Does anyone else use Camius cameras with BI5?

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smather2175
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Joined: Wed May 06, 2020 3:48 am

Does anyone else use Camius cameras with BI5?

Post by smather2175 »

Specifically the 4K IP Security Camera, PoE, Spotlight, Outdoor, 2-Way Audio – SPOT828A. I love these cameras but they don't come with the greatest software and I'm building my system with a PC instead of a dedicated NVR. I'm just trying to connect with others who maybe using this camera or has experience with them and Blue Iris. Blue Iris documentation is very lacking and I need al the help I can get. I have 4 of these cameras, BI5, and paid for priority support.
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Thixotropic
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Re: Does anyone else use Camius cameras with BI5?

Post by Thixotropic »

Those look like some nice cameras, and very small.

If you paid for priority support, open the settings in BI and click the Email Support button. Copy that info into your message along with a description of the issue and send it in to the support address.
Blue Iris 5.x x64 | Windows 10 Pro x64 | 16GB RAM | i7-7700 3.6 GHz | 1TB HDD | 2TB RAID NAS | 9 Cameras | Almost Dual NIC | 2KVA UPS
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terk
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Re: Does anyone else use Camius cameras with BI5?

Post by terk »

I have Dahua, Ubiquity, and a no name camera, I don't have any of that brand. Do they have a web interface for the cameras where you can configure the IP, NTP, credentials, and other settings? With BI I usually just get the cameras all setup via the built-in web interface of the cameras then use the IP and credentials I setup to do the search option while setting up the camera and it usually works although I've had to play with trying a few different settings sometimes to get some features like PTZ or audio to work correctly. That camera says it is Onvif compliant so it should work with BI, although I don't see any mention of it working with RTSP.
Matts1984
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Re: Does anyone else use Camius cameras with BI5?

Post by Matts1984 »

First, I do not have their cams either but they do look pretty nice

I can't tell specifically on the 828A page but looking at others, like the 528A, it looks like the cameras are likely of Dahua lineage which in my experience is a good thing. The software looks like theirs. Based on the 528A model it does also confirm it supports RTSP so this should be a good fit with BI and work well. I really like the concept of spot lights built into the camera. I'm not sure how they're activated, etc or what it would take if you wanted BI to handle that vs the cameras directly.

Terks recommendation is pretty much exactly how I've always done things as well. Get the cameras as set up as possible in its web interface and then add it in BI and let it search (think Autodiscover). Most everything from there "just works". You can tweak settings here and there to enhance performance and get it as lean as you like.
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smather2175
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Joined: Wed May 06, 2020 3:48 am

Re: Does anyone else use Camius cameras with BI5?

Post by smather2175 »

Thanks folks, they use surveillanceplugin.exe for camera configuration but any manual documentation I find on it looks similar but not exactly the same options. I'm so new to all this I'm having extreme difficulty in configuring but I'm persistent
smather2175
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Joined: Wed May 06, 2020 3:48 am

Re: Does anyone else use Camius cameras with BI5?

Post by smather2175 »

To all, your advice to work on the supplied interface with the cameras got me going in the right direction and I'm able to get results on 1 cam but not 2 others. What is weird is that I have examined the settings on each an they are identical to the one that works.
I have 4 of the cameras I described, and yes they are nice - at least the one I have working. I'm able to get the spotlight and siren working when triggered. I'm not even close to working on two way aufio.
So, once I have that one camera working I'm ale to open Blue Iris and get it to send me an SMS and email alert when triggered, so I know Blue Iris is working with them to some degree. However, BI5 has no actions to support the spotlight or alarm. I'm hoping once I get a handle on things I can write a script or code to trigger those from BI5.

Here's one major thing I don't understand. The plugin to configure cameras uses HTTPS although they are setup in BI5 to use. Here's what I get wi9ht NI5 Find and Inspect. What does this tell me? Remember, I'm a techie but no experience with CCTV or the RTSP protocol.

Opening 192.168.0.43 port 80...
HTTP Get / request...
OK
ONVIF GetSystemDateAndTime
2020-05-17T02:23:10.000Z
Requesting device information...
Manufacturer: CAMIUS
Model: SPOT828A
FirmwareVersion: V4.41.5.0_190708
GetCapabilities...
Querying services
Has Search services: /onvif/SearchRecording
Has Imaging services: /onvif/imaging_service
Has media services: /onvif/media_service
Has RTP_RTSP_TCP, requesting profiles
first profile is Profile_1
first source is VideoSourceToken
requesting URI for profile Profile_1
RTSP URI: /ch01/0
Has Event services: /onvif/events_service
Has WSPullPointSupport
RelayOutputs: 1
RelayOutput: AlarmOut_1/Monostable/closed
InputConnectors: 1
Has Device IO services: /onvif/DeviceIO
AudioOutputs: 1
Done
louyo
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Re: Does anyone else use Camius cameras with BI5?

Post by louyo »

Part of the ONVIF protocols/specs.
See list of operations (including getcapabilities) here:
https://www.onvif.org/onvif/ver20/util/ ... Index.html
Click on item to see details.
There are Python (as well as C# I think) libraries that you can use to get/set stuff in the cameras. Not all cameras seem to implement all of the ONVIF stuff.
I have poked around a little but not all that much.

Lou
smather2175
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed May 06, 2020 3:48 am

Re: Does anyone else use Camius cameras with BI5?

Post by smather2175 »

Many thanks Lou. I'm assuming they are service oriented REST calls. Excuse me, gets, not calls. I hate dealing with WSDL/SOAP
smather2175
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Joined: Wed May 06, 2020 3:48 am

Re: Does anyone else use Camius cameras with BI5?

Post by smather2175 »

terk wrote: Wed May 06, 2020 5:31 pm I have Dahua, Ubiquity, and a no name camera, I don't have any of that brand. Do they have a web interface for the cameras where you can configure the IP, NTP, credentials, and other settings? With BI I usually just get the cameras all setup via the built-in web interface of the cameras then use the IP and credentials I setup to do the search option while setting up the camera and it usually works although I've had to play with trying a few different settings sometimes to get some features like PTZ or audio to work correctly. That camera says it is Onvif compliant so it should work with BI, although I don't see any mention of it working with RTSP.
I made my original post several months ago, but due to other large household projects and COVID19 I'm just now abler to get back to setting up. I see that configuring the cameras through their software first is the way to start. However, I still get lost with my lack of knowledge. I set them up as best as I can but having a lot of issues. I will directing them to the priority support I paid for. I've encountered odd things. If I use BI5 to find and inspect it comes back as Generic ONVIF plus model is *RTSP/H264.. etc. and sets the ONVIF port as 80 but in the cameras software device find it comes back with port 8999. Anyway, id BI5 communicating with RTSP/HTTP/HTTPS.... I'm afraid to mess with the defaults in the network section of the camera and BI5 doesn't show substream. I'm not expecting answers here unless someone can help with this:

If I'm using BI5 motion is pixelated, but using the cam software there is no pixelation. So, I can assume it's a BI5 config issue. And interestingly another cam in a different spot where I have motion lights and it is really bright I get pixelation until the motion lights come on and then things look fine.

Also, when I'm looking at video on my PC screen the resolution is not exceptional. Meaning reading license plates, or a very good face recognition with 4MP 8K cameras it's simply because I'm not using a 4k monitor?
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