Test: ONVIF IP Camera

ONVIF is recent standard for security IP cameras. Due to the standard, it should be easier to integrate these cameras into a surveillance solution.

From ONVIF site:

The ONVIF specification defines a common protocol for the exchange of information between network video devices including automatic device discovery, video streaming and intelligence metadata.

I got one of the cheapest ONVIF IP camera that has very low minimum illumination (0.01lux) specified, please see figure below.

ONVIFcamera01

The product came with a management tool with several configuration options. I was surprised that most of them were also available via the ONVIF software that I used.

Software ONVIF Device Manager (open source)

  • worked very well, it found the IP camera, and most of the settings were available
  • I was not able to change the configuration file for the logs and traces

ONVIFcamera03

Software Happytimesoft ONVIF client (free)

  • worked very well, it found the IP camera, and most of the settings were available
  • it is possible to purchase the source code
  • then android client worked well too, it has buttons for snapshots or for recording video
  • the traces are available in the file “ipsee-date_time.txt”, below is some extract of this file. One can see the ONVIF messages…
[2016-08-15 17:21:13] : [DEBUG] TX >> POST /onvif/device_service HTTP/1.1
Host: 192.168.0.35:8899
<tds:getdeviceinformation/>

[2016-08-15 17:21:13] : [DEBUG] RX << HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: gSOAP/2.7
<tds:getdeviceinformationresponse>
<tds:manufacturer>H264</tds:manufacturer>
<tds:model>XXX</tds:model>
<tds:firmwareversion>XXX</tds:firmwareversion>
<tds:serialnumber>XXX</tds:serialnumber>
<tds:hardwareid>XXX</tds:hardwareid>
</tds:getdeviceinformationresponse>

VLC Media Player

It was possible to view the video stream when choosing “Open Network Stream” with URL like

rtsp://192.168.0.35:554/user=admin_password=xxx_channel=1_stream=0.sdp?real_stream

CCTV and DDoS

The device came with default userid admin, and without password. In the recent DDoS CCTVs has been abused, and therefore it is important that security aspects has been well tested.

Low light IP Camera suitable for telescope?

My plan is to try this device to take photos from the planets via the telescope. I will make other blogs with the results…

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