Setting Up Your PC

Network Setup

In order to for the Sidewinder and your PC to communicate effectively, both devices must be on the same network segment. By default, the Sidewinder is on network 192.168.1.0/24, at address 192.168.1.251. If your PC is already on this network segment you may skip this section.

There are two ways to place both devices on the same network. The first is to change the Sidewinder to match the network that the PC is on. The second is to change the PC to match the network that the Sidewinder is on.

If you would like to change the network settings on the Sidewinder to match the PC, follow this procedure:

1. Run WTI Camera Control 2. Click the Find Devices button:

3. Select device search parameters:

4. Click the OK button

Camera Control will now begin searching for devices on each network interface configured and enabled on your PC. The duration of the search depends on the number of network interfaces as well as the number of IP addresses configured for each interface. If you would like to stop the search, click the Stop Learn button:

5. Once the search is complete, you should see a device listed in both the Name and IP Address fields:

6. If the Sidewinder and the PC are not on the same network segment, the broadcast flag will need to be set. The broadcast flag will cause all network traffic between the Sidewinder and the PC to take the form of broadcasts, so using it in an open network with many devices present is not recommended. Also note that TCP communication between the Sidewinder and the PC cannot be broadcast, so RTSP video streaming will not work during this procedure. To set the broadcast flag, select UDP Broadcast from the Mode drop-down list:

7. Now we are ready to connect to the Sidewinder. Click the Connect button:

If the connection is successful, the user interface layout will change back to the state it was in when the last successfull connection was made. The initial user interface layout will depend on the option that was selected the first time WTI Camera Control was run on the PC. For more information, see Selecting User Interface Layouts.

Here is an image showing the "Sidewinder H.264 [Advanced]" user interface layout:

If the user interface layout you see is not similar to this, please select the following item from the main menu:

o View o Layout o Sidewinder H.264 [Advanced]

8. Locate the Properties panel in the center of the main window and change the IP Address, Network Mask and Gateway of the Sidewinder to match the PC:

In this example, I changed the settings to place the Sidewinder on the network 192.168.2.0/24 at address 192.168.2.62.

9. Send the new configuration to the Sidewinder by selecting the following item from the main menu:

o Device o Send Configuration

The new configuration will be downloaded to the Sidewinder. Note that the device will reboot twice during this procedure, and after the second reboot will start using the new network parameters. It will be necessary to disconnect from the device and reconnect to it, using the new network parameters. Please do not continue this procedure until the status area shows that the percentage complete is greater than or equal to 85%, as shown in the following image:

10. Disconnect from the Sidewinder by selecting the following item from the main menu: o Device o Disconnect

11. Reconnect to the Sidewinder using steps 1-7 (except step 6) of this procedure. 12. Your Sidewinder is now on the same network as your PC and should show live video:

Copyright © 2012 Wireless Technology, Inc. gotowti.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connection Window The Connection window allows specifying the parameters used to connect to a device with WTI Camera Control. It is usually the first window you will use each time you launch WTI Camera Control, so becoming familiar with the parameters will be helpful, both for everyday use and for troubleshooting.

Connection Parameters

The connection parameters specify information needed before WTI Camera Control can connect to a camera. This information includes the communications protocol, baud rate (for serial devices), timeout and IP address (for ethernet devices) or multidrop ID (for serial devices).

Connection parameters are as follows:

Title Description

Protocol

Controls the communications protocol used to communicate with the device. Supported protocols are WTI, NTCIP, Pelco-D, Cohu, WTI Internal Camera and WTI Sidewinder Serial Install.

The Sidewinder H.264 series devices use the WTI protocol for most advanced purposes, including setting video parameters, installing software and downloading new configurations. NTCIP, Pelco-D and Cohu are also supported, but do not offer the advanced features. All the protocols are supported over Ethernet communications links.

The Sidewinder analog series devices support Cohu and Pelco-D protocols over serial communications links.

The WTI Internal Camera and WTI Sidewinder Serial Install protocols are for advanced use, and should only be used at the suggestion of support staff at WTI.

Video Outputs Window The Video Outputs window allows configuration of the video encoders, video streams, analog output and scheduled FTP image upload parameters, on Sidewinder H.264 series devices.

Test video output settings

This control allows you to quickly test any changes you have made to the video output settings, without having to permanently store the settings on the device and without having to wait for the device to reboot. Note that any temporary changes to the device made will be lost if the device is rebooted. Once you are done testing your changes, you may store them permanently on the device by selecting the following option from the main menu:

Device Send Configuration

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Output Configuration

The output configuration window allows configuration of the video outputs and encoders on the Sidewinder. You will notice that some parameters are editable, some are grayed out and some are both grayed out and display the text "N/A". This is done because not all parameters apply to each individual output and/or encoder. For instance, the H.264 encoder supports setting the bit rate, but not the quality, while the MJPEG encoder supports setting the quality but not the bit rate.

