Stick Up Camera Elite - Poor Audio Quality

https://youtu.be/IdgSrYKYLnUFor a hard wired (non-WiFi) camera, I’m quite disappointed in the audio. Attached is a sample that demonstrates the audio consistently breaking up. Conditions are ideal - no wind and no competing sound sources.

Video quaility is good. Audio is bad. I checked several other cameras including an indoor camera. Same problem.

Note: I’ve also attached info on my Router and the POE Switch that I use to connect my nine Stick Up Camera Elites. As you can see, I have a solid system.

Should I expect better?

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Here is a compilation of video clips from six of my cameras - all with the same audio problem. I sure hope you can offer a solution to this issue. This is very disappointing and discouraging.

Here is a particularly good example of this audio problem. All of my Ring Stick Up Camera Elites have been installed new in the last 45 days and this is a continuous and reproducible issue. This issue occurs on all of my Ring cameras (see above post).

Please help me. This audio issue is greatly reducing my enjoyment of this otherwise great camera.

This video is a compilation of video clips from all 11 of my Ring cameras. This video demonstrates that even though the video quality is good on all cameras the audio is very poor.

Please help me resolve this issue.

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As a test to eliminate my Eero router as a source of the audio problem, I disconnected my Amazon Eero Router from my modem and connected another factory reset router (TP-Link AC-1750) to my Spectrum modem. I then plugged in a single Stick Up Camera Elite into the router via the Ring supplied POE power supply.

As you can see (hear), the audio is still choppy.

Note that this test should also eliminate any bandwidth concerns.

One more related issue. Here’s a sample of videos from my 10 cameras (both WiFi & POE and both inside & outside). All 10 cameras have a consistent level of audio static.

This seems to point to a Ring audio problem as audio static is not a symptom of a local area network problem.

My audio quality is worse than yours on my doorbell cam and floodlight cam. I think it is just the nature of the beast. They were really designed for video recording not audio. I don’t think their priority was on listening to the event as much as seeing it. Let me know if you come up with a solution as I would like to try it.

Nick at Ring 2nd level technical support promised to call back three days ago with a potential solution to this audio issue. Sure wish he would call. Makes me think that Ring has no good news for me yet.

Ring does advertise the ability to listen & talk via their cameras so I do expect this to be a quality experience without static & audio drop out. I’m sure they would agree with that.

Just to rule out an issue with my internet service provider (ISP), I ran several speed tests. Here are typical results.

91.5 Mbps Download Speed

10.2 Mbps Upload Speed

0% Packet Loss (target <1%)

28 ms Ping (target <150 ms)

2.3 ms Jitter (target <30 ms)

A fast internet speed is at least 25 Mbps for download and 3 Mbps for upload, which is also what the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines as broadband internet.

The target figures for Packet Loss, Ping, & Jitter are industry recognized standards for high quality of service (QoS).

I don’t pretend to understand how any of this impacts Ring camera audio & video quality but it safe to say that my ISP is providing me with a high quaility of service and they aren’t the problem.

Note: My ISP provided modem is an Artis Model TM-1602A (modem only, no WiFi/router capability). My router is a three unit Amazon eero Pro Mesh WiFi Router System.

Here is yet another demonstration of the poor audio quality of my doorbells and my stick up cameras. This video demonstrates the audio on four of my devices. I currently have six other POE connected Stick Up Camera Elites - all with the exact same audio issues.

Still waiting for Nick at Ring’s 2nd level technical support to call me back. It’s been a full week since he promised to call back “the next day”. He was going to consult with other Ring resources to determine the likely cause of these audio issues.

After a good long talk with David at Ring’s second level support, we agreed that the most likely culprit for this audio issue might be my ISP supplied cable modem. It’s an older Arris, Model TM1602A with an Intel Puma6 processor which has had a bad reputation.

We were able to rule out problems with my Local Area Network by connecting a single POE connected Ring Stick Up Camera directly to my modem thus bypassing my router, network switches, and all connected network devices both wired and WiFi. The audio problem still existed.

I will be replacing my existing modem with a Motorola MB7420 cable modem ($59 on Amazon). Even if this doesn’t fix the problem, I’ll have a modem with a Broadcom processor that has a much better record of reliability than the Puma processor.

I’m skeptical that replacing the modem is going to fix these audio issues but it’s a necessary troubleshooting step before we can look elsewhere.

At the suggestion of the Ring Service Advisor, I installed a cable modem with a Broadcom processor. I purchased a Motorola MB7420 Cable Modem and installed it this morning. No noticeable improvement on audio quality even though the internet connection was excellent.

115 Mbps Download, 11 Mbps Upload

0% Packet Loss (target <1%)

34 ms Ping (target <150 ms)

1.7 ms Jitter (target <30 ms)

I will make contact with the service advisor and see what the next troubleshooting step will be.

Any update on this issue? I have 3 hardwired elite ring cams and a few floodlight cams and doorbell cam, they all produce terrible choppy audio, not sure if its just the nature of their hardware that is not capable of decent audio, i have a few cheaper amcrest wifi cameras that have way better audio than the ring cameras on the same network and theyre not even poe

Would be great if ring could upgrade the internal mic or at least allow an option to add an external mic to their cameras

I have the exact same issue. Ring sent a new camera and it has horrible audio as well. Must be a hardware issue.

Same sort of issue here, cams are connected through cat5 Poe and the sound is mediocre. Meanwhile I also have a Nest cam on wifi and the sound is perfect so not a bandwidth issue not a wifi issue.
Ring please fix that

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