I am tasked to look into a camera system to monitor piles of stone from inside a front end loader. I need several cameras viewed by several users. My first thought is wireless cameras with tablets for viewing. I would prefer to keep them off my network, so a direct connection to the cameras from the tablets is a necessity. Does anyone know of a good system to start with? The range must be up 1200 feet at least. I am in Canada BTW.
Wireless system
- Thread starter Mike_71
- Start date
zero-degrees
Known around here
- Aug 15, 2015
- 1,335
- 844
You have an interesting need - to clarify are you mounting the cameras on the front end loaders or will the cameras be stationary looking at the piles of stone and the tablet be in the loader?
Tyler Lucas
n3wb
- Dec 6, 2016
- 1
- 0
1200+ ft is a long way for WiFi, especially multiple P2P video streams (though, looking at rock piles, you could probably drop down to 1 fps or less). Sounds like you'll have a group of cameras in close proximity, and a group of tablets 1300'ish ft away but in close proximity. If you don't want to f#*k around then Ubiquiti Networks - Find Distributor can kill this bird with two expensive stones, probably with one of their fancy antennas. Not sure, haven't used them myself. You don't need to go with their cameras or security setup, just their networking solutions. I'd want to talk to them to see what they thought was needed. The other end of the cost spectrum is to mount a few old cell phones with cheap data plans ($35CAD for 2GB/month in Alberta) with tinyCam Pro and IP Webcam (Android, $5CAD) or Manything (iPhone, up to $7CAD/month) inside a weather-protected container (dome with lightbulb), and let them stream over 3g/4g. If this were my business, I'd go for something in the middle, though it means getting nerdy. Using purpose-built but still cheap outdoor IP cameras ($150CAD each) with some kind of heater rigged up because it's -20C right now in Edmonton to watch the piles; put the Ubiquiti PicoStation M2-HP ($100'ish, rated for 500m/1600ft) on a pole out side of your office on the side closest to the cameras, and run a CAT6 cable to it from your switch with a bit more weather-proofing than required; and then get some $50 Amazon Fire tablets and put internet shortcuts on the home page leading directly to the IP cameras. If you need a video management system then I would go with a tinyCam Pro installed on a $100 Android TV box (I think the Amazon Fire TV box works) and MS OneDrive cloud storage (you probably have a few TB's from Office 365 subscriptions).