Davie@Braco

Hi, I'm looking for suggestions for our first farm system. We live approximately 1 mile (600m) from the farm and would like to be able to keep an eye on cows calving at night without having to drive there each time. Ideally i would like one ptz camera initially (perhaps with others to follow)to cover the calving pens which are no more than 25m from the camera with some kind of live connection to our tv at home. We have line of sight and there is an off the shelf wireless system available for £2000 which I have seen working and works well but apparently if you want to add extra cameras you have to add a complete new system on a slightly different frequency. That is getting a bit expensive for me. I dont think we need video storage at this point. Has anybody got any other suggestions? Is it worth installing cable perhaps on the surface behind existing fencing? is there a broadband solution? There is a phone line nearby. Is there a cheaper wireless solution using IP cameras and a long range 802 transmitter which might also carry telemetry? Is there a cheaper solution using several fixed cameras and a multiplexer? All suggestions appreciated.

Thanks for the advice guys, will let you know how I get on.

Looks promising! am i right in thinking this link would be able to handle telemetry for one or more ptz cameras, controlled via my laptop and that to change cameras I would just choose another IP address? Any suggestions for a suitable camera with the right balance between cost and performance? Light level not a problem as flourescent lights are on all the time.

Soundy, I would like to watch two calving pens holding half a dozen cows each at either end of a shed roughly 70x20m. I had in mind a ptz camea with 30x optical zoom. Chris P, could you expand on what you have in mind for a point to point link as I am a bit of a newbie with cctv. Thanks

Sorry, my mistake its 600m, I was mixing up 1km being 0.6 miles or thereabouts.