RESTCam

A C# console/service application that pulls and records streams from multiple, concurrent IP cameras or any FFmpeg-compatible source, controlled via WebAPI HTTP interface. Useful for triggering recordings via webhooks. Uses FFmpeg to encode videos to MPEG4.

Starting RESTCam

Start RESTcam.exe with the following optional parameters:

• --port: Port for the web server to listen on, i.e. --port 1234
• --maxdays: Max days to keep video, i.e. --maxdays 30 will delete video older than 30 days. Cleanup runs about every 10 minutes.
• --rootfolder: The root folder for video storage, i.e. --rootfolder "C:\MyRootVideoFolder" By default RESTCam creates a folder called "Video" where it is launched from.

Strong Opinions

RESTCam comes with the following strong opinions about how things should go down:

• Every recording session has a maximum recording time limit. Defaults to 5 minutes, but it's a parameter called MaxDurationSecs. There are better solutions for long-running video recording/surveillance; this is meant for quick start/stop recording.
• Unless you specify differently, your video is named UnnamedVideo
• Every recording is suffixed with an index number, and will not overwrite. If you specify a filename of MyVideo, you will actually see MyVideo_0000.mp4 as the first file on disk.
• Everything is MPEG4.
• File names are specified at the end, not the beginning. I use this library to record production line processes. Most of the time, I'm capturing something where I don't know what to name it until the end of the process (when a barcode finally gets scanned, etc). A random file name is generated at the beginning of recording.

Starting Recording

Assuming your IP address is 192.168.1.100 and RESTCam is running on default port (9000), here are some example URLs to start a recording:

Record the stream from rtsp://some.camera/axis-media/media.amp for a maximum of 60 seconds

http://192.168.1.100:9000/start?source=rtsp://my-camera-ip-address/axis-media/media.amp&MaxDurationSecs=60

Record the stream from rtsp://some.camera/axis-media/media.amp for a maximum of 60 seconds, using TCP RTSP (recommended for some Axis cameras)

http://192.168.1.100:9000/start?source=rtsp://my-camera-ip-address/axis-media/media.amp&MaxDurationSecs=60&UseTcpRtsp=true

Stopping Recording

Stop the current recording and name it MyVideo

http://192.168.1.100:9000/stop?FileName=MyVideo

Multiple Recordings at the Same Time

By default, RESTCam assumes you are working with one recording at a time. If you want to work with, say, 3 IP cameras at a time, you will need to tell RESTCam which stream you mean with a RecordingKey parameter in the start and stop query strings.

For example:

Start Recording Camera 1 http://192.168.1.100:9000/start?source=rtsp://my-camera-1-ip-address/axis-media/media.amp&MaxDurationSecs=60&RecordingKey=Cam1

Start Recording Camera 2 http://192.168.1.100:9000/start?source=rtsp://my-camera-2-ip-address/axis-media/media.amp&MaxDurationSecs=60&RecordingKey=Cam2

Start Recording Camera 3 http://192.168.1.100:9000/start?source=rtsp://my-camera-3-ip-address/axis-media/media.amp&MaxDurationSecs=60&RecordingKey=Cam3

Stop Camera 1 http://192.168.1.100:9000/stop?FileName=MyVideoFromCam1&RecordingKey=Cam1

Stop Camera 2 http://192.168.1.100:9000/stop?FileName=MyVideoFromCam2&RecordingKey=Cam2

Stop Camera 3 http://192.168.1.100:9000/stop?FileName=MyVideoFromCam3&RecordingKey=Cam3

If multiple streams are in progress and /stop is called with no RecordingKey, all currently active streams are stopped.