A client GUI for ONVIF

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Project description

Cayenue

IP Camera Interface Software

Take your security seriously.

View, analyze and store AV streams from a fleet of networked cameras in real time. Reduce cognitive load to enhance phenomena observability using nueral net feedback indicators. Concurrently review events in critical alert situations with intuitive controls. Distributed knowledge using proxy service multipliers. Absolute autonomy over data privacy.

System Requirements

Onvif compliant cameras. Brands known to work with this system: Dahua, Hikvision, Amcrest, Trendnet, Reolink, Axis, Vivotek, Speco

Computers running Linux, Mac or Windows. Cayenue runs as both the server and the client. Linux and Mac are recommended for the server. To run YOLO inference on camera streams, a capable compute unit is required. Supported GPUs include Intel iGPU, NVIDIA and Mac Silicon. Excellent results are acheived with Intel Xe graphics and Apple M series chips. These compute units offer outstanding power consumption profiles, strong performance and are supported directly by the installers for zero configuration.

Network Configuration

Cayenue supports complete camera isolation with proxy services. The cameras are unable to access either your own network or the internet at large. This is a critical feature for privacy that protects your installation and data.

Recordings are stored locally and shareable from the server for access by client computers. Configure the server for SMB protocol and pull video with the integrated file browser from any supported OS.

Searchable Video Database

Events triggered by the YOLO detector are stored as images that can be linked to the Video library. Simply double click the picture to start the timelime playback. Specific time points in video files can be accessed using the search tool. Important functions have associated key bindings for mouseless operation.

Expand Your Horizon

Open source software written in Python with the permissive Apache license gives you the ability to craft your own algorithms for advanced usage.

Operation

Getting Started

Discover

To get started, click the Discover button. A login screen will appear for each camera as it is found. The Settings tab may be used to set a default login that can be used to automatically submit login credentials to cameras. There is also an Auto Discover check box on the Settings panel.

Initially, cameras will populate the list using the default name provided by the manufacturer. To change the camera name, use the F2 key, or the right click context menu over the camera list.

Play

Upon completion of discovery, the camera list will be populated. A single click on a camera in the list will display the camera parameters in the lower part of the tab. Double clicking will start the camera output stream. The camera stream may also be started by clicking the play button or by typing the enter key while a camera is highlighted in the list.

Multiple cameras can stream simultaneously. The application will add camera output to the display for each camera as it is started. The controls for camera operations apply to the current camera, which is the highlighted camera in the list on the camera panel. The current camera will have a thin white border around it in the display.

Network conditions, compute load or internal camera issues may cause buffer overflow in the application pipeline. The result may be that packets are dropped, which can degrade the quality of the stream. If packets are being dropped, the camera display will show a yellow border.

Play All

The play action can be applied to all cameras simultaneously.

Stop

When the camera stream is running, the play button for that camera will change appearance to the stop icon. Clicking the button will stop the stream. The stream can also be stopped from the camera list by double clicking or typing the enter key.

Stop All

The stop action can be applied to all cameras simultaneously.

Record

Recording can be initiated manually by clicking the record button. The file name is generated automatically and is based on the start time of the recording in date format as YYYYMMDDmmSS.mp4. The Archive Directory setting will determine the location of the file. A subdirectory is created for each camera to help organize files within the archive.

During manually initiated recording, a rotating red colored tick mark will show in the lower right corner of the stream display. The Record Button on the Camera Panel will show red during all recording operations. Note that recording initiated automatically during Alarm conditions or Record Always will disable the Record Button.

Files created by the application are limited in length to 15 minutes. Recordings that require a longer time will be broken up into several parts that are each 15 minutes long. There will be a slight overlap between files broken up this way corresponding to the length of the Pre Record Buffer setting.

File Operations

Picture and Video files generated by the system can be viewed and managed with a built in file browser. See the File Operations section of this document for more details.

Snapshot

A snapshot of the currently selected camera cna be saved as jpg file. The snapshot will be named by the system using YYYYMMMDDHHmmSS.jpg format, unless otherwise specified in the file save dialog. The file save dialog can be suppressed using the checkbox labelled "Snapshot File Dlg" on the Settings->General tab. There are two modes under which files may be saved, Local and Remote. The Local mode will use the stream currently displayed and convert that to a picture format. This mode will preserve the aspect ratio of the stream and any artifacts such as AI boxes drawn on the image. The Remote mode will address the camera directly through the network and request a snapshot of the Record Profile for the camera. This will generally be a higher resolution image and may be subject to latency or camera network errors. In the event that the camera fails to deliver the image, the Local mode will be used as a fallback.

Apply

Camera parameters are available on the tabs on the lower right side of the application. Initially, the Apply button will be disabled with a dimmed icon. Once a parameter has been changed, the Apply button will be enabled, which can be used to commit the change to the camera. The camera may re-start the stream in order to make the changes.

Full Screen

Toggle the application between full screen and normal mode.

Mute

Camera audio can be controlled from the panel. The mute button can be clicked to mute the audio. The mute button appearance indicates the state of the audio. The volume slider can be used to control the volume. Note that the mute and volume controls are applied to each camera individually.

Help

Opens the system web browser to this page.

Keyboard Bindings

Many of the above functions can be executed without using the mouse via keyboard bindings. Below is a list of the bindings

Enter

This will start the currently selected camera. If the camera is already running, the Focus window will show with the high resolution camera stream. Please note that the first time the Focus window launches, the application focus will transfer to that window.

Escape

If the Focus window is visible, the Escape key will hide it. If Focus window is not visible, the camera stream is stopped.

Ctl+D

Start Discovery

Ctl+A

Start/Stop all cameras

Ctl+F

Open the File Browser

Ctl+S

Take a snapshot for the currently selected camera if running

Ctl+R

Toggle recording for the currently selected camera if running

Show stream information for a running camera

Rename the currently selected camera

Delete

Remove the currently selected camera from the list. This will remove the camera from the Cached Addresses for discovery. Use broadcast discovery to re-enlist the camera.

Camera Parameters

Changes are committed to the camera by using the Apply button, if necessary.

Media

W x H (Resolution)

Camera resolution is adjusted using the combo box which has available settings. To change the camera resolution, make a selection from the combo box and then click the apply button. The camera may re-start the video stream in order to effect the change.
Aspect

When using substreams, the aspect ratio may be distorted. Changing the aspect ratio by using the combo box can restore the correct appearance of the video. If the aspect ratio has been changed this way, the label of the box will have a * appended. This setting is not native to the camera, so it is not necessary to click the apply button for this change.
FPS

Frame rate of the camera can be adjusted using the spin box. The change is made on the camera when the apply button is clicked. Higher frame rates will have a better appearance with smoother motion at the expense of increased compute load.
GOP

Keyframe interval of the video stream. Keyframes are a full frame encoding, whereas intermediate frames are differential representations of the changes between frames. Keyframes are larger and require more computing power to process. Higher GOP intervals mean fewer keyframes and as a result, less accurate representation of the video. Lower GOP rates increase the accuracy of the video at the expense of higher bandwidth and compute load. It is necessary to click the Apply button to enact these changes on the camera.

Note that some cameras may have an option for Dynamic GOP or Adaptive Framerate, or some other name for a process that reduces the GOP automatically based on the lack of motion in the camera view. It is advised to turn this feature off when using onvif-gui. To access the feature, use the camera web application from the System Tab -> Browser button.
Bitrate

The bitrate of the video stream. Higher bitrates increase the quality of the video appearance at the expense of larger file sizes. This is most relevant when maintaining recordings of videos on the host file system. Bitrates are generally expressed in kbps by cameras, but may be inaccurate or scaled differently. Use the Apply button after changing this setting to enact the change on the camera.
Profile

Most cameras are capable of producing multiple media streams. This feature can be useful when running many cameras on the same computer or if a compute intensive task is being run on a stream. The default stream of the camera is called the Main Stream. A secondary stream running at lower settings is called the Sub Stream. The application uses the terms Display Profile and Record Profile to describe these settings.

