300 Cameras

[cmsdno]

Hello all,

As I mentioned in the introduction area we are new to webcams. I have a client that is opening a boarding house for dogs and cats and he is going to have 300 kennels. Well, he wants 300 web accessible cameras so that the owners of these dogs and cats can login anytime and see their baby's. The questions I have is as follows:

How? lol, Is there a system out there that can handle that many cameras? What would be the best way to go about setting this up in the cheapest way possible?

How much bandwidth will this consume? What type of circuit are we going to need to make this viewable?

I appologize for my ignorance in this area but appreciate any help that can be provided.

Thanks,

[ipvideotechnician]

Hi cmsdno,

Don't worry, we've all been there.

The biggest question here is how are the viewers going to connect, rather than what cameras to use. If you are using a single standard internet connection then you may run into problems if all 300 try to log in at the same time. Most modern internet connections will only product a maximum framerate of around 6 frames per second in perfect conditions. That bandwidth will then be split between your concurrent users.

Viewing the cameras should not be too much of an issue. All you would need to do is port forward the cameras in your router. It'll be a time consuming job but is relativley simple. Simply set each camera up on a different port and tell your router to forward data requests for that port onto the right camera. Then all you need to do is make sure there is a user account on each camera for viewers to log in to and then you're done.

What you might consider is splitting up your cameras onto multiple internet accounts so the avalable bandwidth is split between fewer cameras. It means that at surge times, where everyone is trying to log in at once, they are more likely to get an image.

In terms of cameras, it depends on what the conditions are like. If the cameras are going to be indoors, and out of chewing range, I might suggest something like a Panasonic BL-C1. Its small, gives a good image and is relatively well priced. If you're buying as much as 300 you're guarenteed that your supplier will offer a discount too, I know we would.

Let me know if you need any further info.

James
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[use-IP]

UK dog kennels with cams for spoilt pooch owners:
http://www.hugmedogotel.com/Content/50.aspx?PageId=26
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[videofairy]

Hi cmsdno, welcome.

It looks like it is hard to put 300 VGA resolution cameras on Gigabit network.

So ways to do it is to lower resolution, FPS or use MPEG-4 compression.

WIth JVSG system design tool it looks like
the first way is to limit FPS to 5 and get 450 Mbit (of 500max) for 640x480, MJPEG
Next option is to lower resolution to 320x240 and get 253 mbti for 12 FPS.

Other option is use MPEG4 then you get 219 Mbit on 10 FPS, 640x480

ps:Anyway it is just estimation. So better add 30% to calculated bandwidth just in case.