Does this exist?

[MonkeyK]

So I want to use my camcorder as a webcam, but I don't want to be chained to my server.

My camcorder has USB and Firewire output. Is there a way to go from the USB or Firewire output directly to some sort of wireless transmitter that can be picked up sent USB or Firewire to my server?


Hopefully this diagram will explain it better:
camcorder-->USB/Firewire--/ ~ ~ ~ ~ wireless ~ ~ ~ ~ /--USB/Firewire->Server

 

[phisrow]

There is, in theory, no reason why this couldn't exist; but I doubt it does at the moment. A wireless transmitter that can manage to transparently move 400 or 480 megabits a second at wire speed would be pretty tweaky indeed(especially if you wanted one end of the link to be battery powered and portable, though I don't know whethery you do or not). There are some wired extension products that might solve your problem, albeit less elegantly. http://devicebaystuff.com/opticis/optm4100tr.html a pair of those will cost a pretty penny(but probably a lot less than a theoretical wireless transceiver) and will give you up to 500 meters. Something like http://devicebaystuff.com/unibrain/unifwrep4.html that might well be much kinder to your budget and, assuming you don't need a huge cable run might work just as well. I'm not quite sure what the maximum length of a firewire cable is(I've heard 4.5 meters; but I've seen 10 meter cables for sale). In any case, a repeater box should give you somewhere between 9 and 20 meters of cable to play with. You may, if necessary, be able to daisy chain more than one repeater box if you need a longer run(though I don't know how deep you are allowed to do this).

 

[MonkeyK]

Good point on the bandwidth. I didn't even think about it. I would guess that 12Mbps would suffice though since that is the USB transfer rate (don't think the USB on my camcorder is 2.0). At that rate, 802.11a/b/g should be able to do what I want.

 

[phisrow]

Ah, if you can get away with lower bandwidth that might make things considerably easier. http://www.digi.com/pdf/prd_usb_anywhereusb.pdf Just grab one of those, plus any of those "wireless bridge" things http://www.linksys.com/product...p;scid=36&prid=602 or http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=241 or probably a number of others. It would be a little clunky, and not totally cheap, and the drivers for USB over IP might be pretty nasty if you are trying this on anything nonwindows; but it looks possible at any rate.

 

[MonkeyK]

Ya, I'm guessing that I would need to buy tow of the usb_anywhere things 2@$210 = $420. Makes me think I should be looking into a wireless webcam with night vision.