Initially, the Main Stream is selected by default as both the Display Profile and the Record Profile. By changing the selection to a secondary profile on the Media Tab, a lower order Sub Stream can be displayed. The term lower order implies that the Sub Stream has lower resolution, lower frame rate and lower bitrate than the Main Stream. Note that the application may be processing both streams, but only the Display Profile selected on the Video Tab is displayed. The other stream, referred to as the Record Stream, is not decoded, but its packets are collected for writing to disk storage.

The display will update automatically when the Video Tab Profile combo box is changed, so it is not necessary to click the Apply button when changing this setting.
No Audio

Audio can be disabled by selecting this check box. This is different than mute in the sense that under mute, the audio stream is decoded, but not played on the computer speakers. If the No Audio check box is selected, the audio stream is discarded. If the No Audio checkbox is deselected, the stream will restart in order to initialize the audio. The Apply button is not clicked when changing this parameter. This checkbox is selected by default.

** Please Note ** If the audio is enabled by deselecting this check box, and there is no physical audio device connected to the computer, there may be issues with stream processing. If an Audio Driver is specified on the Settings -> General panel such as pulseaudio, there should be a physical audio device such as headphones, speakers or HDMI connected to the host computer. Without a physical device, it may be possible in some cases for the audio driver to enter an undefined state which may cause the camera stream to stutter or freeze and may lead to lengthy timeouts when closing the camera stream. If there is no physical device available, the Audio Driver can be changed to dummy in order to avoid this problem. This condition applies only to camera streams which are displayed to the user interface. The Record Stream, if different than the Display Stream, is hidden and is not affected by this condition.
Audio

The audio encoder used by the camera is set here. If the camera does not have audio capability, the audio section will be disabled. Note that some cameras may have audio capability, but the stream is not available due to configuration issues or lack of hardware accessories. Available audio encoders will be shown in the combo box and may be set by the user. Changes to the audio parameter require that the Apply button is clicked to enact the change on the camera.

AAC encoding is a higher quality stream and are recommended for recording. G711 style encoders are good for low latency playback if real time operation is important. Streams using AAC encoding map to mp4 file format and G711 uses mov. Note that some cameras have incorrect implementations for encoders and the audio may not be usable in the stream recording to disk. Please be aware that currently onvif-gui is unable to process G726.
Samples

Available sample sizes are shown in the combo box. Use the Apply button to enact the change on the camera. Higher sample sizes increase the quality of the audio at the expense of higher bandwidth and disk space when recording. Lower sample sizes correlate to lower latency. The audio bitrate is implied by the sample size based on encoder parameters.
Video Alarm

This check box enables video analytic processing for alarm generation. See the section on Video Panel for reference to video alarm functions. Note that the Video Alarm check box must be selected in order to enable the Video Panel for that camera. The Apply button is not used for this setting. During Alarm condition, a solid red circle will show in the stream display if not recording, or a blinking red circle if the stream is being recorded.
Audio Alarm

This check box enables audio analytic processing for alarm generation. See the section on Audio Panel for reference to audio alarm functions. Note that the Audio Alarm check box must be selected in order to enable the Audio Panel for that camera. The Apply button is not used for this box. During Alarm condition, a solid red circle will show in the stream display if not recording, or a blinking red circle if the stream is being recorded.

Image

The sliders control various parameters of the video quality. The Apply button must be clicked after changing the setting to enact the change on the camera.

Network

If the DHCP is enabled, all fields are set by the server, if DHCP is disabled, other network settings may be completed manually. Note that IP setting changes may cause the camera to be inaccessible if using cached addresses. Use the Discover button to find the camera, or enter the new address manually from the settings panel.

Take care when changing these settings, the program does not check for errors and it maybe possible to set the camera into an unreachable configuration.

The Apply button must be clicked to enact any of these changes on the camera.

PTZ

Settings pertain to preset selections or current camera position. The arrow buttons, Zoom In (+) and Zoom Out (-) control the position and zoom. The numbered buttons on the left correspond to preset positions. Clicking one of the numbered buttons will send the camera to the corresponding preset position. To set a preset, position the camera, then check Set Preset, then click the numbered preset button. It is not necessary to use the Apply button with any of the settings on this panel.

System

Recording

The check box at the top of the Record group box will enable automatic recording of camera streams when selected. The Record Profile combo box below will select the camera profile to be recorded.

If the Record Alarms radio button is selected, the application will record automatically during alarm condition. While the stream is being recorded during alarm condition, there will be a blinking red circle in the lower right corner of the stream display. File sizes are limited to 15 minute lengths, so multiple files will be created if the alarm condition lasts longer than this limit.

Selecting the Record Always radio button will cause the application to record the camera at all times that it is streaming. The files are written to disk in 15 minute file lengths, and are named in a time format representing the start time of the recording. Unlike other recording modes, the Record Always condition does not display an indicator in the stream display.

It not necessary to use the Apply button for any of the settings on this panel.
Alarm Sounds

The check box at the top of the Sounds group box will enable alarm sounds on the computer speaker when checked. If the Loop radio button is selected, the sound will play continuously during an alarm condition. Selection of the Once radio button will cause the application to play the alarm sound once per alarm condition.
Record Profile

The drop down box can be used to the select the camera profile that will be recorded to disk. The Record Profile can be different than the Display Profile shown in the application. This setting can be used most effectively when the application is configured to show the low resolution substream profile in the display, and use the high resolution main profile as the recording source. This enables the application to maintain real time display status, especially with multiple streams, while preserving high resolution accuracy in the recorded stream. Because the recorded stream in not decoded, but rather is piped directly from the camera to disk, the high resolution recording presents very little compute load on the host.
Record Audio

In many cases, the audio of the Display Profile will be disabled. By default, audio is disabled for camera streams. This is particulaly relevant when displaying multiple streams, as the audio from multiple cameras playing simultaneously may cause confusion. This checkbox allows the display audio to be disabled while preserving audio on the recorded stream.
Remote Snapshot Image

By default, this option is disabled, which means that the system will use the currently playing camera display stream as the source for snapshot images. If the display stream is a low resolution stream, the snapshot will also be the same low resolution. If the Yolo detector is running and the Show Alarms on Display is enabled from Settings -> Alarms, detection boxes shown on the stream will be present on the snapshot image. This may be useful behavior when initially configuring the system when false positive detections are occurring, as the detection boxes will show the origin of the alarm.

If a high resolution snapshot image is desired, this might be possible depending on the camera capabilities. Most, but not all cameras will expose a high resolution still image source available over the network. Some cameras will provide this capability in the spec, but in practice the image may not be usable. Experimentation is required to determine if the camera output is acceptable. In the event that the camera fails to deliver the image during runtime, the system will fall back to stream image capture.
Reboot

Click to reboot the camera.
Browser

This will launch the web browser and connect to the camera. Cameras will have a web interface that can be used to set parameters that are not available to the application.
Sync Time

Clicking the Sync Time button will bring up a dialog box with time settings options for the camera.

At the top of the dialog are boxes showing the current settings for computer time and camera time respectively. The camera time is calculated based on the time offset parameter used by the computer for authentication. This time should, but may not necessarily, closely match the time displayed by the camera in the video stream. Variations in how cameras compute time may result in an offset mismatch between the time displayed in the camera video stream and the computed time shown on the dialog.

The Time Zone and Daylight Savings Time fields can be edited by the user and set in the camera for configuration.

