Resolume Forum

Trying to figure out the best way to get some cheap IP Cams (Hikvision) into resolume as sources. I have a bunch of them lying around and latency (and even quality) isn't a big issue for the application, which is an old led screen in the parking.

I saw some very old threads about directshow filters but most of them point to abandoned projects.

Is there a way people are already doing this?

If not, what would be the best approach?

Any tips/ tricks/ ideas welcome.

Do they do RTSP or are they ONVIF ?
You can use some middleware to convert your IP stream into something like NDI. That should get it into Resolume.

RTSP

I can view the streams in VLC.

From what I can see, the Newtech NDI software costs 1000 bucks for IP cam decoding, which then I might as well go and buy new cameras.

If you are getting RTSP, sounds like OBS is your tool. VLC/RTSP in, NDI out.

I just found the VLC NDI Output plugin. Maybe I can just run VLC on a VM and spit out NDI. Let's see how it goes. Sure would be nice to have a resolume plugin to just punch in a URL as a source.

Ok, for the record, this does work:

Play the RTSP stream with VLC and use the NDI tools to run the VLC NDI output plugin. But it's super clunky with at least 500ms latency

https://www.newtek.com/ndi/applications/

Yeah, VLC can output NDI, but if you're dealing with multiple streams OBS can be your switcher. It's NDI, latency is it's middle name (Not to mention the RTSP latency)

https://www.newtek.com/ndi/applications/connect/

NDI Connect (free) does not support IP Cams. Only NDI Connect Pro ($999)

Ok, so I'm going to leave this here for anybody in the future:

In the end my solution is to use a Raspberry Pi running Camplayer

https://github.com/raspicamplayer/camplayer

I just configured each Pi to run one IP Cam fullscreen on bootup. It spits out 1080p @ 60fps on the HDMI when it boots up.

You need the correct RTSP stream address for your camera, which you can find here:

https://www.ispyconnect.com/cameras

I might just rackmount a few Pi's to get a few cheap inputs going. I already have the cameras and the Pi's laying about.

I also made the file system read only, for reliability, so it isn't writing logs and swap files to the SD card. Will probably look at using USB boot in the future.

The latency is waaaaay better than using VLC and NDI and I can just patch the output of the Pi into the video mixer.

If I don't come back and update this thread, you can assume it has worked reliably!