Hi everyone,
I am thinking about building a poker table with cameras in it, much like the ones you see on the televised poker tours. I am looking for advice on the cheapest way to pull this off. I would like an 8 or 9 camera system that would hook up to either a TV or a computer, for people to watch live. The idea is that we'll have a big poker game with 20-30 people, and as people drop out, they can go into another room and watch the game while seeing everyone's hands as they play, live. This means I would need something that will display a split screen of all 8 cameras, or perhaps 8 mini splits and one large screen for an overhead view maybe. I can always use a separate camera and TV or webcam and computer for this.
This would just be for at my own house, so wired cameras are fine, but whatever is cheapest. Technically, I'm looking for 1 basic video camera to see the table overhead, but the other 8 cameras don't have to be video necessarily. They could just snap a picture with the press of a button, or take a picture every 10-20 seconds or something, either way. It really just needs to take 1 picture and hold it on the screen until the next round of play. Another idea is that I could put the cameras under the table with a glass window above them, so that players can just set their cards on the glass so the camera can see them at all times.
Another thing that I was hoping will make this cheaper, is that the cameras will be only a few inches away from the cards they are focused on. They don't have to be high quality either... as long as we can make out the card and suit, we are set. I don't know if there are cameras made for close ups, but let me know. I do prefer color however.
I have searched google and ebay for cheap cameras, and there seem to be some cheap cameras, as low as 5-10 bucks a peice, but I don't know if these are the right ones I'd want to use or not. Please let me know any ideas for the cheapest setup to get the job done as possible. I am hoping to keep this under a couple hundred bucks if I can, as the receiver or card for the computer will likely cost 50-100 bucks I figured.
Thanks,
Vermilion
