FieldMonitor: About

About

FieldMonitor uses 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi for image transfer and camera control. These communication channels are unlicensed frequencies open to all, so quality of service cannot be guaranteed. Therefore FieldMonitor is provided with no warranty of performance or guarantee of fitness for purpose whatsoever. You are responsible for testing and approving FieldMonitor for use under the conditions in which you intend to use it, and you assume all responsibility for that use. Under no circumstance will FieldMonitor or its maker or seller be responsible for any losses, direct or incidental, occurring as a result of such usage.

FieldMonitor is an independently-developed app, not a product of Canon, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Sony, or Teradek. These companies are not responsible for FieldMonitor’s performance, suitability, or fitness for purpose. Canon and Camera Connect are trademarks of Canon Corporation. Fujifilm and Camera Remote are trademarks of Fujifilm Corporation. Panasonic, Lumix, and Image App are trademarks of Panasonic Corporation. Sony and PlayMemories Mobile are trademarks of Sony Corporation. Teradek, Cube, Clip, Serv Pro, VidiU, and Bolt are trademarks of Teradek, a Videndum plc company.

OneShot, ChromaDuMonde, and ChromaMatch are registered trademarks of DSC Labs. Gamma & Density and Gamma-709 are trademarks of the Gamma & Density Co. Neither DSC Labs nor Gamma & Density are responsible for FieldMonitor’s performance, suitability, or fitness for purpose.

How It Works

Camera sources: FieldMonitor works with 8-bit JPEG images sent by cameras. The images are low-res, encoded with Rec.601 coefficients (not Rec.709), and are highly compressed. This means that while the ’scopes are useful for setting levels and verifying colors, some fine details of the signal may be lost or distorted as a result:

Compression noise and aliasing seen in the transmitted image are not present in what the camera is capturing.
The 8-bit transmission signal and image resampling can cause gaps and stairsteps in signal traces, and roughness in histograms, that aren’t present in the camera’s source image.
Signals are transcoded to Y, Cb, and Cr for ’scope display using Rec.601 coefficients in keeping with JPEG standards. The ’scope displays and false-color levels shown match those of external ’scopes computed using Rec.709 math.
Panasonic Wi-Fi pictures are encoded using 8-bit luma levels of 0–219, 0–239, 0–255, 16–235, or 16–255, depending on a variety of factors. If FieldMonitor’s Levels settings are properly set to match the camera’s settings, this level change is automatically handled, and the image, ’scopes, and false-color levels will match in both standby and record modes.

Teradek sources: FieldMonitor works with 8-bit, 4:2:0, YCbCr signals sent by a Teradek. The image is resampled to a lower-resolution version for performance reasons, and the ’scopes are calculated from that version. This means that while the ’scopes are useful for setting levels and verifying colors, some fine details of the signal may be lost or distorted as a result:

Color aliasing occurs during the 4:2:0 encoding process, so you may see some “false traces” at higher intensities that aren’t present in your camera original.
The 8-bit transmission signal and image resampling can cause gaps and stairsteps in signal traces, and roughness in histograms, that aren’t present in the camera’s source image.
Signals are decoded to RGB using Rec.709 coefficients, which give accurate results assuming the Teradek was fed a Rec.709-encoded signal. If your source was encoded using Rec.601 or Rec.2020, RGB levels will be inaccurate, and vectorscope targets will be in the wrong places. (Y levels in all ’scopes, and the YCbCr WFM, will always properly show you what the signal components are doing.)

The false-color image is processed at the same resolution as the incoming feed and is superimposed over the full-color picture. Depending on the speed of your iDevice and the frame rate of the source you may sometimes see a one-frame delay between the source image and the false-color overlay. The delay only appears if you have the false-color intensity set to mix the false-color and full-color images. If you set Intensity fully on or fully off, the delay will not be visible.

App privacy policy

FieldMonitor doesn’t run any tracking code and doesn’t collect any information from you or about you. No third-party analytics tools or advertising networks are used. The third-party code used in FieldMonitor (see below) does not collect or transmit any user data.