The Time Zone format can vary and different cameras will accept different formats. The long format shown in the example resembles POSIX standard and is the most comprehensive format which includes time offset from UTC and DST offset with DST start and finish parameters. Most cameras do not conform entirely to this standard, but may accept the string while selectively ignoring portions of the configuration. The most widely accepted form is UTC format or alternately, GMT format both of which have an optional +/- sign and hour plus optional minute offsets delimited by colon. Examples might be UTC0 or UTC-04:00. The GMT format is the same, but note that the polarity of the sign is reversed e.g. GMT0 or GMT+04:00. Other formats may possibly work e.g. EST5EDT, which may be worth trying.

The Daylight Savings Time checkbox can be edited by the user, or it may be set automatically by the camera depending on the camera abilities. Not all cameras support DST, and some may save the DST flag but not act on the information when computing time.

The Time Sync Method group box selects the time adjustment strategy used by the application.

NTP Time setting will enable the NTP server box to allow editing. There are three types of server configuration. From DHCP will instruct the camera to use the NTP server data from the most recent DHCP configuration. This may or may not be the server data from the DHCP. In many cases, this will be a hardcoded address in the camera firmware. IPv4 address will use a numeric style IP address for the NTP server. A failure of this parameter configuration may or may not produce an error message from the camera. A Domain Name style server configuration will use a dot notation server name similar to a web address and will require proper DNS configuration for resolution. Once configured, the camera will use the Time Zone and DST information it has stored in its settings to deduce its time from the NTP server response to the camera query. In all cases, if the NTP server address is located on the internet the camera will require internet access in order to contact the server.

Manual Time Setting will use the computer hosting the application to derive the time sent to the camera. The computer will send a UTC time to the camera and the camera will calculate its time based on the Time Zone and DST information that it has in its settings.

UTC as Local setting is a specific type of manual setting that will force the camera into displaying the same time as the computer host. This is done by setting the camera Time Zone to UTC0 and setting the time on the camera to match the application computer host time. As UTC time is not dependent on DST, issues associated with DST can be ignored. If the computer time is accurate and regularly updated, this can be a good strategy for many cameras, as it circumvents a lot of ambiguity in time setting configurations which may be inaccurate or outdated. Note that some cameras, if connected to the internet, may eventually resort to hidden NTP settings that will reset the camera time (often incorrectly) if this strategy is employed. If a camera is using this type of NTP access, it is advisable to isolate it from the internet as a security precaution. If this is not practical or desired, the time zone and DST settings can be used such that the camera perhaps might display the correct time.

Ultimately, there are many variations and inconsistencies when dealing with camera times. In most cases, UTC as Local with cameras isolated from the internet will provide the best results. Camera algorithms for time setting are often opaque and in many cases incomplete or incorrect. Cameras with proper time setting implementations can be set using the Time Zone and DST settings, but should be verified for accuracy and completeness, especially regarding DST. NTP use is discouraged, as cameras should be isolated from the internet as a security precaution. Using an NTP server on the internal network does not provide any advantage over Manual time setting via the application host computer.

File Operations

Camera recordings can be viewed from within the application. Files can be searched for a particular moment in time. A server can share recordings using Samba so that Windows, Mac and Linux clients can view previously recorded streams from the server.

Snapshots generated by Yolo alarms or taken manually by the user are automatically linked to existing Video files such that activating play from the Picture panel will show the associated Video file starting at the time at which the snapshot was taken.

Keyboard bindings make file review effortless and responsive so that pictures and relevant videos can be searched and viewed quickly and easily.

The application maintains folders for the storage of camera snapshots and recordings. The folder locations by default are the OS picture and video storage locations, and can be changed using the directory setting at the top of the panel. There is a subfolder for each camera that has previously made pictures or recordings in the application. If you are using Onvif GUI as a client, and the server is configured to share files using Samba, you can use the server shared folder to access recordings made on the server.

Inside the camera folders are the individual picture or video files recorded by the camera. The files are named using a datetime convention which represents the time that the snapshot images was taken or the start time of the video recording. Video recordings are prepended by a time interval specified on the Settings -> Alarm panel as Pre-Alarm Buffer Size. This insures that the moments immediately prior to the beginning of the recording are captured.

Double clicking on a picture file will start the associated video playing at the time stamp of the picture. The same action can be started using the Enter key when a picture file is highlighted. In the event that there is not video coverage for the picture timestamp, the playback will fail silently. While a video is playing, using the Escape key will return operation to picture browse mode. Using the up and down arrow keys will traverse the picture directory contents, showing each picture as the selection changes. Folders can be opened and closed using the Enter key. Right clicking over the file will bring up a context menu with various options.

File playback is configured such that one file is played at a time. Keyboard shortcuts are available for faster navigation. Video playback controls are available on either the Picture or Videos panel.

File Playback Controls For Mouse

Search Refresh Snapshot

Play Pause Stop Prev Next Mute

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are available when the file list of either the Picture Panel or the Video Panel has the application focus. A single click on any file or folder in the list will achieve this focus. Keyboard operations may be significantly faster than using the mouse when browsing through files.

Enter

The Enter key can be used to Play the file. Note that if another file is currently playing, it will be stopped before the new file starts.
Space

The space bar can be used to Pause the current file playing.
Escape

The Escape key can be used to stop the current file playing.
Delete

Files may be deleted by typing the Delete key.
F1

The F1 key will show a dialog with file properties.
F2

Files can be renamed using the F2 key.
Right Arrow

The Right Arrow will fast forward the file playing by 10 seconds.
Left Arrow

The Left Arrow will rewind the file playing by 10 seconds.
Up Arrow

The Up Arrow will move to the previous file without stopping the current file. Use the Enter key to start playing the newly highlighted file.
Down Arrow

The Down Arrow will move to the next file without stopping the current file. Use the Enter key to start playing the newly highlighted file.

Progress / Seek Indicator

Both File Panels have a progress bar that will show the state of the playback. The total duration of the file is shown on the right hand side of the progress bar, and the left hand side will show the current file position which is indicated by the progress bar handle. If the mouse hovers over the bar, the position within the file will be shown above. The seek function will set the file position to the mouse location if the mouse is clicked on the progress bar. Sliding operation is not supported.

Pop Up Menu

Right clicking over the file will bring up a context menu that can be used to perform file operations.

Hide Camera Panel

Viewing files may be more convenient if a separate window is set up distinct from the camera display. This can be helpful if viewing archived recordings while cameras are being displayed in real time. A file view can be created from the Settings -> General tab using the three dot button in the Open New Window section. Once the file viewer is set up, the Hide Camera Panel checkbox can be selected so that only files and not cameras are shown on the file view window. Additionally, it may be helpful to expand the right side of the application to accomodate the full file parameter display tab. These settings will be preserved on the file viewer window and will not affect the default window started by the application.

File Searching by Time

The application has the ability to search the files by camera for a particular moment in time.

The search dialog is launched by clicking the search icon on the File panel. Use the dialog box to select a Camera, Date and Time and the application will search the files for that particular moment. If found, a confirmation box will pop up and the file can be played directly. The application will automatically highlight the file in the list and forward the playback to a moment near the selected time. There may be a slight offset corresponding roughly to the Pre-Alarm Buffer Size from the Settings -> Alarm panel.

If the application was not able to find the exact match, a pop up box will ask if you want to play the closest file in time. Note that the application will highlight this closest match in the file list, so you could use that as a starting point for navigating through the files.

Refresh File View

The files listed in the panel my not be updated automatically. Use the refresh icon to get a current listing of the files available for view.

Application Settings

General Settings

Common Username and Password

Default camera login credentials. If there is a camera on the list that does not share these credentials, a pop up login box will appear during discovery. It is possible to add these alternate credentials into the stored profile of the camera by right clicking over the camera in the list and selecting the password option, which will silently add the credentials to the stored settings so that the camera can be discovered without having to type in the credentials.

Hardware Decoder

A hardware decoder may be selected for the application. Multicore CPUs with more than a few cores will handle the decoding just as easily as a hardware decoder. Smaller CPUs with a small number of cores may benefit from hardware decoding. VAAPI and VDPAU pertain to Linux systems and DXVA2 and D3D11VA are for Windows. CUDA decoding is platform independent and requires NVIDIA GPU.

