USER MANUAL AXIS P1204 Network Camera
About this document This manual is intended for administrators and users of the AXIS P1204 Network Camera, and is applicable to firmware 5.40 and later. It includes instructions for using and managing the product on your network. Previous experience of networking will be of use when using this product. Some knowledge of UNIX or Linux-based systems may also be beneficial, for developing shell scripts and applications. Later version of this document will be posted to the Axis website, as required.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Table of Contents Hardware Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LED Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shorten Sensor Unit Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Accessing the Product . . . .
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Hardware Overview Hardware Overview 1 2 3 8 9 10 12 13 14 15 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 5 6 7 11 Power indicator LED Status indicator LED Network indicator LED SD card slot (microSD card) Camera connector I/O terminal connector Main unit Network connector Control button Power connector Mounting rail Sensor unit Cover Straight mounting bracket Angled mounting bracket Connectors For technical specifications, see page 45.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Hardware Overview NOTICE To prevent corruption of recordings, the SD card should be unmounted before removal. To unmount, go to Setup > System Options > Storage > SD Card and click Unmount. Control button - The control button is used for: • Connecting to an AXIS Video Hosting System service. See page 33. To connect, press and hold the button for about 1 second until the Status LED flashes green. • Connecting to AXIS Internet Dynamic DNS Service. See page 33.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Hardware Overview 1. Cut the cable to the desired length. Measure from the sensor unit. 2. Strip the plastic outer coating from the end of the cable. 3. Peel back the shield. 4. Flatten the colored wires in the order described below. 1 Brown 2 White/brown 3 Not used 4 Not used 5 White/blue 6 Blue 5. Insert the wires all the way into a shielded 6P6C RJ12 connector. Make sure that the wires stay in the correct order. 6.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Accessing the Product Accessing the Product To install the Axis product, refer to the Installation Guide supplied with the product. The product can be used with most operating systems and browsers. The recommended browsers are Internet Explorer with Windows, Safari with Macintosh and Firefox with other operating systems. See Technical Specifications on page 45. To view streaming video in Internet Explorer, allow installation of AXIS Media Control (AMC) when prompted.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Accessing the Product Access from the Internet Once connected, the Axis product is accessible on your local network (LAN). To access the product from the Internet you must configure your network router to allow incoming data traffic to the product. To do this, enable the NAT-traversal feature, which will attempt to automatically configure the router to allow access to the product. This is enabled from Setup > System Options > Network > TCP/IP Advanced.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Accessing the Product Select the power line frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz) used at the location of the Axis product. Selecting the wrong frequency may cause image flicker if the product is used in fluorescent light environments. When using 50 Hz, the maximum frame rate is limited to 25 fps. Note Power line frequency is different in different geographic regions. In the Americas, 60 Hz is usually used; most other parts of the world use 50 Hz.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Accessing the Product For more information about action rules, see Events on page 25. To show the manual trigger buttons in the Live View page: 1. Go to Setup > Live View Layout. 2. Under Action Buttons, select Show manual trigger button. AXIS Media Control viewer toolbar The AXIS Media Control viewer toolbar is available in Internet Explorer only. See AXIS Media Control (AMC) on page 11 for more information.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Media Streams Media Streams The Axis product provides several video stream formats. Your requirements and the properties of your network will determine the type you use. The Live View page in the product provides access to H.264 and Motion JPEG video streams, and to the list of available stream profiles. Other applications and clients can access video streams directly, without going via the Live View page. How to Stream H.264 The video compression standard H.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Media Streams The AMC Control Panel can be used to configure various video settings. Please see the AXIS Media Control User’s Manual for more information. The AMC Control Panel is automatically installed on first use, after which it can be configured. Open the AMC Control Panel from: • Windows Control Panel (from the Start menu) • Alternatively, right-click the video image in Internet Explorer and click Settings.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Media Streams Note • = IP addess • The Axis product supports QuickTime 6.5.1 and later. • QuickTime adds latency to the video stream. • It may be possible to use other players to view the H.264 stream using the paths above, although Axis does not guarantee this.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Setting Up the Product Setting Up the Product The Axis product can be configured by users with administrator or operator rights. To open the product’s Setup pages, click Setup in the top right-hand corner of the Live View page. • Administrators have unrestricted access to all settings. • Operators have access to all settings except System Options See also the online help .
