Affordable Remote Jobsite Monitoring Camera(s)

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mkrenk

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Pleasant Dale, NE
Hello all,

We are an industrial electrical contractor that works on large industrial sites, such as grain elevators and other agricultural businesses.

We are often working with other trades and have work integration needs, such as burying conduit prior to concrete being poured, etc. Often we are not on site every day.

No matter how many questions I ask or requests I might make for progress updates or pictures, I know I am not going to get any notice of something needing to be done until hours before it is needed, if I am lucky.

Looking for an affordable subscription based pan/tilt/zoom camera that can be mounted at the jobsite and controlled remotely to allow us to watch the work on site. Some out there have camera costs around $4000 and hosting fees around $400 per month. Seems kind of high, wondering what people may be using and how it works for them?

Thanks in advance!
 
Maybe I didn't explain very well what type of projects we do, attached is a picture of one of our past projects. Much of our installation is underground, and there is much needed coordination during the period of underground tunnel and foundation excavation and pouring, as well as civil work that is happening on site. Once things are out of the ground, there is less coordination necessary and we are typically on site every day.

On these projects we are often the first there and the last to leave....but at times we aren't there every day until some structures get far enough along so that we can start running pipe, setting up our MCC buildings, etc. What we do is planned and shouldn't appear as an afterthought.

Projects like this are bid out, contractors are selected. We get together to refine the design and schedule with the other trades and move forward with construction. Often times there isn't a general contractor, it is the owner and they are absent. We know that we are a player in the game before the first person walks onto the field....so to speak. We are fortunate in that.

Scope consists of hundreds of motors, limit switches, temp and rotation sensors, as well as scales, lighting, etc....scattered throughout the site.

I realize this is a bit unique. This isn't just building a single building, it's building a campus almost. Lots of integration between the structures in terms of power, data networking, automation, etc.

What the camera would offer is a chance to see the progress of a foundation or tunnel, progress of dirt work, etc...so that we could plan our work accordingly, among other things.

Thanks!
 

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Ask the NSA for copies of their surveillance tapes. You KNOW they are watching us all the time, right? :p

Are you looking for something that can communicate without a network then? That's where the expense comes in.

You can get fairly inexpensive software for a PC or Mac such as iCam that can connect to most web cameras, and some are now available with pan, tilt and zoom like the Foscam that are relatively inexpensive. It's the "web" part that might be tough if a site is not built out yet. If you are within a 4G tower you could theoretically do it with a cellular data service though by using a 4G LTE Router that talks to the camera and routes it via 4G LTE to your remote site. Hardware would cost you a few hundred, iCam is something like $5, then you need a data plan from a Wireless provider, that might cost you anywhere from under $50/month to $150/m if you want to stream video as opposed to snapshots.
 
Sounds like you're looking for a daily aerial snapshot.

Maybe a cropduster would do it for you?
 
Here are my thoughts:

  1. When I experimented with this some years ago there was some latency between camera control and viewing the result. It ranged from not bad to absolutely horrible. Some manufacturers offered a website where you could schedule a "test drive" of one or more their remote PTZ units.
  2. E-mail "snapshots" every X hours. With a integrated PTZ camera, ideally you would be able to program different "views" from each camera to reduce the number of cameras required.
  3. Network -- If you're thinking about cellular, consider the cost of multiple pictures sent several times a day.
  4. Look at placing the cameras on the perimeter of the job site, as high as possible to keep from getting blocked (also keeps them from getting knocked around and having to be moved as the job progresses
I didn't do a lot of investigating and I never used them, but D-Link cameras appear to have most if not all of these features I mentioned.
 
mkrenk said:
Hello all,

We are an industrial electrical contractor that works on large industrial sites, such as grain elevators and other agricultural businesses.

We are often working with other trades and have work integration needs, such as burying conduit prior to concrete being poured, etc. Often we are not on site every day.

No matter how many questions I ask or requests I might make for progress updates or pictures, I know I am not going to get any notice of something needing to be done until hours before it is needed, if I am lucky.

Looking for an affordable subscription based pan/tilt/zoom camera that can be mounted at the jobsite and controlled remotely to allow us to watch the work on site. Some out there have camera costs around $4000 and hosting fees around $400 per month. Seems kind of high, wondering what people may be using and how it works for them?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

for the most bang for your buck, i'd use one of the drones that just came out a couple weeks ago....

dji phantom 4, $1,400

http://store.dji.com/product/phantom-4?site=brandsite&from=buy_now_frontpage

you can map a flight plan, set the thing out, and it'll automatically fly it, and
you end up with a 4k video, that you can then put up on vimeo, and anyone
can access it with a link. it's also smart enough to avoid hitting stuff.

you'd just need someone to charge it, and put it out to do it's thing once a day.
2 pm would be good, you'd get a job update every day, and a permanent record
of job progress.

and every other trade is in the same boat, you all are needing to know where
the progress is at. putting the stuff up on an enterprise membership to vimeo
would cost about $100 a year, and the other trades could put comments
on the day's video, so when you logged in, you'd see where everyone was at.
a private youtube, if you will.
 
