Adding Cameras to an HD Spot Module from DW Spectrum
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Affected Roles: Administrator, Owner
Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps: DW Spectrum IPVMS, Web Viewer
Last Edit: August 6, 2024
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HD Spot™ Module
The DW Spot™ Monitoring Module (DW-HDSPOTMOD) allows viewers to monitor and observe the live video streams from select cameras - available in either a 4-channel model or a 16-channel model.
While it may seem more convenient to have your camera(s) stream directly to both the recording device and the HDSPOTMOD, it can cause streaming issues as that configuration would be creating more "work" for the camera. This article will go over how to manually assign cameras to an HDSPOTMOD from DW Spectrum, while avoiding this issue.
**NOTE: The DW-HDSPOTMOD only supports H.264 format from cameras. To change this setting, you may need to connect with the camera's web client and change this output setting before adding it to the HDSPOTMOD.
Supported/Affected Devices
- DW Spot™ Monitoring Module
- DW Blackjack® Server Series
Special Requirements
For the HD Spot Module to stream video from DW Spectrum, the “Force servers to accept only encrypted connections” setting must be disabled. This setting can be found by users with the Administrator role in the System Administration menu, under the Security settings.
Additionally, a user profile from DW Spectrum must be used to authenticate the connection between the Spectrum System and the HD Spot Module. Digest Authentication must be enabled for the user profile that is used. For more information, you can refer to the “DW Spectrum – Enabling Digest Authentication” article.
Assigning from DW Spectrum
DW Spectrum IPVMS (Internet Protocol Video Management System) communicates by ONVIF with IP cameras to monitor and record video streams over a network.
To prevent overdrawing network bandwidth, it is recommended to avoid having the cameras simultaneously stream to both the DW Spectrum Server and to an HDSPOTMOD. If both devices draw ONVIF video from the camera at the same time, you may encounter issues like video loss or other network-based streaming issues. Instead, manually adding cameras to the HDSPOTMOD using an RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) address can mitigate such an issue.
To obtain and manually assign an RTSP stream from DW Spectrum to an HDSPOTMOD:
- Confirm that the HDSPOTMOD and DW Spectrum Server are using the same IP scheme and can communicate with each other over the network.
**NOTE: If you have not completed the network setup for the HDSPOTMOD, outlined in the Quick Start Guide provided with the HDSPOTMOD, you will not be able to communicate with the device. Please follow the instructions in the guide.
- Open a web browser and enter the IP address and web port of the HDSPOTMOD to connect with the device’s web viewer. This information can be found in the Network menu of the device.
- URL: http://<IP_Address>:<Web_Port>
- Example: http://192.168.100.112:8080
- The Web Viewer login page will display.
Enter the administrator User ID and Password for the HDSPOTMOD to log in.
- Default ID: admin
- Default Password: --- (blank/determined at the time of initial setup)
- After logging in, click on Monitoring.
Click on Registration, then select Manual Registration.
Change the Protocol to RTSP, then select the viewing Channel that the RTSP stream will be assigned to display on the Spot Module.
- Obtain the primary/high and secondary/low RTSP stream information from the DW Spectrum Server. This can be found through the DW Spectrum Server’s web page.
For more information on finding RTSP information from a DW Spectrum Server, you may refer to the article DW Spectrum Finding Server RTSP Stream Information.
- Change back to the HDSPOTMOD web client in your browser.
You must enter the DW Spectrum User ID and Password in the Registration settings at the top of the menu. A user profile from DW Spectrum must be used to authenticate the connection between the Spectrum System and the HD Spot Module. Digest Authentication must be enabled for the user profile that is used.
Note: The User ID and Password for spectrum must both be all lower case.
For more information, you can refer to the “DW Spectrum – Enabling Digest Authentication” article.
- Paste the copied RTSP URL into the corresponding fields.
- Place the High Stream into RTSP 1st URL
- Place the Low Stream into RTSP 2nd URL
Click the Manual Add button to add the camera, then click the Save button.
The HDSPOTMOD does not allow you to view video from its web client. Check the display monitor that is directly connected to the HD Spot Module hardware to confirm that the HDSPOTMOD is streaming video.
Repeat the steps above for any remaining cameras that you want to add to the Spot Module.
