Advanced: Camera Bridge Windows Service (power users)

You probably do not need this

Customers do not need Camera Bridge. Import 360° video by exporting it from Insta360 Studio and dragging it into RoadScope — see [360° Street View Overview](/docs/360-street-view-overview). Nothing to install, no service-account file, no command line. This page is for platform administrators who run large batch jobs or stitch raw Insta360 X5 files on a dedicated Windows PC; the Camera Bridge area in the import wizard and the download below are only visible to them.

Get Camera Bridge (platform administrators)

Download the RoadScope Camera Bridge package (zip) for Windows. Available to signed-in platform administrators only — the start script inside is pre-configured for this RoadScope address and port 3001. Customers do not need it: the browser upload handles exported 360 videos.

What Camera Bridge is

Camera Bridge is a small Node.js service that runs on a Windows survey PC. For platform administrators, the import wizard exposes an Advanced: Camera Bridge (power users) area with a second processing path: the Bridge reads the recording from a local folder, extracts and geotags frames, stitches raw Insta360 X5 file pairs when the Insta360 Media SDK is installed, and uploads only the extracted frames to the RoadScope map. Everyone else uses the browser upload, which processes exported 360 videos in the cloud.

Camera Bridge only listens on your own computer (http://localhost:3001). It accepts import requests exclusively from the RoadScope address the package was downloaded from, and each import is authorized by your signed-in RoadScope session.

Prerequisites

Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) with an internet connection

Node.js 18 or newer — https://nodejs.org (LTS installer, keep the defaults)

FFmpeg (ffmpeg + ffprobe on PATH) — https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/ ("release full" build); verify with ffprobe -version in a new Command Prompt

Firebase service account file (serviceAccount.json) — supplied by the RoadScope owner; the Bridge cannot upload frames without it

Raw Insta360 X5 (.insv pairs) only: the Insta360 Media SDK (Windows x64, MediaSDKTest.exe) and ExifTool (exiftool.exe on PATH). Stitched 2:1 MP4 exports and panoramic image sequences do not need these.

1. Download the package

Click Download Camera Bridge at the top of this page (you must be signed in to RoadScope). You receive RoadScope-Camera-Bridge-.zip. The zip contains the Bridge and survey-pipeline sources plus four operator files: install.cmd, start-camera-bridge.cmd, .env.example and QUICKSTART.md. The start script is already configured with the RoadScope address you downloaded it from.

2. Install (once)

1. Unzip the package to a permanent folder, for example C:\RoadScope\. Do not move the folder afterwards.

2. Save the serviceAccount.json file the RoadScope owner gave you as pipeline\serviceAccount.json inside that folder. Never share or upload this file.

3. Double-click install.cmd. It checks Node.js, installs dependencies and builds the survey pipeline and the Bridge. The first run takes a few minutes and ends with "Done".

3. Start the Bridge

1. Double-click start-camera-bridge.cmd. A console window opens and prints the RoadScope origin, Listening on : http://localhost:3001 and the service-account path.

2. Keep this window open while you import. Close it (or press Ctrl+C) to stop the Bridge.

3. Optional settings (service-account path, storage bucket allow-list, X5 stitching tools) go in a .env file next to the start script — copy .env.example to .env, edit, and restart the Bridge.

4. Confirm it is detected in RoadScope

Sign in as a platform administrator, open a map, choose Import 360° survey, pick a file, click Continue, open Advanced options and then Advanced: Camera Bridge (power users). A green dot on the Camera Bridge card means the Bridge was detected on this computer; a red dot with "Not detected" means it is not running. Select the Camera Bridge card, enter the full local folder that contains the recording (and optional GPX), and start the import. Non-administrators never see this area.

Troubleshooting the three wizard states

Camera Bridge — Not detected — the Bridge is not running, or it is listening on another port. Start start-camera-bridge.cmd, check that the window shows port 3001, then reopen the wizard. Firewall prompts must allow Node.js on localhost.

Camera Bridge is running, but it cannot load the survey pipeline — the pipeline folder was not built (for example install.cmd was interrupted). Run install.cmd again and restart the Bridge. The message in the wizard repeats the exact path the Bridge tried to load.

X5 stitching is unavailable — the Bridge is healthy but cannot find the Insta360 Media SDK or ExifTool. Set INSTA360_MEDIASDK_EXE (and EXIFTOOL_PATH if ExifTool is not on PATH) in .env as shown in .env.example, restart the Bridge, and the notice turns green. Stitched MP4 and image-sequence imports keep working in the meantime.

"baseUrl does not match the configured RoadScope origin" — you are using RoadScope at a different address than the one the package was downloaded from. Download the package again from the address you use, or set ROADSCOPE_BASE_URL in .env.

Service-account errors at import time — pipeline\serviceAccount.json is missing, invalid or revoked. Ask the RoadScope owner for the current file.

Updating

Download the latest package, unzip it over the existing folder (keep your .env and pipeline\serviceAccount.json), run install.cmd again and restart the Bridge. The version is part of the zip name and is shown by the Bridge at startup.

Running at startup (optional)

To start the Bridge automatically when the PC boots, register start-camera-bridge.cmd in Windows Task Scheduler (run at log-on) or wrap it with NSSM as described in camera-bridge\README.md inside the package.