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Z3 Technology and ZEUS are registered trademarks of Z3 Technology, LLC. This document contains proprietary information of Z3 Technology, LLC ("Z3"). This document may not be used, reproduced, disclosed, or disseminated to anyone without the prior written approval of an authorized representative of Z3. Z3 reserves the right to change this product at any time and without notice.
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ZCube-21 User Guide DOC-USR-0253-01 REVISION HISTORY Version Date Change Note Author 05/10/2021 Initial document ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
Record Snapshot ....................35 ONVIF PROFILE S AND T ..................36 PERFORMING OTHER OPERATIONS WITH THE ZCube-21 ............37 Save Current Settings ................... 37 Advanced Settings Mode ..................38 Overlay Timestamp ....................39 Set a Static IP Address ..................40 Upgrade Firmware ....................
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APPENDIX C: Support and Troubleshooting ................66 Appendix C: Support ..................... 66 Appendix C: Troubleshooting ................... 66 Appendix C: Warranty ....................67 ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
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ZCube-21 User Guide DOC-USR-0253-01 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 ZCube-21 Board Stack Dimensions ................7 Figure 2 ZCube-21 Package Contents ..................9 Figure 3 ZCube-21 Interfaces ..................... 10 Figure 4 CH1 Tab Configuration – UDP ................... 12 Figure 5 VLC Open Network Stream Screen for UDP ..............13 Figure 6 Example of Video Streaming to VLC (UDP) ..............
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Figure 48 Locating Your Computer’s IP Address ................ 63 Figure 49 Wowza Performance Settings ................. 64 Figure 50 Wowza Security Settings ..................65 ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
1.0 GENERAL DESCRIPTION The ZCube-21 is a H.265/HEVC, H.264 and MJPEG video encoder designed for easy and portable use. It is capable of accepting 4K video at 30 frames per second and producing IP streams that can be sent on a standard Ethernet cable.
▪ ONVIF Profile S & T compliant Compatible with the ZEUS DMD-4K decoder (also available from Z3 Technology) ▪ HTTP-based configuration software for user-friendly configuration, control and update ▪ RS-232 serial port for technical configuration and control ▪...
ZCube-21 User Guide DOC-USR-0253-01 The ZCube-21 supports simultaneous output of up to three streams encoded at different resolutions, frame rates and bit rates. Supported stream resolutions are: 2160p (8MP), 1440p (4MP), 1080p (2MP), 1280x1024, 720p (1MP), 480p, 576p, 1024x576, 800x600, 704x576, 640x480, 640x360, 420x380, 352x576, 352x288, 352x240, 320x240, and 320x180 The maximum performance for two channels is one 2160p30 plus one 720p30 stream.
Terminals RS232-TX and RS232-RX provide access to the RS232 port. *RS422 is not currently supported. For advanced debugging purposes only. Not needed by typical users. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
This section gives step-by-step instructions on setting the ZCube-21 to output and stream video using each of the output format options: UDP, RTP, RTSP and RTMP . In addition to the ZCube-21, a Windows PC with the VLC media player downloaded is required.
(5) Press Enter or click Play. You will see your camera’s video streaming to VLC. Figure 6 Example of Video Streaming to VLC (UDP) ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
Run VLC to View RTP Stream An SDP file is needed to view an RTP stream from the ZCube-21 in the VLC media player. If you have not yet downloaded these files to your computer, you can find them at Z3Cam-4K.Z3technology.com.
(4) Enter “rtsp:// IP_Address/z3-#.sdp” for the network URL. a. IP_Address will be the IP address of your ZCube-21. If your camera is set to DHCP (This is the default setting when it is first received.), you can find this in ZFinder or the web browser with your user interface open.
If using a multi switch/router network, please note that a failure can be caused by the TTL needing to be longer, resulting in the packets being discarded before reaching the ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
RTSP is only supported with VLC version 2.1.5 or later. When encoding via RTSP, any time the encoding session is stopped and restarted, you will need to reopen VLC in order to view the stream. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
ZCube-21 User Guide DOC-USR-0253-01 5.4 Stream RTMP When in H.264 mode, the ZCube-21 supports RTMP streaming accepted by a variety of CDN’s (Content Delivery Networks) and social media platforms for wide content distribution and live streaming. 5.4.1 RTMP Camera Streaming to the Wowza Streaming Engine™...
