5 ms·

The state of US technology has become embarrassing. How much bandwidth does a zoom video need? Ajit Pai has held back the US and our economy with his action.

The state of US technology has become embarrassing. How much bandwidth does a zoom video need? Ajit Pai has held back the US and our economy with his action. Edit: the exact Zoom bandwidth specs was rhetorical. Bandwidth should be symmetrical based on how we use it today and 3Mbps is too slow to support a household with multiple users.

alisonkisk 6y ago
1Mbps for "high quality", 3Mbps for 1080p. By what reasoning is 3Mbps not good enough for average member of the economy?
- notyourwork 6y ago
  Because a household family uses internet for more then a single zoom video. If I have two kids and work from home, 3Mbps isn’t sufficient to support a house.
  - dariusj18 6y ago
    Or if you have two people at home working and doing web meetings. I've learned that lesson during COVID.
    - onion2k 6y ago
      That problem can be solved very easily and very cheaply with better communication and scheduling rather than any sort of tech though.
      - xboxnolifes 6y ago
        Have all companies schedule all of their meetings based on their employee's housemates' meeting schedules in a different company? That doesn't sound very easy.
      - dariusj18 6y ago
        That's like saying we should just work different hours. Boom simple solution, just need to get 20 other people on board to work nights instead of days.
garrettgrimsley 6y ago
From the Zoom system requirements: 1:1 call * 600kbps (up/down) for high-quality video * 1.2Mbps (up/down) for 720p HD video * Receiving 1080p HD video requires 1.8Mbps (up/down) * Sending 1080p HD video requires 1.8Mbps (up/down) Group call * 800kbps/1.0 Mbps (up/down) for high-quality video * For gallery view and/or 720p HD video: 1.5Mbps/1.5Mbps (up/down) * Receiving 1080p HD video requires 2.5Mbps (up/down) * Sending 1080p HD video requires 3.0Mbps (up/down) https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362023-System-requirements-for-Windows-macOS-and-Linux#:~:text=800kbps%2F1.0%20Mbps%20(up%2F,3.0Mbps%20(up%2Fdown) https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362023-System-r...
- saltyshake 6y ago
  yes, but most households have more than 1 person living there and sharing the connection for their own Zoom or YouTube.
- toyg 6y ago
  Now multiply that by 2.53 (average US household size in 2020) and you'll see why 3 Mbps are probably not enough.
  - notyourwork 6y ago
    Exactly my point! Consider a group of college students living together or an average family and we start to realize that its not about a single activity but the multiple parallel needs for the same shared pipe that causes congestion. I find it surprising that so many seem to disagree that this is ridiculously low.
- cozzyd 6y ago
  I'm surprised the screen-sharing bandwidth required is so low... I guess it must be quite low framerate? Because some of us have giant monitors...
  - 1-more 6y ago
    It's usually pretty easy to compress because you're so often sharing text on a solid background. I'm figuring that there's gotta be a higher bitrate for sharing, say, a movie or video game than sharing my jira board.

alisonkisk 6y ago

1Mbps for "high quality", 3Mbps for 1080p. By what reasoning is 3Mbps not good enough for average member of the economy?

notyourwork 6y ago
Because a household family uses internet for more then a single zoom video. If I have two kids and work from home, 3Mbps isn’t sufficient to support a house.
- dariusj18 6y ago
  Or if you have two people at home working and doing web meetings. I've learned that lesson during COVID.
  - onion2k 6y ago
    That problem can be solved very easily and very cheaply with better communication and scheduling rather than any sort of tech though.
    - xboxnolifes 6y ago
      Have all companies schedule all of their meetings based on their employee's housemates' meeting schedules in a different company? That doesn't sound very easy.
    - dariusj18 6y ago
      That's like saying we should just work different hours. Boom simple solution, just need to get 20 other people on board to work nights instead of days.

garrettgrimsley 6y ago

From the Zoom system requirements: 1:1 call * 600kbps (up/down) for high-quality video * 1.2Mbps (up/down) for 720p HD video * Receiving 1080p HD video requires 1.8Mbps (up/down) * Sending 1080p HD video requires 1.8Mbps (up/down) Group call * 800kbps/1.0 Mbps (up/down) for high-quality video * For gallery view and/or 720p HD video: 1.5Mbps/1.5Mbps (up/down) * Receiving 1080p HD video requires 2.5Mbps (up/down) * Sending 1080p HD video requires 3.0Mbps (up/down) https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362023-System-requirements-for-Windows-macOS-and-Linux#:~:text=800kbps%2F1.0%20Mbps%20(up%2F,3.0Mbps%20(up%2Fdown) https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362023-System-r...

saltyshake 6y ago
yes, but most households have more than 1 person living there and sharing the connection for their own Zoom or YouTube.
toyg 6y ago
Now multiply that by 2.53 (average US household size in 2020) and you'll see why 3 Mbps are probably not enough.
- notyourwork 6y ago
  Exactly my point! Consider a group of college students living together or an average family and we start to realize that its not about a single activity but the multiple parallel needs for the same shared pipe that causes congestion. I find it surprising that so many seem to disagree that this is ridiculously low.
cozzyd 6y ago
I'm surprised the screen-sharing bandwidth required is so low... I guess it must be quite low framerate? Because some of us have giant monitors...
- 1-more 6y ago
  It's usually pretty easy to compress because you're so often sharing text on a solid background. I'm figuring that there's gotta be a higher bitrate for sharing, say, a movie or video game than sharing my jira board.