Ganz ZN-DT1A User Manual - page 11

H.264 Protocols & Communication Methods (continued) 

Unicasting is communication between a single sender and a single receiver over a network. This 

means that the video stream is transmitted independently to each user, and each user receives 

their own video stream. A benefit of unicasting is in case one stream fails, it only affects one user.   

Multicasting is bandwidth-conserving technology that reduces bandwidth usage by simultaneously 

delivering a single stream of information to multiple network recipients. This technology is used 

primarily on delimited networks (intranets), as each user needs an uninterrupted data flow and should 

not rely on network routers.   

2.7    How to Stream H.264   

Deciding on the combination of protocols and methods to use depends on your viewing 

requirements and on the properties of your network. Setting the preferred method(s) is done in the 

control applet for AMC, which is found in the Windows Control Panel. When this has been set, 

AMC will test all the selected methods in the specified order, until the first functioning one is found.   

RTP+RTSP This method (actually RTP over UDP and RTSP over TCP) should be your first 

consideration for live video, especially when it is important to always have an up-todate video 

stream, even if some images are lost due to network problems. This could be configured as 

multicast or unicast.   

Multicasting provides the most efficient usage of bandwidth, especially when there are large 

numbers of clients viewing simultaneously. Note however, that a multicast broadcast could not 

pass a network router unless the router is configured to allow this. For example, it is not possible 

to multicast over the Internet.   

Unicasting should be used for video-on-demand broadcasting, so that there is no video traffic 

on the network until a client connects and requests the stream. However, as more and more 

unicast clients get connected, the traffic on the network will increase and may cause 

congestion. Although there is a maximum of 20 unicast viewers, note that all multicast users 

combined count as 1 unicast viewer.   

RTP/RTSP This unicast method is RTP tunneled over RTSP. This could be used to exploit the 

fact that it is relatively simple to configure firewalls to allow RTSP traffic.   

RTP/RTSP/HTTP or RTP/RTSP/HTTPS These two methods could also be used to traverse 

firewalls. Firewalls are commonly configured to allow the HTTP protocol, allowing RTP to be 

tunneled.