IP Camera long distance connection design?
 

I'm thinking someone here knows more than I can easily find on this subject.
Problem: Want IP camera looking at a vehicle gate that provides access to a property. The issue is the house is 1,400 feet (as crow flies) from the gate and there is a large hill in the way.
Assuming I will need a NVR, what are the options to connect to the IP camera? Wifi doesn't look possible (can't get a line of sight), pull coax? There is power at the gate.
I want to get notified when a vehicle pulls up to the gate and then see the image on my iphone so I can consider opening the gate.
Thanks for any guidance.

wow, 1/4 mile, that'd be a lot of coax! I'm sure hard wired is an option, and probably not a bad one as far as functionality.

Can you get power to the top of the hill?

I think wifi may still be a possibility. wifi camera at the gate with a directional antenna there. Repeater/bridge at the top of the hill possibly/probably with 2 directional antennas, then wifi at the house. Could you get line of sight like that, 2 legs?

a typical network run using category cable is only good for 100 meters (328 feet)...for longer runs, you'd have to do fiber, and since there is no copper, fiber would need a local power supply.

as @masraum says, there are some long distance, directional antennas that could get your wife out there, seems like that is the way to go.

@ blucille, Steve,
Good points/ideas. If I can run power to the top of the hill then I could go with two wifi jumps.
Or maybe have a solar power setup on the top of the hill to get power there. Would that work?

Solar/battery options are outside of my area of expertise, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a way to put a box on the hill with a battery and solar panel that could then power the wifi day and night and in times of no sun. I'm not sure what/how much battery would be required if you had a week of clouds and rain. Being in Cali, you may never have to deal with that. I'm sure you'd still get some power from the solar, but it would take knowledge about how much power was being drawn by the wifi, how much power the solar provides and what sort of power the battery was able to provide. Then of course, there's how you feel about it not working sometimes.

Yes, I was thinking of that. The size of the battery would probably be a function of the draw when there is no video traffic. I only need video when on demand or if the motion sensor picks up something. The gate is remote (almost dead end road), on a given day only the family traffic and UPS goes in/out. The wifi standby power required could be considerable. Good points. I'm now thinking a solar solution is too complicated - it could probably be made to work but too many things to go wrong.

Right, and I don't know if there's a wifi solution that will sit idle until needed, and for going that distance, even with directional antennas, you'll probably need the power cranked up.

I'm sure it's possible, but it seems like it may actually be easier to wire in the power. If the gate has power, and the house has power, and the power at the gate is coming from the house, then I would think the cable for the gate power might be able to be tapped for the power at the top of the hill. Of course, that may not be the case.

How far is the hill from the house? If you're going through the trouble to bury power to the top of the hill, why not just run fibre to the gate? You said there's already power there, seems like the easiest solution. You could even install more than one camera, one for a overhead view, another on the call box, plus a monitor on the call box, and you could video chat with whoever shows up at the gate.

analog coax rg59 will work just fine over 1400 feet, single camera but you need an amplifier...

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Fiber will be $$$$ due to the hardware needed on both ends.

I'm tempted to say put a cheap cell phone at gate and make it a wireless hotspot, connect camera to hotspot, and just route it all via the internet. But aside from weather/theft proofing the phone AND having it get signal (ie, can't lock it in a box) there are challenges involved since your home network probably won't have a static public IP, so you'll need some funkyness with a dynamic dns service, etc.

So the lest complex (technical wise) solution will be to run a fiber line to the gate from the house. Could be the more expensive solution too.....

Put your cell number on a sign by the gate and have them call and face time you. ;)

^ requires 110V AC power :(

Hang a disposable cell phone on the gate and have them call you... a video call if ya just have to see 'em ;).

I might be serious :D

Oops .... I missed this post :D

... you'll also need a trail cam
... so ya can see who stole yer dang cell phone :)

Analog cameras over twisted pair are good for just under 1 mile and can be powered over ethernet, PoE.

There are tons of cell-phone type game camera's now. I have lots of hunting buddies who use them for game and property security. Shoots a photo or video right to your cell-phone. I'm not sure of upload-download times. I'm sure there's a bit of a delay but not much.-WW

ps. Had a buddy over the other day, his phone rings and he shows me this big bull elk at a salt lick. I asked where's that at he says its in southern Idaho, which was almost 6 hours away...

^^^^ Assuming the delay/latency isn't too bad, that is an option worth pursuing imo.

This thread is gonna cost me .... I'm looking at cellular trail cams now :)

Appears the delay/latency is 60-90 seconds though... likely not feasible for a gate.