Improve video streams from problematic cameras

Last modified: Thursday September 29, 2022.

Occasionally, some third-party cameras might not provide the required streams for Alta Video. This most likely happens because:

Alta Video is configured to use passive mode to communicate with the camera, and therefore requires streams to be manually configured on the camera interface.
Some third-party cameras cannot support the required resolutions or Group of Pictures (GOP) lengths needed by the Alta Video analytics or storage.
The third-party camera streams do not provide the expected results, compared with the advertised stream capabilities.

Where Alta Video is configured to use a passive media configuration, change the media configuration to active unless the camera is connected to more than one video management system, for example, whilst running in a Proof of Concept (PoC) program.

If third-party cameras cannot provide the resolutions or GOP lengths required, or if the stream capabilities advertised by the camera do not provide the expected results, then manually configuring the camera streams for that device might provide a better experience.

When enabling Manual stream mode, Alta Video cannot guarantee the stream resolution and framerate will be maintained as part of the configuration profile for that camera. However, the recording profile and the retention settings are maintained.

Task — Check if the media configuration is set to Active

Choose Open a tool > Devices.
Select the camera of interest.
Use the search to find the camera in large lists of devices.
Click Edit settings.
Click Connection.
See if Media configuration is set to Alta Aware (Active) or Camera (Passive).
Camera (Passive) should only be used if a camera is connected to multiple video management systems, for example, whilst evaluating Alta Video as part of a Proof of Concept.

Task — Manually configure camera streams

Alta Video automatically selects the optimum stream settings for Avigilon Ava cameras — you cannot manually specify the stream settings for any model of Avigilon Ava camera.

Select the camera of interest.
Use the search to find the camera in large lists of devices.
Click Edit settings.
Select Stream settings.
Select Stream settings.
Make note of the number of supported streams and the resolutions advertised by your camera as being supported, as well as the stream information that Alta Video is dynamically requesting.
Enable Manual stream mode by moving the toggle to the right.
When you enable Manual stream mode, by default, Alta Video displays 3 streams for you to configure. You can manually add or delete streams to match the requirements of your specific camera.
Depending on the current number of active streams and the maximum available streams from the camera, configure the stream.
- For cameras that support three (or more) streams:
- For cameras that support two streams:
- For cameras that support only one stream:
  Getting suitable resolutions and GOP information for the Store, Analytics, and UI as required by Alta Video is a compromise from a single stream camera.
  Configure the stream for Store, Analytics, and UI to have a resolution of around 1920x1080, with a frame rate of 30 fps and GOP of 15. This provides a balance between the analytics requirements, having sufficient resolution of stored video and an acceptable level of performance from the Alta Video user interface.
  As third-party cameras with single streams place greater processing loads on your client systems in order to display the higher resolution and framerate stream, using many one-stream cameras might negatively impact the overall number of cameras you can connect to Alta Video.
Click Close.

Task — View the Analytics stream

Select the camera of interest.
Use the search to find the camera in large lists of devices.
From the Settings area, click Edit settings.
The Settings dialog opens.
Select Stream settings.
Select View analytics stream.
The Analytics stream window opens, showing the video stream currently being used for the analytics.
Click Done.