Adding Cameras To An HDSpotMod From Spectrum

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Affected Roles: Administrator

Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps: DW Spectrum, Web Viewer

Complexity: Medium

Software Version: DW Spectrum v3.2 or later

Last Edit: May 1, 2020

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Adding with RTSP

In some cases, cameras will need to be added manually to an HDSPOTMOD, rather than relying on the device to scan for cameras automatically.

This article will outline how to add an RTSP stream from DW Spectrum to an HDSpotMod.

Supported/Affected Devices

DW Spot Monitoring Module
DW Blackjack Server Series

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 actually 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 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.

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 avoid 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 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. 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 and log in.

Default ID: admin
Default Password: --- (blank)

After logging in, click on Monitoring.

Click on Registration, then select Manual Registration.

Change the Protocol to RTSP, then select the Channel that you will be assigning the RTSP stream to.

We will now obtain the RTSP stream address from the DW Spectrum Server.

Open a new tab in your web browser and enter the NVR’s local IP address and port (default is 7001) to connect with the Server.

Example: http://192.168.100.201:7001

Note: If you are performing this from the DW Spectrum Server itself, entering http://127.0.0.1:7001 (loopback IP & default port) will also prompt the DW Spectrum web client.