MV72 Cameras over Mobile Data?

BenjaminLucas
Just browsing

MV72 Cameras over Mobile Data?

Has anyone successfully deployed and used an MV over Mobile Data?

 

We have a possibility of installing some cameras in a remote location of a warehouse externally, where no network is currently available and would be a long-ish run of fibre so thinking data maybe a possibility if a decent data plan can be sorted.

 

This may open up further deployment possibilities too, if it's viable

1 REPLY 1
MerakiDave
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

Hi @BenjaminLucas yes, because MV does all storage and analytics at the edge on board the camera, you can deploy Meraki MV even when you have low-bandwidth links.  Also note that there is also a "restricted bandwidth" mode you can enable on the Quality and Retention configuration page to suppress Motion Recap images and save more bandwidth.

 

Note that if the camera is powered up, it is recording.  So even if there is no network connectivity, they can still be recording, even though they will show as offline in Dashboard.  Of course, you will need to initially connect the camera for it to get its firmware and config settings.

 

It sounded from the subject line like you want to leverage a cellular setup of some sort, perhaps a Meraki MG solution to provide a Cellular to Ethernet gateway?  Anyway, note that the MV cameras support wireless, but that's WiFi, not cellular, cameras do not have cellular uplink capability.  But you can certainly provide local LAN connectivity of 1 or more cameras locally at the remote site, and then have any type of cellular uplink capability out of that site.  That way, your cameras will remain fully online and manageable.  

 

Or perhaps you want to leverage the cameras wireless capability to occasionally have it uplink via your phone's hotspot?  That is possible too.  Note that you must first connect the camera to a wired interface for initial configuration, including a primary and a backup SSID.  One of those SSIDs can be your phone's hotspot.

 

Remember that the network usage will only become 1 or a few Mbps when you are actively watching video from any given camera, or streaming it to a video wall for example.  How much depends on your per-camera quality settings. 

 

Keep in mind when you do that, if you have several cameras on a video wall, depending on their quality settings, you could attempt to stream more data that the cellular or hotspot connection can keep up with.  To try to help there also, if you have several cameras on a video wall such that their respective resolutions are <540p, then they automatically downshift to adaptive bitrate streaming.

 

Also keep in mind the cameras need to be powered.  So if you need to leverage fiber runs to remote areas of the warehouse, you'll still need a media converter (or perhaps a combo media converter and power injector, I've used some from Transition Networks in my lab) to be able to convert your fiber to copper and then power the camera via PoE+.  Note that it needs to be PoE+ 30W capable because of things like the on-board chassis heating element in the MV72.  

 

Bottom line is I'd look for a way to have the cameras online in Dashboard all the time, versus only occasionally when you happen to be nearby with a cell phone hotspot enabled.  If all you need is recording and might only rarely have to interact with the system after an incident, then perhaps not.  But the full power of MV, viewing live video plus all of the alerting and analytics will come when they have a full-time uplink and communication with Dashboard.

 

Hope that helps!  Let me know if I misunderstood the use case or should clarify something.

 

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