PC on your network (for details on configuring Wowza, please see “APPENDIX B: Configuring the Wowza Server for RTMP”). ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
(1) Use IP address of Wowza server + “:8088” (2) Select “Applications” (4) Select “Test Players” (3) Select “live” Figure 15 Navigating to the Wowza Test Player ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
DOC-USR-0253-01 (14) The Test Players popup screen will appear. Select the Adobe RTMP tab. (15) Enter the Stream name you listed as the Dest Address in the ZCube-21 user interface. For this example, enter hevc4k. (16) Click Start. You will see your camera’s video streaming to the Wowza server.
(9) It is recommended to set GOP Size to: a. 120 Frames – 240 Frames for 60 fps content. b. 60 Frames – 120 Frames for 30 fps content. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
Select the Live Video link at the top of the Create Post dialog box near the top of the page. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
URL and Stream Key for your session displayed on the left. Figure 20 Facebook Live Streaming Dialog (4) Return to the ZCube-21 web interface and select the “Ch1” tab. Click “Stop.” Ensure the “Output Format” is set to “RTMPS.” (5) Enter the Server URL minus the protocol header and stream Key as a continuous string in the Dest Address field.
(7) Return to the Facebook Live Video Setting dialog box to ensure your stream is previewing properly. Add a message to the video stream, if desired, and click Go Live at the bottom. Your Stream is now active! ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
DOC-USR-0253-01 5.5 Stream Multiple Resolutions The ZCube-21 supports simultaneous encode into up to three different resolutions, bit rates and output formats. Each output stream can be set using a separate channel tab. If the CH2 tab is not present, you can create a second channel by clicking on the tab.
ZCube-21 User Guide DOC-USR-0253-01 5.6 Record to USB The ZCube-21 supports writing encoded video to a storage device connected to the USB port in .ts file format. Connect Storage to USB 3.1 Port Figure 26 USB Connection (1) Connect a USB flash drive or other USB storage device to USB on the back of the encoder.
The PC should be at least a quadcore or 8-core PC. If the PC is too slow, frame skips and possibly video artifacts will be observed upon playback. VLC should be version 2.1.3 or newer. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
DOC-USR-0253-01 5.8 HDMI Pass-Through The ZCube-21 allows for the currently encoded content to be passed through to the HDMI output while the unit is streaming. This allows the camera content to be viewed on a TV or other display monitor.
5.9 Record Snapshot ZCube-21 supports taking a snapshot while streaming video. By default, the snapshot will be at the native ZCube-21 camera resolution (3840x2160) with an option to change the size of image. There are two ways to record a snapshot: (1) Using Camera Tab (see section 7.2)
(2) Use ONVIF device discovery to find the ZCube-21 on the network. Note: For manual discovery of ONVIF, use the ZCube-21 IP address and the port 8080 as shown in the following URL example: http://192.168.0.120:8080/onvif/device_service. (3) Enter your valid user ID and password.
7.0 PERFORMING OTHER OPERATIONS WITH THE ZCube-21 7.1 Save Current Settings If you have a specific configuration you’d like to preserve, you can save it so that when the ZCube-21 is powered off and back on, it automatically boots to those settings.
7.3 Overlay Timestamp This feature is currently not supported. The ZCube-21 supports the overlay of a system timestamp on the video stream. This is done via the Text Overlay feature on the encoder tab. (1) Click on the CH1 tab and stop the stream with the Stop button, if necessary.
Figure 37 CH1 Tab Overlay Timestamp 7.4 Set a Static IP Address The ZCube-21 supports DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). This is enabled by default, allowing the encoder to dynamically receive an IP address at startup. The IP address that is assigned can be seen through using ZFinder.
(1) Run the ZFinder PC Utility on your Windows PC. The ZFinder window appears. ZFinder does a scan of the network and lists the location of all Z3 systems connected to the network. The ZCube-21 appears with your manually entered IP address.
ZCube-21 User Guide DOC-USR-0253-01 7.5 Upgrade Firmware Firmware upgrades for the ZCube-21 are available for download on your Z3 account. (1) In the System Setup Tab, click the Update device firmware button. Click here Figure 39 Updating Device Firmware Note: If this button is not selectable, it is because the encoder is running.
ZCube-21 User Guide DOC-USR-0253-01 7.6 Factory Reset The ZCube-21 can be reset to its original factory settings using the pinhole reset on the lower right of the rear interface panel of the unit. Figure 41 Pinhole Reset (1) Allow the encoder to boot completely.
