Stall camera suggestions

[smoofox]

Foaling season is around the corner here - and I need to replace our old Swann cameras with something far more high tech that I can even check on my cell phone. I am wondering what system others have used and how well they work?

The old Swann cameras work via cable that runs from the barn, across the arena rafters and into my barn apartment. I have a small separate little TV that is attached as a monitor. This system is positively prehistoric by now - although it has served us well through foaling, colics etc.

Ideally I will have 3 stalls covered as well as the aisle main aisle.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Yes, I have been googling but first hand experience in real life situations can tell you a lot more…

[Critter]

If you have wifi access to the barn area, then Blink cameras are super easy and work great. The outdoor cameras have very good night vision. They are also battery operated, so easy to move around to different stalls. We ended up paying someone to do the set up to broadcast our wifi to the barn (direct line of sight several hundred feet away from the house). Once we had that, the camera set up was easy.

[dqtastic]

Agree with Critter - Blink cameras are the way to go if you have wifi. And so flexible! I managed to set mine up alone and really enjoy being able to keep an eye on everything (and speak if need be - fun for when hubby’s feeding!)

[smoofox]

The wifi in my barn apartment does not seem to penetrate to the barn itself. Metal siding everywhere may be a factor?

[Critter]

Might be the metal…but you can probably run a cable from the barn apartment to a router in the barn area. I am not exactly sure on the tech set up. We have the router in the house that is wired to a signal broadcaster…there is another on the barn that gets the signal and that is wired to a router inside the barn. That gave us great wifi in the barn and then we just set up the blink cameras. You could probably get someone to run the barn apartment wifi into the main barn area. I would think that should be fairly simple.

[TheJenners]

I have a metal barn 200’ from my house, I got a booster and my Arlo works fine inside. Probably not INSIDE the tack room but a camera lives fulltime in my barn.

[clanter]

@smoofox

The wifi in my barn apartment does not seem to penetrate to the barn itself. Metal siding everywhere may be a factor?

look at the device is it 900MHz or 2.4GHz or 5GHz?

We do a lot of wireless security within buildings we have to use 900MHz devices to get through walls, floors and elevators shafts. It is counterintuitive to reasoning as one would expect the higher the frequency the greater the penetration, but the short wave length works better in a building.

Open air, the shorter wave lengths preform better … at least in our equipment which works on WiFi connections.

[smoofox]

Thanks, @clanter - I will check. You are right - it seems counterintuitive!

Has anyone used these cameras - or know anything about them?

https://www.barnwatcher.com/barn-cameras

[clanter]

I have no experience with barn cameras all of our work was security

If I were adding cameras to the barn I would make sure the camera would automatically switch from Color to Black & White in low light levels. In low light situations B&W has greater definition

[smoofox]

Good point, clanter - thanks! Our current old cameras switch to night vision but if they also went B&W, the picture would be better/clearer.