wireless video transmission

[Bob Worthy]

I have never used wireless equipment for video. We have always been able to
wire everything. I now have an application (RFP) that a portion of the
system will need to be wireless. Any suggestions on equipment? It was not
speced in the RFP. I am not afraid of cost for reliability. If cost becomes
a concern, I walk away from the RFP. Any installation pitfalls to consider
before I go through the proposal process? This is an exterior application
and the furthest camera will be approx. 1/4 mile (actually a little less)
away from the receiver. I will be able to accomplish a pretty good line of
sight. Is a receiver capable of transfering signal to a second transmitter
and retransmitting to a second receiver or is there a different piece of
equipment (repeater?) for this if necessary?

TIA
Bob W.

 

[accidental plumber]

Toy battery operated cameras claim to have a range of 300 ft at 2.4 GHz
and 1000 ft at 1.2 GHz line of sight. But in reality much less even
line of sight, to have a professional looking video. But a 1 W
transmitter, a not so small box, will easily be capable of 1/4 miles
LOS. The next thing is to use a bigger and better antenna to boost the
signal. I doubt if you need a repeater regardless of budget. A
receiver turns RF into TV signal only.

 

[Bob Worthy]

Makes sense. The first one that came across my desk was 5.8 GHz. I am going
to want to test this stuff but I don't want to buy seven different makes and
models naturally. I want to narrow the field from listening to people's
experience. Thanks for the input.

 

[accidental plumber]

I didn't notice any toys at 5.8G. I was going to mention that 1.2 G,
if that's legal in US, or the 800/900 MHz ISM band (free for all) is
preferred as far as range is concerned. 5.8 G has much less wall
penetration power compared to 1 G. But perhaps high frequency allows
directional antenna. The chance that anyone not at the line of sight
able to receive the security feed is low, and that it's hard to feed
something else to your receiver not at line of sight. Just guessing.
2.4 G is certainly a no-no as there are two many high power wi-fi
around, not to mention the microwave. But now the majority of cordless
phones are overly expensive at 5.8 GHz. That drove me to an internet
phone company, whatever they bundle would be wifi friendly.

 

[J.]

I have never used wireless equipment for video. We have always been able to
wire everything. I now have an application (RFP) that a portion of the
system will need to be wireless. Any suggestions on equipment? It was not
speced in the RFP. I am not afraid of cost for reliability. If cost becomes
a concern, I walk away from the RFP. Any installation pitfalls to consider
before I go through the proposal process? This is an exterior application
and the furthest camera will be approx. 1/4 mile (actually a little less)
away from the receiver. I will be able to accomplish a pretty good line of
sight. Is a receiver capable of transfering signal to a second transmitter
and retransmitting to a second receiver or is there a different piece of
equipment (repeater?) for this if necessary?

TIA
Bob W.

Try these folks for low to medium-end applications:
http://www.microtekelectronics.com/ This is the easiest stuff we've
used.

I've also used SmartSight for a number of applications
(www.verint.com) It's more expensive and harder to learn.

Basically, there are two different types of wireless. The first type
transmits the actual analog video signal at 900mhz, 2.4ghz, or 5.8ghz.
The second type converts the video signal to IP and transmits IP data
wirelessly including PTZ commands if needed. The 5.8 stuff should
handle your distance with no problem. You can use repeaters as well
to bounce the signals around obstacles if needed. Depending on the
equipment, you can have multiple video streams transmitted and
repeated by each transmitter.

A basic wireless primer can be found:
http://www.microtekelectronics.com/wireless101.htm