New Maroubra cam?

braudulio's picture
braudulio started the topic in Tuesday, 29 Oct 2019 at 1:17pm

Nice resolution, but no pan?

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Tuesday, 29 Oct 2019 at 5:29pm

Yep, upgraded cam, ahead of an NBN upgrade due in the next week or so. And the new cam is fixed (so, no pan/tilt/zoom).

But (at some locations), we are replacing PTZ cameras with multiple fixed cams, which will allow better surfcam monitoring (no more camera moving away as the set approaches!). 

braudulio's picture
braudulio's picture
braudulio Tuesday, 29 Oct 2019 at 5:42pm

Mmm. Am a little conflicted over this development. On one hand it doesn't show me the part of the beach I would normally surf. And on the other it doesn't show anyone else the part of the beach I would normally surf.

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Tuesday, 29 Oct 2019 at 5:56pm

FWIW, pan tilt zoom cameras are overrated for many spots. Twenty-second segment viewing at narrow sections of the beach doesn't necessarily capture as much useful information as you'd think.

braudulio's picture
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braudulio Tuesday, 29 Oct 2019 at 6:02pm

Wasn't meant as a criticism. For me personally 20 sec is all I need, am only using it really to check crowd level and lineup position.

'Spose I could just ride the skater down and check it like the old days.

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Tuesday, 29 Oct 2019 at 6:06pm

I'm very much looking forward to the image quality improvement once it switches over to NBN.

braudulio's picture
braudulio's picture
braudulio Tuesday, 29 Oct 2019 at 6:08pm

Hope the NBN switch over goes better than ours. Now up to the fourth attempt and still no joy.

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Tuesday, 29 Oct 2019 at 6:11pm

I've done more than sixty of 'em over the last few years. I could write a book with all of the shit I've had to endure. Maroubra in particular has been a huge pain in the arse.

braudulio's picture
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braudulio Tuesday, 29 Oct 2019 at 6:27pm

"Maroubra in particular has been a huge pain in the arse."

Gold.

Weirdly not the first time I've heard that

peterb's picture
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peterb Thursday, 31 Oct 2019 at 3:18pm

You might have heard it about fifteen years ago, braudo, when a character named Roy was doing Maroubra reports on Realsurf.
The lads visited him one night to make sure he replaced the front window of his shop early the next morning.
And I thought Avalon was bad.

braudulio's picture
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braudulio Thursday, 31 Oct 2019 at 6:39pm

Mate I hear that or a permutation thereof, usually with much more colourful language, every time Maroubra is mentioned in a gathering of non-Maroubra-ites.

And yeah Avalon is dead-set hardcore. Once nearly had to pay for a coffee there, but ya can't mortgage a house ya don't own. Luckily [insert famous shapers name here] stepped up and covered it for me. He knew the owner apparently.

STRATTOS28's picture
STRATTOS28's picture
STRATTOS28 Sunday, 3 Nov 2019 at 4:33pm

dissapointed by that new camera, actually seems like a step bck in time and real downgrade in quality.. cant see much of the surf anymore...!??

hunt3r's picture
hunt3r's picture
hunt3r Monday, 4 Nov 2019 at 7:36am

Maroubra cams a waste of time now, can't tell now if I want to go down or not like on a NE swell (right now) 2ft or so is it worth it ? Can't tell stuck looking at mid-north

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Monday, 4 Nov 2019 at 7:48am

The cam quality is much better than before, and once we switch over to NBN (some time this week, with luck) you'll notice the improvement in quality (plus the other camera angles that are not available yet).

It's also worth pointing out that you can pinch-zoom on mobile. Give it a try.

STRATTOS28's picture
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STRATTOS28 Tuesday, 12 Nov 2019 at 10:00am

Never thought i’d say that but coastalwatch cam actually much better than that new upgraded cam, shouldve never changed it.. i wonder whats the real reason behind that so called “upgrade”

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Tuesday, 12 Nov 2019 at 10:07am

Once NBN is switched on (yet another delay from their end), then you'll see the benefits. 

Why was the surfcam upgraded? Because it was an old camera, getting faulty, and the vision quality was terrible. The new camera is brand new, and of much higher resolution/quality.

Why did we upgrade it to a fixed camera, instead of installing another PTZ camera? Because we feel that a couple of fixed cameras offers a much better way to view the surf at beaches like Maroubra - especially as we now have access to much higher internet speeds and therefore better camera quality. Though, I appreciate that it may take some time to appreciate this. 

