TPG has bundled cloud-based video surveillance with broadband in a new double play aimed at small and medium-sized businesses.

The telco's $49.99 monthly bundle includes unlimited ADSL2+ and cloud-based video surveillance. The CCTV footage broadcasts into the cloud and users can view live video or recorded footage from the last 48 hours. Customers can also download recordings from the cloud to their computer.

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Customers must separately buy a surveillance camera from TPG for $139.99. The camera installs into existing Ethernet or Wi-Fi networks without requiring any changes to router or firewall settings, TPG said.

"The surveillance camera pushes a live video feed into the cloud via a secure channel, enabling storage and YouTube-like viewing experience of live and past events which customers can access from virtually anywhere in the world with an Internet connection," said TPG consumer general manager, Craig Levy.

"Most other video surveillance solutions record and store the videos locally on the customers' premises before they are uploaded intermittently to the Internet, typically via FTP," he said. "In order to view live streaming, customers have to access the camera remotely, opening a security hole in the customers' network which can be vulnerable to attacks."

Levy said it was initially difficult to get good video over ADSL. "The biggest challenge we faced is that a typical ADSL connection has a relatively slow upload speed which makes it difficult to haul decent real time video into the cloud," he said. "We have managed to achieve impressive video quality in full screen using only 256 Kbps of upload bandwidth."

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