Stall cams?

I've been on the look or for a good stall camera that I would be able to pick up from within my house. I know that cameras come in a huge variety: ones that take a picture every minute to fifteen minutes, ones that are wireless or wired, ones that have good quality of picture and ones that have night vision etc.

Anyway I was curious if any of you have anything like this in your barn and what kind of equipment is it like. Such as do you pay a monthly fee for it? Or is it hooked up and wired to your house?

A lot depends on the distance from barn to house, picture quality, wired or radio, etc...
A few things I can tell you are..you will need either a monitor dedicated to your video cam pictures, or there are ways to have it on your computer. If your house and barn are not far from each other, wired can be cheaper and more reliable.Also, as barns are never climate controlled, you can have Issues with camera fogging/ moisture, shortened camera life, etc..Also, you will need to ensure the Horses cannot get to the camera, wiring, etc..It will get destroyed.
You can get packaged systems, with multiple cameras, camera switcher, monitor, the whole thing...You just have to figure out what you want to spend, who will set it up for you, if you do or do not need audio (live sound from the barn) and a few other things. The best advice (free advice anyway) I can give you is to look up everything on the web you can, and see what you can learn about your needs, and then decide whats best for you...

It is very doable, and I have video all over the place but, it's one of the things I have been doing for a living for years.I have had live video/audio going years ago for foaling, works great...
The picture will be "streaming" this way, or real time, much like you would see in normal video-security systems..and yea, night-time lighting can be an issue, but higher-end systems are far more sensitive to low light, and the product descriptions will tell you how low light they are capable of.
There is just so many variables to this that, getting a little education about the systems will pay off for you later on for sure.

One cheap solution I've used for a sick horse was a baby monitor. Now they have pretty good quality baby monitors with night vision and everything completely wireless...so long as your house isn't that far away. Of course they don't record...but you can look over at your nightstand every now and then and see whats going on.

What would be the primary use you would need the camera(s) for?
IE: One stall, a few stalls, foaling, security, etc..

How far is the room you would have the receiving monitor in from the barn?

This would give me a better Idea of what might work for you...

I've been interested in this as well and haven't been able to find anything on how to go about it. Sort of like the marestare cams.

I'd love to do a stall cam where I board. I'm two miles away.

Yeah same with Solon. I board at a place about fifteen minutes from my house and the owners there don't care if I put up a camera or not.

This is an interesting idea I've never considered before. Do you use it as a precaution if a horse is sick? My only concern would be putting it up high enough so the horse doesn't accidentally bust it.

It seems that the need here would be remote capability. That vs. being on the same property as the camera.

The most inexpensive (yet still a little expensive) way to do that is a remote (live streaming) web-cam..Where it gets more complicated (and more expensive) is you would need another computer (or laptop) at the farm, as to enable the cameras audio/video signals to be processed and sent over the net to your computer. The farm would also need high-speed internet access (most farms near me have it)

The advantages are, you can have nearly any camera you want (including remote controlled pan/tilt/zoom, like the casinos and stores have). You can be password protected so only you can view the camera, and you can go to anywhere you have the internet, and watch there too...even vacation..

So like everything else where our Horses are concerned = $$$$$
In this age, nearly anything is possible...Depends what you wanna spend..

-Lw

I would like it just to see my horse. Whether I was on vacation or at the office or even at home. Of course the camera would be up high, similar to what they do on the MareStare site with their cams.

Thanks for the info loosewolf!!

You are most welcome..

The set-up of the equipment can get involved, but certainly not impossible..It is done all the time..
One way, is if you have some free time, is to look at the online catalog sites to see what the equipment looks like, and costs roughly involved..That would give you just a little more info.

One such site is "B and H" camera, located in NYC...they have everything from amateur level gear, through professional. I buy most of my online equipment from them...Just one place to go look around anyway.

If I can be of anymore help, I will be looking in from time to time...

Lw