We wanted to post a quick update relating to the techniques we discussed previously about monitoring land with CCTV, where we mentioned using a baby monitor. It seemed to create a bit of confusion as we also talked about it giving an effective way to challenge intruders in the act, rather than discovering any damage several hours or even days later.

For farmers, malicious damage can be a serious threat to livelihood, so investing in some affordable technology is a very attractive ways to protect your income. The problem is, as some people recognised, video monitors record to their memory cards, rather than beam the data miles to the farmhouse.

Of course, if you’re within a hundred metres or so of your monitoring device, it will probably be within normal range. So, what can you do if you’re further away?

Well, some models will connect to wifi, so getting a powerful wifi router might solve your problem, but on a lot of farms that still won’t reach the land boundaries. This is where a different solution comes in, thanks to some great new monitor features. Following on in the same path that brought internet enabled monitors to be viewed anywhere in the world by smartphone apps, you can now find some that connect to mobile networks. Of course, you still need a mobile signal, but that’s far more likely to cover the majority of your land than any other connection method.

All you need (other than to buy a 4G monitor) is a sim card to connect it to the mobile network. Any plan with data included will do, but it’s a good idea to read the instructions to find out how much data you’re likely to need. In many cases you’ll be able to only stream the video footage when movement is detected, and the video is fairly well compressed and can be used in low quality – so it’s not like streaming a high quality movie from Netflix.