Alert Security Systems

[snowman042]

I have two 700 cameras, both have good powerline reading 165 and 198 but my bandwidth is lower than I think it should be (10Mbps)  Downloading video from the camera takes forever.  Any suggestions ?

Thanks

[jnoring]

You could try different outlets to see if you get better throughput, try unplugging various appliances to see if they're lowering powerline performance, etc.  Another option is to go PoE, since that'll give you the best possible throughput.

[maduro]

jnoring,

Would an access point work? I have a similar issue w/a camera in the basement. It works but my powerline tests only yields 2 bars & bandwidth is12 bars. I'm thinking of alternatives but not sure if an access point is the answer

[jnoring]

Yeah, that's one definite option if you get better performance over wireless than your homeplug.  I think some wireless access points have PoE output, particularly the "wireless bridge" guys.  PoE on wireless bridges isn't uncommon because people use it to provide data and power to stuff like VOIP phones, security cameras, etc.

So your setup would look like

Wireless router -> wireless network -> wireless bridge with PoE -> camera plugged into PoE port

 edit: might be easier to just add a wireless bridge/repeater, and then hang a PoE switch off that.  It's tempting to find an all-in-once device, but the options seem complicated to me.

[maduro]

I was thinking more in terms of setting up a repeater/range extender in the basement. These devices have ethernet ports (not necessarily PoE) then plug the camera into that. My objective is to avoid running wires down to the basement while tapping directly into my network

[JimmyB7]

I have 5 cameras and the thing I've noticed that improved my system's bandwidth, video quality, etc.,  was locating the Logitech Network Adapter as close to my home's circuit breaker box as possible.

[UselessS]

@jnoring, I think it would be good to state what the max bandwidth usage is for the modes of the camera. 

From my rough observations, it appears the max for high resolution live feed is just under 1.5Mbps, and a copy around 15Mbps...so about 16.5Mbps when doing both ( probably closer to 15Mbps for both...as I rounded-up a bit...I said it was rough <g> ).  Extrapolating that to the Bandwidth test, around 75% would likely be max efficiency.  I'm all PoE on CAT6 wired gigabit network, so I've got nothing restricting any of it for these observations...but would be nice to hear from the Logitech Engineering side...then anyone could do the math and manage expectations <g>

[jnoring]

@uselessS,

it's a little complicated, but I'll take a shot.  So the high resolution feed is about 1.25 mbps.  But file sync happens as fast as it can, and a number of factors can influence that (how busy the camera is, how fast the SD card reads, how fast the network is, etc.), but I'd say in ideal operation it peaks at about 20 mbps?  Where it gets tricky is with homeplug (which can vary in rate depending on # of cameras, weird appliances switching on/off, etc.) or if a customer is using a "mixed" network (for example, cameras are on PoE, but the computer running Commander is connected to the router over 802.11g--802.11 is subject to the same fluctuations in performance as homeplug).

I'm not sure if that helps you or not.  Basically, the camera will use as much bandwidth as is available to it; PoE is always going to be about as good as it gets.  At a minimum, a camera probably needs ~4 mbps to stream live video and sync files to Commander.

[UselessS]

Thanks...though I was trying to see best case for each individual piece...independant of the interactions and variables that make it complicated ( a separate but related subject ).  I'm going to run some more tests when I get a chance.

I have noticed that the recent update seems to measure camera bandwidth more conservatively...I used to peg the bar...now usually reads between 15 and 17 for my 6 cameras.