Streaming ReefCam Costs?

Beverly · #1 11-22-2006, 05:29 PM

After spending so much time at Africam over the past few weeks, and once having FinchCam in our indoor finch aviary, we're considering putting a streaming cam on our 120g reef for the twelve hours the reef is lit.

The hardware or software would be a one-time purchase which probably isn't going to be a problem financially. What's going to ding us big, I imagine, would be the on-going bandwidth requirements of such an endeavor. Has anybody looked into the long-term costs of doing this?

Any thoughts or suggestions.....

or donations

Okay, the donations part is a joke

Keana · #2 11-22-2006, 07:09 PM

There are a couple of ways that someone could do this.

Free: Your isp may provide you with web space and if you have a cable or dsl connection you could host the video from your computer. That would require running your computer at all times you want the video to stream and there would be some resource draw on your computer depending on your hardware. I have done this before and it works great & it's free. You could even use a dns service to mask your ip and make the url easier, also free. There are online services that host web cams or video for free.

Paid: You could buy web space on a server and have them host the video for you but you would still have to upload (ftp) from your computer to the server. This would give a more professional look and isn't that much. I sell basic hosting packages from $10/month with 300 megs of space and 10 gigs of transfer. Your video stream would be hard pressed to exceed (or even come close) to 10 gigs of transfer.

Bye, Keana

Beverly · #3 11-22-2006, 10:36 PM

Keana,

Thanks for your reply

Streaming video takes a lot of bandwidth, though, doesn't it? Especially if it's a good webcam and word gets around? 10 gig sounds somewhat small to me.

WWWD · #4 11-22-2006, 10:56 PM

You wouldn't have a live stream would you? I have a webcam that is setup to FTP an image to my website every 60 seconds.

Im pretty sure that you would far exceed you monthly traffic charges from your isp if you started steaming stuff 24/7. I think the base from Shaw in Vancouver is around 10gigs per month. Downloading a couple tv shows alone will seriously eat into that.

Keana · #5 11-22-2006, 11:06 PM

It all depends on the quality of video you are sending. Very high quality video would take lots of bandwidth. It would provide great images but would be accessible to less people as they would also need a speedy connection to view it without lags. It is better to use a lower quality video or even better a higher quality video format like mp4 with setting optimized for web streaming. I think 10 gigs would be lots but we also sell a package for $25/Month with 100 gigs of transfer.

The free way may still be the best way. Even with a web hosting package you would need to have your computer on, taking the video, and then sending it to the server by way of ftp. If your computer is going to be on and working.... It would be just as easy to have it host the video. This would save on bandwidth because it would only be getting used if someone was actually watching the video stream. If you have your computer sending it to a server it is using bandwidth even if people are not watching the video. In short, for this purpose it may be best to host it yourself on your computer. With a dns account from dns.org you can have your ip address masked as a domain name and give a professional look for free. I have done this before and it is easy. However I am on a Mac and OSX comes with Apache Server software built in and ready to go. On a windows box I am not sure of the process.

Do you have a cable or dsl connection?

Keana · #6 11-22-2006, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WWWD

You wouldn't have a live stream would you? I have a webcam that is setup to FTP an image to my website every 60 seconds.

Im pretty sure that you would far exceed you monthly traffic charges from your isp if you started steaming stuff 24/7. I think the base from Shaw in Vancouver is around 10gigs per month. Downloading a couple tv shows alone will seriously eat into that.

Again depends on what you have cable or dsl? I have high speed extreme from Shaw with 80 gigs of transfer a month.

Beverly · #7 11-23-2006, 01:57 PM

Keana,

Our service is through Telus.

WWWD,

I'm thinking live stream at this point, though the cam won't run 24/7, only during the 12 hours the tank is lit.

FinchCam ran only during the 12 hours the aviary was lit. But that was years ago, before streaming video became so accessible. A new image was uploaded to the server every 30 or 60 sec., though I can't remember which one. The page was automatically updated with each new image. FinchCam became very popular. Our isp complained that we were using too much bandwidth, so we had to change the page to manual refresh to cut down on people leaving the cam running all day on their computers.

Of course, the streaming reefcam idea is just in the "what if" stages right now.

Keana · #8 11-23-2006, 03:07 PM

I think telus (and almost all electronic stores) sells a Linsys wireless camera that can stream video. It's called something like Home Sitter or something? I think it costs $300 for the camera. That's a bit of money..... But the camera is wireless That would be cooooool. You could put the camera anywhere and it streams to your router and then to the net. Your computer is never involved. The only other problem is that Telus likes to bundle this camera with there service and it is pricey. If you got this wireless camera, and you have a router (may have to be Linksys?), you could then use the free dns.org services to change your ip address to a url and have a free professional web cam stream.

http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Wirele.../dp/B0002V8KW2

Beverly · #9 11-23-2006, 03:50 PM

Thanks for the suggestions, Keana

I'm going to pass this thread on to my husband who has the technical savvy to put such a system together if we decide to proceed.

DiscusZ · #10 11-23-2006, 09:31 PM

I did this one with m,y web cam and it did not take a lot I had a lot of hits. I used a cheap 3com web cam and it was quit popular. I am tyring to come up with another idea but that is for another thread (dont want to highjack)

You would not stream high quality. Also it depends on the ISP as well. Telus does block a lot of ports from what I remember, so streaming could be out.

Jim