IP Camera Stream Simulator
What tools or programs would allow one to simulate large numbers of IP cameras? The goal is to do this without having 20 or 100 cameras all set up in one place at one time.
Axis has a really good emulator for use with your own canned video, you can add 100s of cameras. I do recommend having it installed on its own server.
It can simulate several different camera models with H.264, MPEG4, MJPEG...
Tariq, can those actually simulate an IP camera stream? They look like generic traffic generators.
Sarit, do you know if Axis is still supporting / developing that?
In the last three years they offered two versions, if it is maintained the releases are few and far between. However, even with its current release it gets the job of emulating video done fast and without much maintenance on the tester side. The latest release, in November of 2011 is the latest, but if you use this link you'll get their ftp site, so can stay up to date with latest versions.
btw- I sent an email to Axis for a clearer schedule of releases for this product and will post when I know more.
John, you should contact IPVM member Mike Dotson from Seneca Data...
I received a response from Axis and apparently this emulator is available for Partners only. Though I found it via a Google search I do recommend becoming a partner first. Here are a few more simulators to select from.
The Axis Virtual Camera Tool is excellent!
The Axis person that I get my copy from says the following:
"We only make AVC available for our partners since we don’t have a support channel for it (besides our developer program, which is restricted). That being said if the folks from IPVM need a copy they can reach out to their Axis contacts and we might be able to arrange something."
VLC can re-stream anything you feed into it (another stream, a file, etc.), I bet it could be adapted to simulate any number of streams. You could probably even run multiple copies and have one batch stream to another batch... even set up a stream feedback loop if you wanted to be really nasty.
Hi all, how about updating this 3 year old post if there is interest.
Stress testing a newly designed/deployed system´s resources (processing power, network and storage performance) is desirable before connecting to a customer´s existing camera network.
Any advances in Camera Emulation software and/or availability?
I second that. I wish I had known about this thread 1 year ago, it might have saved my a few days work as I had written my own tool. Perhaps IPVM could have a page under their Tools menu containing links to useful third party tools.
I just downloaded the Axis tool. It works Ok, but I would prefer something that generates something like a TV test signal, with date-time stamps (ms resolution), and other useful information stamped on each frame.
The axis software has advanced from 3.08 to 3.09 in the last three years.
New features in 3.09
====================
- Fixed compatible issue with new RTSP server in 5.60 firmware.
- Windows XP and Windows 2003 are no longer supported.
- The IP address of the real camera are replaced with the address of the
virtual camera in parameter responses.
- Bug fixes.
Harold, 1, thanks for posting comments and reviving this.
There has been one major new entrant in this space - XStreamGenerator from a Dubai based company. We have not tried it but they seem to be quite focused on building a real commercial product for load testing VMSes.
Here is their marketing video:
Let us know what you think. We generally don't get a lot of requests here, so that's why we did not cover it yet.
Also, to 1's point, I do think it would be useful to keep a directory of tools and we'll work on that.
A new one in our lab is the SONY IP Camera Emulator.
It does NOT need a real camera to work well. The AXIS one does 'prefer' to have a real camera as a fallback to cover queries that the sim itself does not know how to answer.
If you have multiple NICs in your PC you can assign the different ones to sim cams.
Having a real SONY cam does allow you to change the playback video to something you recorded from the real one.
It is a bit quirky how to control the sim...but NotePad++ is your friend here since the control file is keyword based and 'change alls' easily handled.
You need to be registered with them to be able to get it. Video Security Member is the key.
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