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AXIS 243Q Blade
Video Server
User’s Manual
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Liability About This Document Every care has been taken in the preparation of this manual. Please This manual is intended for administrators and users of the AXIS inform your local Axis office of inaccuracies, if any. Axis 243Q Blade Video Server, with firmware release 4.46. The manual Communications AB cannot be held responsible for technical or includes instructions for using and managing the AXIS 243Q Blade typographical errors and reserves the right to change the product and on your n
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AXIS 243Q Blade 4 Contents Product description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 LED indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Switches & connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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AXIS 243Q Blade 5 SOCKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 QoS (Quality of service) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 SMTP (email) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 SNMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Product description 6 Product description Overview The AXIS 243Q Blade Video Server is a fully featured video server intended for security surveillance and remote monitoring needs. It is designed for mounting in the AXIS 291 Video Server Rack, which provides power and network connectivity. DIP switches Control button Video inputs 1-4 LED Indicators The AXIS 243Q Blade video server is a four-in-one solution, which means that each physical blade unit contains four separate
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Product description 7 Up to 20 viewers can access each video input on the AXIS 243Q Blade simultaneously when using Motion JPEG and MPEG-4 unicast. The number of simultaneous viewers can be increased by using multicast MPEG-4. When using AXIS Media Control (AMC) to view MPEG-4 video streams, each MPEG-4 viewer requires a separate MPEG-4 decoder license. One license is included, and further licenses can be purchased separately from your Axis dealer. If using other clients
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Product description 8 Control Button - Press this button to restore the factory default settings, as described in Resetting to the factory default settings, on page 49, or to install using AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS Service (see the Installation Guide). Video Input - Each video input is connected using a coax/BNC connector. Physical connections made using 75 ohm coaxial video cable have a recommended maximum length of 250 meters (800 feet).
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Accessing the video server 9 Accessing the video server For information on installing the video server, please refer to the Installation Guide. The AXIS 243Q Blade can be used with most standard operating systems and web browsers. The recommended browser is Internet Explorer with Windows, and Firefox with other operating systems. See also the Technical specifications, on page 57. Note: To view streaming video in Microsoft Internet Explorer, you must set your browser to al
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Accessing the video server 10 Setting the root password When accessing the camera for the first time, the Configure Root Password dialog is displayed on the screen. 1. Enter a password and re-enter to confirm the spelling. Click OK. Note: Before you enter your password at this point, you can secure configuration of the root password via HTTPS by creating a self-signed certificate. To do so, click the Create self-signed certificate... button in the Create Certificate win
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Accessing the video server 11 The Snapshot button saves a snapshot of the image currently being displayed. Right-click on the video image to save it in JPEG format on your computer. This button is intended for use when the AMC viewer toolbar is not available. The AMC viewer toolbar (AXIS Media Control) is available in Microsoft Internet Explorer only and displays the following buttons: The Play/Stop buttons start and stop the media stream. The Snapshot button saves a snaps
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Video streams 12 Video streams The AXIS 243Q Blade provides several different video stream formats. You select the type depending on your requirements and on the properties of your network. The Live View page in the AXIS 243Q Blade provides access to Motion JPEG and MPEG-4 video streams, as well as to single JPEG images. Other applications and clients can also access these video streams/images directly, without going via the Live View page. Video stream types Motion JPEG
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Video streams 13 MPEG-4 protocols and communication methods To deliver live streaming video over IP networks, various combinations of transport protocols and broadcast methods are employed. • RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) is a protocol that allows programs to manage the real-time transmission of multimedia data, via unicast or multicast. • RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) serves as a control protocol, to negotiate which transport protocol to use for the stream. RT
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Video streams 14 Unicasting should be used for video-on-demand broadcasting, so that there is no video traffic on the network until a client connects and requests the stream. However, as more and more unicast clients connect, the traffic on the network will increase and may cause congestion. Although there is a maximum of 20 unicast viewers, note that all multicast users combined count as 1 unicast viewer. RTP/RTSP This unicast method is RTP tunneled over RTSP. This can b
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Video streams 15 Other MPEG-4 clients Although it may be possible to use other clients to view the MPEG-4 stream, this is not guaranteed by Axis. For some other clients, such as, QuickTime™ the Video Object Type must be set to Simple. It may also be necessary to adjust the advanced MPEG-4 settings. To assess the video stream from QuickTime™ the following path can be used: rtsp:///mpeg4/media.amp This path is for all supported methods, and the client will negotiate wit
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Configuring the video server 16 Configuring the video server This section describes how to configure the AXIS 243Q Blade and is intended for administrators, who have unrestricted access to all the Setup tools The AXIS 243Q Blade is configured from the Setup link, in a standard web browser. For more information on supported browsers, see Technical specifications, on page 57. Note that each video input must be configured separately. Accessing the Setup link Follow the instr
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Video & Image 17 Video & Image The following descriptions show examples of the available features in the AXIS 243Q Blade. For details of each setting, please refer to the online help available from each page. Click to access the online help. Image settings Image appearance Modify the Image Appearance to optimize the video images according to your requirements.
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Video & Image 18 All configuration of images and overlays will affect the performance of the video server, depending on usage and the available bandwidth. • High resolution generates larger files Selecting the Aspect ratio correction option improves the appearance of images from analog video sources, that are displayed on computer monitors. When using MPEG-4 as video format, any aspect ratio correction for the image is applied by the viewing client (the correct aspect ra
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Video & Image 19 Video source settings These settings allow you to eliminate black borders surrounding the image, by making Offset adjustments. By entering values in these fields you can change the horizontal and vertical synchronization for the image. See the online help for more information. Advanced - MPEG-4 settings These are tools for adjusting the MPEG-4 settings and for controlling the video bit rate. The MPEG-4 standard provides many different coding tools for var
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AXIS 243Q Blade - Video & Image 20 Adjusting the Maximum bit rate and setting it to Variable or Constant helps control the bandwidth used by the MPEG-4 video stream. Bit Rate control Adjusting the maximum bit rate and setting it to variable or constant is a good way of controlling the bandwidth used by the MPEG-4 video stream. Leaving the Maximum bit rate as unlimited will provide consistently good image quality, but at the expense of increased bandwidth usage whenever there is more activi
