Question
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Topic
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Creating a moving network.
Hi
I was hoping someone could help me with an innovative solution to my problem? I’m a camera operator and use gyro stylized gimbal heads on cranes, vehicles, helicopters, rickshaws, basically anything that can carry our camera rig. We can control the movement of the camera wirelessly via a joystick from a remote control deck and receive an almost zero latency wireless video signal via a 3G SDI transmitter and receiver connected to the camera rig and to a monitor at the control deck. All of these systems work perfectly in line of sight up to between 500′ and 1000′.
The problem is controlling the internal controls of the camera. Normally there is a a touch screen monitor connected directly to the camera body with a MAX cable length of 10′. Once that is unplugged as the camera is mounted on the remote rig, we are locked out of the majority of the camera’s controls.
The camera, a RED DSMC2 Helium, has an internal “wireless system” with a built in antenna. There is an application called Foolcontrol that will connect via a network to an iPad on the same network and can control every feature on the camera… BUT it’s almost impossible to keep the iPad and the camera connected past about 10′ from the camera.
There are several network options in camera, one is “adhock” in which the camera creates it’s own network which is completely USELESS in the real world, it won’t stay reliably connected for more than a few seconds past 10′ away. The other option is “Infrastructure mode” which connects to a 3rd party network. This has worked much better for me using different wireless travel routers mounted directly ON the camera literally inches from the camera’s wireless antenna but still the router has to be almost touching the antenna. Some of the routers I’ve tried are:
TP-Link N300
RAVPower FileHub, Travel Router AC750
GL.iNET GL-AR300M
These are much better but still far from perfect, I get a more consistent signal to the iPad but all bets are off past 50′. There is one more option which I have yet to test because of it’s cost. RED cameras makes a GIG-E to Ethernet cable. In theory, I could connect the camera to the wireless router and bypass the internal camera wireless network?
I need a powerful wireless router, that is small enough to be mounted on the camera (and still remain in balance on the gyro), powered by a maximum of 14.4V DC from the gyro batteries with a Ethernet port. Any suggestions would be really appreciated, thanks!
