Subscriber Discussion

How To Allow Retailer (Butcher) To Share Live Video To Remote Customers Calling In

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Jul 17, 2017

Hi guys,

I got an interesting request from a customer today.

This client runs a nice butcher shop and would like to have the ability to do the following:

 

When a customer calls and asks what meats are looking really good today, he wants to have the ability to share a link of some sort to allow the customer to view a camera(s) that is/are pointing at his meat fridges. 

 

Any ideas? and I'm thinking that even if I figured out a solution the access would still have to expire? (to prevent overuse)

JH
Jay Hobdy
Jul 17, 2017
IPVMU Certified

I hate to say this but why not do a video on the website using Blue Iris? http://blueirissoftware.com/

 

It is hard to imagine a butcher stopping what he is doing, just to setup a remote access. 

 

I think a camera pointed at the displays and on the website may be a better option. Based on camera placement, there may be some food safety involved.

 

Or he could have a specific camera/display location and he could just throw the specific food in that area for an hour

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Jul 17, 2017

Thanks Jay, I'm not familiar with BlueIris. Is is specifically built for web integration? or is it just a cheap option that you suggest based on the question?

Based on camera placement, there may be some food safety involved.

Can you please elaborate on this?

 

The store will also have multiple surveillance cameras throughout. The systems don't necessarily have to be together but just figured it was worth mentioning.

 

JH
Jay Hobdy
Jul 17, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Blue Iris is very cheap. It does allow for live streaming via a website.

 

I have never used it in any form, just heard of it. I suggest you check out the site.

 

There are probably several ways to handle this from a marketing standpoint. The client should really sort out how he wants to do this, then find a solution for it. 

 

As far as food safety, it depends on where you put the camera. If you put the camera 12" from the product, will you be able to clean it daily? any wiring, etc? This should not be a big deal but do not use a camera like Ubiquiti that has a ton of ridges, etc for grease etc to get trapped in.

 

 

 

 

 

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Brian Karas
Jul 17, 2017
IPVM

I would probably recommend that he get a Facebook page, if he does not already have one, and do a daily video highlighting specials/prime cuts/etc. Solve the problem in advance, post the information before the customer asks for it. Any modern smart phone will make this easy to do, and any of his customers that can/would view a link can probably also access Facebook.

Or, do the same thing, put post it to YouTube or Wistia or something like that where he can share the link easily, and potentially build up some broader marketing value around it.

I think if he does it this way, he will get better results than a remote camera looking through a glass display case that is probably just going to make everything look like blobs of meat and not highlight marbling and finer aspects of the meat that would make the videos valuable.

 

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Jul 17, 2017

Brian,

Thanks for the suggestions,

I'll definitely look into them.

 

You mentioned Youtube. Do you think I would be able to use youtube live to stream a view of his fridges 24/7? I'm not very familiar with youtube live's terms of use.

Avatar
Brian Karas
Jul 18, 2017
IPVM

I am not sure if YouTube would allow a 24/7 stream (is this a 24/7 butcher shop?), but it does seem like YouTube live streaming could be an option once they verify their YouTube channel (simple process).

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Jul 18, 2017

Thanks Brian,

It's not a 24/7 shop just regular business hours.

I'll look into the youtube live option.

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #2
Jul 17, 2017

What about a ptz camera with an alarm input button rigged to a button. On demand, he press a physical button, which triggers camera to preset location to view the meat or display or whatever. Then after a set time the camera goes back to a home position, which could be pointed at the ceiling or a sign on the wall with the store name and phone number. Access to the video could be through a service such as anglecam.com, which has paid and free accounts. 

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U
Undisclosed #3
Jul 17, 2017

I'm not 100%, but I would bet this is something that OpenEye can do. Not affiliated, but it seems like something in their wheelhouse if he's serious about wanting this functionality. 

http://www.openeye.com

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #4
Jul 17, 2017

I really like the PTZ idea, that seems easy to pull off with a simple light switch as the alarm trigger. I suppose that same switch could be used to trigger a relay on a CAT-6 breakout board like this one to "activate" the live feed.  

http://www.mdfly.com/products/dual-rj45-ethernet-connector-breakout-board-spring-leaf-8p8c-w-led.html

It is a bit of a "rigged" solution, but once it is wired up it is dead simple for the customer.  

 

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #2
Jul 18, 2017

I was thinking more of a mushroom button that when you press it, it triggers the camera to a preset and the camera holds the preset for 5 minutes, or however long.  Shouldn't need a relay, but you could use a relay to latch it as well if needed.

