Advertising on Cameras¶

Advertising on cameras addresses the following tasks:

Allows monetization of public cameras.
Makes copying the stream from your site pointless.

You can monetize the camera by attracting clients to your site if you advertise your video surveillance service, or you can negotiate with an advertiser to show their clip on your service. A camera that shows ads is less attractive to webmasters who want to steal content from your site. In that case, their site will show your ads.

We have provided you with the ability to upload your clips and selectively show them on specific cameras. In this article, I'll explain how to do this.

Preparation¶

The player shows video clips as advertisements. You can't use images, PDFs, or HTML. We support mp4 files with the h264 codec. This is the most popular format, and preparing such a clip should not be a problem.

For example, I took the cartoon Big Buck Bunny, which is under a free license, and I will advertise Blender.

The following command downloads and trims the file to 10 seconds:

ffmpeg -i https://download.blender.org/peach/bigbuckbunny_movies/big_buck_bunny_480p_h264.mov -t 00:00:10 -c:v h264 -vf scale=-2:480 -c:a aac -f mp4 clip.mp4

I suggest you use any convenient video editor. Most often, the advertiser will help you with the mp4 file. Contact us if you need help preparing the content.

Uploading the Clip¶

Open the Admin menu, go to the Advertising page.
(optional) Insert the link to the advertised site. In my case, it is https://studio.blender.org/films/big-buck-bunny/.
Upload the .mp4 file we prepared in the previous step.
Click Create.

The added clip will appear in the list. You can check its functionality by clicking.

Open the Admin menu, go to the Cameras page.
Select the desired camera.
Go to the Sharing tab.
Enter a name for the share. I specify "for the landing page"
Check the Advertising box.
Click Create.

After creating, the share will appear in the list and you will have two links available: - Player live - a link that can be copied to the clipboard. You can send this link in a chat or send it to the website developer; he knows how to embed it. - HTML Live - clicking here will copy the ready HTML code to the clipboard for embedding on the website.

Testing the Ads¶

To test the ads, use the Player live link. Copy and open it in a separate browser tab.

You should see the ad clip, and clicking on it will open the advertised site. After the clip plays, you will see the camera stream.

Embedding on the Website¶

We provide ready HTML code for embedding on the website. It is suitable for any website builder. If necessary, adjust the width and height parameters to fit the player into your site. Those who develop their own site may be interested in our player library.

Final words¶

Watcher allows you to upload video clips with ads and selectively enable them on specific cameras. You can influence development by leaving feedback through a ticket.