The New Streaming Video with Sound is Great !

[Caitie]

  Thank you ! How wonderful it will be  to hopefully watch our Mariah and Kaver's gr grand eyasses soon taking their first steps and being able to hear their peeps.   Its much more special then any of the other Falcon cams because we have such a connection to Archer and his line. Way to Go !  

Thanks Carol lol and I knew that ugh doh.

[Carol P.]

Technically these will be M&K's Great Grand Eyases.  Archer is their Grandson.   

Thank you ! How wonderful it will be  to hopefully watch our Mariah and Kaver's grand eyasses soon taking their first steps and being able to hear their peeps.  Its much more special then any of the other Falcon cams because we have such a connection to Archer and his line. Way to Go ! 

[nwfloridafalconfan]

The streaming video is great, and it has finally enticed my lovely wife into sharing the falcon semi-addiction I have experienced for the past seven years. The accompanying staccato, twitterish  chat, however, makes me long for the insight and substance of the old yahoo-based forum postings. 

[Dumpsterkitty]

The streaming video is great, and it has finally enticed my lovely wife into sharing the falcon semi-addiction I have experienced for the past seven years. The accompanying staccato, twitterish  chat, however, makes me long for the insight and substance of the old yahoo-based forum postings. 

I personally haven't gotten involved in the "social streaming"...can't access it at work & it interrupts my video feed at home.  I'm sticking with here...the chat feature (when we remember to use it) works very well...and I've gotten used to the way this forum works.  When I have a lot of catching up to do I'l use the unthreaded version, which is more like the old Yahoo board-just takes a bit more scrolling since there's fewer posts per page...

[Lord G]

The streaming video is great, and it has finally enticed my lovely wife into sharing the falcon semi-addiction I have experienced for the past seven years. The accompanying staccato, twitterish  chat, however, makes me long for the insight and substance of the old yahoo-based forum postings.  

The social stream is really not geared toward insightful comments; there are simply not enough characters available.  It's true purpose is to drive traffic to the Ustream.tv website, since every message posted on the Social Stream chat is mirrored on one or more social networking sites, and includes a link to the video stream on the Ustream page.

Unfortunately right now it seems like there's a lot of speculation and outright incorrect information being posted on the social chat.  The problem is that new viewers might see it and think that it's accurate.  I suppose that's par for the course though, when it's open to anyone who wants to log on...

The best we can do is to direct people to the Forum, Imprints or one of our other sections for more in-depth information.

[imkakkingmad1]

Okay, so I can no longer say that I'm not addicted, as I AM, with the new streaming video!! And, boy it gives a whole new dimension to their dinnertime - ewwwww (yummy for them though!).  It's also great being able to hear them.

Helen P.

[Caitie]

The streaming video is great, and it has finally enticed my lovely wife into sharing the falcon semi-addiction I have experienced for the past seven years. The accompanying staccato, twitterish  chat, however, makes me long for the insight and substance of the old yahoo-based forum postings.  

The social stream is really not geared toward insightful comments; there are simply not enough characters available.  It's true purpose is to drive traffic to the Ustream.tv website, since every message posted on the Social Stream chat is mirrored on one or more social networking sites, and includes a link to the video stream on the Ustream page.

Unfortunately right now it seems like there's a lot of speculation and outright incorrect information being posted on the social chat.  The problem is that new viewers might see it and think that it's accurate.  I suppose that's par for the course though, when it's open to anyone who wants to log on...

The best we can do is to direct people to the Forum, Imprints or one of our other sections for more in-depth information.

You'd probably have a lot better information getting out there if there was information about the Falcons posted below chat along with the main websites address link. I see it on most if not all the other Ustream sites. I hesitate putting the home pages address in my posts because their are so many spam links claiming to be links to information about the Falcons being posted when they hatched using tiny url.

[rynnac]

Add me to the list of people who think that the streaming video is just wonderful.  I have envied other falcon cams who had streaming video for years, and now Rfalconcam has it!! 

Love it, love it, love it!!  Thanks to the camera jockeys, moderators, volunteers, and donors who all make it happen!

Nancy in UT

(this is my first post I think, I will no longer be an egg now! )

[Donna]

Hi Nancy and welcome. It sure is great to see them LIVE. 

[KapiVT]

Like so many others, I, too, am enjoying the new video with sound.  However, I'd like to take just a minute to enthuse over the new main camera.  The clarity of those images is amazing.  I enjoy both but, if I had to make a choice, I'd take the main cam.