Start Full Screen

Selecting this check box will cause the application to start in full screen mode. The full screen mode can be cancelled with the Escape key. The F12 key will also toggle full screen mode.

Auto Time Sync

This selection will send a time sync message to each of the cameras once an hour. The camera time is set according to the parameters defined in the Sync Time dialog box described in Camera Parameters shown above.

Snapshot File Dlg

When selected, a dialog box will appear when a snapshot is requested so that the picture file name can be changed for saving. Deselecting this checkbox will cause the system to automatically accept the generated file name without showing the dialog. Please note that the system uses the automatically generated filename to determine the snapshot time when searching video files, so changing the filename will disable the search functionality.

Display Refresh Interval

Performance on some lower powered systems may be improved by increasing the display refresh interval.

Open New Window

Manage profiles for secondary windows used to display a camera or a group of cameras separately from the main application window.

The default 'Reader' profile is a reserved profile that launches a specialized secondary File panel browser that can operate with it's own configuration for viewing files. The secondary File panel can be used during camera operation without interferring with the main program.

The default 'Focus' profile is a reserved profile that is integrated into application logic. The Focus Window can be launched by double clicking on a camera stream in the main display and can show that camera at higher resolution and frame rate for a more detailed view. The Focus Window will show only one camera at a time. The application will automatically configure the Focus settings for proxy type and auto discovery.

Additional profiles can be added using the three dot button to the right of the drop down box that will launch a configuration dialog box.

New Windows can be configured to show specific groups of cameras, which can be useful if the host computer is driving several monitors such that different groups of cameras are shown on different monitors. The Open button will launch a window with the profile selected in the drop down box. Each profile will have a separate configuration that is set by the user.

It may be useful to create a profile excusively for viewing camera recordings from the File tab. This way the window can be configured with a larger navigation panel showing more complete file information. Additionally, the camera panel can be hidden in this profile so that the window opens directly to the file list.

Show Logs

This button will show the logs of the application. Many events and errors encountered will be documented here. The log rolls over at 1 MB. The older logs can be managed using the Archive button on the logs display dialog.

Help

Shows this file.

Hide Display

If running Onvif GUI in server configuration, it may be desirable to run in headless mode. If this is the case, hiding the display will significantly reduce compute load by bypassing the rendering routines. In this configuration, the compute load will be similar to that of a console application. Once the display is hidden, the text of the button will change to Show Display with appropriate functionality.

Discover Settings

Discovery Options

Discovery Broadcast

This option will broadcast a discovery packet to find cameras on the local network. If the host computer is attached to multiple networks it is possible to broadcast across all networks or only one selected network. Cameras discovered will have their data entered into the address cache so that they may be found without discovery later.
Cached Addresses

This option will cause the application to find cameras based on the cache data rather than the discovery broadcast. Note that cameras may be deleted from the cache by using the Delete key or the right click context menu on the camera list. This can be useful if a subset of cameras on the network is going to be streamed. Note that some cameras may respond with incomplete data when using a cached address.
Add Camera

It is possible to add a camera manually to the address cache by using the Add Camera button. The IP address and ONVIF port are required to connect. The ONVIF port by default is 80. If successful, the camera will be added silently to the camera list. If a camera is added manually using this method, it will not persist in the interface unless the Cached Addresses option is selected.

Auto Discovery

When selected, this option will cause the application to discover cameras automatically when it starts. This holds true whether the application is using Broadcast Discovery or Cached Addresses. Note that if this option is selected and the Broadcast Discovery Option is also selected, the application will poll the network once per minute to find missing or new cameras.

Auto Start

When selected in combination with the Auto Discovery check box, cameras shown in the list will start automatically when the application starts. This feature will work with either Discovery Broadcast or Cached Addresses.

Storage Settings

Disk Usage

The application has the ability to manage the disk space used by the recorded media files. This setting is recommended as the files can overwhelm the computer and cause the application to crash. Allocating a directory for the camera recordings is done by assigning a directory using the Archive Dir selection widget. The default setting for the Archive Dir is the user's Video directory. It is advised to change this setting if the host computer employs the user's Video directory for other applications.

Current Disk Usage

When the application starts, or a new file is created for a camera recording, the approximate amount of disk space used by the application is displayed. This number is not exact, but can give a general idea of the amount of disk space used.
Auto Manage Checkbox

Select this check box to enable disk management. A warning dialog will inform the user of the risk of the loss of files within the directory. Note that the application will only delete files that conform to the date style file naming convention that it uses. It is a good idea to use a directory that can be dedicated exclusively to the application.

The maximum available disk space that could be allocated to the application based on the Archive Dir setting will be displayed next to the checkbox.

The spin box can be used to limit the application disk usage in GB. Note that the application is conservative in it's estimate of required file size and the actual space occupied by the media files will be a few GB less than the allocated space.
Archive Directory

This widget sets the storage location for Video files generated by the system. Note that the location here is independent from the Videos panel of the File browser.
Picture Directory

This widget sets the storage location for Picture files generated by the system. Note that the location here is independent from the Pictures panel of the File browser.

Max File Duration

Video file duration is limited to this length. This is done so that Video files do not become excessively large. Video files will be padded at the start by the duration configured on the Settings -> Alarm tab Pre-Alarm buffer size, which by default is ten seconds. This insures some overlap between adjacent files so that information is not lost when files are truncated.

File Write Buffer Size

File management will remove oldest files based on the total size limit set in the Auto Management field. Because the calculation used by the manager is not exact, an additional buffer space is allocated for safety. The default value should be sufficient, but can be ajusted based on conditions if warranted.

Proxy Settings

Proxy Type

Stand Alone

Default setting, implements a single instance of the program that connects to the cameras directly.
Client

The application will act as a client to the proxy server using a connection string corresponding to one displayed by the server in the url box. If the connection string is changed, the Update button must be clicked to enact the changes. If the server is capable of generating detections, they can be received or ignored by the client using the 'Get alarm events from server' checkbox. If the server detections are not enabled, the client may generate detections locally if desired.

If the server detections are enabled, the application will look for the interface that matches the subnet of the server. If the server address has been entered incorrectly, this condition will prompt an error message and the event listener will not be instantiated.
Server

The application will host a proxy server and allow other instances of the application configured as clients to connect over the local network to the cameras proxied by the server. The server backend is provided by Media MTX. The application will download the appropriate binary executable file from the developer github page and copy it to the python environment bin folder. If you prefer to use your own Media MTX binary, the location can be set with the directory control.

Diagnostic messages from the MediaMTX server may be visible in the terminal if the application is started from the command line. The Log Level selector can be used to tailor the verbosity of the messages.
HTTP Server

The application can host links to Video streams that can be accessed using a Web browser. The port number 8800.
Alarm Broadcasting

Alarm broadcasting by the server can be controlled using the 'Alarm Broadcasting' group box. This function will broadcast a single UDP packet containing the alarm states for all cameras on the server at an interval of once per second. The UDP packet can be received by any machine on the broadcast network.

For server hosts running Windows, broadcasting is limited to the network with the highest priority. The Network combo box in this case will have only one entry which corresponds to the highest priority network. Please see the section in Notes -> Network Priority on Multi Homed Hosts to view instructions on how to set network priority. Linux and Mac OS hosts are able to select the network on which to broadcast alarms.

Alarm Settings

Pre-Alarm Buffer Size

When a camera is recording, this length of media is prepended to the file so that the moments prior to the alarm are preserved. If always recording, or the file length is limited by the system, this feature will insure that there is a small overlap between adjacent files.

Post-Alarm Lag Time

In the case where a camera is configured to record during alarms, this length of time must pass after the cessation of the alarm before the file recording is turned off. This helps to prevent excessive file creation. Alarm display and alarm sound functions are affected by this setting as well.

