RemoteSight User Manual
Written by Ben Bird
Contents
| • | Introduction |
| • | Features |
| • | Getting Started |
| • | Settings |
| • | SecuritySpy Integration |
| • | Appendix: Web Server Specifications |
Introduction
RemoteSight is an application for network streaming of video and audio data. It captures video from any attached video input device (e.g. FaceTime or USB webcams), which can then be viewed on another computer over your local network or over the Internet.
The primary use of RemoteSight is as part of a Mac-based video surveillance system, sending video and audio feeds over a network to a central recording computer that is running our macOS CCTV software SecuritySpy.
RemoteSight can also be used as a standalone application for remotely monitoring anything happening on or around your Mac, effectively turning its camera into an IP camera.
RemoteSight is designed to run in the background, so it won't show up in the Dock and it doesn't have a normal user interface. Remote viewing as well as configuring settings is done using a web browser such as Safari or Chrome.
Features
- Supports all Mac-compatible cameras and audio inputs
- Built-in high-performance web server
- Remote monitoring over a local network or over the Internet
- High-quality H.264 video and AAC audio encoding
- Screen capture
- Runs in the background with low CPU usage
- Integrates seamlessly with SecuritySpy
Getting Started
The first time you open RemoteSight, it automatically opens its web interface in your default web browser. As RemoteSight is designed as a background-only application, this web interface is how you interact with the software:
Click either the camera or the screen button to view streaming video in the web browser. Other options in the "Go to" menu below allow you to set the settings, view the user manual, or quit the software.
RemoteSight places a small menu on the right hand side of the menu bar whenever it is running. As well as an indication that RemoteSight is active, this menu contains an option to open the web interface in your browser for convenient access at any time:
You can access RemoteSight from any other computer on the network using a web browser such as Safari. To determine what address to use, open the Sharing system preference on the Mac running RemoteSight. Near the top of the window, you will see some text that says "Computers on your local network can access your computer at" and then it shows an address, for example:
RemoteSight's default port is 8065, so in this example the address to use would be iMac.local:8065 - simply enter this into any web browser on the other computer to connect to RemoteSight.
Settings
To open the Settings page, select "Settings" from the menu on the main page:
If you hold the mouse cursor over any of the settings, a "tooltip" box will appear with more information about that setting. Each option is described in turn below:
General Settings - Viewer login
Specify a username and password that will be required to access the
video and audio streams. If you leave these blank, access to the video and
audio streams will not require login. If you specify login details here, you
must also specify admin login details.
General Settings - Admin login
Specify a username and password that will be required to access settings
and quit the software (as well as access the video and audio streams).
General Settings - Web server name
This is the text that is displayed in the web browser when it asks for login
details. It is also used for the Bonjour name (see below). Specifying some
recognisable text here will allow you to identify the web server easily from
another computer on the network.
General Settings - Web server port number
This defines the TCP/IP port number used by the web server. A port number
represents an endpoint or "channel" for network communications and
allows different applications on the same computer to use the network without
interfering with each other. The default port number is
8065 (chosen because it is unlikely to conflict with other applications). Note that on macOS it is not possible to use a port number below 1024 in normal circumstances, so this should be avoided otherwise you may lose access to RemoteSight's web interface.
General Settings - Enable Bonjour registration
Bonjour is a method of "zero
configuration" network setup, which makes it easy to find devices
on a local network. Enable this option to allow the web server to be easily found by other
computers on the network.
General Settings - Open automatically upon login
If you enable this setting, RemoteSight will be added to the current user's login
items, so that it will open automatically upon login. This will ensure that
RemoteSight is running all the time that the user is logged in. Note that RemoteSight
cannot run when the user is not logged in.
Video Input - Enable video
This allows you to enable or disable video capture.
Video Input - Device
This menu lists all usable video input devices attached to the computer.
Video Input - Maximum frame rate
Sets the camera's video capture rate, and therefore the maximum rate for streaming to web clients. Higher rates increase resource usage for processing and encoding.
