Streaming Video and Surveillance

mbarnick

Has anyone worked with IP cameras lately? It seems like a lot of the new cameras and encoders provide MPEG4 and MJPEG only. Given the challenge of up to 6 cameras showing video on both any combination of display and G4 touchpanel, I don't see any real solutions out there. I've also discovered that most camera manufacturers say MPEG-4 but the stream has a proprietary format. Requiring a PC with a proprietary ActiveX decoder is a solution I would rather avoid. Any thoughts?

jjames

Why not skip the IP cameras and go straight for the Axis video encoder?
http://www.axis.com/products/video/video_server/index.htm

We've used it once, and it was hooked up only so we can view their cable boxes and make sure it's working before the client gets to the house. This way, we could navigate through menus and set up new boxes should one have to be replaced and can see what the client sees if they have a problem - all from 800 miles away.

I know several guys on here use the Axis server, and they love it (at least that's how it appears.) And yes, you can put the video on a touch panel. I think using Dynamo, you can view up to 4 cameras on a page.

mbarnick

Why IP cameras

I was thinking that the industry may be moving to IP, so I wanted to make sure the client had a solution that would last for a long time. I'm starting to think that's it's better to wire for IP and use analog cameras until the whole interoperability issue gets sorted out. Corrupting a MPEG stream to ensure a person is locked into a certain product line is pretty lame.

vining

Using wired cameras into a switcher with the output to an Axis encoder works fine but you can also use Axis IP cameras directly since they support MJPEG and MPEG4 streams. They are a bit pricey though but so are their encoders. Some one else makes a MJPEG encoder for slightly more than 1/2 the cost of a single in/out Axis encoder but I don't recall where I saw that.