Every camera on a Site Gateway shares that gateway's available bandwidth and processing capacity. If you run several cameras at high resolution on one gateway, the combined bitrate can exceed what the gateway can reliably handle, leading to dropped streams, app slowness, or gaps in recorded footage. Use the recommended resolution, frame rate, and bitrate settings below as a starting point for multi-camera installs, then adjust for your gateway model and camera count.
Note
Samsara doesn't publish a maximum combined bitrate for a Site Gateway, since the right ceiling depends on your gateway model and how many cameras it's running. Use the recommendations in this article as a starting point, then watch for overload symptoms and reduce per-camera bitrate if you see them.
These recommendations are guidelines only. You can adjust them for your specific needs and gateway configuration.
|
Channel |
Recommended Resolution |
Recommended Frame Rate |
Recommended Bitrate |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Main |
Around 1080p. Scale a higher-resolution camera down to this rather than running it at native maximum. |
30 fps for scenes where fast motion detail matters; 15 fps is enough for general activity monitoring |
Keep under 3 Mbps per camera |
|
Second |
720p |
15 fps |
Keep under 1 Mbps |
|
Third |
360p |
15 fps |
Keep under 512 kbps |
As a sanity check across resolution tiers, additional bandwidth use generally falls in this range:
|
Resolution Tier |
Typical Bitrate |
|---|---|
|
1080p (up to 2.1MP) |
1–2 Mbps |
|
5MP (up to 5MP) |
2–4 Mbps |
|
4K (up to 8.3MP) |
4–6 Mbps |
To keep a multi-camera install reliable:
-
Total, don't just check individually: Add up the expected bitrate of every camera on a gateway, not just each camera on its own. A gateway that handles one high-resolution camera fine may struggle with eight.
-
Match resolution to purpose, not camera maximum: Running a high-megapixel camera at its native maximum resolution (for example, 2592×1944) uses far more bandwidth than a resolution that still looks clear on screen (for example, scaling to 1920×1080). For most monitoring use cases, an image height around 1080p is sufficient even on higher-resolution cameras.
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Lower frame rate where full motion isn't needed: 15 fps is often enough for general activity monitoring; reserve 30 fps for scenes where fast motion detail matters.
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Check your gateway's headroom before adding cameras: If you're planning to add cameras to an existing gateway, review current combined bitrate first using the storage and retention reporting under Devices > Site Cameras.
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Watch for symptoms of an overloaded gateway: Frequent Camera Disconnected alerts, slow-loading live view, or unexpectedly short local retention across multiple cameras on the same gateway are signs to reduce combined bitrate rather than a sign of a faulty camera.
If you're planning a large multi-camera site or aren't sure what a given gateway model can support, contact your Samsara representative or Samsara Support for guidance specific to your hardware and camera count.
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