Camera Detection - ONVIF

What is ONVIF?

ONVIF is an open standard which began in 2008. Its aim is to provide a common way to interact with IP-based security devices and it is now supported by the majority of IP cameras that were manufactured since 2010.

Benefits

If your cameras are ONVIF enabled it means Ops (via an Ops Link) can:

• Automatically detect the ONVIF cameras on the same network subnet.
• Automatically detect the video streams on an ONVIF camera once authentication details have been provided.

Testing

You should test that your camera supports ONVIF before you try using it in SureView Ops. To test if your camera has ONVIF support enabled and you have working ONVIF user credentials, use the free ONVIF Device Manager tool.

NOTE: if your camera does not work in the ONVIF tool then it will not work in SureView Ops either, please contact your camera manufacturer for guidance.

NOTE: if your camera does not support ONVIF or you cannot get it working then it is very likely that you will still be able to use RTSP with it.

Steps:

• Make sure your computer is on the same network as the cameras.
• Download and install the ONVIF Device Manager and run it.
• Enter the ONVIF username and password for your cameras at the top left and click "Log In".
• Click the "Refresh" button to search your network for ONVIF devices.
• Click a device in the Device List.
• To view live video click "Live Video" and the box at the bottom shows the RTSP URL which will be in the format rtsp://NetworkAddress:Port/PathAndParameters

Requirements

To use ONVIF the following items are required. For guidance on setting up your camera to meet these requirements refer to your manufacturer's website or documentation and test using the ONVIF Device Manager as noted above.

NOTE: if your camera does not support ONVIF or you cannot get it working then it is very likely that you will still be able to use RTSP with it.

1. ONVIF support: Your camera must support ONVIF
2. ONVIF enabled: Your camera must have ONVIF enabled. Note that many cameras need it to be manually enabled in their setup page (see Manufacturer Notes)
3. ONVIF user details: You must have user credentials for a user with access to the ONVIF features of the camera. Note that some cameras have two separate user lists with one for users that can access the camera setup and for users that can use ONVIF (see Manufacturer Notes)
4. ONVIF H.264 camera streams: Your camera must have camera streams available via ONVIF that use H.264 encoding (no other formats including JPEG or H.265 etc - see Video Requirements)
5. Ports accessible: Your camera must be accessible by the Ops Link on ports 80 (HTTP) and 554 (RTSP)
6. Latest firmware: Ideally your camera should be running on the latest firmware as manufacturers regularly update their ONVIF support to fix compliance issues
7. Discovery requirements: To use automatic ONVIF camera detection (WS-Discovery) the following are also required:
   1. Your cameras must be on the same network subnet as the Ops Link
   2. Your network must allow UDP broadcast and response traffic on port 3702 between the Ops Link and your cameras

Manufacturer Notes

While testing with various manufacturers the following has been seen:

*1 some manufacturers do not properly implement the ONVIF specification which may stop you from using it to access the camera. The majority of cameras support RTSP which can be used instead.

*2 external guidance links are provided purely as examples - please contact your camera manufacturer for specific information regarding your cameras.