When Robert Ingram, an international agricultural development specialist, needed to keep an eye on his remote NSW property from Melbourne, he turned to Observant, an Australian company specialising in remote monitoring solutions.
Robert & Pam Ingram’s properties, on the Victorian and New South Wales border north of Orbost, need constant watch over the livestock water supply. Using his Observant system, Robert can use the internet, his laptop or SMS messages to keep fully informed, whether he be in Melbourne or a remote project location in the Third World.
Given the great distances involved, Telstra NextG was the ideal choice for providing the communications link between Melbourne and his Monaro properties.
The Observant system performs many key functions, allowing complete remote control, and greater peace of mind. At any time, information is relayed that keeps Robert fully informed about the level of water in his tanks, the water flowing out of the tanks and the ability to automatically or manually start and stop his pumps. If at any time, things are not as they should be, an SMS message will be sent to any nominated number. Taking full advantage of the NextG network, the system will also be able relay photos from a still image camera, showing a clear picture of what is going on.
Data sharing with partners is fully supported with the Observant system. Robert can authorise his local reseller, Peter Bright (father of Torah Bright, Olympic Gold Medal winner) from Monaro Water Services to log in to the web site, view data and receive SMS alerts. This allows Peter to offer excellent “local” support, despite being based in Cooma, hundreds of kilometres from Melbourne.
With Peter’s assistance Robert plans to extend the observant system to collect on-site weather and soil moisture data, which will be used to manage and control a drip irrigation system remotely. All data and commands to operate the system will be transmitted through the Telstra 3G network