Subscriber Discussion

Looking For Information On Low Bandwidth Cameras

RB
Robert Bremmer
Jan 29, 2016
IPVMU Certified

How do I find which cameras are low bandwidth?

JH
John Honovich
Jan 29, 2016
IPVM

See our report: IP Camera Bandwidth / Storage Shootout

More recently, smart codecs are key to reducing bandwidth, e.g., Testing Axis Zipstream

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Brian Karas
Jan 29, 2016
Pelican Zero

Define "low bandwidth".

Is there a target bitrate you're trying to hit? Are you concerned with storage/retention, live viewing, or both?

Almost every camera on the market today can be configured with its primary and/or secondary stream to be what most would consider "low bandwith" (500Kbps or less) but you're going to trade resolution and framerate for that.

You can also get "low bandwidth" by doing something like 1 JPG snapshot per minute, or per 5 minute interval. This is commonly done in situations like 4G/LTE connected cameras where there isn't a practical way to get any kind of continuous live stream that is worth looking at.

JH
John Honovich
Jan 29, 2016
IPVM

For sake of my above comment, I assume low bandwidth means 'low bandwidth' without sacrificing quality / ramping up compression levels.

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Carter Maslan
Jan 31, 2016
Camio

We've found no cameras on the market that are both low bandwidth *and* reliably record high resolution.

If (and only if) your objective is to record only important events in high resolution while using less than 1/10th of the bandwidth that would be required by streaming at that high resolution, and if you're open to trying a new type of camera that uses commodity components, then please contact me. I'm CEO of camio.com and will tell you quickly whether your low-bandwidth scenario is a match for what we've created.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Feb 01, 2016

Really depends what you consider 'low bandwidth'....what type resolution and frame rate? At the same settings some cameras may still be twice the bandwidth for the purposes you're using due to i-frames or what-not. We host thousands of video streams fully remote in what we consider lower bandwidth which may be 800x600 or 1MP at 3-5fps, but others would think they need 5MP and 30fps to watch a closet. Depends on what you really need combined with how quickly you want to access the video, pay for storage, etc.

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