Livelook.tv Blog

Airport View of Loveland, Colorado has set up a series of airport based cam systems around Colorado.  The company sells four-camera systems for aviation applications.  I’ve seen lots of single cam systems at airports but this is sold as a professional grade solution.   To me it seems that it’s only a matter of time before airport weather information systems include a visual component.   At some point aircraft could even have on board views of the local conditions for landing as Wi-Fi becomes more common in the air.   I’m surprised there’s no legal disclaimer or time stamp on the images.  There could be issues if a pilot is relying on an out of date image.   I’d want the site to show a technical difficulties screen or something instead of an outdated image.   They’re on the right track and this looks like a promising business application of live image technology.

Since I’m not a pilot, I’ll just enjoy some of their views around scenic areas of Colorado.  Maybe the Telluride airport is next?

Starwood Hotels has an innovative new marketing site called roomwithaview.com.   The site has links to live high quality cameras at their properties around the world.  This is a neat idea although I’m having trouble using the site.  For some reason I’m not able to click the individual properties within the map.   I think a better interface would be something along the lines of the wall of tvs where you could see each view in a panel.   The world map doesn’t highlight the visual appeal of a live image.

A sample from their Grand Maritian is below.  This may be the first webcam in Mauritius.

Vancouver must have the best collection of high quality webcams of any city.   The KatKam is an all-time favorite of mine.   Other good cams include the Vancam and the KitsKam, which has a great archive.  The image below is a recent sample from the archive.

The Westin Bayshore has a great new camera overlooking Stanley Park and Coal Harbor.  A beautiful HD quality view of an HD worthy scene!  Vancouver is an amazing city to visit and will be ready with live views for the Winter Olympics.

I’m getting excited for a house swap trip to British Columbia this summer.  Of course this means looking for webcams in the area and right away I found a beautiful view of the Pacific in Tofino, British Columbia on the west side of Vancouver Island.   This great view makes me excited to visit Tofino.

Long Beach Lodge

The Long Beach Lodge has done a nice job integrating the webcam image in their site.  It auto updates and has a nice overlay with weather information.   The Mobotix camera gets a little washed out with bright sun but overall the image is sharp and has nice color.  The sunset image above is spectacular.  Thanks to the Long Beach Lodge for providing a great webcam.

Ever thought of setting up a webcam but been put off by the high cost of megapixel IP cams from Stardot, Axis or Mobotix?  All of these manufacturers make high quality products with megapixel images, motion detection, stand alone units and much more.  They’re great options for outdoor applications or other spots where you need a self contained secure unit.   But if you have a view where a PC or laptop could be safely left running you might consider a lower cost digital camera webcam.

Low cost digital cameras have terrific image quality compared to the very small CCTV lenses on the standard IP network cams.  A used Olympus digital camera can be found on eBay for under $50.   Combined with a low end used PC and some webcam software the Canon or Olympus digital cameras can produce outstanding webcam images.

Some examples of excellent quality digital camera webcams:

Teton Cam -  Driggs, Idaho

Kat Cam – Vancouver, British Columbia

Take a Break – New Zealand

What you need:

1. Olympus or Canon digital camera.  See the list of supported cameras first.

2. Webcam Software for a Windows PC.  Cam2Com and a newer company called SebecTec both offer software to control a standard digital camera.

3. Misc. – USB cable to connect the camera to a computer, power supply for the digital cam, a small memory card for the camera, maybe a small tripod or waterproof case for the camera, a PC and most important – a good view.

Both software companies offer good instructions about how to set up the webcam.  In my next webcam hardware post I’ll go into the details of how I set up an Olympus camera and the total cost of the project.

The Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort has been an all time favorite webcam.  The view over the lagoon is tremendous.  The resort would be a great place for a romantic honeymoon.  Who wouldn’t like to stay in an overwater hideaway thousands of miles from anywhere.   Their webcam is a little window to the south Pacific.   Thanks to the Pearl Resorts in Tahiti for providing great webcams at all their properties.   It sure makes me want to take a vacation!

On a side note here’s a cool view of Bora Bora from Satellite Imaging Corporation.

WeatherBonk.com was an early pioneer mashing up weather data with geolocated webcams.  

The site was launched in 2005 and was quietly acquired by The Weather Channel in 2007.   It’s not fully integrated with TWC site but you can often see the webcams featured on-air.  I’d guess they still have an issue using copyrighted webcam images without explicit permission.   It’s an interesting problem that I’ve thought about a lot with Livelook.tv.  It’s a great resource to locate and mashup webcam image data with other web information, but in the end who owns the images?   Weather Bonk must have been able to show the value of the mashup concept because it doesn’t seem like they had any other unique intellectual property or assets.   Many of the webcam views on Weatherbonk seem to come from the weatherbug API.  The Weather Channel should buy Weatherbug.com next if they really want their own proprietary webcam network.  

Congratulations to the Weatherbonk team.

I was recently checking out some Colorado ski cams in My Livelook and found some beautiful sunny views.  Arapahoe Basin has some new cameras with high quality images.  I really like the view from the top at snow plume refuge.  

Aspen Highlands is also looking great with lots of snow and sunny skies.  I wish they had a better way to directly access a preview image instead of forcing everyone to go to their site to view it.  

The webcam universe keeps growing with more amazing cams showing up all the time.  I recently found the webcams at Takeabreak.co.nz, a site devoted to New Zealand tourism.  They’ve developed a network of high quality webcams to showcase New Zealand’s scenic beauty.  The webcam network pulls visitors to their well designed accommodation and activity booking engine.  

The thing that immediately stood out about the webcam images was the high quality and nice overlay on the images.   A question about this was quickly returned by the CEO of Takeabreak.  They’ve developed a custom 8 megapixel webcam solution to maximize the image quality in all lighting conditions.  Check out the results on their webcam page or this sample image from the Hanmer Springs webcam. 

 Happy New Year, New Zealand!

You may have noticed livelook.com is no longer a webcam site.  Livelook recently sold the Livelook.com domain name to Livelook, Inc. a screen sharing startup company.  Livelook, Inc. has a really innovative product for easily sharing what’s on your screen.  If you’ve ever tried WebEx you know the lengthy download and setup for a new meeting.  Livelook has an easy product where there’s no setup or downloads, just type in a code on their website and you’re instantly sharing.  

The webcam site formerly found at livelook.com is now located at livelook.tv.   Look for some changes over the next few months.