Media widget

Widget Capabilities

Capability	Support	Comment
Using form as a dashboard widget		See Media widget
Play/Pause the video on the widget		You can play or pause a video at will.
Display the video in fullscreen mode		You can display the video in fullscreen.
Go forward/backward on the video		It is possible to scroll through the video bar and go forward or backward on the video (the more buffering the more you can navigate time wise in the video).
Select the video quality of the video		This feature is currently not supported. In case of interest please contact us at info@sdn.ch
Choose between a list of available streams		A dropdown menu on the widget let you choose between the list of available streams.
Volume control		Adjust the volume of the video if there is sound available.
Fallback image when stream unavailable		This feature is currently not supported. In case of interest please contact us at info@sdn.ch
Using PTZ directly in the widget		See PTZ controller.
Hide the menu containing the list of the stream.		This feature is currently not supported. In case of interest please contact us at info@sdn.ch
Display multiple streams in the same widget.		This feature is currently not supported. In case of interest please contact us at info@sdn.ch
Configure stream name and description.		This feature is currently not supported. In case of interest please contact us at info@sdn.ch

Media Capabilities

Capability	Support	Comment
Client of Ant Media server		OnSphere use an Ant Media server (API version `2.11.3 community edition`) to handle media streams. This server can be deployed using OSP dedicated Ant Media server or use an existing Ant Media with limitations.
Ant Media server		OnSphere embed a self hosted for Ant Media see self hosted Ant Media Server.
Browser compatibility and codec - HLS support is mandatory		The frontend uses only HLS protocol to display stream, this protocol defines the current codec to be H.264 or H.265 depending on the input stream. The transcoding is performed by Ant Media server. Be sure to check the browser compatibility browser support HLS or media source extension media source compatibility list
Video source ingestion support		In the table below there is a list of the available codec ingestion support, see ingestion codec support
Access self hosted Ant Media front-end		If you want to access the front-end page of Ant Media you have to expose the port in your stack. See how to access Ant Media front-end
Ant media server application settings		Modification of the application settings for Ant Media server are only enabled using the admin interface of the server, see application settings. For example buffering settings are set from there.
Persist self-hosted Ant Media server data		To persist data of a self-hosted Ant Media server see this section
Ant media server connection monitoring		OnSphere monitor the state of the server using polling every 3 seconds. see server connectivity monitoring
Stream connection monitoring		OnSphere monitor the state of the stream using polling every 3 seconds. see stream connectivity monitoring
Create stream based on configuration		OnSphere use Ant Media server streams who are configured by see stream settings.
Create stream dynamically		This feature is currently not supported. In case of interest please contact us at info@sdn.ch
Use stream already externally declared in Ant Media		OnSphere currently only support stream managed by himself. If you declare a stream already existing in the configuration of the server it will try to delete it and recreate it with OnSphere specific settings.
Use video source stream with RTSP url		The video source passed to the Ant Media server can come as a RTSP url. This url can be constructed or raw see this section
Use video source stream from OnVif		The video source passed to the Ant Media server can come from OnVif, see this section
Stream buffering		Buffering is supported by design using HLS. See see HLS settings
Enable/disable stream between Ant Media and user browser based on OnSphere interaction		This is handled by interacting with the stream selector see dynamic stream configuration. Using action to start, stop, add a stream to a selector or remove a stream from a selector, see action from front-end and see callback usage.
Enable/disable stream between Ant Media and video source based on OnSphere interaction		This is handled by interacting with the stream selector see dynamic stream configuration.
Select the stream source used by a media widget		The stream source can either be shared among all users—so if one user changes it, everyone sees the updated source, or it can be set up independently for each browser tab. In other words, the selection can be synchronized across all users or remain unique per tab, depending on the configuration. See the see stream selector.
Share the same video source for multiples users - One to many stream		A single video stream is received by the video server and subsequently transmitted to all consumers, resulting in reduced bandwidth usage.
Stream from source to Ant Media server - always on		This brings higher resource consumption but can provide buffering for the video at all time, see stream settings
Stream from source to Ant Media server - on consumer need		This has lower resource consumption but can lead to time to establish the stream, see stream settings
PTZ		See ONVIF PTZ controller
Recording		Recording can be called by custom script, this need to implement the api see the swagger API to implement the route.
Conferencing		This feature is currently not supported. In case of interest please contact us at info@sdn.ch
Sound support		This feature is currently not supported. In case of interest please contact us at info@sdn.ch

List of configuration files

Filename	Short description	Format	Link to documentation
dashboard.view#MediaPlayerWidget	Defines the MediaPlayerWidget widget global settings	json	Link

Overview

This widget’s goal is to display a media player in a dashboard. It is used to display HLS streams. It takes a list of streams to display them.

