Local RTSP streams

Last modified: Thursday October 26, 2023.

You can configure the Alta Video RTSP server for situations where you want to view Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) streams from cameras connected to your Alta Video or Alta Video deployments using an external RTSP media player .

Alta Video enables you to pull live streams or historical video from the devices connected to your deployment, and to play them using either RTSP or RTSPS (Real Time Streaming Protocol over TLS/SSL) clients.

By default, the firewall rules of your Alta Video deployment are configured to block RTSP streams.

The RTSP functionality is only available over the local network, and not via the cloud gateway.

To view RTSPS streams from the cloud, see: Using Cloud RTSP from Alta Video.

You can choose which cameras can be streamed by each RTSP user using the permission system to grant access to individual sites or device groups.

To configure your Alta Video deployment to allow RTSP streams, and to view those streams from external systems:

  1. Allow RTSP traffic — configure the Alta Video firewall rules to allow RTSP traffic on your chosen network interface.
    See: Allow RTSP traffic from your Ava Cloud Connectors, and Allow RTSP traffic for your non-cloud Alta Video deployment

    For Avigilon Ava cloud-native cameras, the task to gather the RTSP stream information includes the steps needed to allow RTSP traffic from the camera.

    See Assemble the RTSP stream information.

  2. Create RTSP stream users — create users and define the cameras to be used to allow external systems to access live or historic RTSP video streams.
    See: Create RTSP stream users
  3. Assemble the stream information — copy the required RTSP stream information and paste it to a text editor, and add any optional parameters.
    See: Assemble the RTSP stream information
  4. Request the camera stream from your preferred RTSP client — From your RTSP media player, request the stream from your selected camera using configuration and information gathered.
    See: Request the camera stream from your preferred RTSP client

    When requesting an RTSP stream, the stream uses the rotation settings from the camera. This means that if you have configured any rotation settings in Alta Video, these settings are ignored by the RTSP stream.