A method comprising: detecting energy management conditions of a first sensor node and a second sensor node, and optionally detecting energy management conditions of a processing subsystem coupled by a communications channel, the communications channel carrying a sensor data stream; and adjusting allocation of functionality between the first sensor node and the processing subsystem based on the detected energy management conditions, the adjusted allocation of functionality changing characteristics of data communicated in the sensor data stream, wherein the characteristics of the data communicated between the first sensor node and the processing subsystem in the sensor data stream before the adjusting operation and the characteristics of the data communicated between the first sensor node and the processing subsystem in the sensor data stream after the adjusting operation differ by an amount of preprocessing performed on sensor data by the first sensor node and the processing subsystem, respectively; wherein the first sensor node is in communicative cooperation with at least the second sensor node; and wherein the first sensor node and the second sensor node overlap in their sensing coverage and the first sensor node and the second sensor node are configured to partition functionality with the processing subsystem differently based on that knowledge; wherein the first sensor node is a first camera and the second sensor node is a second camera, the first camera and the second camera having image capture regions that overlap; and detecting which camera, among the first camera and second camera, has more available power and/or a cooler operating environment, wherein, in response thereto, the camera which is detected to have said more available power and/or cooler operating environment enables its on-board lossless compression preprocessor and its noise cancellation preprocessor and its temporal motion compensation preprocessor to take advantage of the beneficial energy management conditions and the other camera disables one or more of its preprocessors and sends raw video data to the processing subsystem. detecting energy management conditions of a first sensor node and a second sensor node, and optionally detecting energy management conditions of a processing subsystem coupled by a communications channel, the communications channel carrying a sensor data stream; and adjusting allocation of functionality between the first sensor node and the processing subsystem based on the detected energy management conditions, the adjusted allocation of functionality changing characteristics of data communicated in the sensor data stream, wherein the characteristics of the data communicated between the first sensor node and the processing subsystem in the sensor data stream before the adjusting operation and the characteristics of the data communicated between the first sensor node and the processing subsystem in the sensor data stream after the adjusting operation differ by an amount of preprocessing performed on sensor data by the first sensor node and the processing subsystem, respectively; wherein the first sensor node is in communicative cooperation with at least the second sensor node; and wherein the first sensor node and the second sensor node overlap in their sensing coverage and the first sensor node and the second sensor node are configured to partition functionality with the processing subsystem differently based on that knowledge; wherein the first sensor node is a first camera and the second sensor node is a second camera, the first camera and the second camera having image capture regions that overlap; and detecting which camera, among the first camera and second camera, has more available power and/or a cooler operating environment, wherein, in response thereto, the camera which is detected to have said more available power and/or cooler operating environment enables its on-board lossless compression preprocessor and its noise cancellation preprocessor and its temporal motion compensation preprocessor to take advantage of the beneficial energy management conditions and the other camera disables one or more of its preprocessors and sends raw video data to the processing subsystem.