Traffic Cam → YouTube Streamer

Rotate government traffic cameras on your YouTube live stream — HCMC & NYC

What This Is

Bash scripts that pull live HLS video streams from government traffic camera systems and broadcast them to your YouTube live stream, automatically rotating between cameras.

NYC — New York City (works everywhere)

How It Works

The 511NY system provides a free, public REST API at https://511ny.org/api/getcameras?format=json that returns all 2,921 cameras statewide. Each active camera has a VideoUrl field containing a direct HLS .m3u8 stream URL hosted on nysdot.skyvdn.com.

Quick Start

# 1. Install ffmpeg (if needed)
sudo apt install -y ffmpeg

# 2. Download
curl -fsSL GRIDWORK_URL/nyc_stream_rotator.sh -o nyc.sh && chmod +x nyc.sh

# 3. Stream to YouTube (rotates every 2 min)
./nyc.sh YOUR_YOUTUBE_STREAM_KEY

# 4. Or rotate every 5 minutes, in background
nohup ./nyc.sh YOUR_KEY 300 > nyc.log 2>&1 &

Test a stream right now

# Should output "h264,352,240" — it's alive!
ffprobe -v error -show_entries stream=codec_name,width,height -of csv=p=0 \
  "https://s9.nysdot.skyvdn.com:443/rtplive/R11_271/playlist.m3u8"

API: Refresh Camera List

# Get all active NYC cameras with stream URLs
curl -s "https://511ny.org/api/getcameras?format=json" | \
  python3 -c "
import sys, json
data = json.load(sys.stdin)
nyc = [c for c in data
       if c.get('VideoUrl') and not c.get('Disabled')
       and 40.49 <= c.get('Latitude',0) <= 40.92
       and -74.27 <= c.get('Longitude',0) <= -73.68]
for c in nyc:
    print(f'{c[\"Name\"]}|{c[\"VideoUrl\"]}')
"

NYC Camera Picks (30 of 316)

HCMC — Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam network)

How It Was Built

1. Discovered the API

The HCMC government traffic site at giaothong.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/Map.aspx is an ExtJS app. By inspecting its JavaScript (/public/global.js), we found:

• Camera data is stored in a layer called "CAMERA"
• The app uses AjaxPro (FolderAjax.SearchQuery) to load camera data
• Video streams use type="application/x-mpegURL" (HLS)
• The field VideoUrl contains the direct m3u8 stream URL

2. Called the API

The API requires a session cookie from visiting Map.aspx, then accepts POST requests:

# Step 1: Get session cookie
curl -sk -c cookies.txt "https://giaothong.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/Map.aspx"

# Step 2: Query cameras with VideoStreaming enabled
curl -sk -b cookies.txt \
  -X POST \
  -H "X-AjaxPro-Method: SearchQuery" \
  -d '{
    "path": "/root/vdms/tangthu/data/layerdata/camera",
    "isInTree": false,
    "searchKey": "",
    "layer": ["CAMERA"],
    "detail": true,
    "page": 1,
    "limit": 100,
    "filterQuery": ["Publish:true", "VideoStreaming:1"],
    "sortby": null,
    "returnFields": ["CamId","DisplayName","VideoUrl",
                     "VideoStreaming","Disctrict","CamStatus"]
  }' \
  "https://giaothong.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/ajaxpro/\
VDMS.Web.Library.AJAX.FolderAjax,VDMS.Web.Library.ashx"

3. Extracted 69 Stream URLs

Two types of stream endpoints were found:

4. Built the Rotator

The script uses ffmpeg to pull each HLS stream, re-encode to H264 1080p, overlay the camera name, and push to YouTube via RTMP.

Setup on a Vietnamese Machine

Option A: One-Line Auto Setup

curl -fsSL GRIDWORK_URL/setup_vietnam.sh | bash

Then run:

./hcmc_stream_rotator.sh YOUR_YOUTUBE_STREAM_KEY

Option B: Manual Step-by-Step

Step 1: Install dependencies

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y ffmpeg curl

Step 2: Download the script

curl -fsSL GRIDWORK_URL/hcmc_stream_rotator.sh -o hcmc_stream_rotator.sh
chmod +x hcmc_stream_rotator.sh

Step 3: Test a camera stream

# Should output "hls" if reachable
ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=format_name -of csv=p=0 \
  "http://camera.thongtingiaothong.vn/s/56de42f611f398ec0c481287/index.m3u8"

Step 4: Get your YouTube stream key

1. Go to YouTube Studio
2. Click "Go Live" or "Create" → "Go Live"
3. Under "Stream" tab, copy the "Stream key"

Step 5: Start streaming

# Rotate cameras every 2 minutes (default)
./hcmc_stream_rotator.sh YOUR_STREAM_KEY

# Rotate every 5 minutes
./hcmc_stream_rotator.sh YOUR_STREAM_KEY 300

# Run in background with logging
nohup ./hcmc_stream_rotator.sh YOUR_STREAM_KEY > stream.log 2>&1 &

Option C: Run with Docker

# Build
docker build -t hcmc-streamer .

# Run
docker run -d --name hcmc-stream \
  -e YOUTUBE_KEY=your-key-here \
  hcmc-streamer

Refreshing Camera List

Camera URLs may change over time. To re-fetch the current list from the government API, run:

#!/bin/bash - refresh_cameras.sh
# Get session
curl -sk -c /tmp/c.txt "https://giaothong.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/Map.aspx" > /dev/null

# Fetch cameras with video streaming
for page in $(seq 1 10); do
  curl -sk -b /tmp/c.txt \
    -X POST \
    -H "X-AjaxPro-Method: SearchQuery" \
    -d "{\"path\":\"/root/vdms/tangthu/data/layerdata/camera\",
         \"isInTree\":false,\"searchKey\":\"\",
         \"layer\":[\"CAMERA\"],\"detail\":true,
         \"page\":$page,\"limit\":100,
         \"filterQuery\":[\"Publish:true\",\"VideoStreaming:1\"],
         \"sortby\":null,
         \"returnFields\":[\"DisplayName\",\"VideoUrl\"]}" \
    "https://giaothong.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/ajaxpro/\
VDMS.Web.Library.AJAX.FolderAjax,VDMS.Web.Library.ashx"
done | grep -oP '"Name":"VideoUrl"[^}]*"Value":"([^"]*)"' \
     | grep -oP 'http[^"]*'

All 69 Camera Streams

Architecture

  HCMC Gov Traffic Cameras (Vietnam)
  +-----------------------------------------+
  | camera.thongtingiaothong.vn  (HLS CDN)  |
  | 125.234.114.126:11984       (Direct)    |
  +-------------------+---------------------+
                      |
                      | HLS (.m3u8)
                      v
  +-------------------+---------------------+
  |     Your VPS in Vietnam / Singapore     |
  |                                         |
  |  hcmc_stream_rotator.sh                 |
  |    - ffmpeg pulls HLS source            |
  |    - re-encodes to H264 1080p           |
  |    - overlays camera name               |
  |    - generates silent audio             |
  |    - rotates every N seconds            |
  |    - pushes RTMP to YouTube             |
  +-------------------+---------------------+
                      |
                      | RTMP
                      v
  +-------------------+---------------------+
  |           YouTube Live Stream           |
  |   rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/KEY   |
  +-----------------------------------------+

Troubleshooting

Built by reverse-engineering the HCMC Department of Transport public API. Streams are public government infrastructure. Use responsibly.