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Jobsite Cameras

Q. Are any of you paying for 4G jobsite camera data services with Verizon Wireless or comparable camera on metered pricing plans?

The unlimited data plans from the 4G providers appear to be gone and we are looking at options now to include these 4G data services on our monthly cell phone bill.
What I don’t have yet is a good estimate of the monthly GB usage for a field camera (EarthCAM – OxBlue) which is providing both live streaming video and time-lapse high res stills.

I would be interested in your input if you have cameras in the field with 4G cellular modems that you pay per GB.

How many GB do you use per camera on a monthly basis – 50GB, 100GB, 300GB – and what type of cameras are these (video or time-lapse or both).

Thanks in advance,
Bruce L. Roberts
J.F. White Contracting Co.

A. It's difficult to estimate actual bandwidth usage for an off-the-shelf system such as one that does video because of the wide range of resolutions, compression levels and image frequencies. I'd generally say it's much lower than the 50-300 Gig/month range mentioned in the post. It depends on how it's setup, push vs. pull of images, number of users, if your multi-casting, etc... However, for ballpark estimating purposes I'd put it at 5-20 gigs although there is really no limit how much you can use if there are numerous users on a fast-enough connection.

If you are headed for a DIY solution watch out for how the overages work. Some carriers have plans with overage fees and others just throttle the bandwidth. Selecting a carrier who offers the latter option would allow you to test it without ending up with a 20k cell phone bill on a single line for one month (I've seen it happen to people.) Each carrier's terms seem to change every few months so it may be worth reading through them again to see what each one is doing today.

OxBlue's construction camera service covers all cellular costs for jobsite cameras so clients don't need to worry about overages. Our standard pricing model is to actually prorate the monthly bill depending on the number of days the camera is actually used to upload images. For example, with our standard pricing, if a camera is only used to upload images 10 days out of a 30-day month, the client would only be billed for 33 percent of the monthly rate. The monthly rate depends on the resolution (4mp-12mp), frequency, and purchasing volume.
Chandler McCormack
OxBlue Corp

A. Verizon Wireless has a fairly useful data calculation utility on their website http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/splash/datacalculator.jsp.

Based on the experience we have with static jobsite cameras (10-minute image capture intervals) and applying Verizon's data calculation, you're looking somewhere around 23GB per camera monthly. Verizon Wireless data charges for that volume would run you about $2,000 a year, making a third-party camera solution which includes mobile broadband worth a serious look.
Keith Murley
Schimenti Construction Company

A. Have you looked into clear? They offer unlimited 4G at a reasonable price. www.clear.com
Jeremiah Jilk
John S. Meek Company Inc.