3G Cctv - Anyone Had A Play ?

[emsgeorge]

Right then, where do I start .......

Got a project to do, which Ive worked on before, for different parts of it:

20 foot control room trailer. Contains desks, radios, computers etc, and cctv kit, both statics around the trialer itself, and to remote ptz domes.

The system itself is all good, pelco matrix, pelco kbd300 etc, and to 'a data' dvrs (one 4ch for realtime, 2 x 16ch for timelapse).

Client wants to be able to remotely view cctv on site (wherever the trailer is) back to their office, and also if needed, to a laptop they can give the police, so their cctv room can see whats going on at an event, if its out of reach of their kit.

dvr's are cabled back to a littleh nub, and this is where I am stuck. Usually, when we do fixed installs, the IT person comes along, and all I do is provide a cat 5 cable.

So, gathering from the internet, I will need some sort of '3g sim card router', a card which has a static IP address, (or will it need 3 addresses, as Im accessing 3 dvr's ?).

Anyone done this sort of thing before - there seems to be a huge difference in cards, and since the trailer is used for half the year, I assume they will want pay as you go data, so is there such a thing as a static IP with top up type sim ????

Is there something out there which I have missed, thats pre configured to have ports open, or is easy to open ports. I have done systems before for fixed installs, where getting the router to port forward was a nightmare.

[Ronnie]

http://www.nucleusnetworks.co.uk/mobile-broadband/3g-static-fixed-ip.htm

used these for building site job - worked perfect.

[Oxo]

Great link, saved for future reference.

[PSE]

You can also do this with a standard 3G network Sim and a 3G router that supports DDNS & Port forwarding

I'll try and dig out a link for one we have used in the past.

[Alpat Systems]

We have a number of 3G connected sites for CCTV/Access/data. We use Cisco 3G routers: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/routers/ps380/3g_solns.html

Depending on the clients needs we either go with VPN connection or into a "cloud"

We usually go with orange as a network provider.

[Aban-CCTV-Camera]

Personally i use a 3G capable router, with a 3G dongle

[Steve Howard]

Another, possibly more 'professional' option is satellite - depending on data usage. Have a look at the new 'Tooway' system that offers 10Mbit speeds down (and half reasonable up). Kit is £100s not £1000s although the bandwidth can get a little pricey.

 

The problem with ** any ** 3G based system  is when you are in a marginal reception area (or indeed even in the big city!) and there are lots of people hopping on 3Gat once for their phones/ Facebooks / ipads etc it dies to silly speeds -  ie at the kind of event that would warrant a CCTV trailer in the first place !!

[Joe Harris]

All good points raised so far.

 

I would also add that consideration should be given also to a fixed unlimited data usage plan which can be costed in to give consistent pricing.

 

Charges are much more reasonable nowdays and supplier coverage and reliability is improving fast in the 3G sector.

[richardthatcher]

We have a couple of building projects where we have no broadband and we use a solwise 3G router with three.co.uk sim card which is good for us as some builds are a few months and some are a few years.

 

With three we are not tired into any contract just a rolling month by month and we cancel 30 days before end of job.

 

Customer loves it but it does hit your pocket if you go over you allowence we use the 15.99 pm 10GB package.

[Joe Harris]

Remember that Three also offer the all-you-can-eat unlimited data package at £25 a month (30 day notice) if you want one less headache.

 

They are one of the better mobile data providers atm.