how to save network bandwidth?

gian · Post by **gian** » Sun May 03, 2009 8:19 am

hello All,

before I deploy my system with 6-7 cameras, I am worried about what I should do to save network bandwidth.

The office LAN has gigabit switches, but I would like to start with the correct setup from scratch.

Some cameras will be setup to record the manufacturing process, and so they could be "turned off" in non-working hours, other cameras are set to motion detect.

Constant streaming will flood the network with tons of "useless" images.
Is there a more intelligent way to do that?

I see that some new cameras have a proximity sensor to trig them.
This makes sense, but I would also like to be able to monitor the camera live...

Sorry if my questions look silly or poorly posed, I am new to video recording, and my English could be better.

kingofkya · Post by **kingofkya** » Sun May 03, 2009 5:57 pm

Set max fps on zoneminder to 1 or like .25 and then set alarm fps to 10 or whatever your using

gian · Post by **gian** » Sun May 03, 2009 6:01 pm

thanks for your kind reply.

Now I have a very silly question.

Is the camera or ZM that is generating network traffic?
I mean, if the cameras are on, and ZM is off, is the network quiet?

Your suggestion makes me feel that cameras generate traffic only when ZM asks for frames.

Am I correct?

-G

kingofkya · Post by **kingofkya** » Sun May 03, 2009 6:03 pm

yes zoneminder is like a download running forever requesting from the cam

yes when zoneminder is not requesting picture the camera have no trafic accept for some negotiation packets ( unnoticeable amount in bytes per second)

coke · Post by **coke** » Mon May 04, 2009 3:10 pm

Unless maybe multicast RTSP is turn on in the camera, but I don't know if that even uses bandwidth without any clients, and it's turned off by default on the Axis cameras I've used. They (axis) do default to uPnP, Bonjour, couple of other services turned on, but none of those take any significant bandwidth.

Post by **cordel** » Mon May 04, 2009 9:52 pm

ZM requests the image from the cameras so most of the traffic is from the cams,
You also create more for every monitor you are viewing which comes from the ZM cgi.
It's best to separate the cams onto their own network when ever possible. Video is a bandwidth hog, specially when you are dealing with high resolution cams and using a not so lossy compression trying to keep the quality of the video.