Video Input - Text overlay
Enter some text to overlay in the top left corner of the streamed video. To add the date or time, use +y for two-digit year, +c for two-digit century (so that +c+y gives you the full four-digit year), +M for months, +d for days, +h for hours, +m for minutes and +s for seconds, for example: +d/+M/+c+y +h:+m:+s.
Audio Input - Enable audio
This allows you to enable or disable audio capture.
Audio Input - Device
This menu lists all usable audio input devices attached to the computer.
Screen Capture - Enable screen capture
This allows you to enable or disable screen capture.
Screen Capture - Maximum frame rate
Sets the screen capture rate, and therefore the maximum rate for streaming to web clients. Higher rates increase resource usage for processing and encoding.
Screen Capture - Text overlay
Enter some text to overlay in the top left corner of the streamed video of
the screen. To add the date or time, use +y for two-digit year, +c for two-digit century (so that +c+y gives you the full four-digit year), +M for months, +d for days, +h for hours, +m for minutes and +s for seconds, for example: +d/+M/+c+y +h:+m:+s.
Registration
Upon purchase you will receive an email with your license name and code. Enter these here, exactly as they appear in the email. Before purchase, all features are available to test but there will be a demo message overlayed on the video streams. Entering valid registration details here removes this demo message.
SecuritySpy Integration
A Mac-based video surveillance system typically uses a main server computer running SecuritySpy, which records video and audio streams from multiple cameras. RemoteSight is ideal for adding extra video and audio feeds from computers with built-in FaceTime cameras to such a server. Here's how you set this up:
First, install RemoteSight on the Mac with the camera, by copying RemoteSight to the Applications folder. Double-click RemoteSight from the Applications folder to load it. It will open its web interface to allow you to adjust settings upon initial installation (this won't happen when it is loaded subsequently, though it will always be available from its menu at the top right of the menu bar when running).
To ensure that RemoteSight is running at all times, select Settings from the drop-down menu on the main screen, and enable the Open automatically upon login option. You could also set a recognisable name as the Web server name, to make it easy to identify from another computer on the network.
Next, on the Mac running SecuritySpy, go to Settings > Cameras, and click the plus (+) button to add a new camera. In the menu that pops up, you should see RemoteSight listed - select it, and make sure the Profile is set to RemoteSight. Enter the username and password that you have configured (if any). For the Format, the best option is generally H.264 RTSP. The Input/stream number should be set to 0 for the camera or 1 for the screen:
Appendix: Web Server Specifications
This section describes the HTTP and RTSP requests that the built-in web server understands. You can use this information to include images and video in your own web pages, or to use the streams in third-party remote viewing software.
Image: Still JPEG over HTTP
http://<address>:<port>/image?cameraNum=X[&width=X][&height=X][&quality=X]
cameraNum - 0 for the video input; 1 for screen capture
width - width of the image in pixels (optional)
height - height of the image in pixels (optional)
quality - compression quality in the range 0 to 100 (optional)
For example:
http://192.168.1.1:8065/image?cameraNum=0&width=640&height=480&quality=50
Video: Multipart-JPEG "server push" HTTP stream (MJPEG)
http://<address>:<port>/video?cameraNum=X[&width=X][&height=X][&quality=X][&req_fps=X]
cameraNum - 0 for the video input; 1 for screen capture
width - width of the image in pixels (optional)
height - height of the image in pixels (optional)
quality - compression quality in the range 0 to 100 (optional)
req_fps - frames per second (optional)
For example:
http://192.168.1.1:8065/video?cameraNum=1&width=640&height=480&quality=50&req_fps=10
Video and Audio: H.264 and G.711 RTSP stream
rtsp://<address>:<port>/video?cameraNum=X[&width=X][&height=X][&quality=X][&req_fps=X]
cameraNum - 0 for the video input; 1 for screen capture
width - width of the image in pixels (optional)
height - height of the image in pixels (optional)
quality - compression quality in the range 0 to 100 (optional)
req_fps - frames per second (optional)
For example:
rtsp://192.168.1.1:8065/video?cameraNum=1&width=640&height=480&quality=50&req_fps=10
Audio: G.711 µ-law HTTP stream
http://<servername>/audio
There are no parameters for this request. For example:
http://192.168.1.1:8065/audio