The amount of Internet bandwidth required for connecting a camera to Ivideon depends on two main parameters:
— the configuration of the main stream and substream(s) of the camera, namely, their resolutions and bit rates.
— functions used by the camera in Ivideon.
1. To play back the camera’s live video, it transfers 1 main stream (view of the camera in high video quality) and 1 substream* (view of the camera in medium/low video quality + for proper work of archive search on "Cloud 30" and higher cloud plans) to our service. The number of streams taken from the device in this instance depends neither on the number of users watching the camera nor on the way it is viewed via Ivideon.
*the substreams of the device get transferred only if they are available for the device and the substream URL(s) are specified in Ivideon Server or Ivideon Bridge. Otherwise, the camera will transfer only its main stream; in this case, when viewing video in medium/low quality, the video will be re-encoded by the camera (if supported).
2. To record cloud archive or event clips, the camera uses the same high main stream (in high quality), that is used for live-feed playback*.
*cloud archive recordings can be played back only in High quality, since it is recorded using the main stream of the camera, switching the video quality of the cloud archive to Mid/Low is currently unavailable.
3. The number of video streams used by a camera when playing back local archive recordings depends on the number of users watching the archive and the camera’s archive settings (whether it records only the main stream or substream as well). The more users will simultaneously attempt to view local archive footage of a particular camera, the more load will be created both on its network bandwidth and on the camera’s built-in system functions. Due to this, sharing local archive access rights with numerous users is not recommended, and playback of local archive on a publicly accessible camera is restricted from our end.
For example, the proper operation of 1 camera with a bitrate of 2 Mbps for its main stream and 512 kbps for its substream would have the following upload bandwidth requirements (in the network where the camera is located):
Functions used | Bitrate, in case camera has main stream only | Bitrate, in case camera has both main stream and substream |
Viewing live video or recording cloud archive or viewing local archive | 2 Mbps | 2.5 Mbps |
Viewing live video/recording cloud archive and viewing local archive | 4 Mbps | 4.5 or 5 Mbps (depends on whether the local archive is recorded using one or two video streams) |
Viewing live video and recording cloud archive and viewing local archive at the same time | 4Mbps | 4.5 or 5 Mbps (depends on whether the local archive is recorded using one or two video streams) |
In addition, please take into account:
In case you have multiple cameras installed in one network, and you view them simultaneously and/or all of them record cloud archive or event clips, you should multiply the required speed by the number of cameras (i.e., consider the sum of their bit rates).
The download speed at the viewing location cannot be lower than the bit rate value of the camera’s video stream used (depending on the selected viewing quality).
If the bandwidth you have is not enough, then:
live video and local archive recordings may either not be available for viewing completely, or played in worse quality, with distortion, artifacts, etc.;
cloud archive may not be recorded completely, or may be recorded intermittently, or saved in a distorted form (in a worse quality, with artifacts, etc.).
To measure the speed of your Internet connection, please test it on either of the following sites: speedtest.net, speedof.me, demo.fireprobe.net.