Assemble the RTSP stream information

Last modified: Thursday October 05, 2023.

To enable the external service to request the RTSP information, the service needs to be provided with certain information about the camera from which the video is to be streamed, and the authorized user account to be used.

Prerequisites

• To capture the RTSP stream information from your Cloud Connectors, make sure you have enabled RTSP and/or RTSPS communications in the Incoming Firewall area of your relevant network interface. See Allow RTSP traffic from your Ava Cloud Connectors and Allow RTSP traffic for your non-cloud Alta Video deployment.

Task - Copy the RTSP information

The process to copy the RTSP information varies depending on whether you want to view the streams from a camera connected to an Alta Cloud Connector, or from an Avigilon Ava cloud-native camera. Also, the process is different if you want to view a live stream, or if you want to view historic (playback) footage.

Follow the steps in the relevant sub-task:

Task — Open the Devices tool

1. Choose Open a tool > Devices.

Task — Create the URL to live stream from a Cloud Connector device

1. Select the camera of interest.
2. Click Edit settings.
3. Click Stream settings.
4. Click Copy RTSP information.
5. Click Done.
6. Open a text editor on your computer, and paste the copied stream information into it.
   The text string is in the format: rtsp://<cloud connector>/deviceStreams?deviceId=<deviceId>&source=<source>&nodeId=<nodeId>
7. Make any optional changes to this text string. For example:
   • To use RTSP over TLS/SSL, change rtsp:// to rtsps://

     For an RTSP over TLS/SSL connection, use

     rtsps://<cloud connector>/deviceStreams?deviceId=<deviceId>&source=<source>&nodeId=<nodeId>

     RTSPS is not supported by all RTSP clients; ensure your preferred client accepts RTSPS streams before making this change.

   • To embed the username and password into the RTSP URI, edit the string to include <username>:<password>@ immediately before the Cloud Connector information.

     Embed the username and password into the RTSP URI as follows:

     rtsp://<username>:<password>@<cloud connector>/deviceStreams?deviceId=<deviceId>&source=<source>&nodeId=<nodeId>

     For security reasons, you might prefer to not embed the user credentials in the string, and to rely on the credentials dialog within your chosen RTSP client.

   • Add width and height parameters to the end of the URI to configure the preferred dimensions for the streamed video feed (used on Live video streams only).

     To specify the width and height of the stream as 720 x 360 pixels, use:

     rtsp://<cloud connector>/deviceStreams?deviceId=<deviceId>&width=720&height=360

     You can optionally enter secondary width and height parameters to be used when the video is Uninteresting.

     To specify the width and height of the stream for Interesting video as 1920 x 1080, and for Uninteresting as 720 x 360 pixels, use:

     rtsp://<cloud connector>/deviceStreams?deviceId=<deviceId>&width=1920&height=1080&secondary_width=720&secondary_height=360

     If the height and width parameters for Interesting video are not included in the URI, the stream uses the maximum resolution available.

     If the secondary_height and secondary_width parameters are equal to 0, or are not included in the URI, any Uninteresting video is displayed at the same settings as the Interesting video.

     Some RTSP players might not be able to handle changing resolutions in the RTSP stream.

   • Specify the framerate to use in the live stream.

     To specify the framerate as 15 frames per second, use:

     rtsp://<cloud connector>/deviceStreams?deviceId=<deviceId>&fps=15

   • Specify the video source to view from a multi-source camera.

     To specify source 2 to be streamed via RTSP from a multi-source camera, use:

     rtsp://<cloud connector>/deviceStreams?deviceId=<deviceId>&source=2&nodeId=<nodeId>

8. Follow the steps in Request the camera stream from your preferred RTSP client

Task — Copy the URL to stream historical video from a Cloud Connector device

1. From Devices, select the camera of interest.
   The right-hand information pane is shown.
2. Click Edit settings.
3. Click Stream settings.
4. Click Copy RTSP information.
5. Click Done.
6. Open a text editor on your computer, and paste the copied stream information into it.
   The text string is in the format: rtsp://<cloud connector>/deviceStreams?deviceId=<deviceId>&source=<source>&nodeId=<nodeId>
7. Edit the text string to specify devicePlayback in place of deviceStreams and to add the start time for the historic video of interest, by adding &startTimestamp=<time-RFC3339> to the end of the URI.

   If your local time is ahead of UTC, you need to subtract the UTC offset; if your local time is behind UTC, you need to add the UTC offset.

