Subscriber Discussion

Help - Who Makes This No Name Camera?

Matt Ion

10/03/13 12:28am

Well this one's a treat... we got invited to check out and possibly quote for upgrading a dozen cameras in a condo tower, as a couple were failing and they were really unhappy with the current system. We figured, let's go in, give it a look, bring down a Vigil NVR, hook it into their network, and see if we can get their cameras working on it. Well, I've managed to get Vigil to work with a number of "unsupported" cameras using either ONVIF, or its generic RTSP and HTTP support... when the camera's full URL/MRL to pull a stream is known.

Unforunately these cameras give NO indication of who made them or what kind they are other than probably some cheap offshore OEM thing... the software is logo'd as mEyeNET but appears to be some sort of free NVR that was likely bundled with the cameras (the machine actually has Exacq installed as well, but it's not being used). The cameras are actually decent image quality, but the software is absolutely horrid.

Ultimately, we'll probably quote to replace the cameras as well as the NVR, but since there's not really anything wrong with the cameras, we'd like to save the potential client a bit of cash by re-using whichever ones we can. To do so, though, I'll need to find out the URL/MRL for them (eg. rtsp://192.168.0.xxx/something/stream.asp or whatever), and for that, I'll probably need to figure out who makes the damn things.

I have a couple screenshots of the CMS here:

And here's one of the camera's login screen - kinda reminds me of an ACTi, but the ACTi finder utility didn't work, nor did the ACTi settings in Vigil:

(I do have some screencaps of the cameras' interface as well, coming shortly...)

Anyone has any idea what brand these things are???

Duncan Miller

10/03/13 12:53am

Can you send me a MAC address of one of the cameras?

Matt Ion

In reply to Duncan Miller | 10/03/13 04:03am

Sure - 00-4a-20-a5-7e-c3

I tried a couple different MAC 'reverse lookup' engines and both came up with NOTHING, on either the full address, or using just the first three octets, which should normally at least be enough to find a manufacturer for the interface...

Duncan Miller

In reply to Matt Ion | 10/03/13 04:47am

Isn't that strange how no company is associated with that MAC.

Take a look at the HTML source to see if you might see anything in that.

Matt Ion

In reply to Duncan Miller | 10/03/13 05:23am

Yeah, even ieee.org lists nothing:

http://standards.ieee.org/cgi-bin/ouisearch?00-4a-20

Here are the results of your search through the public section of the IEEE Standards OUI database report for 00-4a-20:

Sorry!

The public OUI listing contains no match for the query 00-4a-20
Please back up to the search page and try again.

Alex K

10/03/13 04:24am

May be try to decompile and analyse ActiveX

Matt Ion

In reply to Alex K | 10/03/13 04:29am

Well, I would have, but I left my ActiveX decompiler in my other suit...

Alex K

10/03/13 04:39am

DropBox link for ActiveX ?

Matt Ion

In reply to Alex K | 10/03/13 05:20am

Added...

Duncan Miller

10/03/13 05:04am

Is this the VMS from Beward?

Matt Ion

In reply to Duncan Miller | 10/03/13 05:07am

That looks like it, yep... and the one box cam there, the B2.920F, looks a lot like the ones on the site (except theirs looked older, more squared-off).

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Matt Ion | 10/03/13 05:10am

Matt, what does this logo say in the top right corner?

Beward looks to be offering this VMS. However, on their version of the VMS, it says their name/logo up top. So is Beward OEMing this from someone else, who is selling it to others? Or is Beward OEMing this to someone else who is changing the logo?

Duncan Miller

In reply to John Honovich | 10/03/13 05:15am

From what I can find online they are the OEM. Beward and Wellcam are the same company.

"Wellcam Co.,Ltd was founded in 2005, is a group of companies professional in digital video solutions for IP surveillance applications, IP Camera and Video Server products. With industry-leading experienced R&D Team in Russia and manufacturing head-offices both in Russia and Hong-Kong Beward Corp. achieved reputation of a reliable partner and supplier of CCTV systems among installation companies and bulk-suppliers.

