Patent ID: 7649938

Claim:
A method of operating an apparatus configured to process one or more video streams, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of encoded video streams, each stream received over a packet network from a respective surveillance camera/encoder combination of a plurality of camera/encoder combinations, each respective surveillance camera/encoder combination coupled to the packet network, at least some of the camera/encoder combinations being configured to accept a remotely generated bit rate control to set an output bit rate of the encoded stream from the camera/encoder combination; receiving from each camera/encoder combination a measure of level of activity for each encoded video stream, wherein the encoder of each of the camera/encoder combinations determines and provides the measure, each measure obtained from the output of the camera of the corresponding camera/encoder combination; assigning an output bit rate to the encoder of each of the camera/encoder combinations according to an accepted level of activity such that a total bit rate of all encoded streams does not exceed a maximum overall bit rate; and sending control information over the packet network such that a respective bit rate control is provided to each of the camera/encoder combinations that accept a remotely generated bit rate control, wherein the respective bit rate control sets the output bit rate for each respective camera/encoder combination such that the total bit rate of all encoded streams does not exceed the maximum overall bit rate.