Alarm Sounds

A few default alarm sounds for selection. A system wide volume setting for the alarm volume can be made with the slider.

Show Alarms on Display

When selected (default is yes) a red filled circle will be displayed on the camera stream during alarm conditions. The circle will blink if the stream is being recorded during an alarm. De-selecting this checkbox will show the camera stream without any alarm markings.

Save Picture for Alarms

When selected (default is yes) a picture will be saved to the Pictures directory each time an alarm is triggered. The pictures are used to populate the Event Browser accessible from the File panel which can be used to view vidoes at the time point of the alarm.

Video Panel

Video streams cam be analyzed to generate alarms.

The Video Panel has multiple modes of operation. The default setting is for motion, which can be used without further configuration and will run easily on a CPU only computer. YOLOX requires the installation of additional python packages, namely pytorch and openvino. YOLOX will perform well on recent Apple Silicon M chips, NVIDIA GPU, and Intel Xe, UHD or ARC Graphics.

In order for the panel to be enabled, either a camera or a file must be selected. If a camera is selected, the Video Alarm check box must also be selected on the Media Tab of the Camera Panel. If a file is selected, the Enable File check box on the Video Panel must be selected.

Parameters set on the panel are applied to files globally, and to cameras individually.

If the analysis produces an alarm, record and alarm sound actions are taken based on the settings made on the System Tab of the Camera Panel. Files are not connected to alarm processing.

Motion Detection

Motion detection is useful in lower powered systems without AI processing capabilities

The motion detector measures the difference between two consecutive frames by calculating the percentage of pixels that have changed. If that result is over a threshold value, an alarm is triggered. The Diff check box will show a visualization of the differential pixel map that is used by the calculation. The status bar will light green to red as the value of the algorithm result increases. The Gain slider can amplify or attenuate the result to adjust the sensitivity of the detector. Higher Gain slider values increase the sensitivity of the detector.

Motion detection systems are prone to false alarms due to the indiscriminate nature of the analysis. They can be useful in settings where motion is limited, such as a controlled indoor environment. They are not recommended for general use, expecially in outdoor settings.

YOLOX

YOLOX is an AI powered analysis for detecting specific types of objects

Prerequisites

YOLOX will run with hardware acceleration on Apple Silicon, NVIDIA GPU and Intel iGPU, NPU, or ARC Graphics.

Installation Requirements

Please Note:The installation scripts for Linux and Mac OS install the necessary python libraries automatically. The Linux installation scripts will install iGPU drivers on Intel chips automatically. If using NVIDIA GPU, those drivers are usually installed by default on modern Linux distros, but some may require manual installation. Windows users will need to install drivers and python libraries manually for the time being.

Configuration

The upper portion of the yolox panel has a model configuration box. Model parameters are system wide, as there will be one model running that is shared by all cameras. The Name combo box selects the model, which is named according to the size of the number of parameters in the model. Larger models may produce more accurate results at the cost of increased compute load. The Size combo box sets the resolution to which the video is scaled for model input. Larger sizes may increase accuracy at the cost of increased compute load. It is possible to change the backend API of the yolo detector by using the API combo box. The Device combo box will populate automatically with available hardware.

The model is initialized automatically by starting a camera stream with the Camera tab Video Alarm checked. By default the application is configured to download a model automatically when a stream is started for the first time. There may be a delay while the model is downloaded, during which time a wait box is shown. Subsequent stream launches will run the model with less delay.

A model may be specified manually by de-selecting the Automatically download model checkbox and populating the Model file name box. Note that if a model is manually specified, it is still necessary to assign the correct Name corresponding to the model parameter size.

The lower portion of the panel has settings for detector configuration. Parameters on this section are assigned to each camera individually.

Skip Frames spin box sets the number of frames to skip between model analysis runs. If the Skip Frames value is set to zero, every frame produced by stream is set through the detector. If the Skip Frames value is set to one, every other frame is sent through the detector, and so on. This setting can be used to reduce computational burden on the system.

The yolox detector samples a number of frames as set by the Samples setting. The number of frames with positive detections required to trigger an alarm is set by the Limit slider. For example, if the Sample Size is 4 and the Limit slider is set to 2, at least two of the last four frames observed must have positive detections in order to trigger the alarm.

There is also a Confidence slider that applies to the yolox model output. Higher confidence settings require stricter conformance to model expectations to qualify a positive detection. Lower confidence settings will increase the number of detections at the risk of false detections.

It is necessary to assign at least one target to the panel in order to observe detections. The + button will launch a dialog box with a list of the available targets. Targets may be removed by using the - button or the delete key while the target is highlighted in the list.

Audio Panel

AAC Audio streams can be analyzed to generate alarms.

The audio panel can analyze streams in both amplitude and frequency domains. Note that frequency analysis requires slightly more computing power than amplitude analysis. Please note that only AAC encoded audio is supported at this time.

Parameters set on the panel are applied to files globally, and to cameras individually.

If the analysis produces an alarm, record and alarm sound actions are taken based on the settings made on the System Tab of the Camera Panel. Files are not connected to alarm processing.

Amplitude

The amplitude is measured by calculating the Root Mean Square (rms) value of the audio waveform. If the rms exceeds threshold, an alarm condition is triggered. The Gain slider can be used to amplify or attenuate the value of the signal in order to adjust the sensitivity of the detector.

Frequency

The frequency spectrum is measured by the integrated area under the spectrum curve normalized. The spectrum may be filtered to eliminate undesired frequencies. Lower frequencies are often common background sounds that do not warrant an alarm condition, whereas higher frequency sounds are often associated with a sudden, sharp noise such as breaking glass.

There are filter bars that can be adjusted using the cursor handles. Frequencies excluded by the filter are depicted in gray. The Gain slider can be used to amplify or attenuate the value of the signal in order to adjust the sensitivity of the detector.

Over/Under

The detector can be configured to alarm in the absence of sound by selecting the Under radio button. This may be useful in situations such as an engine room monitor configured to alarm if the engine stops running. This mode will invert the status bar level.

Full Screen

The application windows can be configured to run in full screen mode. The F12 key is used to toggle full screen. If the application is running full screen, the Escape key can be used to return to windowed operation.

The control tab on the right of the application window may be toggled using the F11 key. On Mac, it is necessary to use the command key + F11 combination to override the default workspace action. The size of the control tab can be changed by dragging the left hand edge of the tab. Reducing the size of the tab beyond it's minimum will hide the tab. If there is at least one stream in the display and the control tab is hidden, clicking on the stream display area will restore the control tab.

Server Configuration

DHCP Servers

A network set up as shown in the Recommended Configuration will require some mechanism for setting IP addresses to the cameras and computers that connect to the network. Although this may be achieved by setting static IP for each device, a DHCP server is recommended. This is a service that is installed on the Onvif GUI server host computer. DHCP service configuration details are shown for each operating system.

Linux

Linux can be configured to run a kea DHCP server. A sample configuration file /etc/kea/kea-dhcp4.conf for this server is shown below.

It is necessary to set the server ethernet interface to a static IP address for this configuration. It is recommended to manually set the Onvif GUI server ethernet address connecting to the camera network to be 10.1.1.1. This is a reserved network for private subnets. Please verify that your existing network does not use this address range. There are many references that can provide details on how to set a static ip. On Ubuntu, use the Settings -> Network -> Wired Network then click on the gear to get details, use the IPv4 tab and click the Manual radio button to enable manual settings. The IP address should be set to 10.1.1.1, the Subnet Mask to 255.255.255.0 and the Gateway to 10.1.1.1. If you need internet access, you should have a second network connection to your local router, which is configured separately.

