airVision 2.0 Reviewed

By Sarit Williams, Published Jun 12, 2013, 12:00am EDT (Info+)

After disrupting the wireless industry, Ubiquiti launched its attack into video surveillance. However, last year they were derailed by Chinese Counterfeiting craziness. Now, they have launched airVision 2.0. In this note, we review the key features and pricing of the airVision 2, compare it to a popular low cost HD IP kit and assess where this puts Ubiquiti in the market.

Release Overview

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Comments (11)

Mike Trinklein

06/13/13 04:08am

320Mbps throughput seems unusually high for a hardware platform of this type. Especially with a single drive. Is this published in the technical documentation?

John Honovich

IPVM | 06/13/13 04:18am

We asked Ubiquiti directly for this information. Their full response was, "We typically see roughly 40MB/s for writes and 60MB/s for uncached reads. It can burst higher but a lot depends on other concurrent activity."

It does seem higher than normal, on the other hand the CPU/RAM is higher than what is typically found on consumer appliances (like NAS devices).

Ultimately, obviously, one needs to stress test load.

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Sean Nelson

Nelly's Security
06/13/13 07:50pm

Am i correct in saying the Ubiquiti's "Aircams" are not actually wireless cameras?

John Honovich

IPVM | 06/13/13 07:51pm

Yes, the cameras are not wireless, they are just from a wireless manufacturer. I believe you can plug them straight into Ubiquiti wireless nodes but there's no wireless built into the camera.

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Luis Carmona

Geutebruck USA
IPVMU Certified | 06/13/13 07:57pm

Good point, Sean. It is kinda ironic they call them "airCam's".

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Sean Nelson

Nelly's Security
06/13/13 08:01pm

I was excited to hear about the "Aircams" when they first debuted them, then got bummed when I found out they werent wireless.

We get calls almost daily of people wanting a good wireless system. I never recommend them but I bet Ubiuiti could make an "all in one" wireless camera that could be fairly usable. in my opinion, they could sell a complete wireless system like hotcakes.

Ben Wilks

06/18/13 04:02am

I would tend to agree with Sean. Does anyone make a usable wireless system?

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Luis Carmona

Geutebruck USA
IPVMU Certified | 06/18/13 12:03pm

The merits of wireless cameras have been debated plenty 'round here. My stand is I'd rather attach my own wireless bridge connected to the camera than have it built in. But for home and small businesses I can see the merits of maybe having it built in for simplicity and possibly cost.

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Mike Dotson

Seneca | IPVMU Certified | 06/18/13 01:55pm

What is missing from their throughput statement is the definition of what the test criteria is to achieve that rate.

When we post results of a VMS on our servers we always have the test definition in the brochure. One has to be able to duplicate the test on their own.

An Atom based system can get appx 15MBytes/sec and I have seen a Pentium system get 35MB. Very much VMS dependent.

Olaf Kreutz

06/18/13 04:46pm

Hi John, we needed an I-7 processor with 8 cores and 8GB of RAM to get to 280mbps of throughput for recording and playback. Any chance that the guys at Ubiquity don't realize the significance of capitalizing the B, making it bytes rather than bits. 40mbps seems reasonable for a low-power platform like theirs.

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James Talmage

IPVMU Certified | 06/18/13 06:37pm

A note on the 5-port Ubiquiti switch mentioned: It only outputs non-standard 24V PoE (which is what you need for Aircams). Don't plan on hooking any standard PoE devices to it. The 8-port Ubiquiti switch offers both 24V and 48V configurable per port. Neither ubiquiti switch is 802.11af compliant in that if configured to output voltage, they do so whether the device at the other end is prepared to handle it or not (no 802.11af auto-detection). The 8 port switch claims "802.11af compatibility".

This switch is not a good choice if there is a chance someone who doesn't know what they are doing will come plug their laptop into 48 volts.

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