Features

Media widget displays a video stream on the dashboard. A media widget can host a single stream. There is no PTZ controller by default, if necessary add a PTZ widget.

../../../_images/video_onsphere_avec_buffering.png

If the linked stream-selector contains multiple streams you will be able to choose from a stream using the dropdown menu (the menu is hidden when there is a single stream).

Configuration

"configuration": [
  {
    "mediaPlayerWidgetSettings": {
      "streamSelectorId": "root.stream-selector"
    },
    "id": "L8t1lmuo",
    "type": "Media",
    "title": ""
  }
]

type : Must be Media
streamSelectorId : The item ID of the stream-selector.media listing the streams displayable by this widget

Behavior

The widget is a viewer of the streams of its selector, and being viewed is what drives the life cycle of a stream (see the module documentation) :

When the widget is displayed (dashboard opened), it requests the streams of its selector and registers itself as a viewer. Every stream that is not broadcasting yet — and not alwaysOn — is started on demand by the osp-media module.
A stream needs a few seconds to start (source connection + generation of the first HLS segments). During that time the player is black : it retries automatically every ~5 seconds and the video starts by itself as soon as the stream is available. No manual refresh is needed.
When the widget stops being displayed (dashboard switch, tab closed), the viewer is unregistered. If it was the last viewer of a non alwaysOn stream, the broadcast is stopped after a grace period of ~15 seconds. Coming back within the grace period therefore resumes the video immediately, without a stop/start cycle.
Every open widget/browser tab counts as one viewer. The broadcast keeps running as long as at least one viewer remains.
The video starts muted (browser autoplay policies require it). If the browser still blocks the automatic playback, a click on the play button is required (a warning is logged in the browser console in this case).
With a Session type selector each browser tab selects its stream independently ; with a Shared selector the selection is common to every tab (see Dynamic stream configuration).

Limitations

A single stream is displayed at a time. Use several widgets to display several streams simultaneously.
HLS induces an inherent latency of several seconds (playlist and segment sizes). It can be tuned at the application level, see Configure and manage buffering.
The on demand start adds a delay of a few seconds when opening a dashboard. Use alwaysOn on the stream to remove it (at the cost of permanent bandwidth/CPU usage).
LiveStream (pushed) sources can not be started by OnSphere : the video is only available while the source publishes (see Limitations).
No PTZ control in this widget, add a PTZ widget next to it if needed.

Troubleshooting

What you see	Why	What to do
Black player when opening the dashboard, video starts after a few seconds	The stream is starting on demand (`PREPARING` phase). The player retries every ~5 seconds.	Nothing, this is the normal on demand behavior. Use `alwaysOn` to avoid the delay.
Black player that never starts	The stream can not broadcast : source unreachable, wrong credentials, unsupported codec, or `LiveStream` source not publishing.	Check the stream state value and its reason, then the module logs (see Errors and troubleshooting). Check the codec against the supported list.
`No Stream Available` displayed	The stream-selector linked to the widget contains no stream.	Add default streams in the selector configuration, or feed it dynamically (see Dynamic stream configuration).
The broadcast stops (visible in the Ant Media panel) shortly after the dashboard was closed	Expected : the broadcast of a non `alwaysOn` stream is stopped ~15 s after its last viewer left.	Use `alwaysOn` if the stream must keep running without viewers.
Video freezes or stutters	HLS buffering / network load between the browser and the Ant Media server.	Tune the segment settings, see Configure and manage buffering.
Video muted	Browsers only allow automatic playback of muted videos.	Unmute manually in the player controls.