BirdyCamCam

A Raspberry Pi webcam streaming setup that broadcasts a live video and audio stream over RTSP and HLS using FFmpeg and MediaMTX.

Hardware

Component	Details
Board	Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB)
Camera	Logitech C200 (any UVC-compatible webcam works)

Assembly

The Logitech C200 was modified for the birdhouse installation:

• PCB removed from its housing and mounted on a board inside the birdhouse
• Infrared filter removed from the lens to enable night vision (at the expense of colour accuracy)
• Green LED replaced with an infrared LED to illuminate the nest

Architecture

Webcam  (V4L2) ──┐
                  ├─▶ FFmpeg (H.264 hw + AAC) ──RTSP──▶ MediaMTX ─┬─▶ RTSP  rtsp://<host>/birdy
Mic     (ALSA) ──┘                                                  └─▶ HLS   http://<host>/birdy

• FFmpeg captures video via V4L2 and audio via ALSA, encodes H.264 using the VideoCore IV hardware encoder (h264_v4l2m2m) and AAC for audio, then pushes the stream to MediaMTX over RTSP.
• MediaMTX acts as an RTSP multiplexer and rebroadcasts the stream to any number of concurrent consumers over RTSP (port 554) and HLS (port 80).

Setup

Starting from a fresh Raspberry Pi OS Lite (Debian 13 / aarch64) installation.

1. System packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y ffmpeg v4l-utils alsa-utils fonts-dejavu-core

2. Identify your devices

Find the video device:

v4l2-ctl --list-devices

Example output:

UVC Camera (046d:0802) (usb-3f980000.usb-1.3):
        /dev/video0
        /dev/video1
        /dev/media3

Use the first entry (e.g. /dev/video0).

Find the audio device:

arecord -l

Example output:

card 1: U0x46d0x802 [USB Device 0x46d:0x802], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Note the card and device numbers (e.g. hw:1,0).

Find the supported audio formats and sample rates:

cat /proc/asound/card1/stream0

Look for the Format and Rates fields under the Capture section. Use these to set AUDIO_FORMAT and AUDIO_SAMPLE_RATE in the webcam conf file.

3. Install MediaMTX

MEDIAMTX_VERSION=v1.18.1
wget https://github.com/bluenviron/mediamtx/releases/download/${MEDIAMTX_VERSION}/mediamtx_${MEDIAMTX_VERSION}_linux_arm64.tar.gz
tar xf mediamtx_${MEDIAMTX_VERSION}_linux_arm64.tar.gz mediamtx
sudo install -m 755 mediamtx /usr/local/bin/mediamtx
rm mediamtx mediamtx_${MEDIAMTX_VERSION}_linux_arm64.tar.gz

4. Create the service user

A dedicated system user with no login shell runs both services, limiting the blast radius if anything goes wrong.

sudo useradd -r -m -d /var/lib/birdy -s /usr/sbin/nologin birdy
sudo usermod -aG video,audio birdy

The video and audio groups are required to access /dev/video* and ALSA devices respectively.

5. Deploy scripts and configuration

sudo install -m 755 -o birdy -g birdy scripts/ffmpeg.sh /var/lib/birdy/ffmpeg.sh
sudo install -m 644 -o birdy -g birdy config/mediamtx.yml /var/lib/birdy/mediamtx.yml

Install the webcam configuration and create the active symlink:

sudo install -d -m 755 /etc/birdy
sudo install -m 644 config/logitech_c200.conf /etc/birdy/logitech_c200.conf
sudo ln -sf /etc/birdy/logitech_c200.conf /etc/birdy/birdy.conf

If your video or audio devices differ from the defaults, edit /etc/birdy/logitech_c200.conf before proceeding. Use the values identified in step 2.

All webcam-specific parameters (devices, resolution, framerate, audio format) live in /etc/birdy/birdy.conf. To swap webcams, create a new conf file and update the symlink:

sudo ln -sf /etc/birdy/<new_webcam>.conf /etc/birdy/birdy.conf
sudo systemctl restart birdy

6. Install and enable systemd services

sudo install -m 644 systemd/mediamtx.service /etc/systemd/system/mediamtx.service
sudo install -m 644 systemd/birdy.service /etc/systemd/system/birdy.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now mediamtx birdy

7. Verify

systemctl status mediamtx birdy
ffprobe -v quiet -rtsp_transport tcp -show_streams rtsp://localhost/birdy 2>&1 | grep codec_name

Expected output:

codec_name=h264
codec_name=aac

Streams

Protocol	URL
RTSP	rtsp://<hostname>/birdy
HLS	http://<hostname>/birdy

Both are available simultaneously — MediaMTX handles any number of concurrent consumers without additional load on FFmpeg.

Synology Surveillance Station

Tested on Surveillance Station 9.2.5.

1. Go to IP Camera → Add → Add manually
2. Fill in the fields:
   • Name: your camera name
   • Brand: [User Define]
   • Type: Streaming RTSP
   • Path: rtsp://<hostname>/birdy
3. Click Add