By default, one analog output and two encoded streaming outputs are supported. At most, two different video resolutions may be specified over all the outputs, and for High-Definition devices, a maximum of one HD resolution is supported. This means that a High-Definition device can output 1920x1080 and 720x480 simultaneously, but cannot output 1920x1080 and 1280x720 simultaneously.

For a device at the default IP address of 192.168.1.251, with the RTSP server enabled on the default port (8554, see Ethernet Protocols), the first enabled encoder output will be available at the URL rtsp://192.168.1.251:8554/swVideo, the second enabled encoder output will be available at the URL rtsp://192.168.1.251/swVideo1, and so on. Note that the RTSP URLs are case-sensitive and that there is a capital "V" present in the "swVideo" portion.

Also, please take note of the analog output column. Depending on the options you selected prior to purchasing your Sidewinder product, the device may or may not have an analog video output cable. Enabling the analog output only makes sense if your device has an analog output cable, and while enabling the analog output on a device with no analog output cable is allowed, doing so will use resources on the device unnecessarily.

Finally, the analog output supports only standard definition composite video (even for High-Definition devices), at 720x480 resolution. For High-Definition devices, the aspect ratio of the analog video is 16:9, while for Standard-Definition devices, the aspect ratio is 4:3.

Video output parameters are as follows:

Title Description

Enabled Controls the enabled state of the output/encoder.

Codec Controls the video codec used by the output. Supported codecs are H.264, MPEG-4 and MJPEG.

Frame Rate

Controls the frame rate of the output. This value is defined using a ratio, where the first number is the number of input frames and the second number is the number of output frames.

Complex frame rates can be generated using this ratio. For instance, it is possible to process 24 frames out of every 39 input frames (using the value 24/39), for an average frame rate of roughly 18.67 frames per second. The values 1/1 or 30/30 are normally used for full frame rate video, while 1/2 or 15/30 are used for half-rate video.

Title Description

Resolution

Controls the resolution of the output. Note that analog outputs are currently fixed at 720x480. For encoded outputs on High-Definition devices, two HD modes, 1920x1080 and 1280x720, are supported, as well as the SD modes. For encoded outputs on Standard-Definition devices, the SD modes 720x480, 704x240, 640x480, 640x240 and 320x240 are supported.

Bit Rate (Kbps)

Controls the bit rate of the output. The range of this value depends both on the device model and on the Bit Rate Mode parameter.

For High-Definition devices in constant bit rate (CBR) mode, values from 5Kbps to 10000Kbps are supported. For High-Definition devices in variable bit rate (VBR) mode, values from 5Kbps to 12000Kbps are supported.

For Standard-Definition devices in CBR mode, values from 5Kbps to 3000Kbps are supported. For Standard-Definition devices in VBR mode, values from 5Kbps to 8000Kbps are supported.

Note that the actual bit rate achieved will depend not just on the bit rate, but also on scene complexity, video resolution, frame rate, bit rate mode, and overall load on the device.

Bit Rate Mode

Controls the bit rate mode of the output. Two modes are available, constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR).

CBR mode is used to deliver a constant bit rate over a period of one second. This means that the video quality will degrade as the video scene becomes more complex. If the scene becomes complex enough (or the bit rate is low enough), frames will be dropped to maintain the bit rate.

VBR mode is used to deliver a more consistent quality over a period of one second. This means that video quality will not degrade as much as the video scene becomes more complex. However, the bit rate will increase. Also, in this mode, video frames will not be dropped to maintain bit rate.

IDR Frame Period

Controls the group-of-pictures (GOP) period of the output. This value is in specified in frames; to convert it to a time period requires knowledge of the frame rate. For instance, if the desired GOP period is one second and the frame rate is 1/1 (full-rate), use an IDR Frame Period of 30. If the desired GOP period is three seconds and the frame rate is 15/30 (half-rate), use an IDR Frame Period of 45.

For H.264 outputs, this value controls the period at which instantaneous decoder refresh (IDR) is performed. This can be seen as a point in time after which a decoder no longer depends on any previous data to successfully decode the video stream.

For MPEG-4 outputs, this value controls the period at which Intra-frames are inserted. Similar to H.264 IDR, when a decoder reaches an MPEG-4 Intra

Title Description

frame it no longer requires any previous data to successfully decode the video stream.

Quality

Controls the picture quality of the output. Only applicable to MJPEG outputs. The quality value may be seen as corresponding to bit-rate. The direct relationship between quality and the resultant bit rate is not specified, with the exception that higher quality values will give higher bit rate and correspondingly, better image quality. Values from 0 to 100 are supported.

