Using Arlo Q for large deployment (35 cameras)

[7rife]

We are looking at deploying 35 Arlo Q cameras for our organization.  Is there anyone that has this many cameras and what challenges do you have?

We want to set multiple users on the cameras but limit them by area (Operations does not need to see sales dept cameras) which I believe can be done in the app by an admin account.

Just looking for some feedback. We have been reviewing some legacy camera systems and I really do not want to manage DVRs & hard drives.

Thanks,

[TomMac]

35 Q cameras is a large number....

Keep in mind that each Q camera on best quality video can peak at 1.5Mbs ( tho normally close to 1 ). So hopefully you have a good access point thru put

Also each camera is a separate entity , in that each one must be armed/disarmed on its own and also unless you have the CVR option ( extra cost ) it is not a 24/7 camera...It is pixel base detection and record on motion detected only.

As to mutli users, you are allowed only one Primary user... if secondary users use the same id/pw, they will bump off the previous user.... Not a big issue as the Primary user can SHARE access to secondary users ( with their own accounts ) so as not to be bumped when more than one user

[7rife]

Hi TomMac,

We would be using the Pro version with ethernet for PoE.  A few would probably be connected via wifi but we have 5 ubiquiti access points around our facility so would be able to handle the throughput.

Is there anyone out there using this many cameras?

[jguerdat]

The concern of throughput isn't your network but with the upload speed from your ISP. Many connections have far slower upload speeds than download.

[7rife]

Hi jguerdat,

We have a gigabit fibre connection with our ISP (up and down).  We even thought about having the cameras on their own subnet and configure our firewall appliance to gaurantee a percentage of the bandwidth to the cameras.  We're not sure if that would be neccessary at this point however.

[jguerdat]

No problem then. 35 cameras all streaming at once at an average of 1Mbps wouldn't be an issue with gigabit up.

BTW, there's been an issue in the past with the max number of users granted access per camera. I don't recall the details at the moment but I think somewhere around 15 users for one camera was a limit for granting access. Doesn't sound like that would apply to you but keep it in mind.

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[Smxcan]

Don’t get the Arlo Q Plus model. It has no real advantage over the Q model. Wi-Fi works just as good as PoE and the MicroSD card recodings can only be viewed after removing the card from the camera requiring the camera to be readjusted. The main issue with the Plus is that it randomly stops recording. With 35 you can be certain that several of your Q Plus cameras, possibly all, will intermittently stop recording for hours or days. See this thread for details:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Q-Plus/Restart-device-frequently/m-p/1491263/highlight/true#M1...

The Arlo Q model is more stable, however, since Feb 22, 2018, ALL users have been experiencing issues with the recording. Arlo/Netgear isn’t posting any details about the issue or when it will be resolved. Until it’s fixed, I’d stay away from Arlo Q cameras. See the following post for details on this wide-spread issue:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Q/Arlo-q-shows-wrong-clip-length/td-p/1512060

Now if the above issues get fixed and Arlo comes out with a new 4K model, then I’d give it a try. I’ve placed my plans of expanding my Arlo cameras on hold for these reasons.

[7rife]

Hi smxcan,

Thanks for that info!  I did not know that there were so many problems happening.  I am quite disappointed that Netgear has had no involvment in a fix or even conversation.  We were going to use the Plus because of PoE.  We have jacks everywhere but no power.  I have 2 of them now that I am testing out.  I havent paid much attention to recordings but will do so now.

[jguerdat]

While there are a bunch of threads here about various problems, it's also worth noting that not everyone is having problems. That makes it harder to figure out what's going on. Yes, lots of posts but then there's the usual lack of posting to say that everything is fine. I'm not dismissing the negative, just saying that apparently there's many more that aren't haaving problems. I don't have a Q+, just a Q, had issues with the weird long display times for recordings but it's fine now.

YMMV.

[JCam123]

I still have the pixellation issues (occurs at 12-13s sometimes) as per other thread and support are really slow. Also had the timeline issue mentioned previously but this went too. Might be worth getting a single unit and testing if you experience the issue as this may be a factor for looking elsewhere. Otherwise, for features they are quite a good product.