How fast is the Web Cam frame rate? The number ONE question put to us daily is... How fast is our WebCam product's frame rate? Unfortunately, most people who ask this question rarely listen to the answer. For those people we offer the simple answer, "Our WebCam product is capable of delivering over 30 frames per second." For the rest of you that demand a more in-depth answer to this question, read on.

Regardless of the hype that surrounds frame rate claims, there is some very simple mathematical truths that must be understood.

connection speed / packet size = frame rate

Connection speed is how you're connected to the internet or other computer/server sending or receiving the video. If you have a 56K modem your connection speed is 56,000 bits per second, if you're using a 28.8 modem your connection speed is 28,800 bits per second. Also, If you're using a cable modem your connection speed may be in the 256,000 bits per second range and of course a T-1 user may enjoy 1,544,000 bits per second with their connection.

Packet size is the number of bits in each frame of video. Two factors play a part in the packet size; quality and video size. Video size is the size of the actual window that the customer is receiving. The most common sizes are 640 x 480, 320 x 240, and 160 x 120. Quality is the level of fine detail that the performer, or up-loader, chooses to send to the viewer. The two parts, video size and quality, can work opposite of each other in determining the packet size. For example, a video feed with a size of 240 X 180 and a high level of detail may have the same packet size of a larger 320 x 240 sized video set to a lower detail level. For reference, a 320 x 240 sized video can have an average range of anywhere from 500 bits per packet to 15,000 pits per packet depending on how much detail the up-loader chooses to send.

Once you know these numbers its a simple math equation... connection speed divided by packet size equals frame rate.

How many Up-loaders and Viewers will I need for my webcams? Let's start by identifying "up-loaders" and "viewers"

An Up-loader is the camera feed. Actually it doesn't even have to be a camera. It can be a "video out" on the back of a VCR, or any video source for that matter, but for purposes of explanation lets assume that the up-loader is an actual person sitting in front of a camera running a copy of the free Livecam Program. You could have 1000 cameras sending your site feeds where the Up-loaders are organized onto "rooms".

A Viewer, on the other hand, is the person watching the video feed. The emphasis here is on the word watching, since if a person isn't actually in the act of watching your video, he isn't considered a Viewer (unless of course he's just walked away and left the video on). This might seem redundant, but it is important to realize that just because you may have 500 subscribers to your video feeds, you may only have 30 people at a time actually watching. Viewers are organized into "seats" and you could have thousands of viewers at one time.

How many users and visitors will the WebCam Rebroadcast Server be able to handle? The WebCam Rebroadcast Server itself has no built-in limitations. There are some hardware limitations however, that are beyond our control. Each person who receives video will use about 1 meg of ram on your server, each person who receives video will also use a portion of your bandwidth. Then again, you can always increase your bandwidth, and you can always add more ram to your server.