Bandwidth is an important consideration when using motion recording or especially continuous recording (business plans only). You will require sufficient upload bandwidth to ensure a constant stream of video data can be transferred from the camera to our cloud servers. 

The amount of bandwidth that you require will depend on the camera you use and the resolution setting that you choose. If you've setup your camera using Auto-Setup and it's one of our supported camera types, then you can change the amount of bandwidth you are using by raising and lowering the "Resolution" settings in the "Edit" camera properties.

 

In addition to the Resolution setting, you have a settings cog next to it. This allows you to set bitrate, framerate and smart codec (Axis and Hanwha cameras only). Please note that reducing these values too low may cause inconsistencies with the camera stream, such as setting frame rate to 1 or 2 may cause constant black screen in cloud streaming. If you experience this try to adjust the rates slightly higher in small increments and see if you can find a stable spot that works for your purposes.

Most cameras use a "variable bitrate" which allows them to minimize bandwidth usage when the picture is not too busy. In addition the exact bandwidth consumed depends on the camera's encoding abilities, but the general guidelines are below.

Not all resolutions are shown in the table below but this gives certain guidelines up to a maximum.

Resolution 4MP 1080p 720p 480p 320p
Max Bitrate 1280 Kbps 1280 Kbps 768 Kbps 512 Kbps 256 Kbps
Max Framerate 15 FPS 15 FPS 15 FPS 15 FPS 15 FPS

 

Note: Hanwha cameras typically use a higher bitrate. For example at 720p they use 1536Kbps.

Note: Select Hanwha and Axis cameras use smart codec technology that reduces the bandwidth even further.

It's important to know the amount of Upload Bandwidth available to you on your camera's network. If you don't have enough bandwidth you will have issues uploading motion events as they are captured by your camera(s).

There is a way to determine your current amount - you'll need to go to speedtest.net and run the test.

Pay attention to your upload bandwidth specifically. If you don't have enough bandwidth for your camera requirements you can try reducing the resolution and most importantly the bitrate.