High Availability Live Views

Stream-Level Failover in the Milestone Smart Client

Overview

The Live View Switching feature in RMF ensures that Milestone Smart Client users automatically receive live video from a secondary site when the primary site is inaccessible, requiring no user action.

How it Works

• When an operator opens a live view of a camera with the RMF plugin inside the Smart Client, RMF ensures that the view window receives the stream from the higher priority site under normal conditions. See Priority

• Simultaneously, the RMF plugin in each Smart Client "democratically" monitors both primary and secondary video streams within each view window.

• If the higher-priority stream is lost, the plugin automatically switches to the lower-priority source, ensuring live video continuity.

• If the higher priority source is restored and validated, the system can optionally revert to it, depending on the user-defined failback policy. See Failback

• The switch is instantaneous and transparent—no need to change layouts, camera selections, or server IPs.

• The switch time is controllable, and a sub-second time can be achieved on high-quality networks. See Reaction Time.

Demo

The meaning of "Democratic"

• Each view window in the Smart Client evaluates Stream availability independently of other view windows

• The switch decision is localized, meaning:

  • One view window's stream switch does not affect other view windows.

  • One user’s stream switch does not impact others.

  • Each client view's tile independently selects the most reliable source in real time.

Key Benefits

• Stream-level Failover - Video-Aware HA fails over only streams that can't be served from a site.

• No Black Screens – Users always have access to the live feed, even if one site experiences issues.

• Decentralized Intelligence – Each view window autonomously monitors and makes failover decisions, enhancing resilience.

• User Transparency – No buttons, no manual input—failover occurs automatically.

• Failsafe Security – Critical monitoring persists without interruptions during outages, cyber incidents, or maintenance.