It will be necessary to find the name of the network interface intended to provide the DHCP service. On Linux, the command ip a will provide a listing of interface properties that will contain the relevant information. It will look something like enp1s0 but will be different for each machine. The name will be associated with the ip address (10.1.1.1 as set previously) of the desired interface.

Sample Configuration File

{
  "Dhcp4": {
    "interfaces-config": {
    "interfaces": [ "<your-interface-name>" ]
    },
    "control-socket": {
        "socket-type": "unix",
        "socket-name": "/run/kea/kea4-ctrl-socket"
    },
    "lease-database": {
        "type": "memfile",
        "lfc-interval": 3600
    },
    "valid-lifetime": 600,
    "max-valid-lifetime": 7200,
    "subnet4": [
    {
        "id": 1,
        "subnet": "10.1.1.0/24",
        "pools": [
        {
            "pool": "10.1.1.64 - 10.1.1.242"
        }
        ],
        "option-data": [
        {
            "name": "routers",
            "data": "10.1.1.1"
        },
        {
            "name": "domain-name-servers",
            "data": "10.1.1.1"
        },
        {
            "name": "domain-name",
            "data": "mydomain.example"
        }
        ]
    }
    ]
  }
}

This is a basic configuration that will assign addresses in the range of 10.1.1.64 - 10.1.1.242, leaving the balance of addresses available for static ip. The router and name server addresses point back to the server, which is a dead end. This means that there is no direct traffic between the cameras and the internet or the rest of the network. All communication with the cameras is proxied by the Onvif GUI server.

The service can be set up by copying the sample file to /etc/kea/kea-dhcp4.conf, replacing the tag <your-interface-name> with the appropriate data from the ip a command, This can be done using the command sudo nano /etc/kea/kea-dhcp4.conf, then copying the text above and using ctrl+O, enter, ctrl+X to save and exit.

Use the commands shown below to control the service. Be sure to use the enable command to get persistent service operation through reboots.

sudo systemctl enable kea-dhcp4-server
sudo systemctl disable kea-dhcp4-server
sudo systemctl start kea-dhcp4-server
sudo systemctl restart kea-dhcp4-server
sudo systemctl stop kea-dhcp4-server
sudo systemctl status kea-dhcp4-server

The enable and disable commands install and uninstall the kea dhcp4 service into the boot protocol, controlling whether the service is started automatically at boot time. The balance of the commands control or show information about the service.

Mac

On Mac OS, the DHCP service is provided by bootpd. The service is configured with a file named /etc/bootpd.plist. A sample configuration file is shown below.

It is necessary to set the server ethernet interface to a static IP address for this configuration. It is recommended to manually set the Onvif GUI server ethernet address connecting to the camera network to be 10.1.1.1. This is a reserved network for private subnets. Please verify that your existing network does not use this address range. To make this configuration, use the Settings -> Network -> Ethernet -> TCP/IP -> Configure IPv4 -> Manually (combo box). The IP address should be set to 10.1.1.1, the Subnet Mask to 255.255.255.0 and the Router to 10.1.1.1. If you need internet access, you should have a second network connection to your local router, which is configured separately. Note that you may need to update network priorities in order to use the internet connected interface. Please refer to the section Network Priority on Multi Homed Hosts of this document.

This file is configured to use the interface named en0, which in most cases will be the ethernet interface on the Mac computer. Please check the name using the ifconfig command to verify that this is the correct information.

Sample Configuration File

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>bootp_enabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>detect_other_dhcp_server</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
    <key>dhcp_enabled</key>
    <array>
        <string>en0</string>
    </array>
    <key>reply_threshold_seconds</key>
    <integer>0</integer>
    <key>Subnets</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>allocate</key>
            <true/>
            <key>dhcp_router</key>
            <string>10.1.1.1</string>
            <key>lease_max</key>
            <integer>86400</integer>
            <key>lease_min</key>
            <integer>86400</integer>
            <key>name</key>
            <string>10.1.1</string>
            <key>net_address</key>
            <string>10.1.1.0</string>
            <key>net_mask</key>
            <string>255.255.255.0</string>
            <key>net_range</key>
            <array>
                <string>10.1.1.64</string>
                <string>10.1.1.242</string>
            </array>
        </dict>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

The service can be set up by copying the sample file to /etc/bootpd.plist, replacing the tag en0 tag in the dhcp_enabled key with the appropriate data from the ifconfig command if necessary. This can be done using the command sudo nano /etc/bootpd.plist, then copying the text above and using ctrl+O, enter, ctrl+X to save and exit.

The service can then be started using the command

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/bootps.plist

The service can be stopped with

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/bootps.plist

Windows

DHCP Server for Windows is made available by third party . Older versions are available for download free of charge. Instructions for installation can be found here. Please consider making a donation to the developer if you find the software useful.

Please note that the installation procedure does not include instructions for setting up a static IP address on the network interface, which is necessary for operation. This should be done before configuring the DHCP service. An exhaustive resource on this topic is available at How to set a static IP address on Windows 11.

Setting Up a Samba Share on Linux

It is possible for Windows clients to access camera recordings residing on a Linux server on the local network by installing a samba share on the Linux server. There are a few steps needed to set up the server, which are often not well documented for this type of configuration. The following instructions will set up the shared folder on the server, then show how a Windows client can attach to the shared folder as a mapped drive. Please note that this setup is intended for use in a simple private network where all users can be trusted with data. More sophisticated configurations that control data access are possible, but are beyond the scope of these instructions.

Linux Server Configuration

Step 1. Set Fixed IP Address
The server should have a fixed IP address. This is not completely necessary for system operation, but will prevent mishaps later that can occur if the server address changes. For Ubuntu and similar systems, there is a GUI control dialog that can be used to assign a fixed IP address. The address chosen will depend on the router settings, which will set aside a range of addresses that are available for fixed IP. Usually this will be at the bottom and/or top of the IP range controlled by the router. The router setting that defines these ranges is set by DHCP. Check ahead of time that the desired IP address is not already taken and is available per the router configuration.
Step 2. Install and Configure Samba
On Ubuntu, the Samba server is installed using the apt command
```
sudo apt install samba
```
The Samba configuration is performed by editing the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. The Samba installation will create a default file in this location, which is not a good fit for this type of configuration. It is recommnded to move the file to a backup and start with a fresh file for configuration, following the commands
```
cd /etc/samba
sudo mv smb.conf smb.conf.bak
sudo nano smb.conf
```
You will now be starting from a clean slate. The following text saved into the smb.conf file will create a sharing configuration that is compatible with the application. For this configuration, you will need to know the account under which Onvif GUI was installated. For example, if you created a user onvif-gui, and were logged on as that user during the time the appliation was installed, the default directory for the application will be /home/onvif-gui. The configuration shown below will share two sub-directories used by the program, namely Videos and Pictures.
```
[global]
  workgroup = WORKGROUP

[Videos]
  comment = Shared Videos Folder
  path = /home/onvif-gui/Videos
  browasble = yes
  read only = yes

[Pictures]
  comment = Shared Pictures Folder
  path = /home/onvif-gui/Pictures
  browsable = yes
  read only = yes

[Documents]
  comment = Shared Documents Folder
  path = /home/onvif-gui/Documents
  browsable = yes
  read only = no
```
Step 3. Re-start the Samba service
After changing the configuration file, it is necessary to re-start the service in order to enact the changes made. This should be done any time changes are made to the smb.conf file.
```
sudo systemctl restart smbd
```
Step 4. Add User and Set Samba Password

The command to add a user is
```
sudo useradd -m <username>
```
The samba access requires a passord for the user
```
sudo smbpasswd -a <username>
```
The system will prompt you to enter a password.