   So, to view historic video from 08:20 AM on Wednesday January 06, 2021 BST (UTC + 1 hour), format the URI:

   rtsp://<cloud connector>/devicePlayback?deviceId=<deviceId>&source=<source>&nodeId=<nodeId>&startTimestamp=2021-01-06T07:20:00.00Z

   The &startTimestamp= information needs to be defined using UTC time. This means that you need to add or subtract your current UTC offset to convert from your local time to UTC time.

   To view the current UTC time, see https://www.utctime.net/.

8. Make any optional changes to this text string. For example:
   • To use RTSP over TLS/SSL, change rtsp:// to rtsps://

     For an RTSP over TLS/SSL connection, use

     rtsps://<cloud connector>/devicePlayback?deviceId=<deviceId>&source=<source>&nodeId=<nodeId>&startTimestamp=<time-RFC3339>

     RTSPS is not supported by all RTSP clients; ensure your preferred client accepts RTSPS streams before making this change.

   • To embed the username and password into the RTSP URI, edit the string to include <username>:<password>@ immediately before the Cloud Connector information.

     Embed the username and password into the RTSP URI as follows:

     rtsp://<username>:<password>@<cloud connector>/devicePlayback?deviceId=<deviceId>&source=<source>&nodeId=<nodeId>&startTimestamp=<time-RFC3339>

     For security reasons, you might prefer to not embed the user credentials in the string, and to rely on the credentials dialog within your chosen RTSP client.

   • To specify an end time for the playback to finish at, use:

     Specify the time that teh playback finishes:

     rtsps://<cloud connector>/devicePlayback?deviceId=<deviceId>&source=<source>&nodeId=<nodeId>&startTimestamp=<time-RFC3339>&endTimestamp=<time-RFC3339>

     The &endTimestamp= information needs to be defined using UTC time. This means that you need to add or subtract your current UTC offset to convert from your local time to UTC time.

     To view the current UTC time, see https://www.utctime.net/.

   • To specify that the playback should be from the cloud backup, use:

     For an RTSP over TLS/SSL connection, use

     rtsps://<cloud connector>/devicePlayback?deviceId=<deviceId>&source=<source>&nodeId=<nodeId>&startTimestamp=<time-RFC3339>&use_backup

9. Follow the steps in Request the camera stream from your preferred RTSP client

Task — Copy the URL to live stream from an Avigilon Ava cloud-native camera

1. From Devices, select the Avigilon Ava cloud-native camera of interest.
   The right-hand information pane is shown.
2. Click Edit settings.
3. Click Stream settings.
4. Enable RTSP Streaming.
5. Click Copy RTSP information.
6. Click Done.
7. Open a text editor on your computer, and paste the copied stream information into it.
   The text string is in the format: rtsp://<ava cloud camera>/deviceStreams.
8. Make any optional changes to this text string. For example:
   • To use RTSP over TLS/SSL, change rtsp:// to rtsps://.

     For an RTSP over TLS/SSL connection, use

     rtsps://<ava cloud camera>/deviceStreams

     RTSPS is not supported by all RTSP clients; ensure your preferred client accepts RTSPS streams before making this change.

   • To embed the username and password into the RTSP URI, edit the string to include <username>:<password>@ immediately before the Cloud Connector information.

     Embed the username and password into the RTSP URI as follows:

     rtsp://<username>:<password>@<ava cloud camera>/deviceStreams

     For security reasons, you might prefer to not embed the user credentials in the string, and to rely on the credentials dialog within your chosen RTSP client.

   • Add width and height parameters to the end of the URI to configure the preferred dimensions for the streamed video feed (used on Live video streams only).

     To specify the width and height of the stream as 720 x 360 pixels, use:

     rtsp://<ava cloud camera>/deviceStreams?width=720&height=360

     You can optionally enter secondary width and height parameters to be used when the video is Uninteresting. This

     To specify the width and height of the stream for Interesting video as 1920 x 1080, and for Uninteresting as 720 x 360 pixels, use:

     rtsp://<ava cloud camera>/deviceStreams?width=1920&height=1080&secondary_width=720&secondary_height=360

     If the height and width parameters for Interesting video are not included in the URI, the stream uses the maximum resolution available.

     If the secondary_height and secondary_width parameters are equal to 0, or are not included in the URI, any Uninteresting video is displayed at the same settings as the Interesting video.

     Some RTSP players might not be able to handle changing resolutions in the RTSP stream.

9. Follow the steps in Request the camera stream from your preferred RTSP client