Table of Contents
RTSP VS RTMP Protocol
Preparation
IP Camera Stream Solution : Hardware Media Gateway
How to Use an IP Camera as a Webcam
You may have an IP camera (security camera or ethernet camera) mounted in your home and wondered if you can stream the real-time video onto live platforms or embed the IP live stream into a webpage.
Unfortunately, you cannot find an easy solution natively in your IP camera. Therefore, you have to use some external Apps or hardware to make security cameras globally accessible.
This article tells you how to push stream from your IP camera to any public destination and embed it into a website or even a live chatting webcam.
RTSP VS RTMP Protocol
Your IP camera uses RTSP. RTSP is a media-controlling protocol that allows you to monitor your security within your local network.
Public Internet stream uses RTMP. RTMP is a media transmission protocol widely adopted by Youtube, Twitch, Facebook Live, and more live platforms.
To stream your security camera, you need to transfer the original protocol from RTSP to RTMP. All the tools you will use are doing the same thing.
Preparation
Before you start, you need to:
Find out the RTSP address of your IP camera. Check the device user manual, or ask for help online, and try to get the unique address like rtsp://{YOUR_ADDRESS}:554/{YOUR_SESSION_ID}. Normally, you can find it in the device control App provided by the IP camera manufacturer.
Prepare a computer that is in the same network as the camera. It would help you to deploy the App, or configure the hardware connected to the local network.
Get the Stream URL and key of your target platform (Youtube, Twitch, etc.). You will need the stream URL and stream key to form the RTMP pushing URL.
IP Camera Stream Solution : Hardware Media Gateway
Using a hardware protocol converter (media gateway) can bring you:
High-performance hardware encoding;
Multiple IP streams supported (HTTP、RTSP、RTMP. RTMPS, RTP、UDP、FLV、HLS);
Direct output supported (HDMI/SDI);
Multiple streaming targets available;
Up to 4K resolution supported;
Support H.265 video coding efficiency;
The mainstream and side stream use the different network protocol for transmission
To get the IP camera data and stream it to public platforms in a hardware converter, you need to do the following steps :
1. Connect decoder into your local network, and run it.
2. Open the device website console, set the layout.
3. Below the preview window, add a source. Input the correct RTSP URL.The specific process can be found in the bottom tutorial.
4.After clicking set up, click on the homepage to copy the corresponding address,and check if the address is playing properlys
Now, your stream goes public. You can set more effects such as multi-window display, image overlay, source switch, and so on.
How to Use an IP Camera as a Webcam
If you don't have a webcam for a Skype/Zoom/Discord/Teams video chat, you can use your network camera as a temporary video source.
Just follow the steps:
1.Install the Onvif Device Manager Software, pls check the download link
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ebc2b-XV-F5u6fKaan_b-WZTdB3n9W-1/view?usp=sharing)
2.The onvif software will automatically search for the cameras in the Network after opening the software. And the cameras will be displayed on the left window.
3.Log-in with the username and password of your camera
4.Click the “Live video”, then you will get the RTSP address.( Please see the image below)
5. If your camera requires an account and password to access, pls note the format of the RTSP address
For example:
RTSP address is rtsp://192.168.10.64:554/Streaming/Channels/101xxxxxxx
The username and password of camera is admin/admin.
The correct address is rtsp://admin:admin@192.168.10.64:554/Streaming/Channels/101xxxxxxx
To Wrap it up
As IP cameras are widely used in houses and offices, you can easily have one of them in your live stream or live chat. They are all around and are ready 24/7, so you can get many video sources from them.
To share the network camera data across the Internet, you need to transfer the built-in RTSP protocol into other formats (such as RTMP). You can use either a self-deployed Restreamer service, integrated CamStreamer App, or even an almighty hardware media gateway to finish the protocol conversion.
