IP CAMERA LEARNING & RESOURCE CENTER

Note: Applies to 2nd Generation Y-cams only.

Viewing the video feed from your 2nd Generation Y-Cam Black, Y-Cam Knight or Y-Cam White is easier than ever, now that Y-Cam have built controls into their cameras for just this purpose. Here are the details you need:

iPhone and iPod Touch

On the iPhone or iPod Touch you can visit the camera as you would in any desktop browser and once logged in the Y-cam will auto-detect the browser type (in this case Safari) and display a motion jpeg stream. This is a live video stream directly from the camera, but not optimised for the mobile viewing platform.

Mobile phone with browser and 3gpp capability - VLC player

On your phone’s browser visit http://ipaddress:port/en/mblogin.asp and you will see 3 options: Live picture, 3gpp stream and mobile settings. From here you can choose whether to view a static image, a video stream optimised for cellphones, or change the settings (which you may have to do to get the 3gpp stream working on your phone.

BlackBerry

As above. There are VLC players compatible with the BlackBerry which can be used to view 3gpp streams from the Y-Cam.

Direct 3gpp stream

The direct url for 3gpp streams is: rtsp://ipaddress:port/live_mpeg4.spd

This will work in 3gpp enabled phones, but will also work on your desktop in players like Quicktime and Real Player which support the 3gpp video stream type.

If that url does not work tyr this one: rtsp://ipaddress:port/live_mjpeg.sdp

Live picture

To view a live picture from the Y-Cam on your phone go to http://ipaddress:port/snapshot.jpg. This will display a static image captured at the time of request. To see a new snapshot you will need to refresh the page.

“How can I show the live image from my IP camera on my web page?”

We get asked this question a lot.  Whether it’s from a customer of ours who has a business they would like to promote, say from the leisure or tourism industry or from a customer who is an end user and is working on their family website, we can help with the answer.

We will be running a number of these guides to cover as many camera manufacturers as possible.  This guide will focus on the Y-cam.  The Y-cam is ideal for use as a streaming IP webcam as it is affordable and can be placed outdoors using it’s specially designed Shell housing.

This guide will be suitable for:

Y-cam White
Y-cam Black
Y-cam Knight

It will work for both 1st and 2nd generation models.

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The Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is the protocol used by network devices such as IP cameras and PCs for transmitting information across the internet. The Protocol was designed by CERN in Switzerland in the late 1980s as an easy way of transferring text documents. The project grew rapidly and now almost every website in the world uses it.

IP cameras usually have a built in HTTP server to ease configuration and viewing. This is what you see when you log into your camera. These usually use port 80, although most cameras allow this to be changed if necessary.

A CMOS sensor, when applied to IP surveillance cameras, is a device which converts light energy into electrical voltages which can be read by an IP camera and translated into images. In a similar manor to CCD sensors, CMOS sensors are made up of thousands or millions of light-reactive cells. Each reacts to a component of light; red, green or blue. The amount of light on each cell is translated into a voltage which is read by the camera and translated into data. This is then compressed and sent across the network to the viewing computer which arranges the data back in its original colour and position providing a picture.

CMOS sensors are a lot newer than CCD sensors and thus the technology is improving all the time. CMOS sensors also require a lot less power than a comparable CCD sensor. CCD sensors tend to offer a higher quality image than a comparable CMOS sensor, although CMOS image quality is progressing as time passes.

The Dynamic Host Control Protocol is used to set up network devices with a useable IP address with little-to-no manual intervention. The protocol, usually used by routers or servers, uses a “pool” of usable IP addresses. When a new device connects to the network with DHCP enabled, it makes a request to the router or server for an IP address. The assigning device will supply an address to the device and will remove the address from its pool. This means that should another device connect there is no possibility of it receiving the same IP address and causing a conflict.

A Charge Coupled Device (CCD) is a type of image sensor and is basically the eye of your IP security camera. Is it a small, light-sensitive integrated circuit which translates the light which hits it into a digital electrical signal.

On the CCD there are thousands or even millions of tiny receptive cells. These cells react to the red, green or blue light components and records each as a voltage. The voltage is then read by the camera, compressed and then sent along the network.

CCD sensors are usually measured in physical dimensions. In IP CCTV cameras these are usually 1/4, 1/3 or 1/2 an inch. Larger sensors tend to give a better picture as they have a larger surface area to catch more light.

Analogue, when applied to CCTV, refers to security cameras which output video signals in a wave form, rather than a series of 1s and 0s. Older CCTV cameras tend to use this as their primary form of video output. Some newer IP cameras offer this as a secondary output so that older monitoring equipment can be used, easing migration from analogue to digital IP systems.