Fulthrotl said:
for the most bang for your buck, i'd use one of the drones that just came out a couple weeks ago....

dji phantom 4, $1,400

http://store.dji.com/product/phantom-4?site=brandsite&from=buy_now_frontpage

you can map a flight plan, set the thing out, and it'll automatically fly it, and
you end up with a 4k video, that you can then put up on vimeo, and anyone
can access it with a link. it's also smart enough to avoid hitting stuff.

you'd just need someone to charge it, and put it out to do it's thing once a day.
2 pm would be good, you'd get a job update every day, and a permanent record
of job progress.

and every other trade is in the same boat, you all are needing to know where
the progress is at. putting the stuff up on an enterprise membership to vimeo
would cost about $100 a year, and the other trades could put comments
on the day's video, so when you logged in, you'd see where everyone was at.
a private youtube, if you will.
Click to expand...

Maximum speed of 44mph
 
mkrenk said:
Maybe I didn't explain very well what type of projects we do, attached is a picture of one of our past projects. Much of our installation is underground, and there is much needed coordination during the period of underground tunnel and foundation excavation and pouring, as well as civil work that is happening on site. Once things are out of the ground, there is less coordination necessary and we are typically on site every day.

On these projects we are often the first there and the last to leave....but at times we aren't there every day until some structures get far enough along so that we can start running pipe, setting up our MCC buildings, etc. What we do is planned and shouldn't appear as an afterthought.

Projects like this are bid out, contractors are selected. We get together to refine the design and schedule with the other trades and move forward with construction. Often times there isn't a general contractor, it is the owner and they are absent. We know that we are a player in the game before the first person walks onto the field....so to speak. We are fortunate in that.

Scope consists of hundreds of motors, limit switches, temp and rotation sensors, as well as scales, lighting, etc....scattered throughout the site.

I realize this is a bit unique. This isn't just building a single building, it's building a campus almost. Lots of integration between the structures in terms of power, data networking, automation, etc.

What the camera would offer is a chance to see the progress of a foundation or tunnel, progress of dirt work, etc...so that we could plan our work accordingly, among other things.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would expect another problem with this type of work. The companies I do this work with invariably require a non-disclosure agreement and are very picky about any pictures being taken. I think it is likely you would get push back for having a video camera pointed at the site.
 
mkrenk said:
Maybe I didn't explain very well what type of projects we do, attached is a picture of one of our past projects. Much of our installation is underground, and there is much needed coordination during the period of underground tunnel and foundation excavation and pouring, as well as civil work that is happening on site. Once things are out of the ground, there is less coordination necessary and we are typically on site every day.

On these projects we are often the first there and the last to leave....but at times we aren't there every day until some structures get far enough along so that we can start running pipe, setting up our MCC buildings, etc. What we do is planned and shouldn't appear as an afterthought.

Projects like this are bid out, contractors are selected. We get together to refine the design and schedule with the other trades and move forward with construction. Often times there isn't a general contractor, it is the owner and they are absent. We know that we are a player in the game before the first person walks onto the field....so to speak. We are fortunate in that.

Scope consists of hundreds of motors, limit switches, temp and rotation sensors, as well as scales, lighting, etc....scattered throughout the site.

I realize this is a bit unique. This isn't just building a single building, it's building a campus almost. Lots of integration between the structures in terms of power, data networking, automation, etc.

What the camera would offer is a chance to see the progress of a foundation or tunnel, progress of dirt work, etc...so that we could plan our work accordingly, among other things.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I know that site, I drive by it a lot. I also used to work for your employer back when it was only a two to four man operation.
 
How far is the site from the shop?

I'm pretty low tech compared to these other replies but is it possible to hire some high school kid to visit the site every so often and snap some pics for you? At least you could have him call you when he's on site in case you wanted him to look at something specific? Or even better, do you have a shop guy/parts runner that could kill a little time every once in a while by doing this for you?

I'm with Tom though, half the time I'm lucky if I get a call before the building is up. I always mention to the customer my labor and materials would of probably been cut in half if they had called me before the slab was poured, now it's all overhead lift work. Oh well.
 
If there is any plumbing or at least non sanitary drains - you need to keep in touch of whoever installs those as they are usually not as easily forgotten before concrete work is done.
 
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