Please advise: Long Range AV transmission

[BlackWasp]

Hi,

Apologies if posted in incorrect forum.

I need some advise on a wireless solution which we want to implement on our game farm.

We want to mount a camera (like CCTV) at one or more watering holes, and be able to watch the live feeds from a central point (house) around 10-12 km away. For a start, only one or two cameras would be fine, which feeds to a computer or tv inside the house. Audio is not a requirement for now.

Which products should I be looking at, considering the signal will have to cross through 10km of bush. Is this even possible?

Please, I have no idea where to start or which products to look at. I know that I would need a transmitter and receiver, but have no idea on gain,band,frequency,antenna types etc.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Regards

 

[rebel998]

Is there line of sight?

Otherwise a little mast would be needed.

But it is very possible.

 

[portcullis]

As rebel998 has said, line of site is important.

Is there a "windpomp" nearby. Most waterholes have one lurking somewhere nearby. If there's a windmill, you could use that (with some modification) to generate power.

If not, is the waterhole topped up by a borehole? If there's a borehole, is it driven by a Lister diesel or a electric motor? If there's electricity, things will be easy. If there's electricity, is it provided via overhead or underground cable? If the borehole is powered by an engine of some sort, is there a possibility of adding another pulley so you can add an alternator to charge batteries?

I'm asking these questions because the radio, switch and cameras are all going to need power.

How many "koppetjies" are there between the waterhole and the farmhouse?

Even better, can you post links to Google Earth of what you want to do?

I did something similar to this last year for our "wildkamp" between Groblersdal and Marble Hall. My dad wasn't interested in watching the waterholes, but he wanted to see who was at the front gate from his house about 6km away on the other side of the river.

We were lucky in the sense that we have a Marnet tower that's 24m high next to the house, so line of site wasn't an issue. The link works just fine, but the whole thing ended up costing a pretty packet.

 

[kilos]

I would look at the Ubiquiti Nanostation 5 with an IP webcam rather. Line of sight is important
Its much easier to setup
IPcams at www.ipcams.co.za ie Axis 211 or the audio one 211A

These devices all run of 12v dc, so yo might need a solar panel, solar regulator and deep cycle battery at the remote end.

 

[portcullis]

I'm still a fan of these cameras.

 

[kilos]

I'm still a fan of these cameras.

Have you used them at all ? What is their current price ?
The reason I ask for my Spotted Eagle Owl webcam I used an AVtech 520 lines infra-red camera (no POE) connected via an Axis M7001
video encoder. Been looking at that Vivotech for my next pet webcam project.PoE makes live so much easier when installing these cameras
as the owl webcam was installed in an old pine tree with an ABB box with all the switch, M7001,Senao Wireless AP

Running the avtech analog camera it does not have progressive scan so any fast movement past the camera has these lines across,where Axis IP webcams
do not have this issue.

 

[BlackWasp]

Thanks guys, will check out the links. I am waiting for Miro for a quote, will give feedback once I receive it.

 

[kilos]

Blackwasp where are you based and what wildlife will be viewable on the webcam ?

 

[BlackWasp]

The game farm is based 50km outside Thabazimbi, Limpopo. We will be watching mainly antelope (impala,kudu,waterbuck,gemsbok,nyala,sable,rooihartbeest), wildebeest, zebra, giraffe and warthog. Also rhino and buffalo if we are lucky enough.

 

[kilos]

Impressive why do you not install a Pan/Tilt/Zoom webcam ie Axis 214 ( I just happen to have one lying around looking for a home )

PM if interested

 

[wetkit]

Man, I would love to have a IP PTZ(pan tilt zoom) cam there
A fixed cam is soooo, well boring, if not set-up correctly...

Have a look here for some more options... http://www.eaglecctv.co.za/display_cat.php?subcategory_id=1069

 

[portcullis]

Have you used them at all ? What is their current price ?

Yes I have.

Last one was R2329.02 from Miro. I should be installing another one next week if they have stock.

I use them on my highsites to take pics of the people who go there and snoop around. They have multiple motion sensor zones so I can set them so that they don't record if a rabbit enters the field of view, but they take photos if the one area is activated while they take video if another area is activated.

For example, I've one camera so there is an outer zone and an inner zone. If somebody goes wandering past, it'll just make a video of that person going past, but if that person comes closer and starts looking around, it starts taking photos.

The images and video are stored direct onto a ftp server.

The various video feeds go straight onto our intranet web server.

The overhead is quite high though. For example, Helderberg to Somerset West data centre is a 54Mb carrier class link. Of that, 512kb is taken by two video cameras that are giving a constant low res feed of what's happening up there. If I were to set those two cameras to transmit at 25fps I'd have to get a web server up there to process the video as the constant large traffic flow would degrade the network.