A script to get a list of active samba accounts
```
#!/bin/bash

# Run pdbedit and extract only the Unix usernames
sudo pdbedit -L -v | while IFS= read -r line; do
  # Skip empty lines
  [[ -z "$line" ]] && continue

  # Match only lines that start with "Unix username:"
  if [[ "$line" == "Unix username:"* ]]; then
    value="${line#Unix username: }"
    echo "$value"
  fi
done
```
Windows Client Configuration

Open the file navigator in Windows and go to the Network section. Using the address bar at the top, enter the IP address of the server such as, for example,
```
\\10.1.1.3
```
If all goes well, you get a shared folder icon in the navigator. Double click the folder to get a login screen. Use the credentials of the Onvif GUI account on the Linux server. If successful, create a shared drive by right clicking over the folder and using the drop down menu, and make the drive persisent. Open the Ovnif GUI application, go to the Files tab and use the navigation bar at the top to select the Videos folder from the shared drive. You should see the folders holding the camera recordings.
Linux Client Configuration

Detailed configuration instructions can be found in the Operations -> Mount SMB Drive from Linux section of the notes.

Network Priority on Multi Homed Hosts

When connecting a host computer to multiple networks, it may be difficult to reach remote computers if one of the connected networks does not have internet access. This can happen if the host computer uses the wired ethernet interface to isolate cameras on a network without internet access and the host intends to use the wireless connection to communicate with the internet. In this situation, the host operating system may attempt to use the wired ethernet connection to communicate with the internet which can result in lengthy delays or the inability to access the internet altogether.

The issue can be addressed by assigning priorities to network adapters. Most Linux distributions seem to be able to handle this situation on their own, so the issue is mostly associated with Windows and MacOS. The basic concept is to set the priority of the connection with the ability to access the internet a higher value than interfaces which are not connected to the internet.

Windows

Open a powershell in Administrator mode and use the following command to show interface priorities

Get-NetIPInterface

This will show a table of the network interfaces and their associated priority. Interfaces are tagged with an identifier referred to as InterfaceIndex. The priority of the interface is referred to as InterfaceMetric where lower numbers have higher priority. The priority of an interface is set using the command

Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceIndex <idx> -InterfaceMetric <metric>

Where <idx> is the network identifier number and <metric> is the priority

MacOS

Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen and select System Settings -> Network. On the right on the dialog should be a drop down shown as ...v with a question mark to the right. Click the drop down and select Set Service Order. You can then drag and drop the interface names to set the priority.

Using MacOS as a Server

Introduction

MacOS has a number of qualities that make it desirable as a server platform. It has a capable NPU that can process YOLO models for inference in a very power-efficient manner. It has a good built in DHCP server that can easily be used for the camera network. It has a polished graphical interface capable of driving multiple monitors. It will also run silent in most conditions without creating a lot of fan noise which can be problematic with some systems.

Power Management

Apple Silicon is very power efficient, and features have been added to the operating system to further enhance efficiency. These features can have the effect of making the server sleep or get behind in processing video frames that are sent by the cameras. This is undesirable when depending upon the alarm function as the data is not processed in a timely manner. The settings for Energy should be adjusted to disable the low power mode for the device during periods of no user interaction. The setting "Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off" should be set to on.

File Handle Management

The operating system will limit the number of file handles that can be open simoultaneously. These handles are also associated with network socket creation. This has the effect of limiting the number of clients that can connect to the server. In order to increase the number of handles, the ulimit command can be used.

ulimit -n 8192

This command can be added to the shell resource file, e.g. .zshrc in the user home directory. This will then set the limit for each terminal session as it is opened on a persistent basis.

File Sharing on Mac OS

Open Sharing Settings: Go to the Apple menu > System Settings > General > Sharing (scroll down if needed).

Enable File Sharing: Turn on the toggle for File Sharing.

Configure SMB: Click the info button (i) or Options next to File Sharing.

Turn on SMB Sharing: Check the box for "Share files and folders using SMB".

Select Users: Under "Windows File Sharing," check the box for each user account that needs access and enter their password.

(Optional) Add Folders: In the main Sharing window, use the "+" button to add specific folders to share and set their permissions (read/write for users).

Sharing Drives From Windows

There are a few different paths you can take during this process, so some of the steps below may be redundant. If you click around enough, you should be able to get it working.

The First step is to turn on windows sharing

Settings -> Network & Internet -> Sharing
Under Private ensure that both "Turn on Network Discovery: and "Turn on file and printer sharing" are toggled on

Share a folder

Use the file explorer to find the folder you want to share
Right click over the folder
Properties -> Sharing -> Advanced Sharing
Give access to users with the dropdown box
You can create a new account from the dropdown

Create an account for the external machines to use when mounting the shared folder

Settings -> Accounts -> Other Users --> Add Account
Unfortunately, Microsoft will try to make this a Microsoft account, so you have to click through a couple screens to get to a local acccount
- I don't have this person's sign-on information
- Add a user without a Microsoft Account
Type in a user name, password and hints, which are required

Add User to Shared Folder

Use the file explorer and right click over the folder to be shared
Show More Options -> Give access to -> Specific People
Select the User name from the dropdown box
Click Add
When asked if you want to change folder settings say yes (twice)

You should now be able to sign into the folder from an SMB client with the user credentials

Mount SMB Drive from Linux

It may be necessary to install cifs-utils on the machine. For example on Manjaro Linux,

sudo pacman -S cifs-utils

Create a Mount Point. Please note that if you installed the application by snap or flatpak, you will not have access to the /mnt directory. The installers create a container environment that limits your access to directories on the host. In this case, you should create another mount point that is accessible from within the application container.

The application containers only allow connection to Videos and Pictures directories on the host. In this case, the easiest option is to create subdirectories in your Videos and Pictures folders. The mounting process will obscure files on the host system in favor of files on the mounted remote. If you have existing files in the Videos or Pictures folders, or if you need to preserve the location for use by other programs, using subdirectories as the mounting points will let you keep using the Videos and Pictures folders without disrupting other programs.

The examples that follow are based on general mounting instructions, and use the generic tag <mount_point> to indicate the mount directory. Note that the best practice is to use the full path name of the mount point directory in the following commands.

sudo mkdir -p <mount_point>

Mount the share, you can get the uid and gid using the command id $USER, they are usually both 1000

sudo mount -t cifs //<server_ip>/<share_path> <mount_point> -o username=<username>,password=<password>,uid=<user_id>,gid=<group_id>

Once you are done testing the mount, you can unmount the remote server before setting it up permanently

sudo umount <mount_point>

For better security, you should use a credentials file

sudo nano /root/.smbcredentials

Then add this information to the file

username=<username>
password=<password>
domain=<domain> (if applicable)

Set the access permisions of the file

sudo chmod 600 /root/.smbcredentials

If you would like to test the credentials file, you can mount

sudo mount -t cifs //<server_ip>/<share_path> <mount_point> -o credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,uid=<user_id>,gid=<group_id>

To make the mount persistent, edit the fstab file

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add this content to the file

//<server_ip>/<share_path> <mount_point> cifs x-systemd.automount,_netdev,credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,uid=<user_id>,gid=<group_id> 0 0

You can test the fstab file

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo mount -a

Please note that the mount requires the system to wait for the network to be up before running fstab. The part of the fstab entry - x-systemd.automount,_netdev, is what does this. It assumes you have systemd in you Linux distribution. If you don't know what systemd is, you probably have it, as most mainstream linux distros use it by default. If you are using a distro that doesn't have it, then you probably already know what to do.

Once the mount is established, you can use the directory browser from the Files panel to set the Video directory used by the application. Note that the Files panel setting is used for viewing existing videos. The setting on the Storage panel Archive Dir is used by the application for writing videos files as they are produced by the cameras.

Notes

Running Multiple Cameras

Performance in a multi camera configuration can be improved by using substreams. Most cameras are capable of running two streams simultaneously which are configured independently. The default stream is called the Main Stream and has higher resolution, bitrate and frame rate. The Sub Stream is an alternate stream and will have lower resolution, bitrate and frame rate. The Sub Stream is more easily decoded, processed and displayed and can be thought of as a view finder for the Main Stream.

