Simultanious login to same RTSP feed

[toreupfeet]

I have BI recording some Wansview Q6 WiFi cameras and an Amcrest AD110 via RTSP. I also have RTSP feeds for those cameras integrated into my Home Assistant dashboard (snapshots refresh every few seconds, per the HA default). My Wansview cameras seem to reset quite often, and I wonder whether it's because I'm overloading their memory by logging into each camera's RTSP feed on BI and HA simultaneously. Or, perhaps my router is lousy. Or both.

Is it inadvisable to login to the same RTSP feed from BI and HA at the same time?
If so what would be optimal? Perhaps have HA take the web UI feed from BI?

 

[looney2ns]

Being on Wi-Fi is probably the issue. Wi-Fi was never designed to handle a video stream especially multiple cams.

 

[SouthernYankee]

I have posted this before.

I did a WIFI test a while back with multiple 2MP cameras each camera was set to VBR, 15 FPS, 15 Iframe, 3072kbs, h.264. Using a WIFI analyzer I selected the least busy channel (1,6,11) on the 2.4 GHZ band and set up a separate access point. With 3 cameras in direct line of sight of the AP about 25 feet away I was able to maintain a reasonable stable network with only intermittent signal drops from the cameras. Added a 4th camera and the network became totally unstable. Also add a lot of motion to the 3 cameras caused some more network instability. More data more instability. The cameras are nearly continuously transmitting. So any lost packet causes a retry, which cause more traffic, which causes more lost packets.
WIFI does not have a flow control, or a token to transmit. So you devices transmit any time they want, more devices more collisions.

As a side note, it is very easy to jam a WIFI network. WIFI is fine for watching the bird feed but not for home surveillance and security.

The problem is like standing in a room, with multiple people talking to you at the same time about different subjects. You need to answer each person or they repeat the question.

For a 802.11G 2.4 GHZ WIFI network the Theoretical Speed is 54Mbps (6.7MBs) real word speed is nearer to 10-29Mbps (1.25-3.6 MBs) for a single channel

 

[toreupfeet]

Thank you for the replies. My current router is an Asus 86U and 2.4ghz is not its strong suit. I haven't yet purchased any security cameras for the exterior but I have been leaning toward the Amcrest ASH42-B-V2 because my house is not wired with ethernet. The house is stucco, and the interior was painted a few months back and I don't want to tear up the drywall. The roof is very low profile with very little access to anything above the ceiling. Even the two "poke your head up the hole" access areas in the ceiling are walled off such that when you're looking up there you can only see a few square feet around you.

I really want PoE cameras of course, but I am doubtful that they're a possibility. Are there installers who can make miracles happen? Because from my point of view WiFi is my only option. By the way, assuming I am restricted to WiFi cams, I will purchase and place these Linksys nodes near each camera. Will doing so provide more stability?

Edit: This Reolink RLC-510WA looks pretty good too. 5MP and 5ghz. Might 5ghz be more stable? ...again, the Linksys nodes would be quite close by.

 

[SouthernYankee]

The Linksys nodes are a waste of money. 95% of all wifi cameras run at 2.4 GHz. If you can, find 5GHz cameras, but 5Ghz wifi does a shit job going through brick/ stucco . The best advise I can give is hire a low voltage electrician to run you ethernet cables. Depending on where you live and the complexity of the drops they will charge between $50 and $200 per drop. Do not buy your cameras from them.

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Some WIFI setup advice:

• When setting up a 2.4 GHz WIFI network, you must only choose from channels 1, 6, and 11. This helps achieve the most efficient usage of the radio frequencies. Consider channels 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 to be off-limits. This is because a WIFI network does not actually use only one channel. The one you pick is only the center frequency, with the network using several channels to the left and right of it. If everybody follows the 1, 6, 11 rule, then you get three non-overlapping networks. If anyone in the area breaks the rule, then you only get two non-overlapping networks at best, and some of the available frequency at the edges of the spectrum goes to waste.
• When configuring a second access point for cameras, it should be configured to use a different channel than the main network (remember: channels 1, 6, or 11 only).
• Do not trust your access point to choose a channel automatically, as a poorly designed access point may choose one of the off-limits channels.
• Some 2.4 GHz WIFI access points can be configured to use 40 MHz of spectrum instead of the usual 20 MHz. If you see such an option in your access point, make sure it is configured to use 20 MHz, not 40 MHz. This is to reduce the interference received by the network. 40 MHz networks only work well in controlled areas where nothing else is using 2.4 GHz radio frequencies.
• To aid in choosing channels to run your networks on, you can download a WIFI scanner app on your phone to get an idea of what other 2.4 GHz WIFI networks are active in your area, and see what channels they are on. Note however that such apps are not perfect. They can't detect interference that is not from another WIFI network. They can't tell you how "busy" each channel actually is. And typically they show 40 MHz networks as a 20 MHz network. So you really only see part of the picture, but part is better than nothing.

• All cameras WIFI traffic is not on the home network.
• use two cheap old router as your wired access points, Each with a different SSID , like an ASUS RT-N12D1

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[toreupfeet]

If I put the cameras on their own network, can I (how would I) access the feed via Home Assistant on a separate network?

 

[SouthernYankee]

I do not know, I do not use WIFI or any IOT devices they are all security risks.

Can home assistant access the BI computer

 

[toreupfeet]

HA is running in a VirtualBox on the BI computer.

I do not know, I do not use WIFI or any IOT devices they are all security risks.

I'm very privacy-focused and I'm not a fan of the usual suspects that one would buy on Amazon. No Alexa for me, to say the least.
However, I have been tinkering with some ESP32 microcontrollers to build my own PIR sensors and such. If those are also WAN-disabled, is there a security risk?

 

[The Automation Guy]

You should be able to have multiple RTSP streams being viewed at the same time. I consistently have 2-3 on each camera at my home (all using the main stream, except for BI that uses both the main and sub stream). I've never had a problem. If there is a limit due to RAM capacity on the camera (or similar limitation), it definitely is more than one concurrent stream. Even the 10+ yr old AXIS camera I have (not even HD quality) can provide multiple concurrent RTSP streams.