Media Streams; How To Stream H.264; Axis Media Control (Amc) - Axis Q6155-E User Manual

AXIS Q6155-E PTZ Dome Network Camera

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

H.264 can, without compromising image quality, reduce the size of a digital video file by more than 80% compared with the Motion
JPEG format and as much as 50% more than the MPEG-4 standard. This means that much less network bandwidth and storage space
are required for a video file. Or seen another way, much higher video quality can be achieved for a given bit rate.
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
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.

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.
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 screen or Start menu)
• Alternatively, right-click the video image in Internet Explorer and click Settings.
This unicast method (RTP over UDP) is used
for live unicast video, especially when it is
important to have an up-to-date video stream,
even if some frames 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.
This method (RTP over UDP) should be used for live multicast video. The video stream is always
up-to-date, even if some frames 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 10
simultaneous connections.
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 10
simultaneous unicast connections.
13