Rainbow's bullet cameras are monitoring some of the finest racehorses in the world at stables in Kentucky, USA. The cameras are allowing breeders to observe mares during the crucial days of foaling and have been installed at several leading breeders by local integrator Barney Miller's.
A notable site is Glen Ridge Farm, Lexington, where a prominent breeder is using the cameras in nine stalls and reviewing images at night from the comfort of their home on a hard-wired system with a nine-channel colour duplex multiplexer.
Doug Hocker of Barney Miller's said, "The pricing of the Rainbow unit is competitive and this has meant that we can suggest multiple-camera solutions to clients without them baulking at the cost."
He continued, "The Rainbow bullet unit we're using has a 70° field of view which has proved suitable for this unusual environment, capturing everything that happens in the stalls. The camera can operate at F2.0 so varied lighting conditions don't pose a problem."
While some breeders choose simply to monitor the images others record the footage. The Vinery, a major stable in Fayette County, has connected the cameras to a Panasonic time & date generator and one of Panasonic's digital video recorders. (A Vinery-bred two-year-old colt recently sold for $525,000 at the world famous Keeneland Sales where the adjacent course stages the most important preparatory races for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
Lexington-based Barney Miller's is the premier authority in electronic systems integration across the Bluegrass region. The company provides concept-to-installation surveillance solutions, and as a business that has been family-owned since 1922 it is completely client-focussed.
