Video Surveillance

So using Security Cam allows you to view the feed live in Indigo on a control page? I've not done anything with control pages in indigo so far, I could set one up with a window feed from each camera and just view that page to view the cameras correct? Does an action need to trigger to view or can I view the live stream any time I want and just use the trigger for recording?

Yes. Yes. No trigger necessary. Yes.

What I was trying to point out is that rather than having to pick a view from a list of pages, using DomoPad you can have Indigo push a page to you that Indigo thinks you will want to see.

Ok, so I’ve got a good idea on what I need, now I need some cameras. Can anyone recommend a ONVIF compliant PTZ camera with POE and preferably under $200 per camera?

Seems like everything I’m finding right now are fixed domes and I really need at least 1 ptz

I wanted to thank everyone for their help and advice. I finally decided to go with an Amcrest IP2M-841EB 1080P POE camera with PTZ with an Amcrest 9-Port POE Gigabit Switch to start out. I've got a trial of Sighthound as well as Security Spy and Security Camera to be able to try all 3 and figure out which one I finally want to go with.

One last question on installation. Ideally I'd like to mount the camera in the kitchen corner on the ceiling which would give me 99% coverage of the main living area, but the idea of fishing Cat5e seems a little scary. I'm thinking of mounting on the wall instead of the ceiling simply because I can drill a hole, use a flex drill bit to drill a hole into the basement and fish it through pretty easy. Its making the 90 degree turn at the top of the first floor wall into the ceiling that I can't quite wrap my head around without drilling / cutting a hole into the corner where the wall and ceiling meet.

What do you guys think? Wall mount vs Ceiling mount in the corner above the cabinets?

+1 for Blue Iris, I run it headless on a homebuilt Mini-Itx machine with a small SSD for the OS and a big NAS hard drive for the video. The new "beta" web interface adds polish to the last weakest point (the web UI) but no messing around with camera configuration and it just works and is easily tuned for motion detection with purpose built tools. The app is awesome. Indigo integration for me is limited to control pages (because I don't need any) but you can very easily trigger scenes (it can generate http calls and has a restful api) based on motion detection or change Blue Iris behaviour (home/away recording etc).

I know it is PC based but the license model for Security SPY is prohibitive for my number of cameras and Blue Iris is much better value for my use case. I also like having it in an nondescript industrial case in my loft bolted to the rafters that doesn't even look like a PC or an NVR device, and dedicated for the purpose. My worry would be I am much more likely to have one of my Mac's stolen complete with my CCTV images, the same reason I like an integrated but separate alarm than relying on Indigo.

It really doesn't take any looking after and is simple to setup with good forums, so no reason to avoid on OS grounds.

So I assume Blue Iris comes in cheaper than Security Spy not only for the program cost (if using multiple cameras) but also for hardware, right? It seem like you'd need a fairly powerful Mac (basically a Mac Pro) once you get over a few cameras, even if only going 10 FPS. An equivalently powered PC for this purpose would definitely be a lot cheaper I think.

I really like the idea of Indigo still being in the loop though. There are ways Blue Iris can call Indigo actions? Like, say, turn on a flood light in response to motion?

I would assume that the converse definitely isn't true, though, right? Indigo won't be making Blue Iris changes, right?

I've been trialing Security Spy on my MacMini with just a single camera at 10FPS, and seeing it consume up to 10% of CPU-- and that's with the camera doing motion detection and no video processing. Clearly I wouldn't be able to add too many more cameras before it became overwhelmed.

Actually both things are true

1) You can call an action group based on a motion detection in BlueIris. You simply add the appropriate URL for the relevant action group in blue iris. I use exactly what you describe to trigger the floodlight in my garden. In the trigger dialogue you have “request from a web service” option in which you add the Restful api call to trigger the relevant action group. I cannot get to it now but if you need it I can grab the configuration details.