The application uses the generic terms Display Profile and Record Profile for streams that are processed. The Display Profile is shown to the user in the application and is set on the Media tab for the camera. Note that the default Display Profile will be the higher resolution Main Stream. The Record Profile is used by the application for saving the camera output to disk and is selected on the camera System tab. The Record Profile is not decoded so it places very little compute load on the application and can be used to record high resolution streams without affecting system performance. If the Display Profile and Record Profile are matched, only that one stream is processed by the application.

When running multiple cameras through the system, it is recommended to use the camera sub streams at a low resolution and frame rate to be the Display Profiles. If a more detailed view of the camera stream is needed, the application has a feature that will allow users to view the higher resolution stream by double clicking on the camera stream of interest in the display. This feature will pop out a new window showing the stream.

Stream analytics are performed on the Display stream. The amount of compute load placed on the system during analysis is directly related to Display stream resolution and frame rate, so substreams are strongly recommended if running analytics.

Many camera substreams will have a distorted aspect ratio, which can be corrected by using the Aspect combo box of the Camera Panel Media Tab.

Performance Tuning

As the number of cameras and stream analytics added to the system increases, the host may become overwhelmed, causing cache buffer overflow resulting in dropped frames. If a camera stream is dropping frames, a yellow border will be displayed over the camera output. The load placed on the system by the cameras can be reduced by lowering frame rates and resolutions.

Compute load may also be reduced by increasing the Display Refresh Interval on the General Tab of the Settings section. Camera video streams are buffered and stitched together to form the composite display which is shown once per the interval as set by a timer. Depending on the frame rate of the cameras, this setting can be increased without significant data loss if the Display Refresh Interval is smaller than the inverse of the camera frame rate. This effect is most prominently observed on Windows.

The load on the computer can be observed using a system monitoring tool such as Task Manager on Windows. This tool can be launched by right clicking over the task bar. Linux has a nice monitoring tool named Mission Center that has an appearance very similar to Task Manager. Apple Macs have the Activity Monitor with pop out windows for CPU and GPU history that can be accessed from the Mac toolbar.

When setting up the computer for Onvif GUI, it can be helpful to observe the effects of different operations on the system load using the appropriate monitoring tool. Pushing the computer too hard will reduce reliability over time and may lead to crashing. It is a good idea to observe the loads on individual cores in the CPU and try to avoid bottlenecks caused when a single core becomes saturated and is flat lined at 100% usage. GPUs likewise will start to misbehave if pushed too hard. It is a good idea to leave some headroom in the performance metrics to allow for system operations that are performed periodically by the computer in the background.

Lower powered CPUs with a small number of cores or systems running a large number of streams may benefit from hardware decoding. More powerful CPUs with a large core count will work as well as a hardware decoder for smaller numbers of streams.

Stream analysis can potentially place significant burden on system resources. A GPU or iGPU is recommended for YOLO analysis, as a CPU only system will be able to process maybe one or two streams at the most. NVIDIA graphics cards provide the highest performance, and Intel Xe Graphics or later is recommended for iGPU. Modern Macs with Apple Silicon M series chips are capable of performing YOLO analysis. Using Skip Frames during YOLO analysis can also greatly reduce compute load. Using substreams for analysis is recommended, ideally matching the model size parameter to the stream resolution, which by default is 640.

Software developments in this field are constantly advancing, so it may be worthwhile to research new versions of libraries such as pytorch, openvino and associated graphics hardware drivers to see if new performance improvements are available.

Camera Compliance With Standards

Camera compliance with the onvif standard is often incomplete and in some cases incorrect. Success may be limited in many cases. Cameras made by Hikvision or Dahua will have the greatest level of compatibility. Note that some third party OEM vendors who sell branded versions of these cameras might significantly alter the functionality of the camera software.

Camera settings on the Media tab are most likely to work. Other tabs may have limited success. If Onvif GUI is able to determine that the camera settings for a particular function are unavailable, it will disable the controls for that function.

If the camera DHCP setting is properly onvif compliant, the IP address may be reliably set. Some cameras may not respond to the DHCP setting requested by onvif-gui due to non compliance. Note that the camera may reboot automatically under some conditions if the DHCP setting is changed from off to on. DHCP must be turned off before setting a static IP address.

If there is an issue with a particular setting, it is recommended to connect to the camera with a web browser, as most cameras will have a web interface that will allow you to make the changes reliably. onvif-gui has a button on the Camera Panel System Tab that will launch the web browser connection with the camera.

Troubleshooting Techniques

If you are having difficulty installing or running the program, this first place to check is the program logs. The program maintains a log of most important system functions that can be accessed from the Settings -> General tab. Browsing through the messages may produce some insight into root causes for some issues.

Running the program from the command line inside the virutal environment can help find issues as they occur during operation. To open the virtual environment, use the appropriate command from the list below.

Linux

source $HOME/.local/share/onvif-gui-env/bin/activate

source /Applications/OnvifGUI.app/Contents/MacOS/Python/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/onvif-gui-env/bin/activate

Windows

%HOMEPATH%\onvif-gui-env\Scripts\activate

Once inside the virtual environment, the prompt will change to (onvif-gui-env) and the program can be started with the command

onvif-gui

The teminal will now show messages in real time as they occur during program operation.

Opening an Issue in the github repository is encouraged for issues you are not able to resolve on your own. Often times, issues may exist that are unkown to the developers, and feedback is necessary to raise awareness. There are a number of common problems that have been addressed in the Issues, so a look though those may help discover a solution.

Existing issues may have been addressed with a new release of the application, so check that you are using the latest version. The version of the application is displayed in the title bar of the program window. If you want to update, first start the virtual environment as shown above and use the command pip install --upgrade onvif-gui.

Turn Off Windows Update

To turn off Windows Update completely, you can follow these steps:

Press the Windows key on your keyboard.

Type "services" and click on "Services" in the search results.

Scroll down and double-click on "Windows Update".

Click the "Startup type" menu and select "Disabled".

Click the "Stop" button.

Click "Apply", then click "OK".

Check the update service periodically to ensure it remains disabled.

Acknowledegments

Media MTX

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

YOLOX

License: Apache

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Cite YOLOX

If you use YOLOX in your research, please cite our work by using the following BibTeX entry:

 @article{yolox2021,
  title={YOLOX: Exceeding YOLO Series in 2021},
  author={Ge, Zheng and Liu, Songtao and Wang, Feng and Li, Zeming and Sun, Jian},
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.08430},
  year={2021}
}

In memory of Dr. Jian Sun

Without the guidance of Dr. Sun Jian, YOLOX would not have been released and open sourced to the community. The passing away of Dr. Sun Jian is a great loss to the Computer Vision field. We have added this section here to express our remembrance and condolences to our captain Dr. Sun. It is hoped that every AI practitioner in the world will stick to the concept of "continuous innovation to expand cognitive boundaries, and extraordinary technology to achieve product value" and move forward all the way.

没有孙剑博士的指导，YOLOX也不会问世并开源给社区使用。孙剑博士的离去是CV领域的一大损失，我们在此特别添加了这个部分来表达对我们的“船长”孙老师的纪念和哀思。希望世界上的每个AI从业者秉持着“持续创新拓展认知边界，非凡科技成就产品价值”的观念，一路向前。

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1.0.16

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Jan 14, 2026

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Jan 13, 2026

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cayenue 1.0.2

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Cayenue

IP Camera Interface Software

Take your security seriously.

System Requirements

Network Configuration

Searchable Video Database

Expand Your Horizon

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W x H (Resolution)

Aspect

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GOP

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Profile

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Audio

Samples

Video Alarm

Audio Alarm

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Record Profile

Record Audio

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Reboot

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File Playback Controls For Mouse

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Enter

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F1

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Right Arrow

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