The version 5 of Blue Iris now sports an MQTT interface through which you can use a couple of Admin Commands to take control over the software with Node-RED.
Connect Blue Iris to your Broker
I am using an MQTT Broker/Camera - but you can use any MQTT Broker on your network to connect Blue Iris to. To activate the MQTT Service enter the BlueIris Software Settings. Go to the Digital IO and IoT tab and click Configure to set up the MQTT service (Blue Iris configuration on the left and INSTAR MQTT Broker settings on the right):
The camera is configured to work as a broker on IP 192.168.2.111 on port 1883.
MQTT Alarm Service
I can now right-click my cameras live video and select Camera Settings from the pop-up menu in Blue Iris. In the settings menu, on the Alerts tab and click on ON alert... in the Actions section. Here we can set the action that should be take when an alarm is triggered by this camera in Blue Iris - click on the + Icon in the lower left to add Web request or MQTT as the action you want to be triggered.
In the screenshot you can see the interface that allows you set an MQTT Topic and a payload for the MQTT Alarm Service. Choose the topic freely. For the payload I recommend using 1 or ON. Save your settings, go back to the Alerts tab. Now click on ON reset ... (right next to ON alert...) and set the MQTT Topic and Payload you want Blue Iris to use when the alarm stops. I recommend using the same MQTT Topic as above - but this time with the Payload 0 or OFF.
Connecting Blue Iris to Node-RED
We can now use an MQTT input node to switch the camera that caused the alarm into Fullscreen Mode. The MQTT Node has to be connected to our Broker. And we need a switch node to add the message payload camera=black&fullscreen=1 when an alarm was triggered or camera=black&escape once the alarm event ended - see BlueIris Admin Command Topics for more options.
Note: the camera name is the Short Name that you gave your camera when adding it to Blue Iris. In my cas I am having a white and a black INSTAR IN-8015 Full HD camera. And the one I am using here is simply called
black->camera=black&escape.
This payload is then send to an MQTT Output Node for the MQTT Topic BlueIris/admin:
JSON Flow
[{"id":"1ef23583.3125da","type":"mqtt in","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"8015black","topic":"BlueIris/MotionAlarm/8015black/","qos":"1","datatype":"auto","broker":"59e4c061.7fa47","x":80,"y":40,"wires":[["839a411c.c4b58","f4dfe612.41b778"]]},{"id":"839a411c.c4b58","type":"ui_chart","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"Alarm History","group":"bdd83452.7d8268","order":0,"width":0,"height":0,"label":"Alarm History","chartType":"line","legend":"false","xformat":"HH:mm:ss","interpolate":"step","nodata":"","dot":false,"ymin":"0","ymax":"1","removeOlder":"10","removeOlderPoints":"","removeOlderUnit":"60","cutout":0,"useOneColor":false,"colors":["#ff0000","#aec7e8","#ff7f0e","#2ca02c","#98df8a","#0036fa","#ff9896","#9467bd","#c5b0d5"],"useOldStyle":false,"outputs":1,"x":241,"y":40,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"a623cc9e.cbfda","type":"change","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"Fullscreen","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"payload","pt":"msg","to":"camera=black&fullscreen=1","tot":"str"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":350,"y":83,"wires":[["df3ba8df.d06188"]]},{"id":"df3ba8df.d06188","type":"mqtt out","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"BlueIris Admin","topic":"BlueIris/admin","qos":"1","retain":"false","broker":"59e4c061.7fa47","x":526,"y":105,"wires":[]},{"id":"10990716.1b0309","type":"change","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"Escape","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"payload","pt":"msg","to":"camera=black&escape","tot":"str"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":340,"y":123,"wires":[["df3ba8df.d06188"]]},{"id":"f4dfe612.41b778","type":"switch","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"","property":"payload","propertyType":"msg","rules":[{"t":"eq","v":"1","vt":"str"},{"t":"eq","v":"0","vt":"str"}],"checkall":"true","repair":false,"outputs":2,"x":200,"y":103,"wires":[["a623cc9e.cbfda"],["10990716.1b0309"]]},{"id":"59e4c061.7fa47","type":"mqtt-broker","z":"","name":"ioBroker","broker":"192.168.2.111","port":"1883","clientid":"Node-RED","usetls":false,"compatmode":false,"keepalive":"60","cleansession":true,"birthTopic":"","birthQos":"0","birthPayload":"","closeTopic":"","closeQos":"0","closePayload":"","willTopic":"","willQos":"0","willPayload":""},{"id":"bdd83452.7d8268","type":"ui_group","z":"","name":"IN-8015 FHD (black)","tab":"1d003210.ddce5e","disp":true,"width":"6","collapse":false},{"id":"1d003210.ddce5e","type":"ui_tab","z":"","name":"ioBroker","icon":"dashboard","disabled":false,"hidden":false}]
To use this flow you have to connect the input and output node to your MQTT broker and change the MQTT topic of the input node to the alarm topic you set in Blue Iris. Also change the camera name in the payload that is set in both change nodes.