I like the mushroom button because it is one press.  A light switch has to be flipped back down, and is easy to forget.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #5
Jul 17, 2017

I think your butcher is brilliant and love stuff like this. It's not that big of a stretch to see how this could one day become the norm. I'm thinking each cut is packaged, printed a label with a bar or QR code and then set in a virtual meat counter.  Customers can log on to some site, select a cut of meat and lock it in. How it gets there is up to Bezos.

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Sean Nelson
Jul 18, 2017
Nelly's Security

you can do this with most cameras that spit out an RTSP stream as long as you have decent web coding skills. If it were me, i would just put a live video feed on his website using web coding and VLC media player.

The PTZ idea that the other poster mentioned is also genius. You could simply have different types of meat icons on the website, and when someone clicks on that meat, it would go to that section. But backend wise, whenever they click on the meat, it would go to a preset. I think that would require some use of HTTP commands but I think can definetely be doable.

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Scott Napier
Jul 18, 2017

Can you email me about this?  I might have a person that can simplify this for you greatly. 

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #6
Jul 18, 2017

Sure this can be done using shareable links where you generate an iframe based html link that can be shared with customer and even mention expiration date and time.

you can generate individual links for a specific camera for each customer that expire at defined timelines.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Jul 18, 2017

U6,

 

Cab you please elaborate on how this can be done?

 

Thank you!

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Scott Napier
Jul 18, 2017

Maybe we are overthinking this. Why not just run each camera into a PC and use twitch to stream them?  The butcher could easily control when it is online and offline, plus he could post a nice pretty graphic that says something like: 

"Welcome to High Tech Butcher, we are offline, for questions please call 555-MEAT". 

U
Undisclosed #7
Jul 18, 2017

I agree on the overthinking comment.

The customer does not need video to see the daily displayed cuts of meat.  They just need a picture of it to decide whether or not to make the trip down to the butcher shop to purchase what is (as they've seen online) available.

The PTZ idea is smart and fascinating to geeks like us - but the level of complexity is simply not needed to provide butcher shop customers access to images of current meat offerings.

Avatar
John Bazyk
Jul 18, 2017
Command Corporation • IPVMU Certified

Find a developer to get the RTSP stream embedded on his website. A decent freelance developer would cost around $100/hour and could probably do it in a couple of hours.

Here's a good starting point. VLC Wiki

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Carter Maslan
Jul 18, 2017
Camio

FD I'm CEO of Camio. This is an example of sharing the latest live image without opening any inbound ports to your butcher's network and without any concerns about overuse:

https://camio.com/api/content/live/east?view_tokens=k1jrrwmxbsw0&output=jpeg

You can also share access to the full video history for a constrained time period like 6am PDT to 2pm PDT today across these two east and west cameras (note that you can't view earlier or later with this link):

https://camio.com/c/f1a4fvgma5fk/app

Since there are no network or load balancing problems, you don't have to expire the tokens that permit this viewing without login. However, you can still choose to rotate tokens programmatically using the this Camio API.

JH
John Honovich
Jul 18, 2017
IPVM

Carter, your JPEG example is 640 x 360? Can it be higher or is that a constraint of the system? I ask because the image quality is fairly low and may not impress customers looking to buy products shown in that low res.

Avatar
Carter Maslan
Jul 18, 2017
Camio

Yes, the resolution of the latest live snapshot image is a setting that can be changed on a per-camera basis and can be the max resolution supported by the camera.

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Jeffrey Hinckley
Jul 19, 2017

Do a 24/7 youtube live stream with Axis and Camstreamer.  (the simplest approach, but not the cheapest).  You can use another camera with a PC running OBS/wirecast, which can allow multiple views and maybe a sequencing price or sale splash, with backgrounds, all on a loop, but this may be overcomplicated for a butcher.  You can also use a Teredek encoder with attached hdmi or usb camera, which can live stream to most services.  May be better than a 350 dollar charge for Camstreamer in addition to the Axis camera.

Do not forward a local camera link, unless you can secure and set BW restrictions on upload utilization.  You would also want to use JPEG encoding (maybe 1 frame every 10-60 sec) so that customers do not need plugins.  Exacq mobile needs no plugins also, if you want to connect to H.264 cameras, so that any browser will work with the link.

Of course, the easiest is to snap a picture and update on Facebook or website frquently.

SH
Slava H
Jul 24, 2017

Hi, I am working for 3dEYE.

Simple solution would be to embed widget into customer webpage. 3dEYE Cloud allows you to have simple widget with live or recorded streams to embed into customers website.  https://www.3deye.me/solutions/integrated-widget-and-api.html

Works with any IP Camera/NVR over Onvif or just use direct stream url.

We also provide an option for customers to have on-demand "one to many" live webRTC voice&video call with recording by sharing a link over SMS/Email/Push.

And of course you can use an API but i think in this case its overkill complexity wise.

 

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