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Video Video It is possible to configure the following video features in your Axis product: • Video stream. See page 15. • Stream profiles. See page 16. • Camera settings. See page 17. • Overlay image. See page 17. • Privacy mask. See page 18. Video Stream You can define the following video stream settings from Video > Video Stream: • Image. See page 16. • H.264. See page 16. • MJPEG. See page 16.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Video Image The default image settings can be configured under Video> Video Stream. Select the Image tab. The following settings are available: • Resolution. Select the default resolution. • Compression. The compression level affects the image quality, bandwidth and file size of saved images; the lower the compression, the higher the image quality with higher bandwidth requirements and larger file sizes. • Rotate image. If required, the image can be rotated. • Mirror.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Video Camera Settings The Video > Camera Settings page provides access to advanced image settings for the Axis product. Image Appearance Increasing the Color level increases the color saturation. The value 100 gives maximum color saturation. The value 0 gives a black and white image. The image Brightness can be adjusted in the range 0–100, where a higher value produces a brighter image. Increasing the Sharpness can increase bandwidth usage.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Video 3. To include date and time, select Include date and Include time. 4. To include a text string, select Include text and enter the text in the field. Modifiers can be used, see File Naming & Date/Time Formats in the online help . 5. Select the text color, the text background color and the position of the overlay. 6. Click Save. To modify the date and time format, go to System Options > Date & Time. See Date & Time on page 31.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Live View Config Live View Config You can customize the Live View page and alter it to suit your requirements. It is possible to define the following features of the Live View page. • Stream Profile. See page 16. • Default Viewer for Browser. See page 19. • Viewer Settings. See page 20. • Action Buttons. These are the buttons described in Controls on the Live View Page on page 9 . • User Defined Links. See page 20. • Output Buttons. See page 20.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Live View Config Browser Viewer Description Windows Internet Explorer AMC Recommended viewer in Internet Explorer (H.264/Motion JPEG). QuickTime H.264. Java applet A slower imaging alternative to AMC (Motion JPEG). Requires one of the following installed on the client: • JVM (J2SE) 1.4.2 or higher. • JRE (J2SE) 5.0 or higher. Still image Displays still images only. Click the Refresh button in your browser to view a new image.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Live View Config For more information about I/O ports, see I/O Ports on page 38.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Detectors Detectors Camera Tampering Camera Tampering can generate an alarm whenever the camera is repositioned, or when the lens is covered, sprayed or severely defocused. To send an alarm, for example an email, an action rule must be set up. To configure tampering: 1. Go to Detectors > Camera Tampering. 2. Set the Minimum duration, that is, the time that must elapse before an alarm is generated. This can help prevent false alarms for known conditions that affect the image. 3.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Detectors Note Using the motion detection feature may decrease the product’s overall performance. Set Up Motion Detection Windows To set up a motion detection Include Window, follow these instructions: 1. Go to Detectors > Motion Detection. 2. Select the Configure Included Windows option and click New. Select the new window in the list of windows and enter a descriptive name. 3.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Applications Applications Third party applications can be uploaded to and installed on the Axis product. For information about available applications, downloads, trials and licenses, go to www.axis.com/applications To upload an application, go to Applications > Overview, click Browse to locate the file and then click Upload Package. Click on the uploaded application’s name to open the menu options Settings, License and About.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Events Events The Axis product can be configured to perform actions when different events occur, for example, start a recording when motion is detected. The set of conditions that defines how and when the action is triggered is called an Action Rule. Available Action Rule triggers and conditions include: • Applications — use installed applications to trigger the rule, see Applications on page 24.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Events Setting Up an Action Rule An action rule defines the conditions that must be met for the product to perform an action, for example record video or send email notifications. If multiple conditions are defined, all must be met to trigger the action. The following example describes how to set up an action rule to record video to a network share if there is movement in the camera’s field of view. Set up motion detection and add a network share: 1.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Events Note A network share can also be used as a storage device for recorded video. Go to System Options > Storage to configure a network share before setting up a continuous recording or an action rule to record video. See Storage on page 37 for more information about storage devices. To add a recipient: 1. Go to Events > Recipients and click Add. 2. Enter a descriptive name. 3. Select a recipient Type. 4. Enter the information needed for the recipient type. 5.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Recordings Recordings The Axis product can be configured to record video continuously or according to an action rule: • To start a continuous recording, see page 28. • To set up action rules, see page 26. • To access recordings, see Recording List on page 28. • To configure camera controlled storage, see Storage on page 37. Recording List Recorded videos are listed on the Recordings > List page.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Recordings Note If a new stream profile is selected while a recording is ongoing, the recording will be stopped and saved in the recording list and a new recording with the new stream profile will start. All previous continuous recordings will remain in the recording list until they are removed manually or through automatic removal of old recordings.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options System Options Security Users User access control is enabled by default and can be configured under System Options > Security > Users. An administrator can set up other users by giving them user names and passwords. It is also possible to allow anonymous viewer login, which means that anybody may access the Live View page.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options IEEE 802.1X IEEE 802.1X is a standard for port-based Network Admission Control providing secure authentication of wired and wireless network devices. IEEE 802.1X is based on EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol). To access a network protected by IEEE 802.1X, devices must authenticate themselves.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options If using a host name for the NTP server, a DNS server must be configured. See DNS Configuration on page 34. • Set manually allows you to manually set date and time. If using an NTP server, select your Time zone from the drop-down list. If required, check Automatically adjust for daylight saving time changes. The Date & Time Format Used in Images is the date and time format displayed as a text overlay in the video stream.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options Linux/Unix syntax arp -s temp ping -s 408 Linux/Unix example arp -s 192.168.0.125 00:40:8c:18:10:00 temp ping -s 408 408 192.168.0.125 Windows syntax (this may require that you run the command prompt as an administrator) arp -s ping -l 408 -t Windows example (this may require that you run the command prompt as an administrator) arp -s 192.168.0.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options Advanced TCP/IP Settings DNS Configuration DNS (Domain Name Service) provides the translation of host names to IP addresses. The DNS settings are configured under System Options > Network > TCP/IP > Advanced. Select Obtain DNS server address via DHCP to use the DNS settings provided by the DHCP server.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options NAT traversal (port mapping) for IPv4 A network router allows devices on a private network (LAN) to share a single connection to the Internet. This is done by forwarding network traffic from the private network to the “outside”, that is, the Internet. Security on the private network (LAN) is increased since most routers are pre-configured to stop attempts to access the private network (LAN) from the public network (Internet).
