vxg April 18, 2013 at 09:43

We make a video surveillance system

From the sandbox

System description

Standard video intercoms have known limitations on picture quality and viewing angle. In addition, video intercoms, as a rule, do not perform video archiving and do not support video viewing by external devices. As an addition to the video intercom, the author privately designed and implemented this system.

The system is an analog of a video eye connected to a TV, performing video archiving and supporting video viewing through a local network (LAN or Wi-Fi). The main elements of the system are: IP-camera, switch with PoE support, nettop, Wi-Fi router. The software installed on the nettop provides:
- viewing video from the IP camera on the TV screen connected to the nettop via HDMI;
- archiving video from an IP camera to a nettop hard drive (1 hour video requires about 1.3 GB);
- viewing video from an IP camera on devices connected to a nettop, as to a web server (works with any browser);
- viewing video from an IP camera on devices connected to a nettop as a DLNA server.

System block diagram:

Hardware

When constructing the system, the following basic hardware was used:
- Hikvision DS-2CD7164-E IP camera;
- Switch with PoE support D-Link DGS-1008P (8 ports, 4 of them with PoE support);
- UTP 5e cable for external installation;
- Nettop ASUS EeeBox EB1021;
- Wireless keyboard with touchpad Logitech K400;
- Wi-Fi router ZyXEL Keenetic Giga (4 LAN ports, 1 WAN port, 2 USB ports, Wi-Fi).

The used IP camera has high sensitivity (at dusk or in the presence of snow it continues to work in color mode), however, additional illumination is required to get a high-quality picture at night. Otherwise, the picture is not very informative (the contrast of the image depends on the device used for viewing): a

Wi-Fi router is installed at the floor level on the third floor of a private house. On the second floor, under the premises of the Wi-Fi router, the signal is steady. However, behind a major brick wall, the signal loses stability. On the ground floor, under the Wi-Fi router, the signal is stable within a radius of about 3 meters from the installation location of the Wi-Fi router.

Software

When building the system, the following main software was used (installed on a nettop):
- ipc preview (viewing, archiving, web server);
- serviio (DLNA server).

Nettop is running Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit).

The built-in web-server of the IP camera, the standard Hikvision software and the specialized Trassir software did not meet the system requirements due to problems with video archiving, a complicated interface and a hard link to the platform on which the video is viewed. Therefore, especially for this system, the author developed the ipc preview applicationproviding direct archiving of video, which has a simple interface and allows you to view video with any browser. This software is written in C ++ in the environment of Borland C ++ Builder and distributed with the source code.

ipc preview receives the main stream from the IP camera (1280 x 960, 25 fps, 3072 kbps max). The stream is displayed, archived and broadcast by the web server in the form of a JPEG sequence or MJPEG stream. The permission and quality of the broadcast is indicated by the client when opening the resource. For a JPEG sequence, the frame rate is defined in the resource code. For the MJPEG stream, the frame rate is defined in the web server settings. By default, the frame rate is 2 fps.

serviioreceives a sub stream from the IP camera (704 x 576, 12 fps, 192 kbps max). The link to the stream has the form rtsp: // admin: 12345@192.0.0.64/h264/ch1/sub/av_stream. The stream is broadcast by the DLNA server. The negative points noted when using the DLNA server:
- the resolution and frame rate of the main stream turned out to be too large for the connected TV;
- the procedure for opening a stream is not convenient, since the connected TV does not allow you to assign a key to the stream on the remote control;
- when you open a stream on the TV, a message appears briefly about the absence of an audio stream.

Nettop processor load is about 40%.

Paired devices

The function of viewing video from an IP camera was tested on the following devices:
- TV (HDMI: nettop -> TV);
- TV (DLNA LAN: nettop-> switch-> TV);
- Smartphone (Wi-Fi: nettop-> switch-> Wi-Fi router-> smartphone);
- Laptop (Wi-Fi: nettop-> switch-> Wi-Fi router-> laptop);
- PC (LAN: nettop-> switch-> Wi-Fi router-> PC).

Watching videos on a smartphone, laptop and PC is carried out using a browser installed on the device.

You can remotely view videos over the Internet using a browser (you need a nettop connection to the Internet, a static or dynamic IP address, or organization of a virtual local network, for example, using the hamachi program ).

Issue price

The cost of the system was about 1,000 USD. Of them:
- IP camera - about 300 USD;
- switchboard - about 130 USD;
- nettop - about 460 USD;
- Wi-Fi router - about 100 USD.

It should be noted that in the described system, the nettop and Wi-Fi router are actively used as a universal media player and for distributing the Internet to mobile devices, respectively. Thus, the cost of these components can be excluded from the total cost of the system. If system expansion is not planned, it is possible to directly connect the IP camera to a Wi-Fi router via a PoE injector (about 50 USD). In this case, the cost of the system will be determined by the cost of the IP camera and will be about 350 USD.

Photo report

IP camera (upper right corner of the door, painted in the color of the gate):

IP camera - close-up view:

Mounting the IP camera (bent corner, bending angle is calculated depending on the viewing angle of the camera):

Box for connecting the IP camera to the network ( the hole for connecting the power supply is false, all openings are sealed): The

place where the cables enter the basement (cables: from the bottom - from the IP camera, to the left to the Wi-Fi router, to the right to the nettop):

Mounting the switch in the basement (stands at the corners with restrictive screws):

cable mount a Wi-Fi router (vertical section hanging freely, samples eat with wind load and icing were observed):

The cable entry point into the Wi-Fi router premises (the cable is firmly fixed in the hole with a rubber stopper, the hole is sealed, the end of the cable is cut into a socket, an internal cable is laid from the socket to the Wi-Fi router):