Today we installed a CCTV camera into the belfry. The camera will be useful when training new band members.. This is a temporary installation to work out the best location for the camera, and to test the camera operation.
The CCTV camera has a night-vision mode which should allow us to use it without turning on the light in the belfry. The power for the camera is carried from the ringing room, so we can turn it on and off downstairs.
As a temporary measure, the camera is screwed into a piece of wood propped in the corner of the room. The camera is pointing at the 3 bell.
The camera is connected to the ground floor using the spare Cat 6 cable we installed when we were wiring up the simulator. This connects into a video balun and a video converter box to convert the CVBS signal into VGA suitable for the screen we have. A power injector is also connected tot he Cat 6 cable to feed power up to the camera. We have a VGA switch to allow us to switch between the camera and the laptop we use for the simulator.
The camera gives a pretty clear image in daytime, but we need to test how it performs in the dark. We also need to experiment with positions and viewing angles.