Dealing with Pixelated Video on Your Verkada Camera?
Verkada enterprise security cameras are renowned for their high-quality, clear video footage. So, when you log into the Verkada Command platform and are greeted by a pixelated, blocky, or blurry video stream, it's understandably concerning. This degradation in image quality can make it impossible to identify faces, read number plates, or see critical details in an incident. The good news is that this issue is rarely a fault with the camera itself. It's almost always related to network conditions. In this guide, we'll explain why your Verkada video might be pixelated and what you can do to fix it.
## The Primary Cause: Adaptive Bitrate and Bandwidth
The core reason for pixelated video on a live or remote stream is insufficient network bandwidth. Verkada cameras use a technology called adaptive bitrate streaming. This is a clever feature that automatically adjusts the quality of the video stream in real-time based on the available internet bandwidth.
- When you have a strong, fast connection: The camera streams at high quality (HQ), giving you a crisp, clear image.
- When your connection is slow or congested: The camera automatically lowers the video quality to a medium (MQ) or standard quality (SQ) stream. To do this, it uses more compression, which results in the video looking "pixelated" or "blocky".
This is a deliberate design feature to ensure that you can always get a live video feed, even on a poor connection, preventing long buffering times or the stream failing to load at all. Crucially, the video recorded to the camera's onboard storage remains at the highest quality, regardless of what you see on your remote stream.
## How to Troubleshoot and Fix Pixelated Video
Resolving this issue involves diagnosing and improving the network connection available to the camera.
### 1. Check the Stream Quality in Verkada Command
The first step is to see what quality the stream is being delivered at.
- Log in to your Verkada Command account.
- Select the camera that is showing pixelated video.
- On the video player, you will see an indicator for the stream quality, often labelled SQ (Standard Quality) or HQ (High Quality).
- If the camera is consistently streaming at SQ, it confirms that the platform has detected a low-bandwidth environment.
### 2. Assess Your Network's Upload Speed
The critical factor for a security camera is the upload speed of the network it is on.
- Run a Speed Test: If possible, connect a laptop or other device to the same network switch or Wi-Fi network that the camera uses. Go to a reliable speed testing website and check the results.
- Verkada's Requirements: For a high-quality stream, Verkada cameras typically require an upload speed of 200-500 Kbps per camera. If your speed test result is at or below this level, you have found the bottleneck.
### 3. Investigate Network Congestion
Even with high total bandwidth, the network could be congested.
- Check Other Devices: Are there other devices on the same network that could be using up all the upload bandwidth? This could be other cameras, servers backing up to the cloud, or users uploading large files.
- Time of Day: Does the pixelation only happen at certain times of the day? This might correspond with periods of high network usage in your organisation.
- Quality of Service (QoS): For larger networks, you can implement QoS rules. This allows your network administrator to prioritise traffic for your Verkada cameras, ensuring they always have the bandwidth they need, even when the network is busy.
### 4. Manually Adjusting Camera Quality (Use with Caution)
Within Verkada Command, you have the option to override the adaptive bitrate and force a certain quality level.
- Go to Settings > Device for the specific camera.
- You can set the remote stream quality manually.
- Be aware: If you force the camera to stream in High Quality on a network that cannot support it, the video will likely stutter, buffer constantly, or fail to load. This is best used for testing or if you know the bandwidth issue is temporary.
By understanding that pixelation is a symptom of low bandwidth, you can take a targeted approach to resolving it. Improving the network conditions for your Verkada cameras will not only clear up the live video stream but also ensure a more reliable and responsive security system overall.