Wireless camera system pilot program.....

[rhfuller]

Guys, I am currently starting a pilot program and feesability study for one of my clients. We are starting with 4 wireless outdoor cameras in a local park ( eventually we are looking at 20+ cameras and mobile units in mobile vehicles but this is just the pilot). Each camera will be approx 300-500 feet from a central access point. There will be 2 LOS 2.4ghz antennas for communication from the central ap to the headend and it will range approx 1mile to that head end.
Currently I am looking at the motorola canopy system for the access points and the headend/backhaul antenna.
I will be putting gb routers at the headend and the access array. Probably linksys.
For the time being this will be an in house system ( meaning ) no internet access to streaming video. Only INTRANET need be in place. However I am hoping i can share the recorded files and download them as needed.
Networking for me is not difficult i will just have to forward ports and set up dyndns for remote access.
I am also looking at a server that will record 1 week information at a time so probably dual 500 or 750 hdds used for storage.
My questions are these....
I would like an ip camera that is very clear and has built in wireless abilities and motion sensing. It needs to be out door and with night vision capabilities and a 600-1000 foot wireless range to be safe. Zoom would be nice but not required. Any ideas would be appreciated. I am shooting for a price tag on the wireless night vision camera < $750 each.
I am not certain which software i should use but i have noticed this board speaking of a couple of options ... if you have alternatives or suggestions please advise me in this area as well

thanks to all in advance.

rick

[Techyy]

Hi

If you are putting up canopy system, why don't you use Point-Point connection for a camera in that way you don't need a builtin wireless card, as I am not aware of a good night vision camera with built in wireless card in it.

I did an application similar to this, where I used motorola canopy P-P system for 20 cameras and I bought some MZ-3333-01 cameras from IVC and there software and works like a champ these cameras are dual encoders and IVC's software can do MJPEG or MPEG4 with out any problems, but if you are doing MPEG4 you can't have more then 4 cameras on the same screen.

IVC is working on it and I think they told me end of this year they will support more then 4 cameras on the same screen + in 2nd quarter or 3rd they will have audio support for these cameras.

Try them out, http://www.ivcco.com

There tech support is really knowledgable and great.

[btos]

Wish I had known about this brand sooner. I particularly like the software interface that does not require IE! The view was easily achieved without jumping through a lot of hoops, as is necessary with nearly all other interfaces that I've seen.
_________________
Action combined with knowledge is real power

[Techyy]

Hey which one are you talking about, software interface for IVC or the canopy's. I am curious to find out. Canopy's are great, the only bottleneck with wireless systems is the say you will get 11MBps of bandwidth, but you have to cut it into half to make sure that is the only available, and then eventually again cut it into half.

I am working to find out how I can keep this consistent without having to reboot system periodically.

[ICUSecurity]

The canopy system is rather expencive vs other solutions out on the market now.

Even our systems, that is rather expensive, is a lower cost solution then Motorola.

-chris

[geolt3]

Rick,
I have also been looking for some quality wireless outdoor IP cameras. What I found, is that there are not that many IP based wireless camera systems out there except for the panasonic one. But I've found its wireless abilty fairly poor. But I just received one from a company called Gadget-Spot (www.gadget-spot.com)that has a decent IP camera but and exceptional wireless capabilities. It uses 802.11b/g. I actually just purchased another access point by their recommendation that has same transimition power as their camera. And I am actually able to use the camera located across the lake, which by the distance markings on my county map show a little over a mile and a half. It's in the standard outdoor enclosure you see on poles and on the side of buildings and is powered over a network cable! My old access point could only go about 1000feet before it would start losing connection. They are pricey about $900 but my client was paying the bill and that's what they wanted. It might be worth looking in to. Let me know what else you find, I'm still learning about the different qualities and lens options of the cameras.
Good Luck,
Geo