Mixing an external analog audio to a RTSP stream from a security camera.

Hardware

This guide assumes you are using

• Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
• HiFiBerry DAC+ ADC HAT for stereo analog audio input

Setup

1. Install fresh Raspberry Pi OS Lite via Raspberry Pi imager onto a SD card; don't forget to set a password and enable SSH in settings

2. SSH to the Raspberry using the username and password you set

   ssh [email protected]

3. Update & upgrade

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

4. Update hostname & set timezone

   sudo raspi-config nonint do_hostname raspi-rtsp
   sudo timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Prague

5. Configure HiFiBerry: comment out line with dtparam=audio=on in /boot/config.txt and add the following below:

   # Enable HiFiBerry DAC+ ADC
   dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplusadc
   

   and also replace the line

   dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
   

   with

   dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d,audio=off
   

6. Reboot and verify the sound card is recognized

   pi@raspi-rtsp:~ $ arecord -L
   null
       Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
   default
       Default Audio Device
   sysdefault
       Default Audio Device
   hw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
       snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadc, HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0
       Direct hardware device without any conversions
   plughw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
       snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadc, HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0
       Hardware device with all software conversions
   default:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
       snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadc, HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0
       Default Audio Device
   sysdefault:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
       snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadc, HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0
       Default Audio Device
   dsnoop:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
       snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadc, HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0
       Direct sample snooping device

7. Create /etc/asound.conf file with the following content (the card name has to match the one in the command output above) and reboot again

   sudo tee /etc/asound.conf >/dev/null << EOF
   pcm.!default {
     type hw card "CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0"
   }
   ctl.!default {
     type hw card "CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0"
   }
   EOF

8. Install ffmpeg

   sudo apt install ffmpeg -y

9. Download the latest version of rtsp-simple-server for ARMv7

   wget https://github.com/aler9/rtsp-simple-server/releases/download/v0.19.1/rtsp-simple-server_v0.19.1_linux_armv7.tar.gz
   tar -xvzf rtsp-simple-server_v0.19.1_linux_armv7.tar.gz
   rm rtsp-simple-server_v0.19.1_linux_armv7.tar.gz
   sudo mv rtsp-simple-server /usr/local/bin/
   sudo mv rtsp-simple-server.yml /usr/local/etc/

10. Fill in RTSP stream URL in the following and add it under the paths key at the end of the /usr/local/etc/rtsp-simple-server.yml file (see FFmpeg command explained below)

      stage:
        runOnInit: >
          ffmpeg
            -itsoffset 0
            -thread_queue_size 8
            -rtsp_transport tcp
            -i rtsp://unifi-nvr:7447/DSer53oue3awK9ft 
            -f alsa
            -itsoffset 0
            -thread_queue_size 8
            -ar 44100
            -i hw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
            -c:v copy
            -map 0:v:0
            -map 1:a:0
            -f rtsp
            -rtsp_transport tcp
            rtsp://localhost:$RTSP_PORT/$RTSP_PATH
        runOnInitRestart: yes

11. Create the service to start rtsp-simple-server on boot

    sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/rtsp-simple-server.service >/dev/null << EOF
    [Unit]
    After=network.target
    [Service]
    ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/rtsp-simple-server /usr/local/etc/rtsp-simple-server.yml
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    EOF

12. Enable and start the service

    sudo systemctl enable rtsp-simple-server
    sudo systemctl start rtsp-simple-server

FFmpeg command

Achieving low-latency RTSP restreaming with FFmpeg is a bit tricky. Here is the FFmpeg command with comments:

ffmpeg \
  -itsoffset 0 \ # video delay to sync with audio
  -thread_queue_size 8 \ # try using as low value as possible
  -rtsp_transport tcp \ # use TCP for RTSP
  -i rtsp://unifi-nvr:7447/DSer53oue3awK9ft \ # RTSP URL of the security camera (see below)
  -f alsa \ # audio input from ALSA
  -itsoffset 0 \ # audio delay to sync with video
  -thread_queue_size 8 \ # try using as low value as possible
  -ar 44100 \ # audio 44 100 Hz sampling rate
  -i hw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry \ # capture sound from HiFiBerry
  -c:v copy \ # copy video codec
  -map 0:v:0 \ # map video input stream #0 to output #0
  -map 1:a:0 \ # map audio input stream #1 (sound card) to output #0
  -f rtsp \ # use RTSP for output
  -rtsp_transport tcp \ # use TCP for RTSP
  rtsp://localhost:$RTSP_PORT/$RTSP_PATH # use the default port and path defined as YAML key

UniFi Protect RTSP stream

You can turn on RTSP in UniFi Protect (go to camera, settings & advanced). You'll see the following URL:

rtsps://{ UniFi NVR IP address }:7441/{ secret token }?enableSrtp

We don't want to use RTSP over SSL, so just pick the secret token and use the URL with port 7447. Also you can set the NVR hostname instead of IP address in case it changes.

rtsp://{ UniFi NVR hostname }:7447/{ secret token }