Wellcam Co.,Ltd welcomes OEM/ODM partns and guarantees to provide best quality products as well as competitive price and well-service."

Matt Ion

In reply to Duncan Miller | 10/03/13 06:31am

Duncan, great info! In looking through the Wellcam product listings, I see what look like exact matches for the PTZ in the lobby and the fancy IR dome in the office... I think you're on the right track here. Now if I could just find the info on their RTSP URL... :)

Matt Ion

In reply to John Honovich | 10/03/13 06:08am

The logo says "EyenetSurveillance" - apparently a local company, probably the ones who installed the system in first place (I'm told some 7-8 years ago, although most of the stuff seems much newer than that: the NVR is running Windows 7).

Matt Ion

10/03/13 05:37am

Got some screenshots of a camera's config screens:

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Matt Ion | 10/03/13 05:42am

It's very weird that the camera web interface has no brand at all. Typically this is done for OEM customers who would then add in their brand? Do you know who your customer bought these cameras from?

Matt Ion

In reply to John Honovich | 10/03/13 06:22am

I expect the original install was done by Eyenet, since they appear to be local... the NVR is confusing, as it also has Exacq installed on it, but not running, almost like they took an existing Exacq system and just put the Beward(??) software on it... maybe they couldn't make their cameras work with Exacq?

The whole thing smacks of a bulk purchase from Alibaba... most of the cameras are the box models, although there's one dome on an angle bracket in a hallway (seems completely out of place there with the others being boxes), a PTZ in the lobby (I can't say for sure, but it seems to have separate RS485 wiring rather than control through the ethernet), and I'm told a couple big heavy-duty domes outside (that I didn't get a chance to look at), as well as some sort of funky-looking IR dome in the office. They LOOK like they're all different brands (no consistency in appearance, AT ALL), but the web interface is identical on all of them, as are the leading octets of the MAC addresses.

Hans Olsen

10/03/13 08:17am

If the main goal is to get the RSTP/MJPEG uris, then one way to get hold of them would be to install Wireshark on your laptop, then connect the laptop to their network. Open a browser to one of the cameras, switch to a settings page or something without video. Then start network capturing in Wireshark, switch to the browser and press the Live view link, then stop network capture in wireshark. If you then go through what was captured in Wireshark (filter on the cameras IP), you should see what uris etc is called for setting up the video stream in the browser.

It might take some practise to get used to how to find the right information, but it's easily the fastest way to find this and other information related to communicating with a camera when you don't have proper documentation.

Matt Ion

In reply to Hans Olsen | 10/03/13 02:42pm

Oh duh! Why didn't I think of that? :) I've used Wireshark before for similar purposes (monitoring POS data). Thanks, I'll give that a try when I get the chance.

Sean, thanks for that suggestion too. I don't have direct access to the system, but I can remote in, so I can test that in VLC later.

Avatar

Sean Nelson

Nelly's Security
10/03/13 01:29pm

Its a long shot but try this:

rtsp://IPADDRESS:554/user=YOURUSERNAME&password=YOURPASSWORD&channel=1&stream=1.sdp?

Obviously you will want to change the capital letters in this string to fit your scenario.

Matt Ion

In reply to Sean Nelson | 10/07/13 06:02pm

Tried, but no luck. Also tried Vincent's suggestion, without success.

Avatar

Vincent Tong

10/03/13 03:50pm

Try this Matt

rtsp://IPADDRESS:554/live/h264

SourceiSpy

Stanley Mezewski

10/07/13 02:12pm

I found this manual by using Google. It could be your software. If you have Exacq, I would use that. Can you provide a photo of the camera?

Matt Ion

In reply to Stanley Mezewski | 10/07/13 06:00pm

Definitely not the same software. Exacq is on that machine, but not in use - I suspect the original installer may have tried it but couldn't make it work with those cameras.

