4/12/2016 | Charles Barreca, the Duke Farms staffer who takes care of all things Eagle Cam, explains how the cam works for folks who want to know more about the technical side of the cam: The control is pretty much me at a computer looking at Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. The camera itself is fairly standard now, the camera is a CCTV IP (closed-circuit television, Internet Protocol) camera that connects directly to the Internet like many other security cameras today. Controlling the camera is as simple as visiting the cameras IP address and logging in as if it was a website. From there I can control all the camera settings (like aiming, focus, zoom) with my mouse and keyboard. The control part is easy, but getting the video from the IP camera to Ustream is a bit more difficult since it requires a PC to log into the IP camera and then re-stream it using Ustreams software.
If there is ever an Internet connection issue on the PC, the Ustream software on the PC can crash and cause the camera to go offline. This is an easy fix if a bit inconvenient, especially during weekends when staff arent up in the office and we have to log into the PC with remote software to reset the Ustream software. The more dire and undesirable crash occurs when the IP camera has no connectivity to the outside internet, which could come from a power failure. The old systems analog to digital Ustream encoder read the analog cameras video signal directly and streamed directly to Ustream using dedicated hardware which was ironically more stable than the current setup (there was no weak link such as a software program that could crash). We are looking into solution to fix the crash issues and stability has improved from when we first set up the system in late 2015.
Tomorrow: An interview with Eagle Cam Maestro Charles Barreca.