Axis Communications 207W Video Streams

Video Streams

The AXIS 207W/AXIS 207MW provides several different image and video stream formats.

The type to use depends on your requirements and on the properties of your network.

The Live View page in the camera provides access to MPEG-4 and Motion JPEG video

streams, as well as to single JPEG images. Other applications and clients can also access

these video streams/images directly, without going via the Live View page.

This video compression standard makes good use of bandwidth, and can provide

high-quality video streams at less than 1 Mbit/s. Note that the image settings of the

MPEG-4 stream are the same for all clients.

Deciding on the combination of protocols and methods to use depends on your viewing

requirements, and on the properties of your network. The available options in AMC are:

Unicast RTP This unicast method (RTP over UDP) should be

your first consideration for live unicast video,

especially when it is important to always have

an up-to-date video stream, even if some

images are dropped.

Unicasting is used for video-on-demand broad-

casting, so that there is no video traffic on the

network until a client connects and requests the

stream.

Note: There is a maximum of 10 simultaneous

unicast connections.

RTP over RTSP This unicast method (RTP tunneled over RTSP) is

useful as it is relatively simple to configure fire-

walls to allow RTSP traffic.

RTP over RTSP over

HTTP

This unicast method can be used to traverse fire-

walls. Firewalls are commonly configured to

allow the HTTP protocol, thus allowing RTP to be

tunneled.

Multicast RTP This method (RTP over UDP) should be used for live multicast video. The video stream is always

up-to-date, even if some images are dropped.

Multicasting provides the most efficient usage of bandwidth when there are large numbers of clients

viewing simultaneously. A multicast broadcast cannot however, pass a network router unless the

router is configured to allow this. It is thus not possible to multicast over e.g. the Internet.

Note also that all multicast viewers count as one unicast viewer in the maximum total of 10 simulta-

neous connnections.

When the Reconnect Strategy is not enabled, AMC will negotiate with the camera to

determine exactly which transport protocol to use, in the order listed above. This order can

be changed and the options disabled, to suit any specific requirements. See also the AMC

User’s manual, available from www.axis.com/techsup

Important!

MPEG-4 is licensed technology. The AXIS 207W/AXIS 207MW includes one viewing

client license. Installing additional unlicensed copies of the viewing client is prohib-

ited. To purchase additional licenses, contact your Axis reseller.