What VMSes Support Multicasting?

I am not sure I see the value of multicasting on larger sites where there is typicaly a need for central management of users, so logging onto a server opposed to directly to the camera makes sense. Ensuring integrity of video is questionable with multicasting, additionally any bad network design can be severly punished. It seems that some VMS's will use the camera multicasting because they dont have any transcoding ability to retransmit the video in a more bandwidth efficient form from the server to client.

John

Since you are making a list...
Digifort does support multicasting, but only from server to clients, basically server will use unicast connection to the cameras and can deliver the received images to the clients either by unicast or multicast

Aimetis Symphony supports multicasting.

There are no differences. Both Omnicast and Security Center supports the same capabilities in terms of multicast.

Multicast supported VMSes:

Pelco Endura - recording and to the client from the edge

Geutebruck - recording and to the client from the edge, or proxy

Indigo - recording and to the client from the edge

OnSSI - supported in ES only

Milestone - supported in Expert and Corporate

Genetec - supported from edge and proxy

Dallmeier - live viewing from edge and proxy

Synectics - supported from the edge but not certain if only for live viewing or if there are options to MC record too

Not a complete list but a start!

All manufacturers listed will support Unicast recording but some offer the flexibility of recording via multicast too. My personal preference is multicasting from the edge, as it allows the network to do the work it is capable of doing and eliminates the single point of failure of a server being the host for all streams. Of course most enterprise VMSes today offer failover redundancies to avoid single point of failure downtime, however MC of live video to the client is the most reliable means to maintain as close to 100% uptime of live video. I say as close to 100% uptime because the camera itself and the network has the potential for failure too. Sorry for the deviation from the MC list.

Mohd, that is exactly how IndigoVision does it. Their IP cameras and encoders are typically set up to stream TCP/IP Unicast for recording and Multicast for live viewing. That method is also used for third-party devices, although in our limited testing of third party cameras so far, neither Axis nor Ganz cameras were capable of delivering simultaneous 30fps streams at 720p+ resolution.

Axis claims their cameras can as long as both streams are set up the same but unless I missed something, their ONVIF streams can't do that. I tried using exactly the same settings and was only able to get their cameras to deliver 22-24fps per stream.

To clarify, while many have pointed out that Milestone Corporate and Expert are the only versions that support multicasting, nobody has specifically noted that Milestone also only does multicasting from the server side. Cameras stream unicast to the server.

The servers Multicast tab is checked to engage the function (checked by default), and specific cameras are then enrolled to be multicast from the server with a similar checkbox on the camera's Record tab (not checked by default).

MY best guess at why some VMSes only support multicast as proxy from their software on a server is it is easier to write the code into their own software for multicast support from the clients. Alternatively, supporting multicast direct from 3rd party cameras will require some additional work on the drivers for those cameras, and each manufacturer may have their own specific nuances therefore for the time being it is simply easier to standardize the IGMP joins from the clients to their own software as a proxy.

My 2 cents and may not be 100% accurate.

Aimetis Symphony supports multicasting from camera to client in all versions (Standard/Pro/Enterprise).

In 99% of our installations, the cameras are not accessible from a client workstation. All cameras are on a private Fiber or copper environment, and 100% shielded from any tampering with ACL and MAC table security, and the switches are monitored by tools like ManageEngineUtils, looking for missing or potential rogue MAC appearances (not likely given the ACL/MAC security) It is my .02 on the subject that having cameras accessible by workstations increases the security footprint.... We all read and know about BAD firmware... Having all cameras secured greatly reduces that threat.

I'm suprised this wasn't mentioned yet. But Bosch their BVMS software supports Multicasting.