Good remote video camera ?

[BobY777]

I have a client that would like to buy a video camera from me, whereby the camera would be used remotely. The camera should be controllable over the Internet. Pan and tilt, etc.

Anyone have any suggestions on a good cost-effective video camera?

I'm not sure of the setup for the cameras, so as to get them hooked to the Internet.

Tell me if I'm correct here.

The wireless video camera transmits into an access point. The access point could be at a hotel or a warehouse, etc. The video camera then just acts like a client device such as the laptop...except it's a video camera and not a laptop.

Then the rest of the wireless system, is just the AP going to a switch or directly to a router, then out to the internet.

I would imagine the video cameras could also be connected directly to the switch or to the router. In that case the video camera would have to be connected in infrastructure mode and act like it was an AP and not as a client device.

But if I'm 200 miles away, then I would need to remote into the camera. I would imagine I would have to do some kind of port forwarding in the router, in order to get to the video camera, in order to look at it.

Do I need a special router, in order to be able to remote into the router and get to the local side of the router, in order to be able to see the camera? Seems like I would have to do some tricky port forwarding or something there...since it is usually pretty difficult to remote past a router to the local devices on the LAN side.

I called Linksys to ask them about their video cameras, and the sales guy there said I would have to subscribe to some kind of third party service in order to be able to see the camera. I can't figure what I need a third party service for, in order to be able to see the camera.

Thanks to anyone who can make this more understandable to me.

Thanks,

[golfnut]

Hi Bob,

We've installed a few network camera surveillance systems so here are some suggestions:

1) Video feeds from a wireless network camera are not as good as a wired camera. Interference is another problem. Stick to wired if you can.

2) With video cameras you get what you pay for. I'd recommend any camera from Axis or DLink higher-end camera's

3) Video from netcams are digitized so the image becomes very pixelated when you zoom. Get a camera that has optical zoom if this is a feature you want.

4) The 3rd party service Linksys was referring to is really dynamic DNS.

5) You don't need a special router to view live video over the WAN. Just setup port forwarding for the IP camera.

6) Some camera's have built-in motion detected email alerts and audio.

7) Something often overlooked is the upload speed from your ISP if you want to monitor video over the WAN. Depending on the size and clarity of the video, you can easily exceed your upload speed which will result in what appears to be a lower frame rate.

Hope that helps...

Greg

[BobY777]

Hi Greg:

Wow. Thank you for the info.

Yes that makes sense when you mentioned the Dynamic DNS. Yep...then I wouldn't need a static IP address. But the clients I will be working with will have static IP addresses. But thanks for making that clear to me.

When you do port forwarding, how do you decide on what port you want to forward to?

What up speed on the broadband do you think I should use, in order to see good video, so it isn't jumpy?

It would seem that if I have a WiFi hotspot and wanted to add a wireless video camera with audio, I would think the video camera might hog a whole lot of BW from the WiFi users and cause problems for them? That reasonable?

Well come to think of it, the WiFi users would only have problems, with up link data (since the camera is only up loading video data to me). Am I right on that. But I would think I still would want a high BW up link for the video?

So you think I would be pretty happy with Axis or DLink cameras? Are there any other cameras out there that you think I might want to consider? Something high end.

This would only need to be an inside camera, as opposed to an outdoors camera.

If the camera was wireless, then it would operate like a "client device" like a wireless laptop, since the wireless camera would be operating into an AP? Am I right? But if the camera was wired directly into a switch or into a router, then would the camera be operating in infrastructure mode...like an AP would?

Thanks so much for your info.

Bob

[golfnut]

Bob,

Wired or wireless, the IP camera would work like any other network device however, you'll need to give it a static IP for port forwarding. You can program the camera for any port number you want.

As for upload speed, if you wanted to view a 640 x 480 detailed image at 30 frames per second, it will consume about 500k of bandwidth. 5 frames per second is a decent video.

There are other cameras out there (Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba) and they are pretty good but Axis only makes network cameras and they are very good, very reliable, and most are high-end.

Also check the millimeter specs on the camera lens before you buy. The lower the mm, the wider the view. A 3mm lens will give you about a 90 degree wide view.

Be careful where you mount the camera indoors. If you place it facing a window that has direct sunlight, it will wash out the video and could damage the lens.

Greg

[BobY777]

Hi Greg:

Thanks again for all your info.

It will come in handy as I decide on a camera for this one prospect.

How are your WiFi hotspots doing? Ok I hope.

Did you get any Choice hotels yet?

I have noticed that there are a small number of Choice hotels that don't seem to care anything at all about following their franchise directives about when they should have their WiFi installed. And many of them don't meet franchise criteria for security or other standards either. It will be real interesting when Choice starts checking these hotels. Many will fail HSIA inspection.

I asked to be an sub contractor inspector for them, since I know that I will find many Choice hotels who will fail the inspection. What you bet that many will feign ignorance of the Choice standards...LOL.

[Nosignal]

You guys have any links to these cameras being used?

[Specialist927]

Here are some high-end cameras

http://www.cryptotelecom.com/2004ct/english/product/camera/camera.htm

[M/Q]

You may want to PM HmHc as he has several cameras. As well as a great deal of experience with them.

[golfnut]

Nosignal,

Go to www.axis.com

They have links to a variety of live video camera's. We've installed quite a few of their camera's and they work great.

Network camera's do require some pre-planning.

Greg

[Phoenix]

This isn't quite what you are looking for, but I thought it was a cool camera so I thought I'd share it with you all. LukWerks Camera (http://www.lukwerks.com/)

[BobY777]

Hi Phoenix:

Gee. Those Lukwerks cameras sure seem pretty nice.

I guess they are only indoor cameras. Resolution looks pretty good.

Do they have sound?

[Phoenix]

No sound at the moment, but I'll bet they are thinking about that for future products. They also need a pan and tilt head for these. We'll have to send them a suggestion that that add these features.

[Phoenix]

FYI, there was a good review of this Lukwerks camera in PC Magazine: LukWerks Digital Video Surveillance System (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1948105,00.asp)