Surveillance Camera Domain

Overview#

A security operations team is deploying 300 new cameras across six facilities. The Surveillance Camera module discovers cameras on the network automatically, probes each one to identify its protocol (RTSP, ONVIF, or SUNAPI), stores the credentials in encrypted form, and queues the fleet for batch provisioning. Within an hour, all 300 cameras are streaming to the platform with AI detection profiles assigned based on each camera's location. When one camera transitions from provisioning to streaming and then goes offline three days later, the state machine records every step. The team knows exactly which cameras are active, which are in error states, and what happened at each stage.

Key Features#

• Multi-Protocol Support: Connect cameras using RTSP, ONVIF, and SUNAPI protocols with automatic protocol detection, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of camera manufacturers and models.

• Network Discovery: Automatically discover cameras on the network to simplify large-scale deployments, reducing manual configuration effort when onboarding new camera fleets.

• Onboarding State Machine: Track each camera through a structured onboarding process from inactive through provisioning to streaming, with status transition tracking and error handling at each stage.

• Secure Credential Management: Store camera access credentials securely with encryption, ensuring that authentication information is protected throughout the camera lifecycle.

• Batch Operations: Perform fleet-scale operations including batch updates, provisioning, and configuration changes across hundreds of cameras simultaneously.

• AI Detection Profiles: Configure which AI analysis models are active on each camera, allowing detection capabilities to be tailored to the specific monitoring needs of each location.

• Protocol Probing: Test camera connectivity and probe available protocols before onboarding to ensure reliable video delivery and identify potential configuration issues early.

• Live Input Provisioning: Automatically provision cloud-based live streaming inputs for onboarded cameras, enabling secure video delivery to the monitoring platform.

Use Cases#

Camera fleet management at scale requires automation at every stage, from discovery to decommissioning. Key industries include public safety, retail and logistics, and critical infrastructure protection.

• Fleet Deployment: Rapidly onboard large numbers of cameras across multiple sites with automatic discovery, protocol detection, and batch provisioning.

• Camera Lifecycle Management: Track camera status from installation through decommissioning, including maintenance periods, firmware updates, and credential rotation.

• Multi-Site Operations: Manage camera fleets across multiple facilities with centralised configuration, monitoring, and batch management capabilities.

• Troubleshooting: Diagnose camera connectivity issues using protocol probing and status tracking to quickly identify and resolve problems.

Integration#

The Surveillance Camera module connects with the broader surveillance platform:

• Surveillance Platform: Camera feeds power the real-time video intelligence system
• Surveillance AI: AI detection profiles are assigned per camera
• Zone Management: Cameras are associated with surveillance zones
• Stream Management: Video delivery infrastructure is provisioned automatically

Open Standards#

• RTSP (RFC 7826 / RFC 2326): The platform probes cameras using OPTIONS requests over the Real Time Streaming Protocol and constructs rtsp:// URIs for primary, analytics, and preview stream paths across all supported camera manufacturers.

• ONVIF Profile S: Camera discovery and stream configuration use the ONVIF device service SOAP interface, including GetCapabilities, GetProfiles, and GetStreamUri calls, to normalise stream URIs and profile tokens for heterogeneous camera fleets.

• WS-Discovery (OASIS): Automatic network discovery broadcasts a multicast WSDiscovery probe searching for NetworkVideoTransmitter endpoints, enabling zero-touch discovery of ONVIF cameras on the local network segment.

• WS-Security UsernameToken Profile (OASIS WSS 1.0): When HTTP Basic authentication fails during ONVIF probing, the platform falls back to injecting a standards-compliant wsse:UsernameToken security header using the OASIS oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd schema.

• SOAP 1.2: All ONVIF device and media service interactions are transmitted as application/soap+xml over HTTP, with properly namespaced SOAP envelopes for capabilities, profile, and stream URI operations.

• HTTP Digest Authentication (RFC 7616): Hanwha SUNAPI cameras are authenticated using HTTP Digest before falling back to Basic, matching the Digest-first requirement of the Wisenet camera firmware.

• HMAC-based Message Authentication: Relay control-plane calls between the middleware and ingestion nodes are signed using an HMAC signature carried in the X-Surveillance-Signature header, ensuring relay node integrity for start, stop, and heartbeat endpoints.

Last Reviewed: 2026-02-24 Last Updated: 2026-04-14