How it All Works

• What is the cam.ly?
• How is the cam.ly different from an IP camera or Web camera?
• Can I buy more than one cam.ly?

The IP Camera

• What operating systems is the cam.ly compatible with?
• How much video can I store on the cam.ly?
• How big is the cam.ly?
• Does the cam.ly need to be plugged in to power?
• Is the cam.ly waterproof?
• How does the camera connect to the internet wirelessly?

The Service

• Is my video secure?
• Can I embed my video publicly on a website?
• Are there any limits on bandwidth or storage?

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• Q: What is the cam.ly?

  A: cam.ly is the easiest way to record video over the internet. It was specifically designed for small business and home security in mind.

  Right now, if you try to set up a security system with parts from any electronics store, you will need to purchase an IP, CCTV, or web camera, and a server. Then you'll need to configure your router, set up your server, and all the software you need to view your camera. This can all be very time consuming and costly. Other problems often arise too. For instance, if you use CCTV cameras that run on the 2.4Ghz bandwidth, they will likely interfere with any routers using 2.4Ghz for wireless internet.

  After all that work, then what happens if a thief walks off with the device that was recording all of your video?

  The cam.ly solves all of these problems by making a simple, hassle-free, wireless security camera that you just plug in, and it's ready to go. Video can be redundantly stored in our secure video vault, and locally on your camera, so you have a complete and robust system ready to go in one step!

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• Q: How is the cam.ly different from an IP camera or web camera?

  A: Web cameras need to be plugged into a computer in order to work. The cam.ly is actually running a small computer inside of it, similar to most smart phones today. To be specific, the cam.ly is running an ARM-based processor with a built-in H.264 encoder SOC (system on chip).

  The cam.ly actually is an IP camera, but it is different from most IP cameras today for several reasons:

  1. The cam.ly uses the latest H.264 video compression technology. This is found in some, newer, higher-end IP cameras today, but not all.
  2. The cam.ly automatically stores up to 30 days of video in our video server vault at full 640 x 480 resolution and 24 frames per second.
  3. You can watch the cam.ly video in any web browser that uses Adobe Flash ( the same way youtube videos are played ). IP cameras usually can not play video to a flash player because Adobe Flash requires live video to be in its proprietary RTMP format. Instead, IP cameras usually require custom software in order to view their video. They may also require you to install a java applet or Microsoft active-x plugin
  4. The cam.ly automatically connects to our servers, so it normally works behind home or corporate firewalls with zero configuration.

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• Q: Can I buy more than one cam.ly?

  A: Yes! However, please keep in mind that, by default, the cam.ly uses 256Kbps of upload bandwidth. Most cable or DSL internet providers can support this. However, you will only be able to use cameras at the same time if you have bandwidth for them. For example, if you have 1Mbps of upload bandwidth, you will only be able to use a maximum of 4 cam.ly's simultaneously.

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• Q: What operating systems is the cam.ly compatible with?

  A: The cam.ly is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux. The cam.ly can run on any Flash-enabled browser, including: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Konqueror. Additionally, your cam.ly can be viewed on your iPhone or IPad via mobile Safari, without requiring an aditional app download.

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• Q: How much video can I store on the cam.ly?

  A: In addition to the 30-days of video we allow you to store on our servers, each camera comes equipped with 4GB of local storage memory. This is enough memory to store more than 24 hours of video. In the event that your internet service becomes interrupted for a period of time, your cam.ly will continue to record video to the local storage, and send it to our servers later.

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• Q: How big is the cam.ly?

  A: 76mm x 30mm x 120mm or 3.1 x 1.2 x 4.7 inches.

• [top] Q: Does the cam.ly need to be plugged in to power?

  A: The cam.ly requires 12 volts of DC power to operate. This could be supplied by a battery pack. However, we include a standard 120v wall power adapter for you to use by plugging your cam.ly into any wall power jack.

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• Q: Is the cam.ly waterproof?

  A: The current cam.ly is not waterproof. It could, however be placed in a custom waterproof enclosure. We are working on future waterproof models for outdoor usage.

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• Q: How does the camera connect to the internet wirelessly?

  A: The Cam.ly can automatically connect to any 802.11g wireless network within range. After first connecting the Cam.ly to ethernet, log into your account and click the the camera "settings", which should appear after you have connected the camera.

  From there, you should see a field to enter a wireless network SSID and a wireless password. If you don't know what wireless networks are available, you can scan them, and your Cam.ly will automatically scan for all available wireless ssid's in the area. The Cam.ly supports WEP, WPA, and WPA2 wireless encryption types.

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• Q: Is my video secure?

  A: Your video is sent from your cam.ly to our servers over a secure SSL connection with a minimum of a 1024-bit RSA key. We also provide you with a secure (SSL) login to our site, so that you can view your video privately and securely. Video is sent to your flash plugin using Adobe Flash's secure RTMPE protocol (RTMP with an Encryption layer).

  Additionally, we allow you the option to embed your video publicly on any website. Of course, if you choose to enable this, your video is no longer private. We do not recommend this for private security applications.

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• Q: Can I embed my video publicly on a website?

  A: Yes! We allow you the option to publicly display your video on any website. This is great for businesses that want to give customers an inside view of day-to-day operations, such as: vacation resorts, pet stores, and day care centers.

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• Q: Are there any limits on bandwidth or storage?

  A: We are tentatively limiting users to 10,000 hours of video watching per month. This is more than 400 days! Please contact us if you need more bandwidth, and we hope to add options for more bandwidth in the future. However, we anticipate that this should be more than enough for nearly all of our users.

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