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jammiefarrell's profile

Tuesday, May 7th, 2024 8:40 PM

Outdoor Cameras will not reliably stream, but will motion trigger / record.

I have just installed my 3rd SimpliSafe system at a new home we just purchased.  We have indoor camera, video doorbell, and two outdoor cameras.  As all of the cameras use the 2.4ghz frequency and I have a mesh Wifi-6 network in this new house (2000 sq. ft. on single level) a mesh network provides the best coverage for the cameras.   Both the indoor SimpliCam and the Video doorbell work quickly and reliably every time when triggering or live streaming and they both have excellent signal strength (better than -43 dbm) and upload near 10mbps, which are both excellent.  

Issue is with both Outdoor cameras, which btw, have been updated to the latest FW (along with base station) as verified by support.   Both of these cameras have excellent signal strength (again, better than -43dbm) and upload near 10M (well above the 2mbps required).   After four additional support calls, I was finally told that the outdoor cameras need to talk both to my Wifi network, but as well, need to communicate with the base station in order to properly be woke up to live stream.   To this I was told that the base station has to be within 50ft. of either outdoor camera to allow it to simultaneously talk with the base station and my Wifi network for live streaming to function.   As noted earlier, I have a 2000 sq. ft. single level home and it is not possible to place the base station within 50ft. of both cameras at the same time unless I literally suspend the base station mid-air in my main living room.  And that is just not a feasible option. 

And we plan to want to add two more outdoor cameras for this new location.   But as we are having these current issues with live streaming, this will also impact SimpliSafe in live viewing my cameras via the FastProtect which we subscribe to at each of our three locations.   

So, my question is, why are the outdoor cameras not just using my WiFi network only to talk to the base station as the indoor SimpliCam and Video Doorbell do?   Or better yet, if this is by design, then why is the range not better between the Base Station and the outdoor cameras?    

I cannot be the only customer experiencing this issue, as I feel sure there are houses much larger than 2000 sq. ft. using the outdoor cameras.   So, this issue of coverage is not making any sense.   With my older outdoor wireless camera system (keeping other vendor out of the discussion) I could go over 100ft from its base with numerous obstructions in between (multiple walls, garage doors, brick outside walls, base unit on 2nd floor, cameras on outside 1st floor, etc.) with no issue in streaming and functionality.

But as my old wireless camera provider wants to start charging me a monthly fee per camera, we opted to go with SimpliSafe as part of our security system implementation as it was part of current FastProtect plan.   But these cameras are doing no good if I cannot reliably stream them at a moment's notice.

If what support is telling me is true and these outdoor cameras indeed need both base station and my WiFi to properly stream, then are their plans to either increase the radio range between the base station and cameras, or update the cameras to 100% Wifi ?   

The outdoor cameras have excellent video and audio quality, we are just very disappointed in the fact we cannot stream both outdoor cameras reliably.   And a great feature to add would be the ability to test the radio communication between the base station and the outdoor cameras, as well as the various sensors such as window/door, etc. to let you know you are within the required range for proper and reliable operation, just as you can with the current cameras and my home WiFi network.  This function would prove extremely valuable for setting up a new system and determining base station best placement.

Thank you ...

 

1K Messages

5 months ago

Yes unfortunately the outdoor cameras have to communicate with the base station as well and I did have to move mine a little to fix this problem but I wish there was an extender that simplisafe had kinda like ring has to help with the signal. Hopefully simplisafe will do something like that soon.

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

4 months ago

Hi @jammiefarrell ,

Thanks for checking in. There are quite a few factors to consider here, and you're right, the communication between the Base Station and that camera is one of them. Though the cameras don't need to be super close - they have about the same range as the alarm system sensors (it uses the same type of signal).

I have heard from time to time that users might run into issues at first when connecting Outdoor Cameras to a mesh network, so that might be a factor as well. I've seen it on my own Google Nest Pro network at home! For me, eventually the network resolved the traffic and my cameras started working properly after a while.

One possible thing that may help is to have those cameras set up with a power source - either the Power Adapter to plug into AC, or a Solar Panel. Doing so will activate Performance Mode, meaning that the cameras don't need to be woken up from deep sleep, and may respond much faster to live streams. Have you already considered that?

Since you've done so much troubleshooting already, I think the next step is to put you in touch with a more senior agent for advanced options. I'll request a call ASAP!

(edited)

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