The video quality from a network camera (e.g. the Panasonic BL-C131) depends upon the bandwidth available between the Camera and the Viewer. Higher bandwidth will deliver better video quality. Any factor that reduces this bandwidth reduces the video quality. The two main factors affecting the bandwidth and how to improve them are given below -
1. Camera-Viewer network – Most often, the network cameras are viewed from the Internet. In this case, make sure the highest bandwidth connection (that is possible and affordable) to the Internet is in place for the camera (check with your ISP on type of connections & pricing available for your location). For viewing network cameras, the upload (to the Internet) bandwidth is more important than download bandwidth.
Network cameras require at least 200 kbps of bandwidth to View the video (and the higher the bandwidth, the better the quality). Most broadband connections easily provide this. However, some basic DSL plans cannot guarantee a minimum bandwidth. Their bandwidth can fluctuate from 10 kbps to 400 kbps depending upon the time of the day (and the number of Users on the ISP’s network). Such plans will give no video or very poor quality and should not be used.
If the network camera is viewed on the local network (LAN), make sure that the highest bandwidth connection is available between the camera and the viewer e.g. 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps and no switches or routers in the path reduce the bandwidth.
2. Sharing the camera and Number of Viewers – For best video quality, there should only be a single connection to the camera.
If you Share your camera views with others and the others are directly accessing the camera, then more the Viewers, the worse the quality. E.g. for a camera on a typical 400 kbps (upload) Internet connection – 1 Viewer will get the full 400 kbps bandwidth. 2 Viewers will get ~200 kbps each, 3 Viewers will get ~133 kbps each, 100 Viewers will get 4 kbps each. With each new Viewer, the video quality degrades significantly. Multiple viewers going directly to the camera should not be allowed.
To avoid such a situation, when you want to Share your camera view (and a lot of us want to do that), the camera-view can be registered with the TenM3 service. The TenM3 service makes a single connection to the Camera. The TenM3 feed can then be shared with a very large number of people.
If the Camera is on the Internet, access to the camera should be password protected. If the camera is open, anyone from the Internet can access the camera potentially seeing a private feed and also increasing the load on the camera. Use of TenM3 helps here also, as direct camera access is never given to others while sharing the Feed and the camera can be protected.
Overall, to keep the video quality of your camera good and consistent
- get the highest bandwidth connection to the Internet (that is available and affordable) and
- use the TenM3 service to View, Share or Record the feed
Filed under: Network cameras, Video quality , Camera upload speed, Network cameras, Panasonic BL-C131, Sharing camera view, TenM3, Video quality
