Wireless Access

The marketing department at my school would like to setup a webcam so that alumni can view construction projects in progress in real time. This is something we haven't really done before so I thought I would check here and see if anyone had any suggestions for a good camera.

We would be looking for something that is outdoor grade. A camera that could connect to our wireless network and play nice bandwidth wise. The web manager was thinking of streaming the construction using a website like ustream.tv.

Webcams are definitely something outside what I normally deal with but I figured someone here would probably have a suggestion on some insight on choosing one.

A  webcam converts your PC into a personal TV station, allowing you to broadcast video and audio to communicate, collaborate or share your voice with the world online.

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cpc

c.p.c

We have a wireless webcam in our office which connects to an SSID with a PSK but it's not outdoor grade. I'll post back with the make and model if you're interested when I'm back in the office which should be tomorrow..

James

Recently we installed several cameras for a similar purpose. We used an Axis P3343-VE which is a rugged outdoor rated camera which runs off a Cat5E + PoE link. While our deployment is wired at the moment, since it is just a outdoor webcam at that point it should be trivial to simply use an AP to bridge it. 

 

The gotcha for us as usual was the power requirement, meaning we had to run some cable even if we wanted to go wireless. Also, we would have needed an outdoor rated AP and antenna to go along with it. A switch closet was closeby so we just went with that this time but deployments with wireless backhaul are still under consideration and seem easy enough.