2) BlueIris also has a similar API so you can set various things including home and away recording settings and much more, and can simply call the appropriate url to for example force a trigger to start recording based on an Indigo event. You will find a list of the http actions in the blue iris help file, and lots of examples online.

I built a Miniitx machine with a reasonable i5 and 8gb of Ram and it runs well with 8 cameras, but not too much more headroom in processor. (It runs about 70%).

Let me know if you want more details on the specs etc.

Thanks,
Neil

Great, thanks.

I'm going to try out Blue Iris (hopefully it will run on a laptop or something I have lying around) and then assuming that seems to be the direction, will think about what kind of machine to run it on.

Actually both things are true

1) You can call an action group based on a motion detection in BlueIris. You simply add the appropriate URL for the relevant action group in blue iris. I use exactly what you describe to trigger the floodlight in my garden. In the trigger dialogue you have “request from a web service” option in which you add the Restful api call to trigger the relevant action group. I cannot get to it now but if you need it I can grab the configuration details.

If you get a chance, could you give an example of how you did this? I read the wiki article on REST and curl, but it's all way over my head. I think if I had a few working, though, I could maybe work backwards from there.

I have a sort of test run of BI running on an old laptop (before buying a dedicated windows machine) and it certainly seems like a great program. If I can get some Indido/CP integration, I'll definitely be sold.

Thanks

No problem, here you go.

Blue Iris Motion

To get BlueIris to trigger an action group in Indigo, first create the action group that you want to trigger on motion. In my example it is named "backgarden"

Then in BlueIris go to the camera properties(right click on the correct camera image to get the menu, select camera properties)
Setup the motion detection, in the trigger tab check "Motion Sensor", then click the configure button. (Good videos on how to tune and zone this on youtube)
From the "Alerts" tab in the camera properties, check "Request from a Web Service" and click configure
In the "When Triggered" field inter the following

<indigousername>:<indigopassword>@192.168.1.11:8176/actions/backgarden?_method=execute

Replacing the appropriate username, password, IP Address & Port and the correct action group name for that camera ("backgarden" in my case).

Hit test and you action group should run. Rinse and repeat for your other cameras.

Control Page Refreshing Images

Code: Select all

http://192.168.1.200:82/image/backgarden?w=320&q=80&s=80&user=<bi user>&pw=<bi password>

Will give you a refreshing image for a control page, where "backgarden" is the short camera name and insert a BlueIris username and password, I would add a specific BI user for this limited to local LAN access and without admin privileges. You will need the correct IP address and port for the Blue Iris server.

I will look into the other way around (Indigo changing BlueIris), I don't actually use it anymore, but I have my old Vera change the "Profile" in BlueIris which allows you to vary motion detection, alerting, etc so that for example you use different motion settings for day and night, or you can switch off motion triggers if you are home vs away.

Controlling Blue Iris from Indigo

On this I have rehashed from a similar post to do it in another product.

This changes BlueIris to "Profile 7"

Code: Select all

http://user:password@192.168.1.200:8030/admin?profile=7

Where
IP Address for Blue Iris = 192.168.1.200
Blue Iris port = 8030
Blue Iris Profile = 7
(user:password@ can be omitted if you are not using authentication for your Blue Iris web server)

