How is RTSP usage supported from VRM?

Question

How is RTSP usage supported with VRM?

📚Overview:

1 Intro
2 Examples
3 Available RTSP Parameters specific for VRM
- 3.1 General
- 3.2 Setup parameters
  - 3.2.1 Camera Line Selection
  - 3.2.2 VRM track selection

Answer

1 Intro

The Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) allows live viewing of video and replay of recorded video from a BVIP encoder or IP camera with a compatible standard media player.

It is possible to request live view or playback from physical camera over VRM and RTSP.

The Video LAN Client (VLC) or any other RTSP compatible player can be used as a test client for the RTSP connection,
independent of the used platform (Windows, Macintosh, Linux, ...).

Note

Please note that there is dedicated document on RTSP support of Bosch VIP devices.

The encoding profiles within the encoder must be set up properly to allow connections via RTSP. All supported resolutions and encoding profiles are available through RTSP.

The URL for the requested video stream may look like:
RTSP://160.10.0.1/<<parameter_string>>

The following examples assume

VRM installed at the IP address 160.10.0.1

The <<parameter_string>> syntax and valid parameters are described in section 3 Available RTSP Parameters; however one may already get a feeling for the syntax in the next chapter.

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2 Examples

2.1 Setting up a live connection

Connecting to a VRM unit is as simple as entering a URL that specifies the protocol and the unit’s IP address. An RTSP connection from e.g. VLC to the VRM is established
by opening the File menu, choosing Open network and entering:
RTSP://160.10.0.1/?line=1

This will show live video from the real camera, that is classified with RTSP line 1, for VRM.

In order to chose the camera one should use the parameter for RTSP line or Track ID

The RTSP server of VRM needs the slash after the IP address followed by the question mark as a separator for the query string that carries the parameter(s).

Further example URL:

RTSP://160.10.0.1/rtsp_tunnel?line=1&rec=0

rec=0 is live view and is default parameter. If omitted, still live view is requested.
It always gets the Stream 1 (live stream 1 from the real camera), irrelevant of which stream is configured for live view and which is the VRM managed steam.

Note: current VRM version is 4.60

rtsp_tunnel parameter is explained in the section Establish RTSP tunnel of this article - How is RTSP usage supported with Bosch VIP Devices?

2.2 Setting up a replay connection

Note

Replay of recorded video via RTSP works for locally managed recordings or centrally managed (VRM) recordings, but require VRM version 3.0 or higher and firmware version 5.70 or higher.

To establish a replay connection over RTSP the URL needs some additional parameters. The connection is set-up with the following URL:
RTSP://160.10.0.1/rtsp_tunnel?rec=1?line=1

rec=1 is replay or recorded Stream
It always gets the recorded stream ( VRM managed steam) of a physical camera.

2.3 Selecting the stream encoding type

Note: h26x=5 this parameter is not recognized by VRM and h26x can be omitted as parameter. If encoded in H264 then the delivered stream is H264, if encoded with H265, then H265 stream is delivered.

3 Available RTSP Parameters specific for VRM

Note: there is a list with all available RTSP parameters that are valid for Bosch VIP devices and for VRM in this article - How is RTSP usage supported with Bosch VIP Devices?

The current article will list only the parameters that are specific for VRM

3.1 General

RTSP parameters can be handed over the BVIP RTSP server by means of a URI query string as defined in RFC 3986 (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#section-3.4).)

3.2 Setup parameters

3.2.1 Camera Line Selection

This parameter selects the physical camera to be streamed.

Parameter and values
Parameter	line
Values	1 = line 1 2 = line 2 ………
Example	RTSP://160.10.0.1/?line=2

Please see this article for more information how to find out the rtsp line of a camera

from VRM - How to find the Track ID (trackId) or a RTSP line of a camera within VRM?

3.2.2 VRM track selection

This parameter is available since VRM version 3.10 and allows to select a specific TrackID from the VRM.

Parameter and values
Parameter	trackid
Values	number (trackID as available in VRM; the list of available trackIDs needs to be known a priori)
Example	RTSP://160.10.0.1/?trackid=7

Please see this article for more information how to find out the track id of a camera from VRM - How to find the Track ID (trackId) or a RTSP line of a camera within VRM?