iCam on private LAN (WiFi) with NO Internet access

[blueline]

Greetings,

I had pinned all my hopes on iCam to accomplish the following but it appears it won't. I have a LAN. The LAN has WiFi for local, LAN-only traffic. It's a completely private network. There is no Internet access whatsoever--just a LAN.

I need to use iCam to be able to share video/audio from one room to another. A presentation in Room A needs to be viewed in Room B (overflow seating room). But again, this is LAN-only and we have NO Internet access.

iCam on the iPad with iCamSource on the Mac works perfectly...if I have Internet access. If not, it cannot connect. I had hoped that because it "doesn't use iCam servers" and such, and is "peer to peer" that I could indeed be connecting iCam <-> iCamSource purely on their direct, private IP addresses, with no need at all for the Internet. Not so.

Is there any way whatsoever to set up, fake, or somehow "hack" together a connection so that iCam can use iCamSource on a private LAN with NO Internet access at all?

Thanks.

Blueline

[OUAnthony]

Unfortunately, for simplicity (for the masses), iCam/icamsource use a broker server to initiate the peer-to-peer connection...and there's no way to manually program in the IP address of the computer running icamsource. I, along with a few others, have requested this feature, but I don't think it's a priority since so few people have requested it. It sounds like you're simply wanting to display a live presentation from one room to another (without Internet access). iCam is not the best choice for what you want to do, anyway. I did a Google search and found this article, which may help you:

http://www.tecupdater.com/2013/01/make-free-lan-video-call-without-using.html

Also, if I remember correctly, Microsoft Netmeeting could be used without an Internet connection...although I have no clue if it will even install/work on any modern operating system. I think you simply call the IP address of the computer that you want to connect to. Obviously both computers would need to have Netmeeting running.

Those are all of the ideas I could come up with in a few minutes. It sounds like your LAN has an Internet connection available to it...it just isn't being shared currently. You could always enable the Internet for the LAN, but only for a specific program (ex: lock down all ports except the ones Skype use, which will allow you to make a Skype call--which needs an Internet connection for broker server purposes, like iCam).

[rjgvt]

What about just using a simple IP camera on the local network?

[blueline]

Thanks for the suggestions so far, and indeed maybe we should just look into buying a simple IP camera that can do both audio and video, and use that. But am I right to say that even connecting THAT to iCam would require Internet connectivity? We could use other software instead of iCam/iCamSource, I suppose, to use the IP camera with no Internet.

[OUAnthony]

Using an IP camera with audio is an option, but many of them have pretty bad audio quality....but you'd be able to view it in Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox and without an Internet connection. You would, however, get much better quality video/audio from a HD webcam with a microphone and connecting through the LAN...but that would mean you need 2 computers and LAN-only software for the connection.

This might be the best-quality/lowest-cost combo solution of all: Use a pair of composite video/audio baluns and some Ethernet cable to connect an analog  camera/microphone in one room to a projector in another room. The rooms would need to be within 100-200 feet of each other for good quality, I would think. You could use a decent camcorder that supports composite out (for monitoring purposes) as the camera/microphone in combination with a tripod...then you can rotate the camera as needed, and you'd have zoom capabilities (just gotta be careful not to pull the plugs out during broadcast).

http://www.amazon.com/Calrad-95-1140-Composite-Video-Extender/dp/B007T4HD28/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Or you could try a pair of USB 2.0 CAT5 baluns (very hit-or-miss performance per the reviews on the cheaper ones I saw) to connect a webcam/microphone in one room to a computer in another room...then computer connected to projector. The max distance between the rooms in this scenario would be even less than above...maybe 100ft max.

The quality of your cable can make a difference too. I believe CAT6 has slightly thicker wires, and will do a better job of transmitting signals and current.

[blueline]

Yeah in our case we don't have the option of stringing cable, essentially, but we do have a plan to test a 5 GHz microwave-based A/V solution that one of our people (an electrical engineer) has. That might do the trick. It just kills me that NOBODY makes it possible to use a nice, fast, ready-to-go wireless network to just get this done. It's all right there! But nope, always HAVE to have Internet access. Arg!