The full list of commands is

Code: Select all

/image/{cam-short-name}?h=100 You may also specify a specific height (h) or width (w) instead of scale.
/mjpg/{cam-short-name}/video.mjpg An M-JPEG stream.  This stream is compatible with "Blue Iris MJPEG stream request."
/file/clips/{filename}&mode=jpeg&speed=100 An M-JPEG stream of a clip from your New clips folder.  You may include additional subdirectory names in the filename.  The speed parameter is optional, a percentage of normal playback speed.
/thumbs/{filename} A thumbnail image from a specific file in the New clips folder.
/alerts/{filename} A JPEG image from the Alerts folder.
/admin?profile=x Temporarily change the active profile to x.  Use x=-1 to toggle the lock status.
/admin?camera=x&trigger Trigger camera x (short name)
/admin?signal=x Changes the traffic signal state and returns the current state.  x=0 for red, x=1 for green, x=2 for yellow.  This requires admin authentication.
/audio/{cam-short-name}/temp.wav Pull a raw audio stream (MIME type audio/x-wav).
/cam/{cam-short-name}/pos=x Performs a PTZ command on the specified camera, where x= 0=left, 1=right, 2=up, 3=down, 4=home, 5=zoom in, 6=zoom out
/cam/{cam-short-name}/pos=100 Causes a snapshot image to be captured from the specified camera.
/h264/{cam-short-name}/temp.h264 Pull a raw H.264 stream (MIME type video/H264).  This stream will play in a tool like VLC, and may be used in future versions of the ActiveX control.
/h264/{cam-short-name}/temp.ts Pull an MPEG-2 transport stream (MIME type video/MP2T).
/h264/{cam-short-name}/temp.m or .m3u8 Pull a virtual M3U8 file (MIME type application/vnd.apple.mpegurl).  This will play in QuickTime, iPad and the iPhone using the iPhone Live Streaming format.

So for example if you wanted to force a trigger on a camera as your alarm is sounding so it records, you would do the following

Code: Select all

http://192.168.1.200:8030/admin?camera=backgarden&trigger

Where "backgarden" is the short camera name you set in BlueIris.

To do that from Indigo you can run an embedded python script action as follows.

Code: Select all

import requests
url = "http://192.168.1.200:8030/admin?camera=backgarden&trigger"
requests.get(url)

Try the url in a browser first, and it seems it can be fussy about authentication, in my example you would set BlueIris not to require authentication on the local LAN. I am afraid if you run into authorisation issues then I am stuck, but could probably point you in the right direction to use curl in an external script. Let me know if you need more.

No problem, here you go.

Blue Iris Motion

To get BlueIris to trigger an action group in Indigo, first create the action group that you want to trigger on motion. In my example it is named "backgarden"

Then in BlueIris go to the camera properties(right click on the correct camera image to get the menu, select camera properties)
Setup the motion detection, in the trigger tab check "Motion Sensor", then click the configure button. (Good videos on how to tune and zone this on youtube)
From the "Alerts" tab in the camera properties, check "Request from a Web Service" and click configure
In the "When Triggered" field inter the following

<indigousername>:<indigopassword>@192.168.1.11:8176/actions/backgarden?_method=execute

Replacing the appropriate username, password, IP Address & Port and the correct action group name for that camera ("backgarden" in my case).

Hit test and you action group should run. Rinse and repeat for your other cameras.

Control Page Refreshing Images

Code: Select all

http://192.168.1.200:82/image/backgarden?w=320&q=80&s=80&user=<bi user>&pw=<bi password>

Will give you a refreshing image for a control page, where "backgarden" is the short camera name and insert a BlueIris username and password, I would add a specific BI user for this limited to local LAN access and without admin privileges. You will need the correct IP address and port for the Blue Iris server.

I will look into the other way around (Indigo changing BlueIris), I don't actually use it anymore, but I have my old Vera change the "Profile" in BlueIris which allows you to vary motion detection, alerting, etc so that for example you use different motion settings for day and night, or you can switch off motion triggers if you are home vs away.

That worked great, thanks a lot. This forum has to be the best tech board in all the interwebs...

I'll leave a tip here in case anyone else finds this later on a search trying to do the same thing: The process doesn't always play nice with all "special" characters in your Indigo server password, even if you code them for url's. You may have to tweak your password some to get one that works.

Now I have to figure out a way to keep BI from interpreting a light change as motion. Otherwise, when a triggered light goes off, it thinks that's motion and retriggers the light. I think if I adgust the "Make Time" I can fix that.

Thanks again for the help.

