What could cause CPP13 and CPP14 cameras to display black image in Operator Client (live view only)?

Question

Answer

A black image in Operator Client live view may be caused by the camera’s port blocking mechanism that was introduced in recent firmware versions for CPP13 and CPP14 platforms.

CPP13 starting with firmware 8.93.0031
CPP14 starting with firmware 9.43.0010

Older platforms, such as CPP7 and CPP7.3, are not affected because they do not include these newer port blocking restrictions.

On newly installed CPP13/CPP14 devices, the following ports may be blocked by default:

80 (HTTP)
1756 (RCP+)
554 (RTSP)

Live view will fail and display a black image if the firewall blocks the 554 and 9554 ports, which are required for live view in BVMS Operator Client.

Other functions such as playback, browser view and configuration streams, continue to work correctly because they use different protocols that are not blocked.

To resolve the black screen issue, ensure that the ports mentioned above are open and allow traffic, especially ports 554 and 9554.

Once the ports are opened, the camera stream should work immediately.

Note that even when RTSP is disabled in the camera configuration, the camera firmware and BVMS still rely on RTSP for establishing certain streaming connections. This behavior is related to how the cameras and BVMS manage video transport.

Important Security Note:

Please note that it is not recommended to open these ports to the Internet! For operation via Internet you may use secure connections like VPN.

For a complete list of required BVMS ports, refer to the BVMS Configuration Manual (v13.0) starting with page 358.

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