I am curious about the focusing flexibility of both cameras for when the eyasses move out to the deck

Kapi in VT

[Lord G]

Like so many others, I, too, am enjoying the new video with sound.  However, I'd like to take just a minute to enthuse over the new main camera.  The clarity of those images is amazing.  I enjoy both but, if I had to make a choice, I'd take the main cam.

I am curious about the focusing flexibility of both cameras for when the eyasses move out to the deck

Kapi in VT

We're also quite happy with the performance of the new Main Cam.

When the Birdcam was run by Kodak there were requests every year to get a live video stream, but Kodak wanted the focus to be on the high quality still images produced by the Main Cam.  At that time (and indeed up until this year) the Main Cam used a Kodak digital camera (DC4800) to capture its images.  Video was an option but Kodak would have had to provide the infrastructure for it (video server, lots of bandwidth).  Since we were using the same network as the top-level executives, we were always limited in how much information we could transmit at any one time, so video was basically out for that reason alone.  Plus, I don't think Kodak wanted to get into the video streaming business just for the falcons.

As far as the flexibility of the cameras is concerned, the Main Cam is on a mount that can pan (turn)  at least 270 degrees and tilt nearly 90 degrees.  It has a 5x optical zoom lens, so the Main Cam can cover quite a bit of ground.  However, its control system isn't geared for quick movements, the camera/motor combination is fairly large (as you can see from PanCam) and moving it around has the potential to startle the birds, so we're likely to use it with some caution.

The cameras inside the nest box are fixed focus models on non-movable mounts so they won't change positions or framing at all.

Camera 1 is also on a Pan/Tilt mount.  It has a 21x optical zoom and its dome housing does not move when the camera does.  It has its own built-in web server, which makes it easy to connect to the camera and control its movements.  We mounted it in such a way that it can cover the whole of the nest box area, including the walls of the alcove in which the nest box is located.  It can pan nearly 360 degrees and tilt down 90 degrees.  It's only weakness is that it can't tilt up in its current configuration, so if the falcons perch on a higher part of the building we won't be able to use Camera 1 to view them.

[MAK]

    

[KapiVT]

Like so many others, I, too, am enjoying the new video with sound.  However, I'd like to take just a minute to enthuse over the new main camera.  The clarity of those images is amazing.  I enjoy both but, if I had to make a choice, I'd take the main cam.

I am curious about the focusing flexibility of both cameras for when the eyasses move out to the deck

Kapi in VT

We're also quite happy with the performance of the new Main Cam.

When the Birdcam was run by Kodak there were requests every year to get a live video stream, but Kodak wanted the focus to be on the high quality still images produced by the Main Cam.  At that time (and indeed up until this year) the Main Cam used a Kodak digital camera (DC4800) to capture its images.  Video was an option but Kodak would have had to provide the infrastructure for it (video server, lots of bandwidth).  Since we were using the same network as the top-level executives, we were always limited in how much information we could transmit at any one time, so video was basically out for that reason alone.  Plus, I don't think Kodak wanted to get into the video streaming business just for the falcons.

As far as the flexibility of the cameras is concerned, the Main Cam is on a mount that can pan (turn)  at least 270 degrees and tilt nearly 90 degrees.  It has a 5x optical zoom lens, so the Main Cam can cover quite a bit of ground.  However, its control system isn't geared for quick movements, the camera/motor combination is fairly large (as you can see from PanCam) and moving it around has the potential to startle the birds, so we're likely to use it with some caution.

The cameras inside the nest box are fixed focus models on non-movable mounts so they won't change positions or framing at all.

Camera 1 is also on a Pan/Tilt mount.  It has a 21x optical zoom and its dome housing does not move when the camera does.  It has its own built-in web server, which makes it easy to connect to the camera and control its movements.  We mounted it in such a way that it can cover the whole of the nest box area, including the walls of the alcove in which the nest box is located.  It can pan nearly 360 degrees and tilt down 90 degrees.  It's only weakness is that it can't tilt up in its current configuration, so if the falcons perch on a higher part of the building we won't be able to use Camera 1 to view them.

Thank you for that explanation, Jim.  At the rate the Dynamic Duo is growing, it is good to know we will not completely lose sight of them in just a couple of weeks. 
Kapi in VT