What about a "kit" or system vs purchasing things individually? Anyone have experience with using a manufacturer provided NVR solution vs recording to one of your own HD's?

In Aug2017 I installed six Ubiquiti Unifi outdoor cameras and their NVR and cannot be more pleased. I put them on a separate wired POE network and large UPS battery. Works great. The motion algo is pretty good but not perfect. It will allow for a snapshot request, several rstp feeds, and responds to pings for integration. Beyond checking for deliveries and seeing when sitter arrived I dont really touch it. 6 cameras on modest motion recording (99.9% wind blowing) the storage lasts about 3-4months before it starts overwriting. After setup it has been hands off. I have Indigo ping the cameras/nvr every 3hours to tell me if downtime. The Ubiquiti app only streams HD so kinda weighty for mobile so I have indigo streaming snapshots or LiveCams Pro streaming SD video if I ever want to check on mobile. Sorry for being late to this thread. ar

Now I have to figure out a way to keep BI from interpreting a light change as motion. Otherwise, when a triggered light goes off, it thinks that's motion and retriggers the light. I think if I adgust the "Make Time" I can fix that

No problem at all, I am glad it helped.

This series of videos really goes into tuning the motion detection, and other BlueIris features, I find it better than the documentation as it is a visual concept.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB_OPqPp3BA

Also rather than the make time, I think you can do what you need from the alert dialogue as you can set a timer for the alert. (It is in the configure web alert window where you add the Indigo URL). That way if you set a timer on repeating the alert for longer than you want the lights on you won't get the false trigger. That may be better than compromising your motion detection sessions, as changing the make time may possibly mean you also miss real alerts.

I also wonder if we should have a separate BlueIris thread, as it looks like a number of people use it.

Neil

In Aug2017 I installed six Ubiquiti Unifi outdoor cameras and their NVR and cannot be more pleased. I put them on a separate wired POE network and large UPS battery. Works great. The motion algo is pretty good but not perfect. It will allow for a snapshot request, several rstp feeds, and responds to pings for integration. Beyond checking for deliveries and seeing when sitter arrived I dont really touch it. 6 cameras on modest motion recording (99.9% wind blowing) the storage lasts about 3-4months before it starts overwriting. After setup it has been hands off. I have Indigo ping the cameras/nvr every 3hours to tell me if downtime. The Ubiquiti app only streams HD so kinda weighty for mobile so I have indigo streaming snapshots or LiveCams Pro streaming SD video if I ever want to check on mobile. Sorry for being late to this thread. ar

For 9 months in 2016 I was evaluating the Ubiquiti cameras and NVR and I could not be more disappointed. I had the system in my lab to test for suitability for some SMB enterprise deployments I had coming up. To try and get some visibility on upcoming improvements and to try to rectify system shortcomings Ubiquiti even put me on the alpha test team. This is my takeaways on Ubiquiti IPCs and NVRs

1. Cameras are extremity limited in selection and somewhat over priced
2. Cameras have limited usefulness with other NVRs. (RSTP only)
3. Cameras are frequently unavailable and new models are in extremely limited supply for months
4. NVR software is super buggy and has a hard time with basic motion events
5. Ubiquiti has revamped their Security products roadmap and strategy regularly resulting in a confused offering and older equipment being orphaned

I finally gave up and put all the gear on ebay to recoup some losses (although the hours and hours of testing and configuring are lost forever)

I am now using Blue Iris for home and SMB users (and it is ridiculously cheap as it is enterprise grade software) with Dahua IPC cams exclusively. Note my lab BI/dahua system was up and running in minutes and its basic configuration is still essentially the same as it was when I first deployed it.

FWIW I deploy Ubiquiti Airmax, EdgeRouter, and UniFi networking products in my day job, you will not find a bigger ubnt fan than me.

I also wonder if we should have a separate Blue Iris thread, as it looks like a number of people use it.

+1 for this idea!

I've got more questions that I am going to work on today. I'll start on a new thread.