ryuker16 0 Posted July 1, 2013 I'm fairly new to professional installations as a career(I'm I.T., photographer, and the A.V. guy). I'm working in-house for a client who is dead set on 2-way audio via his IP cameras. He has two sets of Foscam and Acti(8211). I updated the firmware on each and configured them properly but....2 way audio is always wonky at best. On the same network communication is barely acceptable and accesses remotely it's horrendous. Common opinion seems to be that 2-way audio is gimicky or iffy performance wise.....should I just seperate the functions entirely? I get tons of strange noises, echo, and drop outs. I've hooked up PBXes and SIp devices before so I'm familiar with how to remove them but I can't tell if it's bandwidth related or just bad audio hardware. So far I've tried: Switching out various hardware and set ups, different locations/networks, etc. TCP, UDP, multicast: TCP is the most reliable so far. Software methods helped up to a point. Running 2-way audio over high bandwidth connections. Is 2-way audio over IP even remotely reliable or is it just crappy hardware on the foscams and Acti? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SectorSecurity 0 Posted July 1, 2013 It may be there is just so much talk on the network the audio isn't getting the priority it needs. Usually we have to use a QOS filter to prioritize the traffic above the rest, or but it on its own network all together, this is generally what is done with VOIP. I have not tried the products you have mentioned so I can't say how well the 2-way audio works or does not work. If you want to figure out if its bandwidth or hardware, get a router and connect only the 2-way audio devices to the network and test them out, this should give you an idea if its the devices or the network. As for accessing remotely most people have about a 256KB link for their upload speed, this will cause audio to have problems. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ryuker16 0 Posted July 1, 2013 (edited) It may be there is just so much talk on the network the audio isn't getting the priority it needs. Usually we have to use a QOS filter to prioritize the traffic above the rest, or but it on its own network all together, this is generally what is done with VOIP. I have not tried the products you have mentioned so I can't say how well the 2-way audio works or does not work. If you want to figure out if its bandwidth or hardware, get a router and connect only the 2-way audio devices to the network and test them out, this should give you an idea if its the devices or the network. As for accessing remotely most people have about a 256KB link for their upload speed, this will cause audio to have problems. What's your opinion on Axis 2-way audio(the M-series have a couple of units with it)? I almost bought a unit for this and I'm kicking myself since I suspect audio chips on foscams and old Acti's likely aren't the highest caliber. Alternatively, should I just split the audio portion from the cameras entirely rather than using them as a jerry rigged conference system. Edited July 2, 2013 by Guest Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thewireguys 3 Posted July 2, 2013 Axis cameras will be a major upgrade over the Foscam. If you have everything configured properly the audio will work fine Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