But, it makes things so much easier when we go to the Police to lay charges of tresspass if we take timestamped pics along that have been uploaded to the ftp server.

 

[kilos]

Yes I have.

Last one was R2329.02 from Miro. I should be installing another one next week if they have stock.

I use them on my highsites to take pics of the people who go there and snoop around. They have multiple motion sensor zones so I can set them so that they don't record if a rabbit enters the field of view, but they take photos if the one area is activated while they take video if another area is activated.

The images and video are stored direct onto a ftp server.

The various video feeds go straight onto our intranet web server.

The overhead is quite high though. For example, Helderberg to Somerset West data centre is a 54Mb carrier class link. Of that, 512kb is taken by two video cameras that are giving a constant low res feed of what's happening up there. If I were to set those two cameras to transmit at 25fps I'd have to get a web server up there to process the video as the constant large traffic flow would degrade the network.

But, it makes things so much easier when we go to the Police to lay charges of tresspass if we take timestamped pics along that have been uploaded to the ftp server.

The Axis support H264 which I believe is more compression able. Please PM me an image link ,the Axis M7001 cost me R3200 exclu the AVtech of R800.

Sounds like a great alternative if you have a night time images that will be great to evaluate,why do suppliers they never provide demo images of their cameras.

What are the camera views like from the high site ?

 

[portcullis]

The Axis support H264 which I believe is more compression able. Please PM me an image link ,the Axis M7001 cost me R3200 exclu the AVtech of R800.

I'll get onto that when I'm back at the slave pit.

Sounds like a great alternative if you have a night time images that will be great to evaluate,why do suppliers they never provide demo images of their cameras.

I suspect that suppliers don't provide demo images because as we all know, these cheap and cheerful cameras are fit for purpose, but not nearly as good as the pro stuff.

If they had 10 cameras on a webpage ranging in price from R1,200 to R35,000 with images from each, they probably wouldn't sell any. The guys would see the R1,200 camera for what it is and not buy it and everyone would drool over the R35K camera while only a couple would be able to afford it.

What are the camera views like from the high site ?

I'd love for somebody to donate me a really good Pan/Tilt/Zoom camera so that I could put it up there and point it over False Bay. The views are good and will be better as those pesky gum trees are being chopped down.

Then there's the sunset views toward Cape Town.

 

[kilos]

Those are amazing views are those with that webcam or with DSLR ?
I will ask a friend who has some kit lying around as I want to install a PTZ
with Wildlife in it as that draw traffic.

 

[portcullis]

Those are amazing views are those with that webcam or with DSLR ?

Canon Prosumer

I will ask a friend who has some kit lying around as I want to install a PTZ
with Wildlife in it as that draw traffic.

Thank you kind sir!

In the time I've worked up there I've caught and relocated a cape cobra and a puffadder. The cobra was a source of humour as (according to them) it "chased" the two labourers I took with me on the day, up the tower

I was working in the comms shack on the site at the time and only stuck my head out when I heard their screams and saw the snake on a rock next to the tower.

One evening we saw a duiker going down the mountain. We also once saw a sparrow hawk take a mouse a couple of meters in front of us out of the blue one morning. I'm not sure who got the bigger fright, the breakfast or the humans

We've seen leopard pugs a couple of times. The farmer next door had an incident with said leopard (or one of it's cousins) when it entered their farmyard to fulfill an early supper order of veal.

Needless to say we often hear baboons when we're up there. So, there's game about but not enough to justify the capital outlay for an animal cam.

However, there are now three marshall eagles in this area. If I knew where they were nesting, I'd point your PTZ (no pun intended) in their direction.

 

[portcullis]

BlackWasp,

Please send us the info re line of site and other stuff so that we can give you a solution that'll work for you.

 

[BlackWasp]

Will do tomorrow, thanks.

 

[BlackWasp]

Miro came back with the following solution for 2 watering holes connected to house:

4x Ubiquiti NanoStation 2.XGHz b/g Outdoor CPE TX 26dBm Gain
4x 2.4GHz - Grid Antenna - 15 dBi
4x N(m) to SMA(m)RP - 1 Meter Cable (LMR195)

2x Vivotek - IP Cam, 10/100, 2 MPixel (1600x1200), Dual Codec, Du
2x Vivotek Outdoor Camera Enclosure with 120 Meter IR & Blower,

2x Edimax 5P 10/100Mbps Ethernet switch, desktop
1x Edimax 8P 10/100Mbps Ethernet switch, desktop

I still await pricing for the solar panel / 12v battery solution at each camera.

Cost: Just over R25,000 as it is now.

Any comments?

 

[portcullis]

I think you should get one of the PTAWUGgers out there for a weekend so they can give you some advice.