Subscriber Discussion

Fit A 5MP Camera In A 5GB Bandwidth Cap?

MR
Mark Rindy
May 06, 2013

We put in a P1347 camera to view a marina and stream to the customer's website. Before I release the ip address and set the anonymous login, how can I ensure that the 5Gb cap from Verizon will not be exceeded? In working with Axis, there seems to be no way to get less than 1 FPS. Ideally we'd like to have the camera send one MJPEG image every 5 minutes, or even 10 minutes.

Suggestions?

JS
Jeppie Sumpter
May 06, 2013
IPVMU Certified

We've done something similar for construction project monitoring.. status & progress, not site security. Our approach was to set the camera up to FTP images up at a certain interval, you'll have more control over timing that way. Not sure if that's viable for you or not, as you'll have to have more setup to do it, but it's something to consider.

Avatar
Ethan Ace
May 06, 2013

Hey Mark, the easiest way to do that is probably to use the events section of the camera config to set up a timed FTP upload of a JPEG image. That way they can set the web page to use the image it's uploading, and you don't have to worry about embedding a stream. That screen looks like this:

They'll need to supply you with proper FTP information, etc., but it should be fairly simple.

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
May 06, 2013

Sucks that Verizon won't let you set a hard cap on the account itself. They don't want to make it easy for you to not get overcharged.

Only thing I can think of off hand is either using a 3rd party hosted recording service that only records at a slow enough rate that won't exceed the cap and doesn't charge for bandwidth usage when reviewing the recorded video, or maybe hosting the recording yourself somewhere where there's not a cap or usage charges when video is reviewed off the recorder.

JH
John Honovich
May 06, 2013
IPVM

I just used the Axis design tool. If I ran it correctly, for the P1347 at 1fps, H.264, at an intersection (high motion), over 30 days, you would need 225GBs. That's going to be way too much.

JH
John Honovich
May 06, 2013
IPVM

One other option, if you use a VMS, e.g., Exacq Edge, you can set the time lapse option, e.g.,

If you then set it at once a minute or once every 40 seconds, that should work (I am guessing on the time span but the function certainly would work). Then you could just access the images/video from the Exacq client.

There are definitely other VMSes that offer time lapse settings, the advantage for Exacq here is that Edge runs right inside the camera, keeping the solution simple.

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
May 06, 2013

But if the camera is recording at the edge, isn't there still a risk of going over data bandwidth usage from people reviewing the video? And if it's recording at the Edge then recording rate and size wouldn't matter sinze it wouldn't be going over the cellular connection, right?

JH
John Honovich
May 06, 2013
IPVM

Yeah, you're right! So my solution is even better than I first thought! :)

Seriously, I do think edge storage would be the way to go here, both in terms of reducing bandwidth load as well as increasing the recording rate (because you would have much less need for bandwidth throughput).

Avatar
Ethan Ace
May 06, 2013

It sounds to me like viewing it through a VMS isn't even really desired here, though. It was specifically for use on their web page, which makes it seem like it's more of a tourism/webcam use than security, no?

MR
Mark Rindy
May 06, 2013

Bingo Ethan, mainly a marketing tool. As for the bandwidth usage, the Proxicast Pocketport device will only send whatever comes it's way and the Verizon card is merely a pass through, correct? So whatever I can program the camera to send, everything else is automatic.
I'll try the 'action rule' however that seems too simple :) as I've agonized over the potential cell phone bill. We purchased 'unlimited' IP addresses from Verizon for $500 which on it's face seems advantageous but the devil is always in the details. I may just get fired if our next company Verizon bill comes back at $10K!

Avatar
Vincent Tong
May 06, 2013

We have helped some of our dealers do something like this in the past using this software to publish snapshots to their website: KABcam

The only thing is depending on your camera you will need to find the CGI command to for the camera involving snapshots.

JL
John Lord
May 06, 2013

im using a trigger to ftp 1 image per minute in a 1mp axis camera and it averages around 50MB a day to give you a real world refernce.

MR
Mark Rindy
May 07, 2013

Thank you all, much appreciated

Avatar
Brian Karas
May 07, 2013
Pelican Zero

There is no way you want to give the world direct access to this camera. Not only will you overrun the data limit quickly, you'll overrun the available real-time bandwidth if too many people try to view it at the same time.

The most practical solution is to have the camera send images to a remote server. I've set this up for an Axis camera before, email me if you want more info.

Avatar
Robert Tabbara
May 12, 2013
fyi,You can set a cap on verizon but it can't be a bz account.
CA
Chris Anderson
May 13, 2013

Mark,

Although it sounds like you are already using the Proxicast device, there are other modems available (Sierra Wireless) which we prefer to use for remote cellular deployments. They have an embedded OS and a huge amount of functionality, although more expensive they are also much more reliable than aircard based solutions. One of the benefits you can get from the use of these devices is the ability to input a datacap and billing cycle. They will then disable service until the cycle rolls over if, for some reason you end up having an unforeseen issue which pushes the data usage over your limits.

Thanks,

Chris

New discussion

Ask questions and get answers to your physical security questions from IPVM team members and fellow subscribers.

Newest discussions