Learn how to use an IP camera as the video source for a Wowza Video™ live stream. IP cameras, sometimes called webcams or netcams, let you capture and broadcast live video over the Internet. They're often used for video surveillance and security.
You can set up the camera first, or set up the live stream in Wowza Video first. Either way, when you start the live stream in Wowza Video, it will periodically try to connect to the camera until the camera comes online.
To learn about other live stream settings you might see in the user interface, see Live Stream Setup page in Wowza Video.
1. Create a live stream
- Sign in to Wowza Video.
- Click Add Live Stream.
- On the Live Stream Setup page, enter a Live Stream Name, choose a Broadcast Location, and then click Next.
- On the Video Source and Transcoder Settings page, select IP Camera as the camera or encoder you want to use to connect to Wowza Video.
- Enter the camera's Source URL. See the camera's user guide to get its address. The hostname or IP address must be publicly accessible. If authentication information, such as username and password, is included in the source URL, it can only contain alphanumeric, period (.), underscore (_), and hyphen (-) characters.
- Specify other video source settings, and make sure to select the same Input Resolution that you use in your camera settings.
- Click Next, and complete the steps to finish creating the live stream.
Wowza Video creates the live stream and displays the Overview tab of the live stream detail page.
2. Set up the camera
Make sure you have the latest firmware for your camera installed. See the camera's user guide for details about how to update firmware as well as how to operate the camera and how to adjust settings such as resolution, bitrate, and frame rate.
When streaming from an IP camera to Wowza Video, set the camera's keyframe interval to 60 fps for NTSC or 50 fps for PAL.
3. Test the connection
- In Wowza Video, select the live stream that uses the IP camera as its video source.
- Click Start Live Stream at the top of the live stream detail page.
- Click Start to confirm that you want to start the stream.
Wowza Video opens the stream and connects with the camera.
- Start the camera.
- In the Wowza Video web manager, confirm that the live stream is playing by looking at the Video Preview in the Overview tab of the Live Stream Details page.
The video preview displays a frame from the live stream every 5 seconds. The started date and time appear under the preview. Source stream, transcoder, and delivery metrics begin to update.
- Click Stop Live Stream at the top of the live stream detail page to end your test stream, and then stop the camera.
