Bandwidth question for multiple webcam setup

[enginerunup]

Hello all,

My girlfriend and I are setting up our house with webcams in every room. Let's say I have a 1 mpbs upload through my isp. My understanding is that if I stream from my computer using it as a server through my website, then I would only be able to support 10 viewers at 100 kpbs, or 20 viewers at 50 kbps, and so on. Is this correct? So if I get 50 viewers, they would all have a poor video image since my upload bandwith would be stressed.

This is the way I think it works, but am not sure. If it is the way it works, then I would need to use a dedicated server online, upload a single feed to them (or 10 individual feeds, one for each cam), and then have them distribute it to an unlimited amount of viewers, all with a high download rate for the viewers.

Hope this all isn't too confusing the way I have worded it. I know you guys on here can point me in the right direction for quality for my users.

Thanks in advance,

Greg

[ToddW]

You need to stream all your cams to your webserver at someplace like ThePLanet or Serverbeach. Then, use theplanet/serverbeach to stream out to EVERYONE on the internet.

This way no matter how many viewers your home bw is constant, and only goes to one place.

-Todd

[damien_ls]

Not sure that a dedicated server is necessarily the best option for this.

I agree that streaming from home won't get you very far unless you have a tiny number of simultaneous users, but I'd consider a service like this one - for example

Google will help you find many other similar companies too - I should stress that I know absolutely nothing about the one linked to, and simply provide it as an example of what's available (not certain exactly how suitable this particular one would be for your needs either).

My point is that you can find various specialist services that are made for this type of thing; you wouldn't need to spend as much money, and wouldn't need to go to the same lengths/frustrations of trying to configure it yourself.

Depending on who you go with, you may also find that the quality of service (for your users/viewers) is way higher because some streaming providers will use a distributed network which ensures better connectivity to a global audience.

[iHubNet-Matt]

Make sure your package does have a good bandwidth limit.