Understanding the Camera Mounting Information

Understanding the Camera Mounting Information

Understanding the Camera Mounting Information


The CHeKT Dealer Portal now offers access to more granular mounting information for each mounted camera channel on the CKB304 and CKB312. This article will serve as a guide as to where this information can be accessed and what it means. 
1. Access the "Setting" page for your CKB304 and Navigate to Channels, and click on the mounted camera you would like to query: 


2. Click the "Information" Tab listed under "Status" in the selected camera channel screen:


3. Here you can view both the Authentication Steps the Camera completed during mounting under "mounting step:"
and pertinent stream/connection information to that device under "Mounting Info:" 


Understanding  the Mounting Steps: 

The above picture exemplifies a successfully mounted camera. Unsuccessful steps will be listed in red and successful in the green shade above. 
Each step has a drop down for descriptors, but below is a very "top down" summary of some of the pertinent steps:

1. Connection Information:  Obtaining the necessary IP/MAC info - Will proceed if the information is loaded into the Dealer Portal.

2. Auto Discovery: This is the bridge attempting to locate the device using the auto-discovery feature (an ONVIF function) - this happens to be the same function that begins when you click on a fresh channel to mount the bridge. Trouble with this step can imply an IP address change or a disconnected camera. Try the Manual IP function if you know the Camera is accessible on the network but failing this step.

3. API Connection: This is confirming configuration command compatibility. If this step fails, it is likely because the camera is not ONVIF profile S compatible (which can cause a discovery issue in the previous step as well) or the ONVIF communication has not been enabled in the camera. Verify the camera is at the latest firmware and has ONVIF enabled.

4. Setting Stream Configuration: The bridge is going to use the protocols above to log into the camera and make some necessary changes to the second stream. It sets the stream compression to H264 (if not already), verifies the second stream is below 720P but D1 or better and manually sets the frame-rate to 6FPS. If this step fails, its possible that there was a timeout/error during the stream configuration process. Try to manually set the parameters to match these if this step fails and see if the camera connects properly.

5. Checking Steam Configuration: The Bridge is going to obtain a video example from the second stream to verify the above changes were made correctly. Manually set parameters and reattempt mounting if not successful.

6. Checking Bridge Performance: After mounting that stream, the Bridge will verify that it doesn't cause an excessive work load. If this step fails, verify the stream size and parameters on all mounted channels are actually set to the recommended. Sometimes you may have a stream reporting it is only at a certain frame-rate and resolution but the local web interface displays a different setting – this can cause the bridge to work harder than planned as it expects a certain video parameter from each channel. Verify the Bridge is not repeatedly attempting to access the stream on a different, non-compatible or problematic device - this can waste CPU resources.

7. Results: Overview of result from previous steps. If all steps report Green, 7 will report a success.

Understanding Mounting Info:


A brief summary of the information presented: 
  1. Mounting Type: Whether the ONVIF network scan connected to the camera or a manual IP and port was listed. 
  2. API: The command protocol used to authenticate to and communicate with the camera. CHeKT has integrated API's from major camera manufacturers such as "Dahua" and "Hikvision" as well as the ONVIF standard. 
  3.  IP, Port Subnet, Gateway and IPV 6 (Mac) address of the mounted camera are listed in the next fields. 
  4. Video Stream URL: The RTSP stream URL configuration 
  5. Codec: Video Codec of mounted camera - H264 is preferred. 
  6. Snapshot Stream URL: RTSP snapshot URL configuration 
  7. The size and FPS of the snapshot and video stream are listed here near the bottom; CHeKT recommends a mounted frame rate of 6 FPS 
  8. CPU and memory usage are listed at the bottom. These should not be utilizing a substantial amount of device resources - check the stream configurations if you see this to be the case.

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