Streaming Symphony video via RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol)

This section applies to 6.12 to 6.14:

Scenario

You need an RTSP video stream from Senstar Symphony for use in other third-party applications.

Live Video Solution

IMPORTANT: This solution applies to standard definition (SD) cameras only that are capable of standard FPS (frames per second) and configured for H264 video format. This solution does not apply to high resolution cameras capable of high FPS and/or configured for other video formats.

1. Identify the username and password credentials for the Symphony Server.
2. Generate an encoded password using the Senstar Symphony Password Encoder tool located in: <Install folder>\Aimetis\Symphony\_tools\PasswordEncoder.exe
   
   Note: If the encoded password contains any equal (=) signs, you must replace them with the correct escape characters (%3D). For example, the encoded password A1crUF4= must be changed to A1crUF4%3D.
   
   
3. Identify the ID of the camera in Symphony whose video you want to stream as RTSP.
4. Identify the Symphony Server's IP Address.
5. Assemble the RTSP URL link, as follows:

rtsp://[IP]:554/live?camera=[ID]&user=[user]&pass=[EncodedPassword]

where:

[IP] = Symphony Server IP Address
[ID] = Camera ID in Symphony
[user] = Symphony user account
[EncodedPassword] = encoded Symphony user password with all equal signs escaped correctly

For example:
rtsp://10.234.10.200:554/live?camera=5&user=admin&pass=A1crUF4%3D

You can now open a video media player, such as VLC, and open the live video RTSP stream via URL.

Historical Video Solution

1. Determine the date and time of video you want to access (For example: 6/26/2014 @ 3:30 AM)
2. Convert the date and time into GMT format. For example: if your timezone is GMT -5, then the sample date and time would convert to 6/26/2014 8:30 AM.
3. Convert the GMT time into EPOCH (or UNIX) time.
   • From Symphony Server, open a Windows command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Senstar\Symphony\_tools\ folder.
   • Use the string2rt command in the format: YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS:000. For example: string2rt 2014/06/26 08:30:00:000.
   • The EPOCH time is returned. (For example: 1403771400000)
4. Add 4 (four) zeros (0000) to the end of your EPOCH time. (For example: 14037714000000000)
5. Using your live video RTSP URL link from above, add &Seek= and the EPOCH time at the end. (For example: rtsp://10.234.10.200:554/live?camera=5&user=admin&pass=A1crUF4%3D&Seek=14037714000000000)

You can now open a video media player, such as VLC, and open the historical video RTSP stream via URL.

Decorations

Using the live video RTSP URL link from above, add &decorate=[DecorationLevel] at the end. Where the DecorationLevel value is the decoration or combination of decorations to include in the RTSP video stream. For more information about the DecorationLevel, see Aira2Mpeg or Seer2Mpeg (depending on the version of Symphony).

For example: rtsp://10.234.10.200:554/live?camera=5&user=admin&pass=A1crUF4%3D&decorate=15&transcode=MP4V

For 6.14.2.x and later, the following changes have been added:

• High resolution streams can be used with the RTSP streamer.
• The stream number can be passed in the URL. For example, rtsp://10.234.10.200:554/live?camera=5&user=admin&pass=A1crUF4%3D&stream=2

For 7.0.x and later, the following changes have been added:

• The default port for RTSP streaming is 50010.

To get video from the Symphony Mobile Bridge 7.0.x and later, the following changes have been added:

• The IP address is the IP address of the Symphony Mobile Bridge server.
• The default port for RTSP streaming using the Symphony Mobile Bridge is 8488.