Introduction

The page discusses the Image Server Service and it’s place in a simple system design.

The Image Server provides dynamic management of video streams, including transcoding, scaling, frame rate adjustments and re-streaming. We think of it as an imaging processing pipeline; the decoder takes in the video stream and the encoder re-encodes, scales and or changes the frame rate, and then re-streams it back out.

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Image Server Camera Config

The Image Server Camera Config contains decoder and encoder settings used by the Image Server. These settings can have multiple image server camera configs and they relate to the settings of a single camera.

The decoder settings are used to connect to a camera and read the image stream. The encoder settings are used to re-encode the image stream, and send it back out over the network via RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) or to the Mobile Server.

The Image Server Camera Config can have multiples of these decoder and encoder settings.

Prerequisites

To create an Image Server Camera Config, you must have at least one working camera assigned to a Camera Controller. Please refer to Adding a Camera and Assigning a Camera.

Creating an Image Server Camera Config

1. On the Configuration Panel, click the New button:
   
   

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2. Select the Image Server Camera Config:
   
   

    

3. This will open a wizard to create the new Image Server Camera Config:
   
   

    

4. You can choose the desired camera from the Camera Name dropdown list. The User Name and Password will be prepopulated by default. Choose if you want to Detect Objects and click Next. This will open the Decoder details:
   
   

    

5. By default the Decoder Name, Camera URI, Camera Connection Protocol and Decoder Codec fields will be automatically populated, but you can amend them if required.

6. Click Next and the Encoder details screen will be available:
   
   

    

7. The Encoder Name, Encoder Port and Encoder Codec fields will be automatically populated, but you can amend them if required.

8. Select whether to Scale Image, Enable Stream and Highlight Detected Objects or keep them on their default settings of not enabled. If these are selected then the Stream Type, Encoder Max Width and Encoder Max Height fields and the Encoder FPS fields will be made visible and will be auto-populated, but these can be amended if desired:
   
   

    

9. Click the Finish button to complete the configuration wizard.

Image Server Camera Config

These are the settings within the wizard:

Name: The name of the Image Server Camera Config.

Camera Name: The name of the camera.

User Name: The user name used to connect to the camera's RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) stream. By default this is set to the name of the user who configured the camera.

Password: The password used to connect to the camera's RTSP stream.

Detect Objects: Select the check box to enable the Object Detection feature. The objects it detects are: person, bicycle, car, motorbike, aeroplane, bus, train, truck, boat, backpack, handbag, suitcase, knife and numberplate. Please see: Image Servers | Detect Objects & Highlighted Detected Objects.

Decoder Name: The name of the decoder settings.

Camera URI: The actual URI used to connect to the camera stream.

Camera Connection Protocol: The protocol used to connect to the camera stream:

TCP

UDP

Decoder Codec: The codec used to decode the image data from the camera's RTSP stream:

MJPEG

H264

H265

Encoder Name: The name of the encoder settings.

Encoder Port: The port used to re-stream the encoded image data.

Encoder Codec: The codec used to encode the image data before re-streaming it:

MJPEG

H264

H265

Scale Image: Select to apply scaling (a change in resolution) to the encoded and re-streamed image or not.

Enable Stream: Select whether or not the re-stream is enabled.

Highlight Detected Objects: Select this option to highlight the objects detected by the Object Detection feature. Please see: Image Servers | Detect Objects & Highlighted Detected Objects.

Stream Type: How the encoded data is sent:

RTSP

Mobile Server

Encoder Max Width: The desired horizontal resolution of the re-streamed data.

Encoder Max Height: The desired vertical resolution of the re-streamed data.

Encoder FPS: The desired output in frames per second.

Detect Objects & Highlighted Detected Objects

Here is an example of two vehicles which have been detected and highlighted by the ML Object Detection feature. This can be viewed in VLC or a similar program:

Editing an Image Server Camera Config

Once the wizard has been completed you can edit the settings. For example, the Image Server Camera Config can have multiples of decoder and encoder settings.

To do this:

1. Click the Edit button on the Configuration Panel:
   
   

    

2. Here you can add Decoder Configs by clicking the button:
   
   

    

3. You can also add Encoder Configs by clicking the button:
   
   

    

4. You can also remove decoder or encoder configs that are no longer required by selecting them and clicking the button:
   
   

Assigning an Image Server Camera Config

To do this:

1. Navigate to Topology and open the Image Server tab and move the unassigned config to the Image Server:

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