Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best, other times it takes a little bit more hardware and patience to achieve good results.
In a perfect world we would have ducts between all of our buildings with data links in between be it fibre or copper. Unfortunately this is the real world where the duct’s aren’t there, breaking concrete and cutting trenches isn’t feasible and network connectivity is still required.
So what’s the alternative, well there’s plenty. Our go to solutions are normally point to point networks. There’s also the option of a mesh network but in this case due to the layout of the site it was not possible.
With cabling ran from the main broadband router throughout the first shed to the first point we then hopped wirelessly to the calving pen. This second point was then ran back to a network switch to allow an internet connected calving camera to be used as well as allowing for expansion in the future.
From the switch in the shed we fed the Litebeam pictured above which allowed us to hop to the final shed where we ran cabling back to the automated feeder to allow remote features.
Obligatory shot of the MacBook whilst we waited on the link coming online. (Yes it is running Windows and yes we do carry a laptop too but the battery is slowly degrading)
Overall a nice solid connection with a clean and simple installation.
