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Live camera, webdesign, and networking challenge rolled into one

Buddha Bart

Diamond Member
Ok, my work ( a college) is interested in a setup where we could make available on our webpage, a constant live picture of the campus green. Nifty idea, but the logistics are getting quite interesting, so I was wondering if any of you had any ideas.

First off, the camera would have to be on the roof of the library, its the only building with the proper height and vantage point. This provides for some issues:
-weather: it would have to be outside, and therfore probably in some plexiglass thing
-isolated: there's no way to get a network drop up there, just running a power cord will be a huge problem. So I'm thinking wireless-ethernet.
-camera: its pretty tall, so a regular webcam would just give a crappy blur picture from that high. What else could be used?
-PC: I'm pretty much assuming we'll need a seperate PC up there on the roof.

Our office is in a building about 125 Yards away. I've got One netfinity 5600 (p3-667, 256mb, scsi, etc) and probably another p2-333 box I can use in part. Plus in the long run this has to serve through our webserver, a G5 Mainframe.

What kinda camera do you think i'll need? Will wireless ethernet be enough? Are there any kits like X10's that would make this easier (i'm looking at their site now and none seem to fit the bill).
If wireless ethernet, what parts? I'm thinking one regular PCI card in the encoding box, and a full blow router/switch/base-station for the office (like the $240 linksys one).

ideas?

[edit] oh yeah, and what about remote controll? like being able to zoom or pan the camera without climbing up there and moving it [/edit]

bart
 
Do a search for webcam, streaming video or such. Find sites such as this one and find ones you like. Try to find contact information and ask those experienced in setting one up. One successful site has indoor cams with manual zoom. They do not use the typical webcams with lousy quality typically. Occasionally they have problems and have to resort to some black and white back ups on a few of their streams. They have the ability to stream 9 windows at once from 8 cameras. They have a chat link so you might be able to gleen some knowledge from Erik Vidal.

BTW this is not a porn site and I have never seen any nudity. The finances seem to be waining tho and there has been discussions of presenting a little debauchery to entice visitors.
 
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