Have a friend (and I am curious now too) ask about running a camera on each boom for positioning in tight spaces. I know I can't do it with the Iftron Yellowjacket stuff since it has a single video in/out. This would be similar to say a security system, where you can view multiple cameras at once. His though is having a single large (12-16 in) monitor with the signal in being displayed in the 4 corners, and the ability to do one up, two up etc. so when he gets into position to do inspections he can make sure he is in a safe spot. Thoughts?
Ryan you would need one vid transmitter for each camera or some type of smart combiner box that would take the number of inputs, combine them and output a single signal. That said it sounds look an accident waiting to happen.
Right, I need to find the combiner that does not weigh 6lbs (most commercial ones I have found are for security systems) and requires 110v. On the accident front I agree, I told him why not just put laser rangefinders on the rear boom (the one I had planned are accurate to 5cm) and use that data. Don't let it go off until it is within 5m of something and set it up like the backup sensors in a car (which are ultrasonic), the closer you get the louder/more often it beeps. Vibration isolation works (tested for a Uni project) and I have flown one pointed straight down and they are quite accurate.
I bet somebody could build a little Arduino or Raspberry Pi thing that would combine 4 composite video sources into a single HD video signal, then use something like a Teradek Clip to send the HD video signal down. But there's certainly nothing commercial out there that'd do that off the shelf.