Configuring the Media Gateway role

You can enable the RTSP protocol on your system or improve the streaming performance of the Web Server role by changing the Media Gateway role settings in Config Tool.

To configure the Media Gateway role:

1. From the Config Tool home page, open the Video task.
2. In the entity tree, select the Media Gateway role, and click the Resources tab.
3. (Optional) Change the role’s primary server.
4. To configure load distribution for the Media Gateway, add servers to the role.
   1. Under the Servers list, click Add an item ().
      A dialog box opens, listing all remaining servers on your system not assigned to the role.
   2. Select the server you want to add, and then click Add.
   All video streaming requests are distributed among the listed servers.
5. Click the Properties tab.
6. (Optional) Enable the RTSP protocol.
   1. Under the RTSP section, set the Enable switch to ON.
   2. Ensure that the default Start multicast address and port settings do not conflict with other roles, such as the Archiver roles, the Media Router role, the redirectors, and other applications on your system.
      In multicast, all video sources are streamed to different multicast addresses using the same port number, because multicast switches and routers use the destination IP address to make their routing decisions. Similarly, the Media Gateway assigns that same port number to all streaming cameras, starting with the specified IP address and incrementing the IP address by 1 for each new camera it encounters.
   3. If the default Listening port (654) conflicts with other roles or applications on your server, select a different port number.
   4. Enable User authentication and assign at least one user account to access RTSP.
      Use this option to limit the user accounts that RTSP client applications, such as third-party video analytics software, can use to communicate with the Media Gateway. If you disable this option, anyone can connect to the Media Gateway. We recommend that you enable this option to heighten the security of your system; however, you can disable it if you know that your network is secure.

      NOTE: The cameras that an RTSP client application can view in the system depend on the user account the client uses to log on to Security Center. Assign a new password to each user account added to the Accessible to list, preferably a different password than the one used for connecting to Security Center. The password you assign is only used for interacting with the Media Gateway role and does not replace the password set in the User management task.
7. If necessary, change the default HTTP ports and URL used to connect to the Media Gateway.
8. If necessary, change the default settings for streaming video to the Web Client applications.
   The Media Gateway streams video to the Web Client in either Low quality or High quality, based on the resolution of the viewing tile in the browser. If the resolution of the viewing tile is lower than the Minimum resolution requested for high quality setting, then the Low quality stream is used. Otherwise, the High quality stream is used.

   Each type of stream is defined with the following:

   • Default stream:

     The camera stream to be used: Live, Recording, Remote, Low resolution, or High resolution.
   • Maximum resolution for JPEG transcoding:

     Maximum resolution permitted for this stream when the Media Gateway role must transcode the stream to MJPEG. Transcoding is performed if the camera stream is not using MJPEG or H.264 or when the user is controlling the PTZ or using a web browser that does not support H.264 decoding. If the selected camera stream has a higher resolution, the Media Gateway role also lowers the image resolution during transcoding before sending it to the Web Client.
9. Click Apply.