Construction timelapse data calculator

Field guide

How to plan your data usage for long-term construction timelapse

There is real value in working out your data usage before the camera goes up. It tells you which cellular data plan fits the project, it tells you your total photo uploads across the whole build, and it keeps you inside your budget so you are never caught out buying extra data mid-project. Watch the short overview, then read the detail below.

How the numbers are calculated

The calculator turns your inputs into two figures. It starts with how many photos you capture in a day: sixty divided by your upload interval gives photos per hour, multiplied by your capture hours per day. That daily figure is scaled across the capture days you select and averaged over roughly 4.3 weeks per month.

The monthly cellular estimate is that photo volume multiplied by your file size, plus a 15% buffer for network retries, busier stretches, and non-photo traffic like log uploads and firmware downloads. The total project figure is the raw photo data across the full project length, which is the number your Cloud Services plan needs to hold. The total does not carry the cellular buffer, because it represents actual photos stored rather than data allowance.

Getting your photo file size right

JPEG file size varies with the camera, the image settings, and how complex the scene is. The best time to measure it is during pre-installation testing. Take a few photos at your intended settings and check the file sizes. If you cannot photograph the actual job site yet, shoot a range of scenes and use the largest file as your guide.

A note on shooting RAW: we do not recommend uploading RAW files. They are large, they push your data costs up quickly, and they make it far easier to hit your total upload limit. You also cannot view RAW images in the online gallery, so there is little benefit to sending them over cellular. If you want RAW, save it to the onboard SSD for periodic manual collection instead.

Upload frequency and client expectations

How often you capture and upload is a conversation to have with your client. Are they happy with less frequent uploads every thirty minutes or hour, or do they expect fresher vision of the site every ten or even five minutes? Their answer drives both your Cloud Services plan and your cellular data cost, so reflect it in your fees.

Consider charging a higher monthly rate for shorter upload intervals. That pushes the data cost back onto the project rather than your margin. Where a wired connection is available, you can also connect the system to the local network and take cellular data cost out of the equation entirely.

Capture on work days only

Confirm with your client which days the site is actually active. Five days is common, though some projects run six or even seven days a week. In Sentinel OS you can choose exactly which days to capture. Switch off the non-work days so you are not uploading frames when nothing is happening on site. It is a small setting that trims real cost over a long project, which is why the calculator lets you pick your capture days.

Build in a buffer

Once you have your monthly figure, resist choosing a plan that only just clears it. If the calculator lands you at 4.8 GB a month, a 5 GB plan looks tempting. Avoid the temptation, because unforeseen variables spike usage. A client might ask you to ramp up the photo frequency. A period of intense activity might demand shorter intervals. Network dropouts can trigger repeated upload attempts before a frame lands.

Give yourself 10 to 20% of headroom on the plan so a busy month never runs you over. The calculator already folds a 15% buffer into the monthly figure, covering retries, busy periods, log uploads, and firmware downloads, so treat that as your floor, not your target.

Selective uploading and onboard storage

With the Buildcam TL you can upload only some of what you capture by setting the upload interval longer than the shooting interval. The 500 GB onboard SSD option gives you even more room to manage files, total uploads, and cellular cost. You can upload at longer intervals and save frames straight to local storage for collection later, and you can change the upload frequency remotely at any time based on how your data usage is tracking.

Confidence in your data budget

It is worth setting aside a few minutes to work out both your cellular data and your predicted total uploads, so you stay comfortably inside both plans. It is a simple process, but time and again we have seen photographers caught out by a large cellular bill. Run your numbers against your budget and your upload limits before the project starts, and keep your bottom line protected.