Barn Baby Watch, or simply, ‘BarnBaby’ was originally created to provide a reliable and flexible way for horse breeders to share their foaling cameras on the internet.  With BarnBaby, a breeder can utilize the helpful eye of many viewers to keep an eye on the mare, and be informed of the mare beginning to foal.  Anyone who’s ever had foals already knows the value of this.

Putting your cameras on the internet is nothing new, but BarnBaby  makes the task easier and more reliable in the following ways:

• Your viewers are not limited to watching your stream on a smartphone.  It can be viewed on desktops, laptops, and tablets as well.  You can also connect your laptop to a TV as a monitor, and view your cameras on a big screen from across the room!
• Your streams are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  They never timeout, and you never have to reset them.  They are always available to view!
• We are USA based, and can offer assistance and answer your questions in a timely manner.
• We stock a limited supply of compatible cameras and adapters to get you started if you do not already have cameras in your barn.

Breeders of other animals can also benefit from BarnBaby.  If you breed cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, rabbits, or anything else, BarnBaby can make it easier.

You will need a good internet connection in your barn.  A wired internet connection to your cameras is best, but many newer cameras will work equally as well over a wifi connection if that is available in the barn. 

Of course, you’ll need cameras for your barn.  You may only need one camera for a foaling stall, or perhaps multiple ones if you expect simultaneous foal-watches.

And don’t forget about a power source to operate the cameras.

You may also need a Barn Baby Watch camera line controller (CLC) to complete the system.

Most digital ip cameras will work with Barn Baby Watch.  There a a few exceptions which are covered in another FAQ.  If your camera says it supports RTSP, RTMP, or ONVIF, then it will almost certainly work with BarnBaby.

Older cameras which used Adobe Flash ™ technology are also supported by BarnBaby.

If your digital cameras are connected to an NVR (Network Video Recorder), BarnBaby can pull individual camera streams from the NVR.

Analog cameras are supported as well, but they must be connected to a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) which serves as a connection point for the BarnBaby server to pull your streams from. 

BarnBaby can also work with streams from desktop broadcasting software such as OBS Studio™ and others.  This is not recommended however since it greatly reduces the reliability of your service.

Barn Baby Watch cannot connect to cameras that are part of a paid security-system package such as ADT®, RING™, SimpliSafe®, and other similar systems.

Now for the complicated part:
There are some Chinese-made ip cameras which are designed to be used specifically with their own smartphone app, and nothing else.  The confusing part is that almost all ip cameras can be used with smartphone apps, but not all of them allow access from outside those apps. We have no way to circumvent this.  The good news is that most ip cameras you’re likely to have do not fall into this category.  We can help figure it out if need be.

We cannot connect to cameras which are not yours.  Such as Surveillance cameras at schools, public buildings, street corners, airports, etc…  This may seem obvious, but we were once asked this some time ago by a client whose horse pasture could be seen on a highway department traffic camera. Nope – can’t do that one.

The BarnBaby servers have full support for your cameras with sound capability.
However, by default, we remove the sound from all broadcasted streams.  You will have to specifically request the audio stream to be active on your service if desired.
This is done for liability and privacy concerns.  The microphones on these cameras are very sensitive and can pick up many undesired sounds such as:
     A radio playing in the barn – posing a possible DRM violation.
     Your private conversation with the Vet.
     You yelling at the kids, fighting with your spouse, etc…

But if you require the audio, we are happy to make that work.

Note: Outdoor cameras with audio are annoying, as all you can hear is noise from the wind.