.

How to Stream H.264

The video compression standard H.264 makes good use of bandwidth, and can provide high quality video streams at less than 1 Mbit/s.

Deciding which combination of protocols and methods to use depends on your viewing requirements, and on the properties of your network. The available options in AXIS Media Control are:

Unicast RTP

RTP over RTSP

RTP over RTSP over HTTP

Multicast RTP

This unicast method (RTP over UDP) is used for live unicast video, especially when it is important to always have an up-to-date video stream, even if some images are dropped.

This unicast method (RTP tunneled over RTSP) is useful as it is relatively simple to configure firewalls to allow RTSP traffic.

This unicast method can be used to traverse firewalls. Firewalls are commonly configured to allow the HTTP protocol, thus allowing RTP to be tunneled.

Unicasting is used for video-on-demand transmission so that there is no video traffic on the network until a client connects and requests the stream.

Note that there are a maximum of 20 simultaneous unicast connections.

This method (RTP over UDP) should be used for live multicast video. The video stream is always up-to-date, even if some images are dropped.

Multicasting provides the most efficient usage of bandwidth when there are large numbers of clients viewing simultaneously. A multicast cannot however, pass a network router unless the router is configured to allow this. It is not possible to multicast over the Internet, for example.

Note also that all multicast viewers count as one unicast viewer in the maximum total of 20 simultaneous connections.

AXIS Media Control negotiates with the Axis product to determine the transport protocol to use. The order of priority, listed in the

AMC Control Panel, can be changed and the options disabled, to suit specific requirements.

Note

H.264 is licensed technology. The Axis product includes one H.264 viewing client license. Installing additional unlicensed copies of the client is prohibited. To purchase additional licenses, contact your Axis reseller.

MJPEG

This format uses standard JPEG still images for the video stream. These images are then displayed and updated at a rate sufficient to create a stream that shows constantly updated motion.

The Motion JPEG stream uses considerable amounts of bandwidth, but provides excellent image quality and access to every image contained in the stream. The recommended method of accessing Motion JPEG live video from the Axis product is to use the AXIS

Media Control in Internet Explorer in Windows.

AXIS Media Control (AMC)

AXIS Media Control (AMC) in Internet Explorer in Windows is the recommended method of accessing live video from the Axis product.

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AXIS M3007–P

Media Streams

The AMC Control Panel can be used to configure various video settings. Please see the AXIS Media Control User’s Manual for more information.

The AMC Control Panel is automatically installed on first use, after which it can be configured. Open the AMC Control Panel from:

• Windows Control Panel (from the Start menu)

• Alternatively, right-click the video image in Internet Explorer and click Settings.

Alternative Methods of Accessing the Video Stream

You can also access video and images from the Axis product in the following ways:

• Motion JPEG server push (if supported by the client, Firefox, for example). This option maintains an open HTTP connection to the browser and sends data as and when required, for as long as required.

• Still JPEG images in a browser. Enter the path http://<ip>/axis-cgi/jpg/image.cgi

• Windows Media Player. This requires AXIS Media Control and the H.264 decoder to be installed. The following paths can be used:

Unicast via RTP: axrtpu://<ip>/axis-media/media.amp

Unicast via RTSP: axrtsp://<ip>/axis-media/media.amp

Unicast via RTSP, tunneled via HTTP: axrtsphttp://<ip>/axis-media/media.amp

Multicast: axrtpm://<ip>/axis-media/media.amp

•

QuickTime

TM

. The following paths can be used:

rtsp://<ip>/axis-media/media.amp

rtsp://<ip>/axis-media/media.3gp

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AXIS M3007–P

Media Streams

Note

• <ip>= IP addess

• The Axis product supports QuickTime 6.5.1 and later.

• QuickTime adds latency to the video stream.

• It may be possible to use other players to view the H.264 stream using the paths above, although Axis does not guarantee this.

Accessing Audio Streams

The Live View page provides access to audio through AXIS Media Control; in addition audio can be accessed in the following ways:

• VAPIX® Application Programming Interface (API) For more information, visit www.axis.com/developer

• Windows Media Player supports simplex audio. The following paths can be used:

Unicast via RTP: axrtpu://<ip>/axis-media/media.amp

Unicast via RTSP: axrtsp://<ip>/axis-media/media.amp

Unicast via RTSP, tunneled via HTTP: axrtsphttp://<ip>/axis-media/media.amp

Multicast: axrtpm://<ip>/axis-media/media.amp

•

QuickTime

TM

supports G.711 and AAC audio encoding. The following paths can be used:

rtsp://<ip>/axis-media/media.amp

rtsp://<ip>/axis-media/media.3gp

• The Java applet supports simplex audio with G.711 encoding.

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