Capturing 8 Video Inputs on Gateworks Ventana SBCs

Gateworks would like to introduce software support for the AVC8000nano Mini-PCIe card on the Ventana Single Board Computers.

final_screen_camerasFigure 1: Screen capture of 8 analog cameras displayed on a monitor using the Gateworks Ventana SBC

Many applications, such as surveillance, require multipleanalog video inputs from cameras for monitoring. These cameras can then be displayed on an HDMI monitor or streamed over the network.

final_camerasonboardFigure 2: Eightanalog video cameras mounted in a circular fashion for a panoramic capture

Gateworks has added driver support for the AVC8000nano in it’s Yocto Linux board support package. This driver support will reveal 8 video interfaces in Linux, such as /dev/video0, /dev/video1, etc. These video interfaces can then be accessed using GStreamer.

final_pictureofcardFigure 3: The AVC8000nano installed on a Gateworks Ventana SBC with 8 analog cameras connected

The OpenCV software library could be used to stitch the different inputs together to create a seamless panorama.

For more information and example GStreamer pipelines on how to use this card, please visit our Software Wiki Page:

AVC8000nano Software Wiki Page

Future blog posts will cover streaming multiple camera inputs as well as adaptive bitrate streaming! Please subscribe to the Gateworks blog to the right!

The frame rate and resolution of streaming from multiple cameras simultaneously (compositing) will impact performance. Even if you won’t be compositing the streams and instead allowing a user to switch between cameras as needed, performance should still be considered.
We have not gone through all the various combinations of FPS and resolution with single/dual/quad core iMX6 and 32/64-bit memory buses but these are factors to consider when selecting the right SBC for your project.
Here are a few links on our wiki to help with your decision:
Ventana Video Processing (GPU, codecs, etc)
Compositing
If resolution or FPS are important for your use and/or you intend to composite more than a few input streams, you should consider a high-performing platform such as the GW5304 or GW5404 (quad core, 64-bit memory bus).