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options QoS (Quality of Service) QoS (Quality of Service) guarantees a certain level of a specified resource to selected traffic on a network. A QoS-aware network prioritizes network traffic and provides a greater network reliability by controlling the amount of bandwidth an application may use. The QoS settings are configured under System Options > Network > QoS.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options RTP/H.264 The RTP port range and multicast settings are configured under System Options > Network > RTP. The RTP port range defines the range of ports from which the video ports are automatically selected. For multicast streams, only certain IP addresses and port numbers should be used. Select Always Multicast Video to start multicast streaming without opening an RTSP session. Bonjour The Axis product includes support for Bonjour.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options Network Share Network share allows you to add network storage such as a NAS (Network Attached Storage) or any server that uses CIFS (Common Internet File System) and use them for storage of recordings. To add a network share: 1. Go to System Options > Storage. 2. Click Network Share. 3. Enter the IP address, DNS or Bonjour name to the host server in the Host field. 4. Enter the name of the share in the Share field. 5.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options Click Default to reset all settings, including the IP address, to the factory default values. This button should be used with caution. The Axis product can also be reset to factory default using the control button, see Reset to Factory Default Settings on page 40. To identify the product or test the Status LED, click Flash LED under Identify and specify the duration in seconds, minutes or hours.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera System Options NOTICE Improper use may cause unexpected behavior and loss of contact with the Axis product. Axis strongly recommends that you do not use this function unless you understand the consequences. Axis Support does not provide assistance for problems with customized scripts. To open the Script Editor, go to System Options > Advanced > Scripting. It is recommended to create a backup file before customizing the scripts.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Troubleshooting Troubleshooting Checking the Firmware Firmware is software that determines the functionality of network devices. One of your first actions when troubleshooting a problem should be to check the current firmware version. The latest version may contain a correction that fixes your particular problem. The current firmware version in the Axis product is displayed in the page Setup > Basic Setup and in Setup > About.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Troubleshooting In Windows, type the following from a command/DOS prompt (this may require that you run the command prompt as an administrator): arp -s ping -l 408 -t 2. If the product does not reply in 30 seconds, restart it and wait for a reply. Press CTRL+C to stop Ping. 3. Open a browser and type in the product’s IP address. In the page that appears, use the Browse button to select the upgrade file to use.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Troubleshooting The product is accessible locally but not externally Router configuration To configure your router to allow incoming data traffic to the Axis product, enable the NAT-traversal feature which will attempt to automatically configure the router to allow access to the Axis product, see NAT traversal (port mapping) for IPv4 on page 35. The router must support UPnPTM. Firewall protection Check the Internet firewall with your network administrator.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Troubleshooting Status indicator LED is flashing red and the product is inaccessible A firmware upgrade has been interrupted or the firmware has otherwise been damaged See Emergency Recovery Procedure on page 41. No images displayed on web page Problems with AXIS Media Control (Internet Explorer only) To enable the updating of video images in Internet Explorer, set the browser to allow ActiveX controls. Also, make sure that AXIS Media Control is installed on your computer.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Technical Specifications Technical Specifications Function/group Item Specifications Camera Model AXIS P1204 Image sensor Progressive scan RGB CMOS 1/4” Lens f=3.7 mm, F2.5, fixed iris, fixed focus Horizontal angle of view: 57° Vertical angle of view: 31° Diagonal angle of view: 68° Light sensitivity 1.2 lux – 100000 lux, F2.5 Shutter time 1/24500 s to 1/6 s Video compression H.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Technical Specifications Function/group Item Specifications External output activation Status LED General Video access from web browser Camera live view Video recording to file (ASF) Customizable HTML pages Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 DirectX 9c or higher For other operating systems and browsers, see www.axis.
AXIS P1204 Network Camera Technical Specifications The following factors are among the most important to consider: • High image resolution and/or lower compression levels result in images containing more data. Bandwidth affected. • Access by large numbers of Motion JPEG and/or unicast H.264 clients. Bandwidth affected. • Simultaneous viewing of different streams (resolution, compression) by different clients. Effect on frame rate and bandwidth. • Accessing Motion JPEG and H.
User Manual AXIS P1204 Network Camera © Axis Communications AB, 2012 Ver. M2.2 Date: August 2012 Part No.
