Bandwidth and Video

As a cloud based video surveillance manufacturer we get asked about bandwidth all the time. Our system has Intelligent Bandwidth Management, which allows us to work in low bandwidth environments, but we still need some connectivity in order to work properly. Of course we’re always trying to improve our system, and the fact that it’s cloud managed means that as these improvements happen they immediately take effect for our customers. During one recent design session, which was focused on bandwidth utilization, the question came up, “how much bandwidth do people have?”

The answer is not a simple one, and it’s actually quite surprising how far things have come. Looking at this map there are many ways to slice the data. There are also many different reports with different findings. However, one trend is clear across them all: available bandwidth is increasing. Think about it – it was just a little over 10 years ago that AOL had over 25 million subscribers, all using dial up. Surprisingly AOL still has a little over 2 million dial up subscribers, but that’s expected to go to zero in the next 5 years.

Today, broadband Internet is commonplace and the speed of those connections is increasing at a faster rate than ever before. Google has famously launched Google Fiber that boasts speeds of up to 1 Gigabit and others have followed suit.

What does all this mean for video surveillance?  It’s simple, as bandwidth increases, the market becomes even more favorable than it already is.  Video surveillance is following in the footsteps of other business applications in the migration to the cloud.  Cloud based email, customer management, finance and other software applications have been accepted for several years.  Applications that require onsite hardware, such as phone systems and access control have quietly been moving to the cloud as well.

Just like dial up Internet access, DVRs are going away.  It’s going to be a while before they’re completely gone, but it will happen.  Some day not too far down the road, everyone will have Gigabit Internet access (or faster) and people will forget how limited bandwidth was just a few years ago.  Until then, Eagle Eye will continue our innovation that address the realities of today’s constricted Internet Service Providers, while delivering features and service that otherwise may have to wait for the future.

At Eagle Eye, we believe the time is right for cloud based video surveillance, and it’s just going to get better.