Aquarena divers caught on the underwater cam today

[bogrady]

Can anyone tell me why this cam is not streaming real time video? Is there not broadband available anywhere on the premises? Where does the underwater cable route to specifically?

Those are my yellow fins and my Zeagel octo in the camera shots.

The camera is an all volunteer effort graciously funded and hosted by Fox News Austin. All of the gear is provided by Fox and the internet access is provided by Texas State University.

If I understand it correctly, the camera itself provides a continuous broadband stream from Deep Hole up to a router in the Aquarena offices. From there it is picked up by the Texas State network and forwarded to a central Fox News corporate server in NY City which manages all of the Fox local affiliate web cams. The Fox server samples frames at regular intervals and provides them to the local Fox affiliates for their MyFox websites.

Shawn O'Shea produces a series of supporting videos that are also posted on the site. Taken all together, with the exposure that a nationally branded site provides, Deep Hole is getting several thousand dollars worth of free publicity every month.

A big thanks to Shawn and Fox News for making it possible.

 

[PeppermintPaddi]

Wow, they're kicking up more silt than you and Mary combined!

If you really get after the coonstail you can totally silt out. You ought to 'see' Jeff and John work by braille.

 

[Texas Torpedo]

Those are my yellow fins and my Zeagel octo in the camera shots.

The camera is an all volunteer effort graciously funded and hosted by Fox News Austin. All of the gear is provided by Fox and the internet access is provided by Texas State University.

If I understand it correctly, the camera itself provides a continuous broadband stream from Deep Hole up to a router in the Aquarena offices. From there it is picked up by the Texas State network and forwarded to a central Fox News corporate server in NY City which manages all of the Fox local affiliate web cams. The Fox server samples frames at regular intervals and provides them to the local Fox affiliates for their MyFox websites.

Shawn O'Shea produces a series of supporting videos that are also posted on the site. Taken all together, with the exposure that a nationally branded site provides, Deep Hole is getting several thousand dollars worth of free publicity every month.

A big thanks to Shawn and Fox News for making it possible.

I'll apologize in advance if I came across sounding unappreciative. That was not my intent, and I've followed the recent cam work with great interest. At times I enjoy keeping a screen open in one of my monitors and checking things out. I just thought considering the university was involved that bandwidth wouldn't have been an issue and a real-time stream would be easy. Apparently, that is not the case.

Just simple wishing is all.. I'm glad Spring Lake is getting the free publicity that it deserves, but could you imagine how many people might actually stay glued to it if a real-time stream were available? I don't spend a lot of time following real live streams, but the few that I have been interested in held my attention for some time.

 

[driftwood]

If you really get after the coonstail you can totally silt out. You ought to 'see' Jeff and John work by braille.

We gave Gary, aka Awap, his introduction to braille diving this morning at the worst site for silting in the lake, Ossified Forrest. Took us about one minute to go from 50' vis to 6". On the plus side, he knows how far divers can go when cleaning

 

[Texas Torpedo]

If you really get after the coonstail you can totally silt out. You ought to 'see' Jeff and John work by braille.

Now that sounds like traditional Texas diving..

Sorry Mary, I couldn't help but poke about a little debris in the most pristine water I have ever seen in Texas while diving.

 

[bogrady]

I'll apologize in advance if I came across sounding unappreciative. ....

Tx - I don' think you sounded unappreciative. I think you sounded curious. I had the same quesitons when I first saw the camera online. The feed at the center is live and streaming, so when I saw the frame capture result on the web I asked the same questions. I was looking forward to lazy afternoons waving to my mom and dad back in NY on a live feed.

I was surprised at just how complex and expensive it is to reliably distribute a national video feed from underwater. Just making sure the Nutria can't eat the cable was a challenge.

 

[scubashawn123]

Great questions and answers from the swamp. I so enjoy getting on Scubaboard and keeping up with the blog. Great group of divers.

I have been diving since 1974 when I first got certified in high school. What a great sport we share and anything that I can do to support everyone's efforts to promote the popularity of the sport of scuba diving, conservation of our water ways and the wonderful underwater world count me in.

Scubaboard supporters and participants seem to be on top of the current events in Texas and the Gulf when it comes to water. I appreciate all the participants who share on these Texas Swamp Diver blogs. Whether we agree or disagree we can always find mutual agreement that we share a passion and enthusiasm for the sport of scuba diving. That is why I bookmarked Scubaboard in my browser.

I believe we have a great active diving community in Texas and look forward to continuing to meet TSD's this next year. Hopefully, diving with them would be icing on the cake.

The underwater camera, housing, installation and cabling was donated by FOX news.
Since then (2008) maintaining it, fixing it, replacing it are all part of a volunteer program I help with to share the underwater world to the diving community and anyone in the public going to the website to view a freshwater spring in central texas.

I believe improvement is good. So if anyone wants to take over and provide the tools to stream video live. I am willing to introduce you to all the players and decision makers and provide you a vehicle to improve and enhance the experience we share with the underwater camera. If you want to get involved just email me at shawntv@austin.rr.com with your contact information and lets discuss your creative idea's.


Merry Christmas everyone, wishing you and your family all the best.

 

[carrielsal]

Shawn told me that right now the web cam site goes on average of 3000 hits a month, and he needs that number to grow next year to help keep the cam online. I have added a signature line to my SB posts with a link to the underwater cam. Maybe if other swampers would do the same it would help generate more hits.