We’re going to be building a barn on our property in a few months. The simplest place to site this barn would be next to the house in an area that isn’t really very visible from any of the windows in the house, sort of a blind spot. But for a few reasons, that’s going to be the cheapest and easiest place to build. The main drawback is that I won’t be able to glance out a window in winter (we’re in Maine, so it’s cold and snowy) and check on the animals. But I was thinking that a simple surveillance system could mitigate that.
Here’s what I’m thinking. Either 2 or 3 cameras, depending on the cost (they can be protected from weather). Live streaming. I don’t particularly need recording, although I guess this could double as a real security system if saving the last few hours of video isn’t expensive. This will be close enough to the house to connect with the WiFi. There will be electricity to the building. I need to be able to see the streams from my computer and/or my iphone. I don’t need awesome video quality, but it seems like the cost of good cameras is so low now that it’s hardly an issue.
Can anyone give me a ballpark on what such a setup would cost? Thanks!
You could get a couple of IP cameras like this one up and running for a little over $200. You can view live video on your computer or remotely (i.e. on a smartphone), as well as having motion detection images sent to your e-mail. Image quality is pretty good, certainly adequate to see how the livestock are faring.
There are a number of cameras on the market. What I look for in reviews is both product quality and how good company support is (it can be a bit tricky at first to set up cameras, but the process is a lot easier if there are good instructional videos and tech support).
I like this system to which you can add up to 3 additional motion sensing cameras. You can watch/record from the included tablet monitor or connect it to a computer for emailing/uploading. But get a copy of the manual and read up on the specs and features before you buy - things like viewing angle (52 degrees) and effective range. Total cost would be around $500.
I have a $80 Foscam indoor pan and tilt camera that is mounted outside under an overhang. Although it’s not recommended, it’s gotten wet and spent two TN winters outside with no problem. You can view it live through a browser or smartphone apps, it has built in motion detection (which is annoying, you’ll probably want to turn it off) and an infrared light so it’ll work in the dark. An outdoor camera might be better, but there aren’t many cheap ones with pan and tilt.
with any of those solutions I would highly reccomend a separate router chained into your primary router so that home networking is not sharing bandwidth with the cameras and there base unit if you are recording. I have seen several folks with major speed issues after installing piggybacked on existing network infrastructure.
That’s one of the features I like about Lorex. A lot of their cameras (I think including what I linked to) use PIR sensors for motion detection rather than an algorithm.