I am planning a 32 camera system for my business. I plan to run all the cameras in 1080p, 15 fps, and all will be RTSP capable H.265 cameras. If I wanted a large live-view monitor on the office wall showing a 4x4 grid of 16 cameras with NO input devices (no mouse or keyboard), what would be the recommended hardware and software for this? I plan to use Blue Iris on the server for the NVR, but for this application I just want to see the live view and, ideally, on a system that would boot right back into the live-view after a power cycle. I am fine with using a Linux system if there is no decent Windows solution. So far my research shows that a "Kiosk" mode like this for Windows 10 is only possible with a MS store app, of which I cannot seem to find a decent one, or any that can handle 16 cameras at once. I am looking for hardware and software recommendations. Thanks.
Hardware for live-view monitor of 16 cameras in matrix
- Thread starter Shark92651
- Start date
You could try a raspberry pi.
This is the best-maintained software I know of for running a video wall: SvenVD/rpisurv
This is a simple little alternative I built with a web interface. I use it myself: bp2008/OmxPlayerAuto
You'll need to use low-res H.264 sub streams so you don't overwhelm the pi's hardware decoder. The actual stream resolutions that are best to use will depend on the resolution of your monitor and the capabilities of the pi you use. The limits are not well defined, so you'll just have to test and see what works. However I can give you a few tips.
* The underlying omxplayer software does not support H.265.
* Omxplayer can handle 1920x1080 H.264. Higher resolution streams are not supported.
* You will almost certainly run into the limit of the hardware decoder if you try to make it decode 16 streams at 1920x1080 @15FPS.
* You can increase some streaming capacity limits by increasing the gpu_mem allocation.
A 1920x1080 display has room for 16 streams at 480x270 resolution.
A 3840x2160 (4K) display has room for each stream to be 960x540 resolution.
I can't even tell you if the Raspberry Pi 4 is better than the older models for this. I run 7 streams on a pi 2 in my bedroom, and while streams do occasionally freeze and the pi occasionally crashes, I think this is just a sign of a slightly defective raspberry pi. You certainly don't need a pi with more than 1 GB of RAM.
This is the best-maintained software I know of for running a video wall: SvenVD/rpisurv
This is a simple little alternative I built with a web interface. I use it myself: bp2008/OmxPlayerAuto
You'll need to use low-res H.264 sub streams so you don't overwhelm the pi's hardware decoder. The actual stream resolutions that are best to use will depend on the resolution of your monitor and the capabilities of the pi you use. The limits are not well defined, so you'll just have to test and see what works. However I can give you a few tips.
* The underlying omxplayer software does not support H.265.
* Omxplayer can handle 1920x1080 H.264. Higher resolution streams are not supported.
* You will almost certainly run into the limit of the hardware decoder if you try to make it decode 16 streams at 1920x1080 @15FPS.
* You can increase some streaming capacity limits by increasing the gpu_mem allocation.
A 1920x1080 display has room for 16 streams at 480x270 resolution.
A 3840x2160 (4K) display has room for each stream to be 960x540 resolution.
I can't even tell you if the Raspberry Pi 4 is better than the older models for this. I run 7 streams on a pi 2 in my bedroom, and while streams do occasionally freeze and the pi occasionally crashes, I think this is just a sign of a slightly defective raspberry pi. You certainly don't need a pi with more than 1 GB of RAM.
SouthernYankee
IPCT Contributor
So I take it the BI server hosts the web service so additional remote live view systems will further increase CPU load? Does the remote system still need to be rather beefy, or just have a decent graphics card? Do you think a Chromebox in Kiosk mode would have enough power to handle this? Also, additional remote live-view systems will further increase the CPU load? I can see us needing at least 2, each viewing about 16 cameras. Thanks for the input.
SouthernYankee
IPCT Contributor
I have run UI3 on a chromebook with no problems. Yes it does increase the CPU usage on the BI PC. The chromebook is a lenovo TB-X103F with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 Quad-Core 1.3 GHz Processor not beefy at all. I have 13 cameras up running, I have a slower frame rate on the display .
Not familiar with chromebox
Not familiar with chromebox
Chromebox is basically the same as a Chromebook, less display and keyboard. I use them to run my digital signs in the showroom, tucked in behind the monitors. It's good to hear that you have had success using a Chromebook and UI3, this may work for me.
If that’s all you wanted to do then hands down Rasperry Pi + displaycameras app will do exactly that for you via rtsp. I have used displaycameras and it is perfect with x9 grid. It can handle it.
displaycameras software is free and uses the raspberry pi onboard hardware x264 accelerator via omxplayer. Raspberry pi is cheap and low power, and has HDMI. Just add whatever monitor or hdtv you want, it doesn’t care.
here’s the info and sample images. People have been using this at a pizza parlor and a church.
community.ui.com
displaycameras software is free and uses the raspberry pi onboard hardware x264 accelerator via omxplayer. Raspberry pi is cheap and low power, and has HDMI. Just add whatever monitor or hdtv you want, it doesn’t care.
here’s the info and sample images. People have been using this at a pizza parlor and a church.
[Tutorial] Raspberry Pi 3 RTSP Stream Viewer | Ubiquiti Community
***( Updated 5/27/18 )****** Version 0.81 (Alpha) *** New CodeAs some of you may or may not know, I own and operate a small business. I installed a Unifi
This is good to hear as I already have some experience with this setup: I created a target camera system for a 100 yard indoor range.
I was wondering how the Pi could handle 9, 12, or even 16 RTSP feeds, although I suppose rotating through off-screen feeds is an option. Perhaps the Raspberry Pi 4 would be even better at handling a larger matrix of cameras.
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And there's also the Chromebit and PC Sticks, both great for hiding behind monitors with a very low profile mount.
I doubt a chromebit stick has more horsepower than a raspberry pi 4, but I could be wrong. For the chromebit, you could run Tiny Cam Pro. That's a big plus.
I'm currently trying to configure a RPi 4 with 4GB to work with the displaycameras service. My test cameras support an H264 subsbtream at 704x480. I also purchased an inexpensive 4K TV for the display. So far I am not getting good results and I suspect the issue is with poor support for 4k displays in either the Raspbian OS or in the Omxplayer software. Right now I am testing a 3x3 matrix. If I set gpu_mem to < 512 I end up with 9 feeds, but the system is flashing between them as if it can only display one at a time. I mean like seizure-inducing flashing. The documentation states that any value above 512 is untested, but I bumped it up to 1024 and the flashing stops, however it only displays 7 of the 9 feeds. If I tweak the settings to allow a 4K at 60hz display, then the number of displayed feeds drops down to 5. I thought I would have better luck with displaying more feeds using the newest Pi with the most RAM, but so far not so good. Has anybody else experimented with the Pi4 and 4K display? I guess I need to try to get some help on github for displaycameras or omxplayer projects.