Hello From Texas!

[dbrannon79]

Hello all. New member here from Texas. I've been working to setup a home security system using ispy agent I have a mix of wired cameras which had been exhausting getting everything wired only to find out my central pc I'm using (running linux with ispy agent through a docker) can only accept just a couple of cameras running from USB. I have been looking for some IP cameras that were compatible with the software including audio.

a friend of mine gave me an older IMOU bullet 2c camera which I was able to configure it to have video, but I need some help getting the audio (microphone) working to be able to hear what's happening.

the settings I have video with are :
rtsp:/admin:<safety code>@<ip address>:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1&unicast=true&proto=Onvif

I have tried setting the audio to "Camera" and to "File/URL" with the same url setting above, but nothing is working for the microphone. I have the IMOU app on my phone which I have verified that the mic does work. I can hear sound through the camera on the app.

any help would be much appreciated.

 

[sebastiantombs]

 

[TonyR]

Welcome to IPCT !

 

[Rob2020]

 

[dbrannon79]

Ok. I’m considering investing into Blue Iris. How simple is it to setup audio on this software? One of my goals is to always have an audio feed for each of my security cameras.

 

[wittaj]

It is as simple as checking the audio box lol

Now your camera needs to have audio capabilities and your device watching it needs speakers lol

 

[dbrannon79]

I have the evaluation version v5 up and running. it found the camera through the ip scanner rather easily. checked enable audio and now I have video and a pulsing static sound from the camera. I will post some screenshots up of the setting here in just a minuet not sure what I'm missing

 

[wittaj]

Be sure to mention the camera make and model as well.

Rehit the find/inspect if you checked audio after or delete the camera in BI and readd it and check the audio box before you hit find/inspect.

What is your network topology? If the camera is going thru the router that can be a cause of the issue as well.

 

[dbrannon79]

Here are the current settings All the audio I am getting is a pulsing static sound. tapping on the camera (sitting beside me) dies nothing to the sound outputted from the pc speakers.

 

[dbrannon79]

lol sorry I forgot to mention the camera: it's a IMOU model IPC-TA42N-B which I think is a Bullet 2C or Ranger 2C from looking on their website.

 

[wittaj]

For kicks try this



Where mainstream is (you will have to copy and paste this in to the box):

/cam/realmonitor?channel={CAMNO}&subtype=0&authbasic={AUTH64}&proto=Onvif

and substream is:

/cam/realmonitor?channel={CAMNO}&subtype=1&authbasic={AUTH64}&proto=Onvif

 

[dbrannon79]

The video quality seems to show better, but getting the same results of the static through the speakers.

I re-read your previous post on network topology . not sure what you mean, but the pc is wired to ethernet and the camera is on wifi using the same 192.168.1.x addressing.

thinking about this further, I also seemd to have a similar issue with ispy with running another pc with their ispyserver app essentially creating a usb camera into a IP camera over the local network. video connected fine in ispy but the audio was blips of half a second audio cutting out. sort of like this pulsing effect I am getting here. maybe there is some kind of issue with my router? it's a eero amazon pro 6 wifi mesh router.

 

[wittaj]

Wifi and cameras aren't a good combination and then throw in a consumer router and it can't keep up. Most wifi cameras are designed to either degrade audio or video or sometimes both if the bandwidth can't keep up to try to provide something useful instead of a blank screen.

 

[dbrannon79]

will any of this info help? I clicked the inspect button and copied the output.

Opening 192.168.1.234 port 80...
HTTP Get / request...
Timeout
Opening 192.168.1.234 port 80...
ONVIF GetSystemDateAndTime
2022-10-09T21:38:11.000Z
Requesting device information...
Manufacturer: LC
Model: IPC-TA42-B
FirmwareVersion: 2.800.0000000.6.R 2021-08-11
GetCapabilities...
Querying services
Has Imaging services: /onvif/imaging_service
Has media services: /onvif/media_service
Has RTP_RTSP_TCP, requesting profiles
profile token Profile000
profile name Profile000
profile source is VideoSource000
profile source config is VideoSource000
profile token Profile001
profile name Profile001
profile source is VideoSource000
profile source config is VideoSource000
requesting URI for profile Profile000
RTSP URI: /cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0&unicast=true&proto=Onvif
requesting URI for profile Profile001
RTSP URI: /cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1&unicast=true&proto=Onvif
Has Event services: /onvif/event_service
Has WSPullPointSupport
RelayOutputs: 0
InputConnectors: 0
Has Device IO services: /onvif/deviceIO_service
AudioOutputs: 0
DigitalInputs: 0
Has PTZ service: /onvif/ptz_service
Done

 

[wittaj]

That is all good - it is the wifi component of the camera and your network topology more than anything.

 

[dbrannon79]

is there anything I can do on the wifi side if things to fix this or verify the wifi is the issue? the camera is a 2.4g only camera but it's relatively close to the router, only a closet wall between the two. on the app for the camera it shows signals are good, doesn't show the actual signal strength though.

 

[wittaj]

Wire it lol.

Cameras connected to Wifi routers (whether wifi or not) are problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to send cameras through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your entire system.

Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent, especially once you start adding distance. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a camera connected to a router and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...

The same issue applies even with the hard-wired cameras trying to send all this non-buffer video stream through a router. Most consumer grade wifi routers are not designed to pass the constant video stream data of cameras, and since they do not buffer, you get these issues. The consumer routers are just not designed for this kind of traffic, even a GB speed router.

So the more cameras you add, the bigger the potential for issues.

Many people unfortunately think wifi cameras are the answer and they are not. People will say what about Ring and Nest - well that is another whole host of issues that we will not discuss here LOL, but they are not streaming 24/7, only when you pull up the app. And then we see all the people come here after that system failed them because their wifi couldn't keep up when the perp came by. For streaming 24/7 to something like Blue Iris, forget about it.

 

[sebastiantombs]

If you have a spare router, with WIFi, hanging around you could use it for that camera and that camera only.

 

[dbrannon79]

unfortunately this particular camera is wifi only and doesn't have an ethernet port. I was just testing it out to see if this type camera would be a good alternative to the old CCTV analog cameras I have now. those work fine, but on only problem is they use RCA video and audio. the only capture devices I can find to make them work is these (china made) usb video capture cards. they work fine but when you try to connect more than two on a single PC. the PC starts going bananas due to (china made) cards having the same serial and device identifiers. Ive used them on both windows and linux with the same results.

I do have the old wifi routers we had before we invested into this "smart" wifi 6 mesh system. iirc both routers I had used DDWRT on them so they are completely configurable. I could try one and only use them for the cameras, and pass the internet to them for the one PC so the feed could be accessed remotely.

 

[sebastiantombs]

It would be smarter to add a second NIC to your PC to handle the second network for the cameras. That does two important things -

1 - Keeps all the video traffic off of you regular LAN.
2 - Keeps the cameras totally isolated from the internet to avoid potential hacks, security flaws in the camera firmware, and keep them from "phoning home".