Displaying video wall options/ settings

[RL]

One problem that we ran into is that most camera systems usually have a monitor dedicated to viewing all the cameras. Currently, we are trying to come up with some solution for this problem. Has Cisco considered this issue or are the plans only to have web browser viewing of the camera system?

The auto log out feature can only be set network-wide. So if we make the change for users to remain logged in for let's say 3 hours ( so the camera system can remain displayed),it would also apply to not only the Camera admin/Users but to the Network admins as well which is not ideal. Does Cisco plan to have more separation between system admin and Camera admin/users.

Couple solutions ( just examples):

Add a second monitor to our locations just to have the browser run on that screen to view the cameras.

Live website desktop wallpaper to have the camera streaming live at all times.

loading chrome on a firestick and connect to a second monitor.

load the browser on a smart TV and have that stream.

looking for a better cisco suggested solution.

[KlausMikaelson]

We too use cisco based security cameras in our organization and they have been working smooth and fine. Well, however, we would also like to try the system you are trying to implement in this advanced way. It would be nicer to use smart TVs for that. Before all of this, we used to play Kodi on smart tv.

[GeorgeB]

@RL

We have been investigating the use of Permanent Video Monitors (PVM) and have tested a number of different things. It is an area we want to have a solution for, but right now we haven't hit the Meraki 'simple' version which would be pleasing to use. Things you can try are Intel NUC compute sticks connected via HDMI to a TV, or Android running on a Chrome stick connected via HDMI to a TV. 

Regarding the auto-logout issue, this is something we are aware of and will look at addressing.

[RL]

Thanks for the Response.

(I read your response  regarding user accounts in another post Thanks for that response as well.)

[PhilipDAth]

If you change to using HTML5 video streaming customers could use a ChromeCast ... Meraki simple.

[ww]

Is there a yet a way to get the meraki mv to directly stream to chromecast? (Without converting rtsp to hls again)

[PhilipDAth]

Only by displaying it on a computer first, and then casting the Chrome tab to the Chromecast.

Otherwise, I can recommend an "AXIS T8705 Video Decoder" and use RTSP.

https://www.axis.com/products/axis-t8705-video-decoder

[Nick_Barron]

We would definitely welcome the app being able to view multiple camera's properly on an iPad. We've had a good few requests for this. 

[MRCUR]

I've just started playing around with the idea of using a Chromebook or Chromestick running a Kiosk app to stream either a video wall or a single camera. I'm currently using this app to do the kiosk mode with: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kiosk/afhcomalholahplbjhnmahkoekoijban

Two big downsides with this setup today: there is no way to provide login credentials for Dashboard to the Kiosk app, so you still need to connect a keyboard/mouse to the Chrome device to get logged into Dashboard. Second, even if you do not have auto logout enabled at the org level in Dashboard, each login is limited to 30 days. Perhaps there is a way around this by having the kiosk app refresh itself, but I believe the 30 day counter applies no matter what. 

Has anyone else had any luck with this approach or any other suggestions at this point? 

(@MerakiDave - anything you've seen with your customers at this point besides me?)

[lfischer-gcpl]

@MRCURI'm working on a similar setup. I tested a Chromebit but with only 2GB of RAM it wasn't sufficient when the video wall had 12 cameras displayed. Chrome would error out. Going to use a Chromebox instead.

I decided to set the device as a public session and set the initial & homepage to the Meraki dashboard. As for the 30 day limit, this is something we can probably live with. It could be beneficial to have a video wall only user with options to stay logged in and limit by IP.

[MRCUR]

@lfischer-gcpl Agreed on Chromebit for a video wall - definitely not a suitable device for more than 1 or 2 cameras. I'm specifically trying to stream just one camera (it's a front door monitor for an office that cannot physically see the front door) which works fine on a Chromebit. 

At this point we are probably going to deploy a Chromebit doing an RSTP stream from a Ubiquiti camera as the delay on MV streams is causing issues at the building. Hopefully Meraki has some better solutions for permanent monitor arrangements and lower latency streams soon. 

