1. Introduction

Multicast is the term used to describe communication where a piece of information is sent from one or more points to a set of other points. In this case there may be one or more senders, and the information is distributed to a set of receivers (there may be no receivers, or any other number of receivers).

Multicast is the networking technique of delivering the same packet simultaneously to a group of clients. IP multicast provides dynamic many-to-many connectivity between a set of senders (at least 1) and a group of receivers. The format of IP multicast packets is identical to that of unicast packets and is distinguished only by the use of a special class of destination address (class D IPv4 address, from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255) which denotes a specific multicast group.

2. How to enable Multicast

There are two types of multicast, RTP Multicast and UDP Multicast. Please refer to the following for detailed steps.

1、RTP Multicast

Step1: RTP Multicast is enabled by default, and the default RTP port is 554. You can verify RTP port on the web page setting.

Step2: Open VLC and find“Open Network Stream”function.

Step3: Enter the following command.

Primary Stream:

rtsp://admin:camera password@camera ip address:rtp port/mcastmain

Secondary Stream:

rtsp://admin:camera password@camera ip address:rtp port/mcastsub

Click“Play”and it should be multicast video comes out shows like.

2. UDP Multicast

Step1: UDP Multicast is disabled by default. You can enable and configure this function with the following command.

http://camera ip address/cgi-bin/admin/admin.cgi?action=set.tsmulticast&addr=224.1.2.6&port=20000&enable=1

Web page will let you enter login username and password, then will shows OK

Note:

① If you want to enable the UDP multicast function for multiple devices in same LAN, please pay attention to modify different UDP multicast addresses.

② The modify range of UDP multicast addresses is from 224.x.x.x to 239.x.x.x.

③ Ensure that your camera’s version is 4X.7.0.79 or above.

Step2：Check UDP Multicast information use following command.

http://camera ip address/cgi-bin/admin/admin.cgi?action=get.tsmulticast&format=inf