Hello all, I’ve got a project that’s a bit different from the norm of FPV video on drones; I’m looking to do mobile handheld/backpack wireless video capture in forested and mixed light urban (a few buildings, mostly clearings or trees) environments.
The video link does not need to be rock solid for my application, but glitches would ideally be minimally intermittent and short lived as much as is reasonably possible. This is not for a studio grade working environment by any means, but I’m aiming for as much quality as I can squeeze out of the system at a “step above regular hobbyist” price range; I’m willing to throw money at it for the last 5% performance, but not to the point where I’m dropping more than $600 or so. At that point I could buy closed systems that (in theory) would work. I prefer Open Applications when possible though as there’s a way to actually fix things…
Local recording will be utilized on the camera as well, but my goal is for the ability to broadcast live on Twitch, FB, etc. in passable quality. A local cellular link on my body won’t do what I need unfortunately for a few reasons outside of the purview of this post.
Current expected requirements/what I assume I’ll need:
- 2.4ghz for better brush penetration than 5ghz; I’ll be using this far away from any congested RF environments… well, aside from handheld radio, but that’s essentially only GMRS/FRS bands in use in the area, so shouldn’t interfere much directly (resonance possibly?).
- 19 dbi 80° patch panel on ground with 2.5w booster (+≤12dB receive gain, +14-17dB TX gain), as well as secondary 12dbi omni for closer use. Hopefully will work for me without active tracking, although active tracking may eventually be implemented if I get bored.
- 12 dbi omni on handheld system.
- Looking for at least 1,000’ brush penetration, preferably 2,000’+
- Would prefer 1080p, but will readily use 720/30 if required for stable connection. Lower glitches and tearing is preferred over higher resolution at the same bitrate.
- I’ll ideally be using a GoPro 9 Black (for hypersmooth 3.0) with a USB connection, which should act as a regular webcam with audio I believe. Alternatively I could use a HDMI to USB capture card if that combination supports audio and USB webcam does not, otherwise last resort is a HDMI to CSI and USB microphone.
I’ve been able to get an 800’ 20+mbit link through ~520’ of dense trees (see picture below) with two 600mW 12dbi patch antennas on 2.4ghz in the past (pair of cheap wifi “point to point” links that… were rather bad at being actually directional), so I’m hoping that with a higher dBi directional on RX + omni on a 1.2 or 2w tx combo I could get somewhere in the 1,500’+ range.
Does this seem like a realistic goal for OpenHD? If anyone has done ground stuff and achieved decent ranges I’d love to hear what hardware you were using. Or you can just call me nuts, which is also valid because this project is a bit nuts!
Cheers!
EDIT: Antennas theoretically located, post updated with specifications as such.