race timing video

[Michael Burrows]

I'm new here and dropping a quick message before heading to work. Forgive me. We time races as a side gig and are looking for an easy to use video review system. I have a spare netbook/tablet combo (Asus T100TAF) with Windows 10 or I can purchase an Android tablet for this application. I'm on the verge of purchasing the $30 copy of Blue Iris to run one camera. Our need is to be able to review video while capturing video. Does Blue Iris set up quickly. Can I use a single webcam on a USB port? Is it better to use an IP camera? We need fast and light and easy. We are watching a finish line and just need some quick video back up. Any comments are welcome (good or bad or flaming mad). Thanks!

 

[nayr]

Probably going to need an IPCamera simply for the ability to manually configure shutter speeds, your going to want like 1/1000 or better if you want to pause video and have a nice crisp still image.

how is your lighting? are you race timing at night? This might call for the Longse Low-Light destroyer with the larger than average cmos sensor.. else at night you might just end up with a black video or a big blur and not much inbetween.

If you have a laptop with a GigE port you could plug the IPCamera right into the network port, perhaps with a PoE injector.. do you need this to all run off laptop battery or do you have electrical power?

 

[pozzello]

BI can certainly continue recording (the next race) while you are reviewing (a previous one, for example).

yeah, if your USB/web cam has ability to control exposure (shutter speed), it could work.
but if not, an IP cam on a 12V battery would work too...

 

[Michael Burrows]

nayr & pozzello,

Thanks for the quick reply. I notice there is a free demo of BI. I'll grab that and install it. But to answer your questions, we do have portable power and we normally work in daylight. We time running races (see sample below) and need some better video review capability at the finish line. Currently we are swapping out SD cards from a point and shoot camera. It works but is not instant. I'd like to capture video while playing back video on the same file without shutting down saving and reviewing. All on the fly. The finish line can be a busy place at times. We have portable power. I just need to make the correct choice of software.

[video]https://www.facebook.com/OhioRaceDay/videos/473595669494821/[/video]

 

[nayr]

ah foot racing, i was thinking something a bit faster than that.. yeah BI should work, even a webcam could get it done.

perhaps a box camera, they have a screw mount on em that you can put em on a standard tripod.. do you need audio?

an IP Camera is likely to be IP66 rated, meaning if the weather is poor there is no risk to it... many IPCameras have onboard SD storage, you can record and playback at the same time to local SD card.. no need for BluIris running, just fire up a phone app or webbrowser.

check out this camera I recently reviewed, you could toss that mount that comes with it and put it on a normal camera tripod easy as pie:
https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/9954-Dahua-IPC-HFW4421D-AS-Audio-4MP-HD-WDR-Network-LXIR-Bullet

You probably want something with a 6mm or 8mm lens, so you can put it back out of the way of traffic and zoom in to the finish line..

 

[fenderman]

Its pretty difficult to quickly review video on a mobile app like hikvisions ivms4500...dahuas might be easier...with BI you can scrub the timeline to review...though OP might be better off with specialized app/software for sports...there are probably much better apps than this but you get the idea.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/coachs-eye-instant-video-analysis/id472006138?mt=8
there

 

[Michael Burrows]

Downloaded the demo and messing with it. I'll have to get around the learning curve since this not my "thing." Thanks all!