Now every time an alarm is triggered for this camera in Blue Iris, Node-RED will be notified and send a command to Blue Iris to switch that camera into fullscreen mode.
This is just one example - there are a lot more BlueIris Admin Command Topics that you can use. And of course you can now also use the alarm event in Blue Iris to trigger other flows in Node-RED. There are endless possibilities 
Adding Blue Iris Live Video to your Node-RED Dashboard
Adding the Live Video of an IP camera directly can be done by fetching snapshots or using special ONVIF or MJPEG nodes. But you can also get your video from Blue Iris. And there is one thing that I particularly like about this option - Blue Iris offers a Snapshot and MJPEG URL that gives you access to an overview over all your cameras.
When you query the snapshot from every camera on your network you will notice that this needs a surprising amount of bandwidth. Combining all snapshots into one is a big improvement there:
My Blue Iris installation runs on IP 192.168.2.112 with its webserver on port 8181. To access the snapshot I can use:
http://192.168.2.112:8181/image/black
http://192.168.2.112:8181/image/Index
The first one gives me the live image of the camera with the Short Name black. The second URL gives me access to an overview over all my cameras.
Note: If you want to use the MJPEG stream instead of the snapshot, replace the word
imagein those URLs withmjpg- e.g.http://192.168.2.112:8181/mjpg/Index
But I am using an HTTP GET node with basic Authentication to access the snapshot, then run it through an base64 node and imbed it into my dashboard with a template node:
<img src="data:image/jpg;base64,{{msg.payload}}"/>
Flow Export
[{"id":"92b13759.9f1f78","type":"ui_template","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","group":"bdd83452.7d8268","name":"Black","order":2,"width":"6","height":"4","format":"<img src=\"data:image/jpg;base64,{{msg.payload}}\"/>","storeOutMessages":true,"fwdInMessages":true,"resendOnRefresh":false,"templateScope":"local","x":527,"y":860,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"2341ecb1.c86894","type":"inject","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"","topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":true,"onceDelay":"","x":110,"y":860,"wires":[["5088c5c3.a004ec"]]},{"id":"5088c5c3.a004ec","type":"http request","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"Snapshot","method":"GET","ret":"bin","paytoqs":false,"url":"http://192.168.2.112:8181/image/black","tls":"","persist":false,"proxy":"","authType":"basic","x":257,"y":860,"wires":[["f7b0fb08.fc2618"]]},{"id":"f7b0fb08.fc2618","type":"base64","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"","action":"","property":"payload","x":397,"y":860,"wires":[["92b13759.9f1f78"]]},{"id":"faadd8c0.8d5668","type":"ui_template","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","group":"f9ead57d.88dbb8","name":"Overview","order":2,"width":"12","height":"6","format":"<img src=\"data:image/jpg;base64,{{msg.payload}}\"/>","storeOutMessages":true,"fwdInMessages":true,"resendOnRefresh":false,"templateScope":"local","x":537,"y":900,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"79f02a71.38a7e4","type":"inject","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"","topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":true,"onceDelay":"","x":110,"y":900,"wires":[["89943c2.5de24c"]]},{"id":"89943c2.5de24c","type":"http request","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"Snapshot","method":"GET","ret":"bin","paytoqs":false,"url":"http://192.168.2.112:8181/image/Index","tls":"","persist":false,"proxy":"","authType":"basic","x":257,"y":900,"wires":[["c5048969.16ac48"]]},{"id":"c5048969.16ac48","type":"base64","z":"d214d2a3.60f88","name":"","action":"","property":"payload","x":397,"y":900,"wires":[["faadd8c0.8d5668"]]},{"id":"bdd83452.7d8268","type":"ui_group","z":"","name":"IN-8015 FHD (black)","tab":"1d003210.ddce5e","order":1,"disp":true,"width":"6","collapse":false},{"id":"f9ead57d.88dbb8","type":"ui_group","z":"","name":"BlueIris","tab":"1d003210.ddce5e","order":3,"disp":true,"width":"12","collapse":false},{"id":"1d003210.ddce5e","type":"ui_tab","z":"","name":"ioBroker","icon":"dashboard","disabled":false,"hidden":false}]
Note: The inject nodes are configured to be used manually. You can adjust them to request a snapshot in an interval to end up with an video stream on your dashboard. Or connect them to the Alarm Input MQTT Node - so you will receive an image every time the alarm is triggered.