Anyway, our plan is to quote a new Vigil system, and SOME additional cameras, but we'd like to re-use their existing cameras if at all possible, to save them money.

David Castelli

10/07/13 03:07pm

If the cameras are ONVIF then you can try using ONVIF Device Manager from Synesis to connect to the camera it should have the camera manufacturer in the identification tab as well as the url stream. This is free software.

Matt Ion

In reply to David Castelli | 10/07/13 06:01pm

Thanks Bill, I'll try that if I get the chance... although we did try Vigil's ONVIF support with the cameras, without success.

David Castelli

In reply to Matt Ion | 10/07/13 06:26pm

Matt,

I use this program to test "off brand" Cameras to see if they are really ONVIF or not. Under information tab it will give manufacturer name country and model number if possible as well as what version ONVIF the camera is using. At the bottom of screen it will give the url stream.

Matt Ion

In reply to David Castelli | 10/07/13 06:50pm

Cool... except the link is broken. "Oops! Google Chrome could not find en.synesis.ru"

Matt Ion

In reply to David Castelli | 10/07/13 07:22pm

Never mind, found it on SourceForge. Looks slick, found my Dahua cameras right away. This could be very helpful, thanks!

Matt Ion

10/10/13 04:12pm

So ONVIF Device Manager found nothing, didn't see the cameras at all... didn't see them when I added their IPs manually, either. Tried Wireshark on the machine but couldn't see anything relevant immediately, although I did capture a couple minutes' worth of data and downloaded it to home - just installing Wireshark on my desktop now to give it a closer look. I did notice there were a *LOT* of "Malformed packets" though.

Avatar

Luis Carmona

Geutebruck USA
IPVMU Certified | 10/21/13 07:23pm

Even if it appears to work initially, will it always work? Will it be reliable?

Matt Ion

In reply to Luis Carmona | 10/21/13 09:51pm

I don't see why it wouldn't continue to work, unless the camera actually fails. Pulling a stream from an H.264 camera is USUALLY as straightforward as sending a URL like "rtsp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/some.stuff/wonko.avi?parameters&more.parameters" (or even just as simple as "rtsp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"), and then the DVR might need to do some specific decoding of the cameras's stream. There's no reason any of that would change over time all by itself unless something does an auto-update that breaks it.

Avatar

Luis Carmona

Geutebruck USA
IPVMU Certified | 10/22/13 01:31am

Matt, I've worked in IT for pert near 16 years. Be careful of "never" and "if it works it should always work". Bad processing of packets, bad firmeware code, buffer overruns, sliding windows that get stuck (tech joke).... Not trying to be a harbinger.

Matt Ion

In reply to Luis Carmona | 10/22/13 04:18am

Having worked in IT (or with computers in one way or another) for pert near 30, trust me, I know what can go wrong... barring outside factors such as actual failure of the physical chain (bad switch, damaged cable, cooked electronics) or the introduction of outside influence (someone installs a new high voltage feed across one of your runs), yes, things SHOULD always work the same.

Thing is, any of these would affect things pretty much equally whether I get it working on a new NVR, or it just keeps running on their old NVR. Frankly, it would probably be better off on a new NVR simply for the introduction of new equipment vs. an older PC.

Avatar

Luis Carmona

Geutebruck USA
IPVMU Certified | In reply to Matt Ion | 10/24/13 12:24pm

Well put and I hope I didn't come across as condenscending.

町田 英志

10/23/13 03:34pm

Please see if the camera is from ZAVIO as the design seems similar.

Matt Ion

In reply to 町田 英志 | 10/23/13 04:12pm

Thanks for the lead, Tim... is there maybe a finder utility from Zavio that I could try, or some other way to confirm?

町田 英志

In reply to Matt Ion | 10/23/13 04:44pm

Hello Matt, try the site below for the software. It looks to follow their GUI but I'm not positive as there are lots of GUI that are being shared now.

Zavio Downloads

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