Is it Possible? What works to live stream - no internet or cellular

A

Anvil Creek

n3wb
Jul 30, 2018
6
4
Alaska
I am in remote Alaska and do not have cellular service and limited internet.
I want to set up a system, with 2 cameras, to live stream the 2 areas of my washplant at my gold mine. I will be in my excavator feeding material into the washplant, but am unable to see into the feed chute so I want to set up a camera for it, and also want to see what is happening at the discharge end of the washplant.
Is it possible to set up a system that I can watch live stream without internet or cellular. I have electricity and can run cable from the cameras to a router, but would have to have my monitor (laptop) wirelessly connected through the router since I can't have cables running into the excavator while operating it to feed material.
I appreciate any and all help! Thank You.
 
Yes, it is possible.

Is your excavator going to be consistently in wifi range for the laptop? I'm guessing not, so the challenging part of this will be keeping the laptop connected to your camera network.

There's a networking product company called Ubiquiti which makes some excellent wifi radios with extremely long range. Have a look through their "Airmax" product line. Ubiquiti Networks - Democratizing Professional Network Technology This is what many wireless internet providers use to achieve inexpensive, fast, reliable, and long range (many miles) radio links to their customers. I imagine the distances you will be working with will be relatively short, way under a mile, yes? So you should be able to use omnidirectional antennas and not have to worry about which direction anything is pointed. For that, look at the "rocket prism" models. They are compatible with omnidirectional antennas (see the bottom of the Rocket product page for a link to the Omni antennas). You'll need to set up one of those as an "access point" in a fixed location. Ideally at a high point that can be seen from anywhere you will run the excavator. You'll connect this to your camera network either by cat5e cable or via another ubiquiti radio (NanoStations are good for short range directional links, and by short I mean try to keep it under 5 or 10 miles. lol). You'll also put one of these rockets with an Omni antenna on your excavator. Again, up high on the excavator so it can reliably see the access point with a direct line of sight. Clear line of sight is key, here. Long range wifi falls apart quickly if you have any obstacles between the radios. These radios can be run from 12 volt DC power like a car battery if you wire it into the network cable correctly, otherwise if you have a standard 110/120 volt AC power socket available you can power it through the included PoE injector.
 
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You basically need to set up a wireless LAN. Get a PoE switch for your cameras and plug it into a wireless router. You will probably need a wifi extender to broadcast the local network across the jobsite. Then your phone and cameras would be on the same network. This is all simple.
 
Okay, I'm processing this and reading up on the information you gave me to check out.
My set up, as I run the washplant, is actually a pretty small foot print...all within 100 feet or less so the distance shouldn't be too much of an issue. Having the line of sight from the access point to the excavator will be more of the concern so the omnidirectional antennas would solve that problem.
I have found that some of the camera systems will NOT work without internet or cellular, but maybe those are mainly the wireless cameras. Do they need to be IP Cameras or any other specific type?
bababouy - I thought it was going to be simple also, but when I tried to set up the wireless LAN with 2 cameras I have they would not work. I don't have the right cameras to work with a local network and no internet. I need cameras that don't require a company running everything through their server (I think that's the correct terminology).
Anyway, Thank You both. I'll read up on this some more and I'm sure I'll be back with more questions! :)
 
No internet is not a necessity.
Just a working LAN/Wireless network.

Lots of cameras out there that work on just a local network.
 
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Go with two Dahua cameras and a Dahua recorder. The cameras can be IP or HD-CVI. The recorder needs to be networked to your local router. This way you can record on site and stream video when you want.
 
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Yes. A delay of about 1 second is typical with IP cameras. I don't know if this is better or worse using a Dahua NVR than it is viewing by other methods. Or if HD-CVI cameras are better than IP cameras in this regard. @bababouy might know more.
 
You might be able to get away with just a good outdoor access point like this one: http://a.co/19b2Qfc

If there's nothing between your laptop and the access point besides the excavator arm/cab then it will probably work at 100 feet :)
 
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Thanks bp2008. That access point looks like a good one! I would probably put an omnidirectional antenna up on the outside of the excavator to make sure the signal isn't lost.
 
In my opinion, HD-CVI would give you better streaming in this case. You aren't looking for all of the options that an IP camera gives you over a HD-CVI camera. You need a camera to give you good resolution, be reliable, and stream nice and smooth. These are basically dumb cameras, you plug them in and they work. I think most recorders that you by now, come in a hi-brid form so if you wanted to add full IP cameras to the system, you could.
 
Anvil Creek said:
Thanks bp2008. That access point looks like a good one! I would probably put an omnidirectional antenna up on the outside of the excavator to make sure the signal isn't lost.
Click to expand...

Well you would be hard-pressed to beat the speed and stability of a pair of rockets (2.4 GHz version, as that frequency penetrates obstacles better) with high gain omni antennas within a few hundred feet of each other. It does cost more and isn't as quite easy to set up.
 
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@bp2008 ,
Personally I think the AirMax line of UBNT like the Rockets or even NSM2's would be easier to set up. Doesn't that UniFi mesh require controller software to be installed to set it up (but not to run) those mesh units? I know my UniFi AP-LR did.
 
Yes, unifi requires controller software to set up, which is a bit of a nuisance, but it also doesn't require mucking about with IP addresses. I was mostly referring to the extra work involved in mounting a radio and antenna on an excavator, feeding it power, making sure it doesn't drain the battery all night, etc.
 
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Thank You for all the excellent information. I will study it further and get something put together now.
You all have been very helpful.
 
Off-topic: if possible, can you post some footage, Discovery Channel must have gotten their "Yukon Gold" idea from somewhere ;-)
 
LOL! catcamstar ....we have actually been approached by a filming company, but No Thanks!!! We have been here at this property for 30 years and keep it pretty low key, just a mom and pop operation, but still have a multitude of agencies and paperwork to deal with so we don't need any extras around trying to stir something up! :winktongue: I have posted some videos on youtube so if you search for Anvil Creek Alaska and my user name is dancin1980 then you should be able to see 7 different videos on there.
 
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