weak signal from smart hub.

[brookside]

I just got an ultra. It is 30 feet from my smart hub and I get only one bar, it streams and records with large pixel blocks in the distance. It is on the underside of my deck, but I placed an Arlo Pro 2 one foot above it and it gets full bars. My wi-fi speed at the ultra is 16.8 Mbps down and 5.1 up with a 24 ms latency.  Even when I have it 2o feet from the hub and separated only by glass, it goes down to 3 bars. The pics below are: the feed from "creek" and "creek 2" to show the relative positions and signal strength. "Creek" is my pro 2 and "Creek 2" is the ultra. The last pic is (unfortunately flipped horizontally) a pic of the positioning of the two on the deck (black cam is pro 2 on top of deck).

[JamesC]

Beautiful back yard...

Due to the more robust feature set, the Ultra cameras require more bandwidth to operate than a Pro or Pro 2 camera. This makes them slightly more susceptible to issues resulting from poor signal strength or interference. The signal strength for an Ultra camera may not be comparable to Pro or Pro 2 in every environment. Relocating the SmartHub closer to the cameras with low signal strength is a good first step in resolving this issue.

JamesC

[brookside]

Thank you, James. Unfortunately, 25-30ft is as close as I can get unless I move it outside (which I'm sure won't work when temps get below freezing). If I'm not mistaken the specs say 4mbps upload is enough and I've got 5. 

[Kammfam]

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@JamesC wrote:

Beautiful back yard...

Due to the more robust feature set, the Ultra cameras require more bandwidth to operate than a Pro or Pro 2 camera. This makes them slightly more susceptible to issues resulting from poor signal strength or interference. The signal strength for an Ultra camera may not be comparable to Pro or Pro 2 in every environment. Relocating the SmartHub closer to the cameras with low signal strength is a good first step in resolving this issue.

JamesC

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Wow, that would have been good to know before blowing $1K on this Ultra system. The only place I use my Arlo cameras is at the perimeter of my property, which is way too far away to put a wired camera. I've also noticed a huge difference in signal strength between my Pro2s and my Ultras. Really disappointing for such an expensive system.

[Zachattack]

I really hope Arlo can do something about the ultras. They’ve been a ultra disappointment. I can’t recommend them to anyone because their footage quality gets so heavily compressed, the activity zones according to tech support only work within full signal range. And you can’t get full range without clear line of sight with the camera within a few feet. I was a huge advocate for Arlo with the pro 2. Now, I regret spending as much as I did for the ultra set.

[StephenB]

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@Zachattack wrote:
 the activity zones according to tech support only work within full signal range.

I don't know what you mean by "full signal range". 

But the cloud activity zone processing is done in the cloud. 😲  So if there is packet loss/stream corruption on the path from the camera to the cloud, it won't work well.

If there is no such loss (or connection drops), then it will work fine, no matter how many bars of signal you see.

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@Zachattack wrote:
 And you can’t get full range without clear line of sight with the camera within a few feet. 

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I have three ultras running, two are 40-50 feet from the base and have no issues.  I haven't tried them further away.

[Zachattack]

I think I figured out my issue: question for you — are any of your ultras on CVR?

[brookside]

I only have one Ultra and three Pro 2's. One of the Pro's was on a CVR, but now I have all of the cameras on Smart Premier + CVR. The bandwidth test that the Ultra performs also says it has "good" bandwidth.

[brookside]

I take that back. I only have CVR on one of my Pro 2's, and not on any other camera.