As I mentioned above, have you tried to pinch zoom on mobile?

STRATTOS28's picture
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STRATTOS28 Tuesday, 12 Nov 2019 at 6:13pm

Okay I’ll trust you on that mate, patiently waiting for NBN switch over, we’ll see final result

STRATTOS28's picture
STRATTOS28's picture
STRATTOS28 Thursday, 14 Nov 2019 at 8:19am

To be honest i appreciate the effort to try and back up the new camera and must admit the resolution is better but i still believe like most user would certainly agree that the previous style of camera was much better (maybe just needed to clean the lens cover hehe) as far as being able to actually see the surf and all the banks/peaks up and down the beach with zoom in, rotations etc, for example the manly cam is awesome and thats what you want from a surf cam.. I dont mean to upset anyone or get into argument but am still doubtful about end result with that new cam.. would we be able to see nrth middle and sth once its fully operational ???
Ive tried pinch zoom but am still looking at the same fixed angle of the beach.

Anyway I want to say thank you for All the efforts and upgrades you guys are doing and forecasting is always the best and highly detailed/accurate. Cheers

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Thursday, 14 Nov 2019 at 8:30am

Trust me! The entire beach will be covered.

braudulio's picture
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braudulio Wednesday, 22 Jan 2020 at 5:00pm

Any word on the NBN Ben? Or shouldn't I ask.

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Wednesday, 22 Jan 2020 at 5:05pm

Apparently it's just switched over, I've just gotta send someone down to swap out the hardware. 

Dec/Jan is always a terrible time to get anything done in this space. We've had quite a few other NBN locations go balls-up over the last few weeks and it's very hard to get answers let alone find solutions.

braudulio's picture
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braudulio Wednesday, 22 Jan 2020 at 5:07pm

How technical is the swap over, it's five minute walk from mine

thermalben's picture
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thermalben Wednesday, 22 Jan 2020 at 5:13pm

Thanks for the offer, but I've got someone who can do it. Just gotta find the time to tee up (we're flat out at the moment). I've been on the road most days this week (just got back to the office, and now have another 3 hours of forecasting to do, so we'll get on to it as soon as we can). 

braudulio's picture
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braudulio Wednesday, 22 Jan 2020 at 5:20pm

OK, cool, just thought I'd offer.

jere-my's picture
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jere-my Tuesday, 4 Feb 2020 at 3:14pm

Ben Is the best at forecasting, now for all the surfcam complains he just been super busy for last ~3 years trying to fix bondi cam, still hasnt been able to find a parking there...
I gotta say maroubra cam been pointing at flags area for last 3months or so, hope it will show rest of the beach one day as the definition is mint

fuggin_waffle's picture
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fuggin_waffle Friday, 14 Feb 2020 at 1:47pm

Cam seems to have developed a buffer/pause/stutter issue? Feed will play for a couple of seconds, pause for a couple, play for a couple more seconds and then pause...this goes on ad infinitum. Have checked on Android, 2 separate Macs on both Chrome and Firefox browsers and all the same, Ran a speedtest and clocked in at 259.6 Mbps download so can rule that out. Hope that all helps for troubleshooting...if not, not too fussed as moving back up to the Goldy in several weeks and hopefully never have to check the cam again!

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Friday, 14 Feb 2020 at 2:03pm

Have contacted ISP, trying to work out what the issue is.

Lachlan22's picture
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Lachlan22 Friday, 14 Feb 2020 at 3:03pm

It's good Ben, i reckon it's much better.

fuggin_waffle's picture
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fuggin_waffle Monday, 17 Feb 2020 at 9:25am

Just checked again and seems to be the same, possibly even longer pauses, but assume it's the same as it was, certainly no better unfortunately.

braudulio's picture
braudulio's picture
braudulio Saturday, 2 May 2020 at 10:53am

Still not seeing the 'entire beach' coverage, assuming its now running on the NBN

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Saturday, 2 May 2020 at 1:01pm

Yep, after months and months of ongoing NBN problems we finally appear to have stabilised the connection. Hoping to get down there and reconfigure the new cams soon though access is difficult (as is the availability of electrical contractors).

braudulio's picture
braudulio's picture
braudulio Saturday, 2 May 2020 at 1:20pm

Looking forward to it, bit sick of using the council's cams with their weird POV