Camera Streaming

Kite can stream the tablet's front camera as an MJPEG feed over your local network. The same camera used for motion detection doubles as a live video source — no separate hardware needed.

When MQTT is active, the stream URL is automatically published to Home Assistant via MQTT Discovery. It appears as a sensor entity, and you can reference it directly in a camera card — no credentials, no manual YAML required.

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How It Works

Tablet front camera
        │
        ▼ CameraX (640×480)
  MJPEG HTTP server
        │
        ├─── GET /stream.mjpg   — continuous multipart stream
        └─── GET /snapshot.jpg  — single JPEG frame

        │ (when MQTT enabled)
        ▼
  MQTT Discovery → sensor.<clientId>_camera_url

The HTTP server runs locally on the tablet. It is open — there is no authentication — so it should only be accessible on your trusted local network.

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Enabling Camera Streaming

1. Open Settings → Camera streaming.
2. Flip the master toggle to on.
3. Kite starts the HTTP server immediately. The stream is accessible at:

http://<tablet-ip>:<port>/stream.mjpg
http://<tablet-ip>:<port>/snapshot.jpg

If you don't know the tablet's IP address, check Settings → Wi-Fi on the device, or read it from the sensor.<clientId>_camera_url entity in Home Assistant once MQTT is connected.

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Settings Reference

Navigate to Settings → Camera streaming.

Setting	Range	Default	What it does
Enabled	toggle	off	Starts or stops the MJPEG HTTP server.
Port	1–65535	8080	TCP port the HTTP server listens on. Change if another service occupies 8080.
Quality	1–100	75	JPEG compression quality. Higher values produce sharper frames but increase bandwidth.
FPS	1–30	10	Target frame rate. The actual rate may be lower on slower devices.
Rotation	0 / 90 / 180 / 270	0°	Rotates the output frame to match your tablet's physical mounting orientation.

Camera resolution

When streaming is enabled, the camera binds at 640×480. When disabled (motion detection only), it drops to 176×144 to save resources.

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Home Assistant Integration

Auto-Discovery via MQTT

When MQTT is enabled, Kite automatically registers a sensor in Home Assistant:

Entity	Value
sensor.<clientId>_camera_url	http://<tablet-ip>:<port>/stream.mjpg when streaming is on, empty when off.

The entity updates immediately whenever streaming is toggled or the port changes. No HA restart or YAML editing required.

To verify: open Home Assistant → Settings → Devices & Services → MQTT and find your Kite device. The Camera Stream URL sensor should be listed there.

Option A — MJPEG IP Camera (UI, no YAML)

Home Assistant has a built-in MJPEG IP Camera integration that can be added entirely through the UI — no configuration.yaml changes required, and no credentials needed.

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration.
2. Search for MJPEG IP Camera and select it.
3. Fill in the dialog:

Field	Value
Name	Kite — Hallway Tablet (or any label you prefer)
MJPEG URL	http://192.168.1.x:8080/stream.mjpg
Still image URL	http://192.168.1.x:8080/snapshot.jpg (optional)
Username	(leave empty)
Password	(leave empty)
Verify SSL	(uncheck — HTTP only)

1. Click Submit. Home Assistant creates a camera.* entity immediately — no restart needed.

The IP and port come from the sensor.<clientId>_camera_url entity value. If the tablet's IP changes (e.g., after a DHCP renewal), update the integration entry via Settings → Devices & Services → MJPEG IP Camera → Configure.

Option B — Generic Camera (YAML)

If you prefer to manage integrations via configuration.yaml, add:

camera:
  - platform: generic
    name: "Kite — Hallway Tablet"
    still_image_url: "http://192.168.1.x:8080/snapshot.jpg"
    stream_source: "http://192.168.1.x:8080/stream.mjpg"

Replace 192.168.1.x and 8080 with the values from the sensor.<clientId>_camera_url entity.

After adding the entry, restart Home Assistant. The camera entity appears in Settings → Entities and can be added to any dashboard.

Use a template sensor

Instead of hardcoding the IP, you can reference the MQTT sensor directly in a template so the camera URL stays in sync automatically:

camera:
  - platform: generic
    name: "Kite — Hallway Tablet"
    still_image_url: >-
      {{ states('sensor.kite_hallway_tablet_camera_url') | replace('stream.mjpg', 'snapshot.jpg') }}
    stream_source: "{{ states('sensor.kite_hallway_tablet_camera_url') }}"

Dashboard Card

After the camera entity is created, add a Picture Glance or Picture Entity card on any Lovelace dashboard:

type: picture-entity
entity: camera.kite_hallway_tablet
show_state: false
show_name: false

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Troubleshooting

Stream URL is empty in Home Assistant — streaming is disabled in Kite. Go to Settings → Camera streaming and enable the toggle.

Cannot reach the stream from a browser — verify the tablet and the browser are on the same subnet. Check that no firewall on the tablet or router is blocking the configured port.

Black frame or no image — the camera may be in use exclusively by another app. Restart the Kite app or reboot the tablet.

High latency / choppy video — lower FPS to 5–8 and reduce Quality to 50–60. MJPEG is uncompressed between frames, so high FPS at high quality saturates Wi-Fi quickly.

Wrong orientation — adjust Rotation in Settings → Camera streaming to match the physical mounting angle of the tablet.