If you’ve enabled data logging on your iDevice (Settings app > Privacy > Analytics > Share With App Developers, or Settings app > Privacy > Diagnostics & Usage > Share With App Developers, depending on iOS version), Apple collects information about your usage of the app (see Apple's privacy policy). Apple makes the following anonymized information available to developers:

How many times the app ran.
What kind of iDevice was used, and with what version of iOS.
What country it was used in.
How many times the app crashed.
What lines of code did the app crash on.
What the error codes were for the crashes.

I only see information aggregated across all devices with diagnostics enabled; I can’t see any info specifically about your use of the app.

If you use the links in the app or on the contact page to send me email, I get your email address, but that’s the only way I’ll ever find out who you are. For email and for website browsing, this Privacy Policy applies. Short version: I'll see your email address, source IP address, and any other information you supply in email you send, and the IP address you visit my website from. Web-browsing IP address info is not retained beyond 24 hours. Any retained email communications and email addresses will be deleted upon request, except when needed to resolve technical issues, commercial or legal disputes, or when required by US law. I take reasonable precautions to guard this information, and it is never supplied to third parties for any purposes whatsoever unless required by US law.

Third-party code in FieldMonitor

FieldMonitor uses the Teradek SDK version 3.6.1, which includes open-source code from OpenSSL and FFmpeg projects. The SDK static library is supplied in binary form and I don't have source code. If you need to obtain the specific open-source code used in the SDK library, please contact Teradek Support.

FFmpeg legal information is available at ffmpeg.org/legal.html which says, in part,

FFmpeg is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 or later. However, FFmpeg incorporates several optional parts and optimizations that are covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or later. If those parts get used the GPL applies to all of FFmpeg.

Read the license texts to learn how this affects programs built on top of FFmpeg or reusing FFmpeg. You may also wish to have a look at the GPL FAQ.

Note that FFmpeg is not available under any other licensing terms, especially not proprietary/commercial ones, not even in exchange for payment.

OpenSSL info is at www.openssl.org/docs/faq.html.The OpenSSL implementation Teradek uses includes this notice (reproduced verbatim):

/* Copyright (C) 1995-1998 Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com)
* All rights reserved.
*
* This package is an SSL implementation written
* by Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com).
* The implementation was written so as to conform with Netscapes SSL.
*
* This library is free for commercial and non-commercial use as long as
* the following conditions are aheared to. The following conditions
* apply to all code found in this distribution, be it the RC4, RSA,
* lhash, DES, etc., code; not just the SSL code. The SSL documentation
* included with this distribution is covered by the same copyright terms
* except that the holder is Tim Hudson (tjh@cryptsoft.com).
*
* Copyright remains Eric Young's, and as such any Copyright notices in
* the code are not to be removed.
* If this package is used in a product, Eric Young should be given attribution
* as the author of the parts of the library used.
* This can be in the form of a textual message at program startup or
* in documentation (online or textual) provided with the package.
*
* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
* modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
* are met:
* 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the copyright
*    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
*    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
*    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
* 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
*    must display the following acknowledgement:
*    "This product includes cryptographic software written by
*     Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com)"
*    The word 'cryptographic' can be left out if the rouines from the library
*    being used are not cryptographic related :-).
* 4. If you include any Windows specific code (or a derivative thereof) from
*    the apps directory (application code) you must include an acknowledgement:
*    "This product includes software written by Tim Hudson (tjh@cryptsoft.com)"
*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY ERIC YOUNG ``AS IS'' AND
* ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
* IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
* ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
* FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
* DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
* OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
* HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
* LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
* OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
* SUCH DAMAGE.
*
* The licence and distribution terms for any publically available version or
* derivative of this code cannot be changed. i.e. this code cannot simply be
* copied and put under another distribution licence
* [including the GNU Public Licence.]
*/

CocoaAsyncSocket and CocoaAsyncUdpSocket classes are used for camera communications. Originally created by Robbie Hanson in 2010; updated and maintained by Deusty LLC and the Apple development community. These classes are in the public domain. For jurisdictions that do not allow public-domain licensing, the BSD License applies. More info on github.