Transmission

Controls how the output is transmitted over the network. Supported transmission types are Unicast and Multicast.

Unicast may be seen as a one-to-one stream between the device (server) and a client. If two clients request a video stream, the server will send the video data separately to each client, doubling the network workload on the device.

Multicast may be seen as a one-to-many stream between the server and an unknown number of clients. The server continuously sends video data and depends on multicast-aware network infrastructure to replicate data to clients as necessary. If two clients request a video stream, the device will still send it only once, keeping the workload constant.

Not all network infrastructure supports multicast (especially WAN infrastructure), so depending on the network that the video will be transmitted over, unicast may be the only way to successfully transmit the video.

Destination

Controls the destination IP address and port for video data (optionally). This option allows you to explicitly send video data to another device on the network. The Sidewinder normally transmits video only to RTSP clients who are actively connected.

One common use for this option is to send video data to a passive device, such as a typical broadcast television decoder. Another common use for this parameter is to provide an explicit multicast destination address and port, where by default the destination and port are chosen automatically by the server software.

For multicast transmission, addresses from 224.0.1.0 to 239.255.255.255 are allowed.

For unicast transmission, all valid non-multicast addresses are allowed.

Container

Controls the container that the video is encapsulated in. By default, the elementary stream video data is encapsulated only in RTP. Using this option allows the data to be further encapsulated inside an MPEG-2 Transport Stream. This option is only supported for H.264 video streams.

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FTP Image Upload

The Sidewinder H.264 series support automatic scheduled upload of JPEG images to an FTP server. The controls in this section allow you to specify the server parameters as well as the scheduling parameters. Note that this feature requires an MJPEG video stream output to be enabled in the Output Configuration section. The quality and resolution of the MJPEG output control the quality and resolution of the images uploaded to the FTP server.

For performance reasons, it is recommended to set the frame rate of the MJPEG output as low as possible, unless the MJPEG output will also be used for video streaming. For instance, if you intend to upload one image every 5 minutes, the frame rate can be lowered to 1/60 (the minimum value, one frame every two seconds), to leave processing power open for other video streams or video overlays.

Note that the FTP image upload feature only supports the passive mode of the FTP protocol.

FTP image upload parameters are as follows:

Title Description

Enable FTP Image Upload

Controls the enabled state of the FTP image upload feature. If this feature is disabled, the parameter controls are also disabled.

Server IP Address/Port

Controls the FTP server IP address and port. A non-default port may be specified by appending a colon to the IP address, followed by the port value. If no port is given, the standard FTP port of 21 will be used. An example with a specific port is "192.168.1.251:44"

Server Directory

Controls the directory on the FTP server where images are uploaded. A nested directory may be specified by separating each directory in the path with a forward slash character ("/"). Use of backslash characters as directory separators ("\") in this field is not supported.

File Name

Controls the file name of the uploaded image file. Only fixed file names are supported, which means that the FTP server software must support moving or renaming the image files after they are uploaded, if multiple images are to be stored on the server.

User Name

Controls the user name used in the FTP transfer. A valid user name for the FTP server must be specified here or the upload will not succeed. Note that the user name is transferred over the network in clear-text during the FTP transfer. This means that anyone who is able to see network traffic between the device and the FTP server will be able to see the user name. Please take appropriate network security precautions.

Password Controls the password used in the FTP transfer. A valid password for the FTP server must be specified here or the upload will not succeed. Note that the password is transferred over the network in clear-text during the FTP

Title Description

transfer. This means that anyone who is able to see network traffic between the device and the FTP server will be able to see the password. Please take appropriate network security precautions.

Frequency

Controls the frequency of image uploads. The frequency is specified by value and unit. For convenience, three units are supported: Hours, Minutes and Seconds. The frequency value takes on the specified unit, and is not converted if the unit is changed.

There are multiple ways to specify common values. For instance, if the desired upload frequency is once per minute, a value of 60 Seconds or a value of 1 Minute are both equivalent.

Note that the highest supported frequency is one image per second, but this rate of transfer will not likely be practical, given device, network and server constraints. For transfer rates at higher frequencies, normal video streaming is recommended.

Enable Time of Day Filter

Controls the time of day during which FTP image uploads are enabled. This feature can be used to enable FTP image transfer only during a certain part of the day. For instance, it may be useful to only transfer images during the daytime. In this case, the start and end time might be set to 6:00 AM and 7:00 PM, respectively.

Note that the values for From and Until are edited in the user-interface in the current local time zone of the PC, but are sent to and used on the device in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). The device does not take into account timezone specific changes for standard time versus daylight savings time.

From Controls the start time for the time of day filter.

Until Controls the end time for the time of day filter.

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Copyright © 2012 Wireless Technology, Inc. gotowti.com