[Wibster73]

We are installing Meraki cameras in several schools.  We decided to install a large display with a mini-pc attached to the TV connected via an HDMI cable.  Using chrome to log into the dashboard and then just doing full screen on selected video wall.  The problem we are having is the mini-pc bogs down when running a 12 camera video wall all day.  Cameras will freeze and come and go when Chrome is the only application open.  I believe the PCs they purchased were i3 with 4GB of memory.  Anyone else doing this for video walls? 

[lfischer-gcpl]

@Wibster73I encountered a similar issue when testing a Chromebox for this same purpose. I ended up going with a Chromebox with 8GB of RAM. So far, I haven't had any complaints from the users of the video wall. If you can get by with splitting the cameras between multiple layouts, you may be able to get by with your 4GB Chromebox.

[JoeTG]

Hi All!

Just implemented a 'solution' to this last week, but unfortunately brings about its own problems. Having installed 11 MV cameras over the last couple of months (both 21's and 71's) I was tasked with providing a relatively easy way for our video wall to be displayed on a monitor in our reception area.

I'm using a dedicated PC (fairly low spec) in our office to stream to the reception monitor via Chromecast. The PC only has Chrome running with one tab (the dashboard video wall) which works fine and looks great when selecting full screen on the dashboard feed and then using F11 to put chrome in to full screen mode as well.

The downside? It seems that after an (as yet) unidentified period of time, the chrome tab with the dashboard open will auto-refresh. This reverts both full screen options mentioned above back to normal. Obviously its not great from a customer point of view with half the video wall off screen and the dashboard navigation along the side, as well as 'Announcements', 'Help' and login details along the top.

Has anybody encountered this themselves? Or found a way to prevent the auto-refresh from happening? 

The Chromecast approach is great other than this one issue. And it's pretty killer unfortunately.

[MRCUR]

@JoeTG I saw the same issues with the random refresh. No fix that I could find. Probably something in Dashboard we can't control. 

[JoeTG]

Yeah I've not been able to find a fix on the Chrome side of things either  😞

Submitted a 'wish' via the dashboard for Meraki to provide us with a way to force prevention of auto refresh on video wall pages. Hopefully this is something they can do 

[wtesolutions]

Did anyone ever find a solution? I also have a video wall that timeout after 30 minutes.

It is starting to feel like the Meraki video is not fully supported by Cisco yet. I love the cameras and the ease of integration to the Meraki stack but the video side of the stack is still underdeveloped. Do these cameras work with other software or they tied only to Meraki. Can I use Axis software or something with them?

[Gryffindor]

Was a workable solution ever found for this?

[Gryffindor]

Any movement on this at all???

[Binzer]

I agree that some settings could be separated a little more

One of our location camera models (not cisco cams) uses ldap for permissions and allowed us to create our own groups 

Admin - full access, configuration including delete video - but only to the camera suite

Local Admin - allows history viewing, and downloading

User: allows history viewing but not downloading

Viewer: View only

These for us are the 4 needed categories 

[AllardM]

Hi @Meraki , any updates on this post?

[DR1]

@Meraki 

It would be great to get some kind of update.

Has anyone had success creating an RTSP stream videowall/grid using VLC or similar?

[PhilipDAth]

>Has anyone had success creating an RTSP stream videowall/grid using VLC or similar?

I've done exactly that.  I setup a Raspberry Pi and configured it to boot directly into VLC and display the RSTP stream.  Then you take the HDMI output and plug it into the screen.

There are some other RSTP to HDMI "converters" you can buy as well if you want something like a "black box" you can just plugin.  Examples are the Axis T8705

Google will find more of them for you.

[DR1]

Would you be willing to share the string/arguments you are passing that allow VLC to connect to the Meraki generated RTSP url?

I feel dumb for getting stuck on this detail, but I cant even get this to work. Searches for similar scenarios found me some results, but nothing that has allowed for the handshake between VLC and the camera.

[PhilipDAth]

Start by getting it going using the GUI.  Open up a URL like:

rtsp://<camera IP>:9000/live

You of course have to enable RSTP on the camera first.

Form the command line you shouldn't need to do anything more than:

vlc rtsp://<camera IP>:9000/live