Patent ID: 8826353

Claim:
A camera system in which at least one camera head unit is connected to at least one camera control unit that controls the camera head unit via a single transmission network, wherein the camera head unit includes an image capturing section that acquires image data, an encoding section that encodes the image data at a predetermined compression rate, and a transmitting section that transmits the encoded image data to the camera control unit at a Mbps transmission rate, the camera control unit includes a transmission rate determining section that measures delay of test image data transmitted from the camera head unit and determines the Mbps transmission rate at which image data is transmitted from the camera head unit, and the transmission rate is determined by reducing the bps transmission rate of the camera head unit if the measured delay exceeds a threshold, said threshold corresponding to a predetermined throughput of said transmission network, and repeatedly measuring the delay of transmitted test data and reducing the transmission rate of the camera head unit until the measured delay is less than said threshold.