A Streaming Server Application for the Elphel 313 Network Camera

"ElphelStreamer" is a demonstration server application for the Elphel model 313 network camera. This application will multicast live video (JPEG frames) from the camera over the LAN, using the industry standard RTSP/RTP/RTCP protocols. The application uses a built-in RTSP server, so that standards-based media players (such as Apple's QuickTime Player) can view the stream, by opening a "rtsp://" URL.

To run the "ElphelStreamer" application:

  1. First, configure the camera's parameters (size, Y, R, G, B, quality, frame duration etc.) using the usual web-based interface - i.e., by opening "http://<IP-address-of-camera>". To set these parameters, grab an image (using "Preview" for a half-sized image, or "Still photo" for a full-sized image).
  2. Then, upload the "ElphelStreamer" application to the camera (e.g., using "ftp"), and run
            ElphelStreamer <frame-rate>
    
    where <frame-rate> is the desired frame rate (in frames per second). The program will then start, and print out the "rtsp://" URL that you can use to view the stream (from a media player client).
  3. Using a media player client - on the same LAN as the camera - open this "rtsp://" URL.

Source code

The source code for the application is available in the file Elphel.tgz.

If you wish to build the application from source, you must first set up a cross-development environment (as described on the Elphel web site), and then download and build the "LIVE555 Streaming Media" libraries, using

        genMakefiles cris-axis-linux-gnu
(Note: Some of the test programs (in the "testProgs" directory) may not build properly, because of "gethostname()" not being available. That's OK; ignore them.)

Then, download and unpack the ElphelStreamer source code, putting the "Elphel" directory as a subdirectory in the "live" directory. Then:

cd live/Elphel
cat Makefile.head ../config.cris-axis-linux-gnu Makefile.tail > Makefile
make
to build the "ElphelStreamer" application.



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