A Tale of Two Cheeses

[Dave Rice]

My Fathers Day was largely spent on two local farms looking at (and TBH mostly smelling) goats and some sheep in huge barns.

That’s the corner of one of the double 65 metre x 25 metre barns on one of the farms. Outside is the dairy where they make a range of Greek Cypriot products that involve milk in some way.

Whilst I could do with some help on how to cover the place where the camera mounting points are walls of overlapping movable plastic sheets on steel “I beams” (goat air conditioning) and the ceiling is 8 metres high, this is a “Tale of Two Cheeses”. They have very generously given me some Halloumi and Ricotta in both varieties (goat and sheep) and despite being a cheese lover I haven’t a clue what to do with them.

I am attending the IFSEC 2018 show at the Excel on Wednesday and will be engaging the best brains of the CCTV world in problem #1. Knowing that quite a few here have experience of more exotic fare (although I like to think I know my way around the spice world) I am looking for inspiration beyond chucking the Halloumi on the barbecue or making cheesecakes out of the Ricotta.

[Ed P]

I’m not sure what you see as the problem.

I get the impression that wall mounting is impractical, if so then ceiling suspension seems the obvious solution.  Either use a pole down from a roof strut, or go the sports viewing system using wire suspension. The latter may offer advantages in being relatively easy to adjust the camera position. link

[edit] Fry the Halloumi. It is the king of fried cheese. (nasty when raw) recipes

Try a Google on ‘suspended camera systems’ for other ideas.

[The Duke]

I too seem to of missed the question. But my king of cheese is American craft slices.

Nar it’s Gruyère, love the stuff. And obviously extra mature cheder.

[Dave Rice]

The question is what to do with the cheese, the cameras I’ll sort out.

ED, the problem with ceiling mounting is it’s 8 metres up. Just getting there is difficult and expensive.

[StevieP]

Dave, don’t know if you like garlic but my two boys love halloumi flash fried until it has a crispy crust, with charred bits, dipped in a really strong homemade garlic mayo. (Aioli, to the posh people only a lot stronger). Really nice, but smelly. Even better if done on a b-b-q, just lightly oil to prevent sticking.

Halloumi fries are good as well, have a selection of dips, tzatziki is a favourite, makes a nice starter or snack while watching footie.

As for ricotta, make a cheesecake, really nice with fresh fruit or berries.

[The Duke]

I could eat garlic mayo on everything. I don’t buy or make it, as I’ll eat it to quickly.

My fave is garlic mayo smeared on corn on the cob. Delightful. And garlic bread dipped in garlic mayo . I’m hungry now.

[Dave Rice]

Hsalloumi chips and dips sounds great for footie grazing.

[Richard]

This thread showed me how different tastes are. I am not familiar with Halloumi (and neither is the spell checker by the look of its suggestions), but I generally like most cheeses. A crispy one does sound an interesting prospect though I would hold the dip. While I quite like salad cream, mayo is strictly for others to enjoy, though our granddaughter would cheerfully live on it if given the chance. The idea of strong garlic with anything is one that escapes my understanding, partially because it gives me an endless thirst that can take days to quench, but it ends up masking the flavour of the food. That said, our vegan daughter complains that vegetables lack ‘flavour’ unless smothered in vegetable oil and almost anything else she favours this week.

So there is a diverse world of tastes and tolerances.

As for the camera issue, to be honest if you do not know several deployable answers based on your proven experience I am certainly not the one to make a suggestion or should that be guess.

[Dave Rice]

This one is out of my experience. I know what cameras I’d use if this was a normal building and had walls and ceilings to use! Off to IFSEC tomorrow, someone there will have done it before. There are some very interesting new panoramic cameras. Not fisheyes but multiple cameras in a housing where the picture is stitched together in the camera. So a view that needs 4 or more cameras now only needs 1 and only a single channel on the recorder. You can imagine the savings even if the camera costs twice as much.

[Ed P]

Side walls only look about 3 metres high (i.e ladder jobs) that is why my first thought was wire suspension; Unfortunately this is NOT a cheap solution ~£1500 link

It dos however offer a lot of flexibility and it may offer a trade-off in terms of numbers of cameras.

[edit] Back on cheese, when I was a European traveller the Cypriots swore that Halloumi was the most healthy cheese you could have being made from sheep/goat milk it was most like human milk (apparently you can give this milk to babies who are allergic to cows milk).

I don’t much like ricotta but it is another cooking cheese rather like cottage cheese. Might be a good substitute for yoghurt in mild curries!

[PlaneMan]

Dave, not quite the same as multiple cameras in one housing but my LG 360 Cam achieves the same thing.

Might be worth looking at something similar?

Link to some footage. Drag the viewpoint around for different angles, actual quality is way better than YouTube shows.

[Dave Rice]

Interesting, but no infrared for night time viewing.

[Tippon]

I reckon you need a couple of drones with wireless charging, and just leave them floating 😉

[Dave Rice]

I knew someone at IFSEC would have an idea. Our area manager at the suppliers worked on a similar idea in France but with chickens. 30x PTZ on a long pole, which we had thought of, but didn’t know where to get the mountings made.

[Richard]

Dave, having earlier said that the camera issue is outside of my experience, I now wonder if some of the lighting-standards i.e. column equipment might provide another direction to consider. They often have to meet difficult restrictions like you, require period access without vast complications, etc. Swing down columns with a lockable pivot nearer to the ground level as well as directly hoist-able lantern heads. Some come in small lightweight lantern and column types rather than floodlight a stadium or spaghetti junction size units.

[Dave Rice]

Funnily enough I’ve just been reviewing the photos I took and there is a 1.5m ish breeze block wall near enough to where we’d like to be (wherever we go one corner will be blocked by an internal structure). So rather than coming down we can go up from there with a robust 3 metre pole with a swan neck mounted 25 x PTZ on top. I think we’re going to go with wide angle cameras in each corner as well just for an overview, but there’d be room for another camera or two on the pole if needs be.

That’s that one sorted, now for the smaller barn that has nothing internal but does have walls things can be screwed to ? PTZ no good there as it’s unattended. Just going to have to be lots of cameras.

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