Display live video on your PRTG map
Summary
At the low end of the market, it’s not uncommon for cameras to need proprietary browser plugins, often based on Java or QuickView, to allow feeds to be viewed (possibly not the greatest idea for a security system). We don’t have the space here to discuss the relative merits of the different protocols – the web is awash with information, and entire books have been written on the subject, if you want to delve deeper. Whichever transcoding tool you choose, it needs to be running permanently to continuously convert the camera feed – I discuss this in more detail later in the article. For example, my shell script to run CVLC looks like this (ignore the line break): Although a little complicated, this method will allow you to embed live video feeds into your PRTG maps. And while it’s no substitute for a dedicated multi-camera CCTV control system, it could be very useful for adding a stream from a camera in a server room, or outside a security door, to a PRTG map.
