Hermetry shows the live picture of network cameras and of the channels of network video recorders, on the camera’s device page and on dashboards. A camera in Hermetry is an ordinary device: it is added on the Devices page, has a profile, can be placed in a site, raise alarms and appear on dashboards. Cameras are part of the IoT add-on.
How it works
- You add the camera or recorder with its address and a view-only user. Hermetry tests the connection and reads which video streams the camera offers.
- When you turn on live view, the camera is ready to watch. Nothing is pulled from it yet.
- When someone presses Watch, Hermetry’s media engine pulls the camera’s H.264 video and serves it to the browser. All viewers of one camera share one pull.
- About 20 seconds after the last viewer stops, the pull stops.
The video is not converted and not stored: it is passed through as it comes from the camera, without audio, and only while someone watches. Each minute a camera runs counts as one camera minute of your plan, however many people watch it.
What is available today
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Cameras and recorder channels as devices | Available |
| Connection by RTSP, or by the HTTP protocol of supported cameras and recorders | Available |
| Live view on the device page (Watch tab), with a higher quality option | Available |
| Live view on dashboards (video card) and on the remote sites solution’s camera page | Available |
| Health readings of supported cameras and recorders (uptime, CPU, disks, channel state) | Available |
| Device events from supported cameras and recorders (motion, tamper, video loss, disk faults) | Available, off by default |
| Codecs | H.264 only. H.265 and MJPEG are never played. |
| Audio | Not available |
| Snapshots and camera storage | In development |
| Recordings, the timeline and clips | In development |
| Listing and downloading files from the camera’s own memory card | In development |
In development: You may see a Snapshots tab, a Recordings tab, a Camera disk button or a Camera settings page with storage figures in some installations. These features have not been tried on real cameras and are not released. Do not rely on them. See Snapshots and camera storage, Recordings and clips and Files on the camera’s own card.
Requirements
- The camera or recorder must be reachable from the cloud at a public address, and your firewall must let the platform’s addresses in to its HTTP and RTSP ports.
- At least one stream must be H.264. Set the camera’s sub stream to H.264 if you can: it is smaller and starts faster.
- A key frame at least every 2 seconds makes the picture start quickly.
- A camera user that can only watch live video, not the administrator account.
Pages in this section
- Add a camera or recorder
- Live view
- Cameras on dashboards
- Camera events
- Camera limits and privacy
- Troubleshooting cameras
- In development: Snapshots and camera storage, Recordings and clips, Files on the camera’s own card
Permissions
| Permission | Lets a person | Default minimum role |
|---|---|---|
| View cameras, their streams and live view settings | See the Camera tab | User |
| Watch the live picture of a camera | Use the Watch tab and video cards (read access to the camera’s device is also needed) | User |
| Use a device as a camera, turn live view on and off, read its streams again, remove the camera | Manage cameras | Admin |
| Create, edit, test and delete protocol endpoints; discover and connect polled devices | Needed with the camera permission and device creation to add cameras | Admin |
Related
- Protocol endpoints: cameras use the same endpoints as other polled devices
- Video player card