Athlee cameras stream over a local Wi-Fi, not the internet. This gives you fast, reliable video between the cameras and your iPad, as long as you have the right setup. There are three modes your cameras can operate in.
This is the default state after a camera reset. The camera creates its own Wi-Fi network named Athlee-XXXX (where XXXX is unique to your camera), and you connect your iPad directly to it using the default password 12345678.
When your camera is in this mode, you may see two networks appear: Athlee-XXXX and CamCom-XXXX. Always connect to Athlee-XXXX. The CamCom network is used for communication between cameras and will not give you a working stream.
This mode is best for troubleshooting, but it works as Mobile Athlee Wi-Fi Mode for a single camera.
If more than one camera is in Factory Reset Mode at the same time, they won't detect or connect to each other — each broadcasts its own separate network and has to be accessed individually. This mode is only intended for single-camera use.
In this mode, one camera acts as the Wi-Fi host and creates a named network. When you receive the camera it will be Athlee-Streaming and the password is 12345678. Other cameras and your iPad join that network, and everything runs locally with no internet required. This is useful for camps, travel, and ad-hoc setups with one or two cameras and one iPad.
Host selection happens automatically based on power-on order: the first camera you turn on becomes the host, and the others join as clients once they detect its network. If you turn on all cameras at the same time, more than one may try to become host, creating multiple networks with the same name — your iPad only displays one entry for that name even though several exist, which can cause inconsistent or unpredictable behavior in the app. To avoid this, turn on one camera first, wait about 30 seconds, then power on the rest.
Because the host camera is managing all Wi-Fi traffic alongside its own stream, performance can drop if you add more cameras or devices. Signal can also be weaker if the host camera is at the far end of the pool from where you're standing. Wi-Fi performance is generally more reliable indoors; outdoors, distance and interference can affect stability.
This is the most reliable setup, and the recommended choice for permanent installations, larger teams, or systems with three or more cameras. All cameras and your iPad connect to a shared pool router, which is configured in the Athlee app under Wi-Fi Management. Once set up, cameras reconnect to the facility's pool Wi-Fi automatically every time they power on.
This mode avoids the traffic limitations of Mobile mode and gives you the best performance and range. The facility router must be running WPA2-Personal (PSK) security. Enterprise networks and open networks without a password are not supported.
The quickest way to check is to look at your iPad's Wi-Fi list (Settings → Wi-Fi) and see which networks the camera is broadcasting:
Athlee-XXXX (random characters): the camera is in Factory Reset Mode.Athlee-Streaming or your own Athlee-YourClub: the camera is in Mobile Athlee Wi-Fi Mode.CamCom-XXXX, with no Athlee network: the camera is in Pool Wi-Fi Mode. It has joined your pool router and stopped broadcasting its own network.If you expected your camera on the pool Wi-Fi but it isn't appearing in the app, this is also where you start troubleshooting. See What to Do If Your Camera Doesn't Appear in the App.
This is an important part of how Athlee cameras are designed to work, and it's worth understanding before you set up your facility's pool Wi-Fi.
When you configure a camera for Pool Wi-Fi mode, it joins the pool router on startup and stops broadcasting its own Athlee-Streaming Mobile Athlee Wi-Fi. This is intentional, because the camera operates in one mode at a time.
But if the camera boots and the facility's pool Wi-Fi is not available, for example at a swim meet, on an away trip, or if the pool router is switched off, the camera automatically falls back to broadcasting Athlee-Streaming so you can connect directly, exactly as normal. No reconfiguration is needed. When you return to your facility and the pool router is available again, the camera reconnects to it on the next boot.
In practice: at your regular pool, the camera connects to the facility router. Away from your regular pool, it falls back to its own hotspot. It handles this automatically.
Ready to configure your camera's Wi-Fi? See How to Configure Your Camera's Wi-Fi for step-by-step instructions.