Hello everyone,
we are currently trying to find a solution to display a camera live feed on an HMI.
The following two topics are already known to me:
and
In the past, we used standard IP surveillance cameras, adjusted their configuration, and were able to access the camera’s MJPEG stream directly in the MappView visualization via a browser.
Over the last years, we have observed that several camera manufacturers have changed this behavior. Camera models or revisions that previously supported unauthenticated browser-based live streams removed this functionality in newer revisions or updates.
While this change is not explicitly mandated by the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), it appears to be related to the general shift towards “security by default” and stricter access control requirements. As a result, browser-based live images without authentication or verification are becoming increasingly harder to use in practice.
Authentication via the URL in the form username:password@ip-address still works with some manufacturers. However, this approach will disappear in the long term, as credentials are transmitted unencrypted. In addition, the browser integrated into MappView does not support this type of authentication anymore or possibly never did.
Our requirement for the camera system is that it should remain simple:
A camera provides the image → the MappView client (or server) accesses it directly.
No intermediate components.
We are aware of various solutions involving ffmpeg, VLC, and plugins. However, we are looking for (and have been asking whether it could be considered by B&R for quite some time) a native solution. Ideally, this solution should also work smoothly in spare-part scenarios and should not require any client-side modifications on the MappView HMI.
Solutions based on installed certificates have not been convincing for us so far. Certificates of the camera are often only valid for a few years and after that lifespan require updates before the camera image can be displayed again. From our perspective, this is not an industrial-grade solution in terms of lifecycle, maintenance effort, and long-term availability.
We are aware that displaying a camera live feed is not part of the standard feature set of an HMI. However, customers are very willing to buy this functionality. Many of them appreciate the convenience of having everything integrated into a single HMI instead of operating multiple screens on a machine.
My questions:
- What is B&R’s position on this topic? Are there any efforts to improve the compatibility of MappView with video streams, authentication mechanisms, and camera systems?
- Can the experience within this forum help here? Are there ideas or implementations we may not have considered yet?
- Are there camera manufacturers that support exactly this kind of simple, direct integration and are likely to continue supporting it in the future?
Thank you very much for any hints and for brainstorming together 