Newbie Recommendation(s) Needed, Use Case Described

Product Discussion Pepwave MAX
1

Hello folks! It seems that you have an active community here, and I just wanted to throw my use case out there and see if somebody could recommend a system. Honestly, I’m a bit overwhelmed by the catalog and feature sets of every product that peplink is selling right now.

Looking to put together an HD video streaming kit that can be sent around to different places around the world and still get a “decent” connection. Obviously this will depend on carrier and signal more than the transceiver, but band coverage is important enough for it to be listed as a desired feature. I’ll have the ability to do signal mapping and prepare relevant SIMs before the unit gets shipped to a location, though these places can be anywhere on earth, so the most band coverage is important, and the possibility to hit 300Mbp+ is ideal.

A dual modem for failover or flexibility for “real world” signal situation on the far-end is required, though bonding and pepwave’s VPN service is something that I don’t think I can invest in right now, and isn’t needed at the moment.

A unit that boots as soon as it receives power is ideal, so that it can be tucked away and cable managed but still work when the whole unit it’s connected to is plugged in.

Needs to have an integrated Access Point, though this is mostly for connectivity of IOT devices, and the majority of the bandwidth will be directed via Cat6 to a control computer.

Any ideas? From the few days that I’ve spent looking through product manuals, I’ve been looking most heavily at the Max Transit Duo systems, but it’s really difficult to compare things because there aren’t really prices listed in places I can find, and I’ve only heard that the Max Transit systems can be somewhat expensive.

Thoughts? I’m sure some of you are quite pleased with your products and would love to tell a newbie like me all about them :smiley:

2

Welcome to the forum Matt!
There are loads of video streaming applications going on globally using Peplink kit so its very doable.

How many kits? sent as in boxed up and shipped or strapped to someones back on a plane? Is this indoor or outdoor use?

SIMs will be a significant challenge for HD video streaming globally. There are pay per GB global SIMs that a lot of the big firms use for broadcast that work nearly everywhere but they are eye wateringly expensive. Its normally much cheaper to buy data in country through a local fixer. There are loads of Peplink partners on here from every corner of the planet that can help with local SIMs.

oooh! 300MBps?! Interesting… That is quite an aggressive bandwidth target for HD Video. Even when I’ve worked on live TV shows here in the UK the broadcasters are fine with 100-150Mbps…

Agreed, and then you’ll have 4 SIM slots which you’ll need if you want to stream at 300MBps as you’ll hit fair usage policies on most SIMs very quickly.

Bonding will come as a licensed feature on the devices you’re looking at. I would likely recommend your own hosted Fusionhub for this kind of job and that’s very inexpensive. You’ll want VPN for remote device access I would imagine, like video switcher controls, light management, tally lights and talkback etc.

Ah Ok so it sounds like you’re planning to build up a flight case with cameras and encoders and lighting and connectivity. Most people screw up on antennas and SIM card access when they build stuff into cases / enclosures.

The video tech sets up the flightcase on the set, just out of shot so she can keep an eye on the encoder’s general happiness and that is normally in some talents front room or ‘den’ with an interesting background that will look great out of focus and lit with some LEE 343 washed over the top, or on a monochromatic sound stage with crappy signal. Don’t do that.

Have antennas on tripods or do my favorite thing which is a POE powered case with another Transit Duo in that you take outside and cable back to the primary in the main flightcase.

MAX Transit Duo is the entry level for this. Then you want to look at the HD2 MBX - but that is a significant jump (in cost and throughput / capability). I have built and sold enclosures for both, and sell far more of the Transit Duos because they are so cost effective.

Where in the world are you? We can ask someone local to provide some pricing and assistance.

1 Like
3

Hello, Martin! Thanks for responding so quickly.

Just one, to start with. Prototyping and all that. Most likely scenario is that it goes there and back again by parcel carrier, in airline cargo, almost certainly indoor use only.

Oh, I’m mostly just trying to advertise a theoretical max here. I doubt there will be many situations where this is actually achievable, let alone required. 150Mbps should be fine for operational use, especially with HVEC encoders being the norm these days.

If this POC kit works out, and more are wanted, then this is absolutely something I’ll have to look at. For the moment, I was planning on just using remote desktop for simplified control of these things. Which I’m pretty sure should work easily?

Hilariously accurate, from what I’ve seen while researching this build. My hope is to have antenna on longer cable that can be moved over to a window or something if needed. Investments in antenna solutions can come down the line, too, once it becomes clear to client that they’re necessary to perform in the desired way.

Clever solution, and certainly attractive, especially if this reaches the point where the client wants to build more than one of these, and expects the same performance across the whole deployment. It would be a good way to upcycle the initial Max Transit Duo units down the line once HD2 MBX units have taken their place in the main flightcase, too.

Austria! So German or Austrian providers are preferred for language and communication, but providors anywhere EU would be fine. As it’s a Proof of Concept build, building good relationships with vendors is certainly a part of the pitch.

Thank you, Martin! I really appreciate you taking the time to write such a thorough response and answering my questions. I look forward to hearing back about possible contact points to speak with.

4

Bump, I need to move forward on this early this week. Any chance you have any vendors over here that would be helpful, @MartinLangmaid?

5

Ah, they’re not ‘my vendors’ as I don’t work for Peplink - I’m just a partner.
Suggest you speak with the team at Vitel in Germany first as they are likely closest to you…

1 Like
6

Hello Everyone!
I’m a newbie as well and considered more efficient to comment in this thread as my use case is very similar to Matt’s here. (Let me know if a new post is required). I’m a Systems Engineer running a Digital Agency so I’m a little between developing a product / solution / business model here.

My scenario is very similar: I’m looking to put together an HD Streaming kit that would work for one country only for now (Dominican Republic, where i’m currently based at). There’s 4 different SIM providers, although the big 2 Telecom players should suffice. I’d like to be able to failover between and bond these two to attain a decent (~100mbps) speed for streaming.

My main differences with Matt’s case here are:

  • Booting and power wouldn’t be a problem since this will be used to live stream events and activities where consistent power will be supplied.
  • Wifi on the unit is optional since all the bandwidth will be consumed by the control computer connected via ETH.
  • Form factor wouldn’t be a issue either, as the Streaming Station will be set next to other tech that would be properly protected and arranged.
  • Guidance on an antenna setup that can be set on a tripod would be appreciated.

I read a bit about the SpeedFusion tech and I understand that might suit our needs, but not sure which hardware solution would fit better here.

I’ve been checking on several solutions, but PepLink seems to be very promising. With that said, I hope that this vibrant community could point me in the right direction. :slight_smile:

Thanks in advance.

(Please forgive any grammar errors as english is not native language.)