AXIS Media Control - FAQ

ISMA compliant streaming

Question:

I see in the product's web interface that I can select ISMA Compliant MPEG-4 streaming. What does this mean?

Answer:

ISMA is the Internet Streaming Media Alliance (see http://www.isma.tv ). ISMA has created a specification to facilitate interoperability between different clients and servers when transmitting MPEG-4 on a network.
The Axis intention is to follow as far as possible the ISMA Implementation Specification v1.0.

This specifies two profiles:
a) profile 0, which uses Simple Profile with a maximum bit rate of 64 Kbps
b) profile 1, which uses Simple Profile or Advanced Simple Profile with a maximum bit rate of 1.5 Mbps (corresponding to Advanced Simple Profile@Level 3b).

RTP is used for media transmission and RTSP for control of the media distribution, which complies with the ISMA specification as well.

From the web interface’s setup tools in the Axis product, Advanced Simple Profile can be configured to use either Advanced Simple or Simple Video Object Type. Simple sets the coding type to H.263 as used by e.g. QuickTime™. Advanced Simple sets the coding type to MPEG-4 part 2.

There are two different levels to choose between, ISMA Compliant (L3b), and L5 (uncheck the ISMA compliant box). These levels limit the bandwidth to 1500 kbps in case of L3b (checked the box ISMA Compliant) and to 8000 kbps in case of L5.

This FAQ applies to the AXIS 210/211/210A/211A/212 PTZ/213 PTZ/214 PTZ/221/225FD/231D/232D/240Q(Blade)/241S(Blade)/Q(Blade)/241SA/QA.

AXIS 207/207W/216FD provide also ISMA compliant streaming for Maximum bit rates up to 1500kbps.