Setting Up RTSP Server in Raspberry PI and Zoneminder

I have been testing at Raspberry PI Zero W as a security camera connected to ZoneMinder for few weeks and it has been working perfectly. No drop frames or delays or cables or dongles or anything. Just a Pi Zero W, Camera Module and Power Supply.

I used the following links as reference:

• Adventures in ZoneMinder
• v4l2rtspserver
• Raspberry WIFI Configuration

Prepare Raspberry PI SD Card with Raspbian Jessie Lite:

dd bs=4M if=Desktop/2017-04-10-raspbian-jessie-lite.img of=/dev/sdX

Setup Raspberry PI:

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade
• sudo raspi-config
• Change Hostname to something meaningful
• Localisation Options -> Change Locale
• Localisation Options -> Change Timezone
• Interfacing Options -> P1 Camera to Enable
• Interfacing Options -> P2 SSH (optional)
• Advance Options -> A1 Expand Filesystem
• Advance Options -> Memory Split (128M or 256M)

• Set WIFI

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan (optional just to scan)
sudo wpa_passphrase "YOUR_SSID" "YOUR_PASSWORD" >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

• Delete plain text password entry from wpa_supplicant.conf  (optional)

sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

• Add Camera module to list of modules to start at boot

sudo echo "bcm2835-v4l2" >>  /etc/modules-load.d/picamera.conf

Install Dependencies:

sudo apt-get install git cmake
wget http://www.live555.com/liveMedia/public/live555-latest.tar.gz -O - | tar xvzf -
cd live
./genMakefiles linux
sudo make CPPFLAGS=-DALLOW_RTSP_SERVER_PORT_REUSE=1 install

Install v4l2rtspserver:

git clone https://github.com/mpromonet/v4l2rtspserver
cd v4l2rtspserver
cmake .
make
sudo make install

Systemd Startup Script (Thank you Andrew):

In order to get v4l2rtspserver to start automatically after boot, I created a systemd service file. Create the file /etc/systemd/system/v4l2rtspserver.service and add the following contents. Adjust i_frame_period and -F to the frame rate that you want to record.

# systemd configuration for v4l2rtspserver

# /etc/systemd/system/v4l2rtspserver.service

[Unit]

Description=v4l2rtspserver rtsp streaming server

After=network.target

[Service]

#ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/v4l2-ctl --set-ctrl vertical_flip=1

#ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/v4l2-ctl --set-ctrl rotate=90

ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/v4l2-ctl --set-ctrl h264_i_frame_period=4

ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/v4l2rtspserver -F 4 -W 1920 -H 1080

#ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID

Type=simple

User=root

Group=video

Restart=always

[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

Let's give it a try:

sudo systemctl enable v4l2rtspserver

sudo systemctl start v4l2rtspserver

ZoneMinder Configuration:

• Source Type: Remote
• Remote Protocol: RTSP
• Remote Method: RTP/Unicast
• Remote Host Name: Hostname or IP
• Remote Host Port: 8554
• Remote Host Path: /unicast
• Capture Width: 1920
• Capture Height: 1080