Live Video over the Internet

[msimone]

Hello all -

I've been a lurker at Tek-Tips for a short while, but usually on different forums, so I apologize if this is the wrong forum for this post. Please be gentle

The company I work for has three small branch offices all about one or two hours from our main office. Our president wants to be able to see what is going on in these offices _live_ from our main office. His specific vision is to have one person here sitting in front of a bank of monitors watching all of them at once. (Along the lines of a casino, James Bond villain, or prison.)

We got some bids from local security camera vendors, but they were too pricy for us. So I set up a test at one of the offices with a TrackerCam system on a PC that we could view over the DSL connection. The video was too jerky for us. So I got our ISP to bump up our DSL for a couple of days, but that wasn't enough improvement. Which threw us back to the vendors. However, our vendors are starting to balk at running multiple streams through one pc to view. What they've suggested is an iRec server made by Webgate, which apparently has fairly high requirements for the client viewer.

Does anyone out there have any experience with Webgate, epecially with viewing multiple stream on one machine? I'd prefer not to have to go to (3 offices x 2 cameras each) 6 pc's if we could use less. Also, if there is another way to get to the same point I'd love to hear about it.

I appreciate any help I can get with this project,

Mike Simone

 

[MasterofNone]

There are a number of CCTV systems available which might be of help. Using a dvr unit which is IP compatible it should be easy to monitor a number of camera's simultaneously, although not sure what quality this would produce. Maybe a local vendor might me willing to show you a demonstration.

http://www.geovision-uk.co.uk/

http://www.camerasecuritynow.com/pcVideoHm.asp

Have no links to above companys, only attached as example of what I mean. These systems are designed for cctv broadcasting across the internet to remote offices.

 

[N4GMU]

Have you heard of and seen a demo of the new cam, SmileCam??

I have had as many smilecam shots on my screen as will fit. Running WINXP Home and not a hickup.

You can view these cams from ANY web browser and any PC. It can be password protected and works just fine on a standard DSL connection.
Use your computer mouse to click anywhere on the image and the camera will instantly reposition itself up to 300° horizontally and 60° vertically, so you can see parts of the room that wouldn't be visible from a stationary camera, like the floor, ceiling, or far sides. And unlike other remote-monitoring systems out there, this one DOES NOT require that you have to pay a monthly service charge, apart from the broadband Internet connection that you most likely already have. The purchase price of the camera is all you have to pay!
Drop by my web site and see what I am talking about.

http://www.webspawner.com/users/n4gmu/

Good spying

Dave