Interview with Todd Vohs of Holstein AG Services About IP Camera with WDR
by Virginia Fair
In our thirty years of being, Kintronics has had the pleasure of doing business with the armed forces, the education sector, library systems, and businesses of every stripe and niche, not to mention quite a few enterprising individuals intent on monitoring such natural phenomena as:
- salmon swimming upstream
- seals in underground caves
- eagles nesting in trees
- Hawks perched in New York City’s famed Washington Square.
However, we rarely get a chance to see any of our IP cameras in action once they leave Kintronics. That was, until we had the pleasure of doing business with Todd Vohs of Holstein AG Services. He’d consulted with Keaton Baker, one of our sales engineers, in February, for suggestions about a camera that would help him overcome lighting problems he was encountering in monitoring his warehouse out in Iowa. Keaton recommended an IQ862, a camera with Wide Dynamic Range.
WDR
If you recall dynamic range is a measure of the minimum and maximum amount of light a camera can process per frame. A camera with wide dynamic range can capture details in a field of view which encompasses a wide or contrasting range of lighting conditions; brightly lit areas as well as darker ones. A nighttime hotel or apartment building entrance where entering guests or residents are filmed at the intersection of the brightly lit lobby with the dark street is one example. A parking garage where the bright headlights of cars are constantly altering the levels of light is another case in point.
In such conditions a camera without WDR will either capture the details of the darker area, burning out the bright area in the process (overexposure), or make the bright part visible but lose the details in the darker area (underexposure). On the other hand, an IP camera system with good WDR capability is able to process both extremes at the same time, capturing all the details in one image.
But as they say, one picture is worth a thousand words. Mr Vohs purchased the IQeye Sentinel IP camera, and so pleased was he with its WDR capabilities that he sent Keaton before and after pictures, along with his own commentary:
Hey! This one works when I enable the WDR setting. Here is a pic without WDR setting and the door open with the sun blaring in.
Without WDR
Same thing with WDR enabled. This is what I was looking for!
With WDR on
Intrigued that a customer would be so satisfied with the results, that he’d take the time to share the results, I decided to find out more. I went to Keaton and learned that there is a back story here.
In 2012 Vohs had purchased an IQM32NE Alliance MX outdoor dome IP camera, and had been perfectly satisfied with it until this past winter, the never-to-be forgotten 2013-2014 year of the Polar Vortex. The Alliance which is rated to stand up to a temperature range of -4 degrees F to 122 degrees Fahrenheit actually froze. And oh yes, by the way, it was mounted inside Vohs’ Holstein AG Services Warehouse. So he turned to us once more and taking Keaton’s recommendation purchased the IQ Sentinel megapixel camera with an outdoor enclosure. It has a temperature rating of -22F to 122F. He also purchased TruView video management software to complete his IP camera system.
But let’s hear it from Mr Vohs himself, who, when I contacted him to find out more, was gracious enough to grant me an interview.
Kintronics: Thank you so much. I know your time is precious so I’ll get right to the point. What is your main objective in setting up the camera?
Vohs: My office and warehouse are not in the mainstream area of our town of 1400 people. I have a lot of pickup/deliveries of product and needed a way to “verify” what is going in and out. I use the cameras for different aspects of monitoring and aligning machinery.
K: What area did you want to monitor?
V: I have a warehouse, office and bulk seed equipment. I wanted to monitor the people going in and out of the office and warehouse. I wanted to verify alignment of equipment when customers bring their bulk seed tenders and also when I am using the system.
K: Do you view it from off-site?
Yes, I have a Cisco VPN into my site and can access the cameras via an app called IP Cam Viewer but also use the TruViewIP Monitor station for reviewing stored video. I can access via mobile phone, laptop or any IP device with a browser once VPN is established.
K: I know you are particularly pleased with the advanced WDR capabilities of the camera, the IQ862WE-W2 Sentinel. Are there any other features you especially like about this camera?
It has quite a bit wider view than the 32N. So much so that I will probably have to lower it a little since there is a pipe it is picking up on the left side of the screen that the 32N did not.
K: Are you still using the Alliance? If so, where?
Yes, I moved it to the office where it is better suited anyway.
K: I’ve studied your website, and see you provide quite a full line of services. But being a city slicker I’m slightly overwhelmed and stumped as to how give a synopsis of your business for the newsletter. Maybe it would be easier. If you tell me what would you like “the world” to know about Holstein AG Services LLC?
AG Services LLC assists growers from planting the right product on the right acre in the right place at the right time and managing those products through the growing season by offering consulting services for management of disease and insect pressures but also by monitoring how and where the seed is placed, how to leverage markets through crop insurance and how to preserve the crop up until end use.
To that end, we are a Dupont Pioneer Hi-Bred International Sales Agent as well as a Milborn Seed Representative and we sell hi-bred seed corn, alfalfa, soybean, sorghum seed, hay, oats, rye, pasture mix, and a soybean seed treatment that includes a fungicide, insecticide and inoculants We also offer federally licensed crop insurance and a full-line of Multi-peril and Crop/Hail policies to area growers through Rain & Hail
K: Lastly, please tell us about your drones, that fits right in with one of our latest Kintronics blog posts
Weoffer crop scouting services during the growing season and, depending on FAA regulations, have the capabilities to utilize drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(s) for crop scouting via near-infrared imagery and other technologies currently in the market place.
Kintronics sells IP camera surveillance systems with infra-red illuminators as well as wide dynamic range. Should you want information on these, IP access control, or IP intercoms, call us at 1-800-431-1658 in the USA, or 914-944-3425 everywhere else, or fill out an information request form.