VLC guidelines for decoding at https://wiki.videolan.org/GPU_decoding VLC is an open source media player from the VideoLAN organization that can be downloaded for free online. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
(3) Verify the HEVC checkbox is checked under Codecs for HW Decoding. (4) Enable the Nvidia video card under Hardware Decoder to use. (5) Select Apply. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
(4) In the Advanced Preferences window that appears, navigate to Video codecs on the left-hand column and select FFmpeg. (5) Select Disable in the Hardware decoding dropdown menu. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
8.2 ZEUS DMD-4K Decoder When in H.265 mode, the ZCube-21 is compatible with the ZEUS DMD-4K, also manufactured by Z3 Technology. Please contact Z3 for more information. Figure 45 ZEUS DMD-4K H.265 Decoder ZEUS is a registered trademark of Z3 Technology, LLC.
Specifies the network hostname for the device. MTU* 1500 Specifies the Network Maximum Transfer Units. Typically needs to be set lower if using a VPN. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
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Button interface. New password Text box to enter new password. Password again Text box to re-enter new password. Must match previous field. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
Define a new configuration file. Up to nine configurations can be created. rename Rename a configuration file. delete Delete a configuration file. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
600 for 60 frames per second content). Input Status Input HDMI1 refers to the captured content from the camera lens Resolution Capture resolution for video ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
RS-485 interface for each PTZ device; both TCP Ports are required to be defined as the same Serial Port defined in the TermTab section above for ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
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Camera 1 (VISCA) Sets the function of the serial port. User Console RS485(PTZ) TCP Port TCP port used for remote terminal server. PTZ Configuration ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
[Note 1] Video Codec H265(HEVC) Selects the codec used for compression of the output video stream. H264(AVC) ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
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Audio Setup (if Audio Enable is set to True) Codec ARM AACLC Codec to be used for audio encode. ARM AACLC MPEG2 ARM AACHE ARM AACHE V2 ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
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If an issue is encountered with a specific decoder, try setting this value to the same value as the video delay. Output Setup ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
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Interval assigned to PCR in the TS stream in (UDP/TSRTP/TSFILE milliseconds. Only) PMT PID* 0 – 8191 (31) PID assigned to PMT in the TS stream. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
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Enables display text over video. False Overlay Text ENCDEV Textbox for entering display text. Overlay Location Top Left Sets screen location of display text. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
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640x480, 640x360, 420x380, 352x576, 352x288, 352x240, 320x240, and 320x180 Follow input “Follow input” = Generate encoder resolution based on capture resolution detected ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
9.6 The CH2 & CH3 Tabs (Channels 2 & 3) The ZCube-21 supports simultaneous encode into multiple different resolutions and bit rates. Each output stream can be set using a separate Channel tab. See the CH1 Tab section for detailed descriptions of available settings on the CH2 and CH3 tab.
Gateway Open Device Opens the HTTP-based graphical user interface (GUI) Flash LEDs Causes status LED on the selected ZCube-21 to flash red approximately 30 times. This is helpful when physically locating one of multiple devices on the same network. Update...
Local Area Connection. The IP address will display as 169.254.x.x where x is any one-to- three-digit number. Figure 48 Locating Your Computer’s IP Address ______________________________________________________________________________________ Z3 Technology, LLC ♦ 100 N 8 ST, STE 250 ♦ Lincoln, NE 68508-1369 USA ♦ +1.402.323.0702...
In this section, configuring Wowza Streaming Engine version 4.1.0 is described. To configure Wowza to work with RTMP streaming from the ZCube-21, the following steps are needed: (1) Log in to the Wowza Streaming Engine Manager Home page by typing http://localhost:8088.
(9) Verify Client Restrictions is set to No client restrictions. (10) Click on Save. Figure 50 Wowza Security Settings The Wowza server is now configured to work with your Z3 Technology product. Note: You can also select Require password authentication under RTMP Publishing. In this case, Authentication on the Encoder tab needs to be enabled and a valid Wowza user name and password need to be entered to successfully access Wowza.
APPENDIX C: Support and Troubleshooting Appendix C: Support When contacting Z3 Technology for additional support, please click the Download device logs button in the System Setup tab of the user interface at the time the problem occurs and send the resulting .tgz file, along with screenshots of all applicable tabs in the user interface to Z3.
- Is the network caching value in VLC set to 200ms? Refer to Section 5.4 for more information. Appendix C: Warranty Z3 Technology’s Express Limited Warranty will be void if the label on the hardware bearing the Serial Number is removed, tampered with or defaced. You can view Z3 Technology’s full hardware warranty at https://z3technology.com/support/warranty/.
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