Watching Video in Low-Bandwidth Mode

ESM includes an HTML player that can stream video at a lower frame rate and quality whenever streaming through the Embedded Media Player or the FBGST plugin is not available. The player streams video by pulling a JPEG image from the ESM management server a few times a second. When streaming video via this player, ESM is streaming video in low-bandwidth mode.

Common Scenarios Where Low-Bandwidth Mode is Used

Low-bandwidth mode is used when viewing live or recorded video in Google Chrome or Safari, which do not currently have a supported plugin, or when viewing live video in Firefox. ESM will also default back to this streaming mode for recorded video in Internet Explorer and Firefox when the FBGST plugin is not installed, and for live video in Internet Explorer when the Embedded Media Player is installed.

Identifying When Video is Streaming via Low-Bandwidth Mode

When video is streaming via low-bandwidth mode, a turtle icon will appear in the top left corner of ESM as shown below.

Network Requirements for Low-Bandwidth Mode

Low-bandwidth mode streams video through the ESM management server and the archive server the camera is recording on. As long as you can access ESM’s web interface and the camera you are viewing is recording, low-bandwidth mode will be able to stream video.

Direct network access to the camera and the archive server is not required. However, if the workstation being viewed to stream video has network access to the archive server, it will stream video directly from that server before proxying through the ESM management server.

When streaming video in low-bandwidth mode, ESM will use as much or as little bandwidth available to show the video. The quality of the video stream will automatically scale depending on the network bandwidth available. Streaming video through the Embedded Media Player or the FBGST plugin will result in higher quality video than streaming in low-bandwidth mode.

How Low-Bandwidth Mode Affects the Server

Low-bandwidth mode shifts the process of decoding video from the workstation back to the ESM management server. When viewing live video, the additional processing power required by the ESM server should be low because it pulls from a stream that is already decoded.

Troubleshooting Live Video Playback

ESM displays live video in low-bandwidth mode by displaying an already decoded video stream which prevents the ESM server from having to do additional processing. The camera being viewed live will need to be recording without any issues for live view to function.

Troubleshooting Recorded Video Playback

While streaming live video in low-bandwidth mode does not have a significant impact on the CPU utilization on the ESM server, streaming recorded video will because the video is not already being decoded by the server.

If you experience any issues with recorded video not playing back or stopping intermittently, check the load on the ESM archive server the camera is recording on and ensure the CPU utilization is not at or above 90%.

For any additional questions regarding low-bandwidth mode, please submit an ESM Technical Support Request.