ADENA Hack: How to use a network camera to send microphone audio in Media Stations?

AREC Media Stations can capture audio from network sources using AAC-LC audio coding standard. Depending on the model of the station, this is available for RTMP, RTP, and sometimes RTSP network sources. Which network sources can be used with audio is described in the datasheet of each Media Station.

Particularly for the LS-US2, network may be the preferable way of connecting audio sources, as there are no 3.5mm line or mic inputs on the device. The station supports audio via all of its network protocols: RTP, RTMP, RTSP, and NDI|HX in the LS-US2N version, and you can watch the video below for an example of how this connection can be established, using RADA Duo and A-PC01 PanoCam as examples.

If you would like to know more about connecting audio from network sources to AREC, contact us at www.a-dena.com and we will be happy to discuss it with you.

ADENA Hack: How to hide the GUI on AREC stations?

Every AREC Media Station from versions 2.6 and newer comes with an inbuilt way to control it — the graphical user interface, shortened to GUI. We covered this interface in detail in the very first ADENA Hack, and mentioned additions to it in subsequent posts. GUI can be opened and closed easily by left-clicking anywhere away from it with a computer mouse or by touching on a USB-connected interactive display. You can also use the dedicated hide/show buttons in the corners of the GUI. Starting from firmware versions 2.11 and on stations with the MCU version 4.3 or 4.4, it is now also possible to completely disable the GUI until it is needed again. To do so, open the “Administrator” web page of your station, go to “Media I/O” -> “Display”. You will find two settings dedicated to this: “OSD Menu'' and “OSD Menu - Playback Video”. Toggling off “OSD Menu” will shut down the GUI until this option is toggled on. Toggling off only “OSD Menu - Playback Video” will keep the GUI, but remove the playback feature from it. If you want to keep the GUI available, but remove the ability for your operators to see previously recorded videos, make sure to toggle off this option.

As of May 2024, the option to completely disable the GUI is available on LS-2, LS-200, LS-300, LS-400, LS-410, LS-860 and KL-3T models, with plans to include it in LS-110 and LS-US2 in the coming months. Would you like to know more about this or other AREC Media Station features? Make sure to reach out to us at www.a-dena.com and we will be happy to arrange a call with you!

ADENA Hack: How to use NDI Bridge to convert Full NDI to NDI|HX

You may know that NDI exists in two main versions - Full NDI and NDI|HX. There are certain differences between these two versions - for example, NDI|HX sends compressed data and uses far less bandwidth. The differences make the two versions incompatible and typically devices would only support one version of NDI. AREC Media Stations with NDI support, including LS-860N and LS-US2N, were built to support NDI|HX, and so typically devices using standard NDI cannot be connected to them. However, there is a way to convert them via NDI Bridge, an essential tool that is included in the NDI package. To use it, simply download and install the latest version of NDI Tools from https://www.newtek.com/

Open the NDI Tools and select Bridge. It will open with a page similar to this:

While in this guide we focus on using the NDI Bridge to convert standard NDI to NDI|HX, the app can also be used to make your NDI sources available over the Internet and to connect NDI sources from other networks. To convert NDI signals, however, click on ‘Local’. Start by adjusting the name of your bridged connections in the ‘Bridge Name’ field. Next, click on ‘Encoder Settings’ and change the output mode to ‘NDI|HX’. All AREC stations, except the upcoming LS-410, use only h.264 video compression, so make sure to select it. You must also select the stream’s bitrate in ‘Quality’. Since 4Mbit is sufficient for Full HD, you can select ‘Low’. After adjusting these settings, press ‘Start’, and you will be able to see a list of bridged connections appear in your network. To use these bridged connections on AREC stations, open the ‘Administrator’ web page of your station, click on ‘Media I/O’ -> ‘Network Device Manager’ and scan for new devices. If your station is in the same network as your computer running NDI Bridge, you will be able to see the NDI|HX bridged connections appear in the list.

One important thing to note is that bridged connections use the computer running the app as a tunnel. Whenever another device is trying to pull an NDI source from it, its network traffic load will grow. You can monitor how much bandwidth the computer is consuming in the field called ‘Bandwidth’.

If you would like to know more about how you can use NDI or other technologies with AREC, please contact us at www.a-dena.com and we will be happy to assist you.