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An
Idea is Born
The planning of the Bonaire WebCams project started during
the summer of 1999, when Dan Senie and Jake Richter, long
time friends and graduates of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
were talking about the new leased line Internet connection
Dan had just helped Jake install in his office on the Caribbean
island of Bonaire. The idea came about as a result of Dan
wanting to relive his visits to Bonaire, combined with the
great weather and excellent diving Bonaire is known for.
Dan
and Jake concluded that a WebCam would be the best way to
tame Bonaire-envy, but that a typical WebCam installation,
where you have a single, low-resolution camera mounted inside
a window, was not the way to go. Putting their know how
together with their diving experience (Jake is a certified
dive instructor and Dan an avid advanced diver), they set
about trying to design a system which could be installed
above the reef slope behind Jake's office/house, in open
water.
Planning
While Dan started looking at equipment options, machine
tooling, and connectivity issues, Jake set about getting
permission from Bonaire's island government, and in turn,
the protected Bonaire
Marine Park, for permanently installing an underwater
camera in the ocean behind his home/office. Once local government
saw the tourism benefits of a permanent "ReefCam",
they were quick to assist moving the application through.
And, since Jake was a responsible Bonaire Marine Park Volunteer,
and had proposed a mounting system which the Marine Park
felt certain would not be damaging to the environment, and
would be in keeping with the philosophy of "take only
pictures, leave only bubbles" (an eco-diving motto),
they also granted permission.
With
permission in place during October of 1999, Dan and Jake
started in earnest with their efforts at procuring equipment
and support. Initial efforts to get outside funding for
the project failed to garner enough financial support, stalling
the effort for a couple of months until a business plan
could be developed. Ultimately, Dan and Jake, via their
respective U.S. companies, Amaranth
Networks and Stroke
Of Color, funded the project themselves, via the creation
of Caribbean WebCams,
LLC (CWC hereafter), with the intent of recouping their
initial investment via the sale of advertising
space on the site.
Some
basic mission items were decided early on:
- Use
NTSC video cameras (these output live motion signals compatible
with North American (and Bonairean) television systems,
and with the proper hardware, allow for the capture of
individual images from the video stream). The use of video
cameras allows for, once Bonaire has the bandwidth, the
ability to ship a video stream via servers in the U.S.,
instead of just snapshots as is currently the case.
- Use
Linux-based servers for the capture of images, weather
information, compatibility, cost, Internet connectivity,
and general programmability.
- Make
the overall WebCam solution as rugged, secure, and reliable
as possible, within acceptable cost parameters.
- Provide
a end-user Web site which would encourage frequent viewing
and build a community.
These
goals drove the planning stage, and helped determine what
equipment CWC ultimately put together for this effort.
Implementation
& Equipment
 After
a couple of trips for meetings and equipment procurement,
as well as some custom machine tooling, everything was ready.
In mid-March, 2000, Dan came to Bonaire, and he and Jake
spent about a week installing cameras, power supplies, cabling,
hardware, and software. Miraculously, everything actually
worked pretty much as it was intended to the first time,
including the ReefCam, seen pictured at right in pristine
condition, on a mooring block, attached to the WebCam server
system on land via a 350 foot (107.7 meter) Kevlar coated
cable. (Photo above shows the ReefCam in March of 2000).
At
about the same time as the ReefCam was installed CWC installed
two all-weather "bullet" cameras on the beach
pavilion (these cameras are now the South
and North BeachCams). There
was a camera left over, as well as another place to plug
it into on the capture server, so, combined with a desire
Jake had to see who was ringing the doorbell at his place,
the StreetCam was born.
The
camera used for the ReefCam was designed for extreme aquatic
conditions (down to a depth of 300 meters / 975 feet), which
far exceeded CWC's needs, but was proof of the ruggedness
required by the goals set for the project. A custom mounting
bracket also needed to be designed (see photo above) which
would allow for multidirectional positioning once the bracket
was cemented and bolted into place on the private mooring.
At
the same time, a custom designed underwater temperature probe was installed,
and that provides the real-time temperature readings found on the ReefCam
page. A remote weather system, developed by Davis
Instruments, was installed on the roof of the home/office, and connected
to the local server so that real-time weather information could be provided.
All
this captured information was posted in a very simple form
on the Bonaire WebCams Web site at the end of March 2000
as a form of "beta-test" to solicit input on the
concept and implementation. We're proud to report that the
Beta Bonaire WebCams site was responsible for an unprecedented
amount of day dreaming at offices around the world, and
the trend continues with this official site. In fact, an
active community of Bonaire WebCam users has formed in a
discussion
group on the BonaireTalk Web site.
Enhancements
At first, CWC used a commercial WebCam server from AXIS
Communications, which features the ability to capture
images from up to five video sources and ship those to remote
servers, but it was found that a capture device integrated
directly into the CWC-designed Linux server was faster,
offered better capture quality, and was more programmable.
This transition was made in July of 2000.
 CWC
also determined that computer color adjustments of captured
ReefCam images was not enough to remove excessive cyan from
the images (water filters out colors from the color spectrum,
including red, orange, yellow, etc.), so a special filter
from URPRO
was custom installed on the ReefCam, and serves the additional
purpose of further protecting the lens of the ReefCam. That's
important when looking at how encrusted the camera has already
become with algae and other denizens (see picture at right,
featuring a juvenile blue tang (yellow phase) that lives
on the mooring block). (Photo above shows the ReefCam as
seen in September 2000).
Another
major enhancement came about in August of 2000, when
the official Bonaire WebCams site was finally launched
in the form you presently see. In February of 2002,
we added membership as an option to raise funds to help
keep the Bonaire WebCams operating.
And,
in June of 2004, due to a number of factors, the entire
Bonaire WebCams system was moved to the Eden Beach Resort.
The entire mooring on which the ReefCam is located was
moved as well, and is now located at 60' of depth.
As
of February 2005, the ReefCam is the longest running
underwater, open-water, camera and WebCam known, and
viewed by thousands of people a day.
In
2006 we added three new top-side cameras - the DonkeyCam,
the WindsurfCam,
and the DowntownCam,
and in May 2007 we recabled and replaced all of the top-side
Bonaire WebCams at Eden Beach, extended our hosting agreement
with them for another five years, and installed a second
ReefCam, relegating the original to be the Bonaire
Wreck ReefCam, and the new one to be the Bonaire
Pier ReefCam. We also installed the Yellow Submarine PierCam in June 2007.
However, at the beginning of October 2007, we sadly decided to permanently remove the Bonaire Wreck ReefCam due to on-going problems with the cabling from our supplier. We'll be looking to redesign the cable systems we use for that particular camera design, and hope to deploy additional underwater ReefCams in 2008.
For
more information about what Caribbean WebCams, LLC, can
do for you and your company, or for Contact Information,
please visit our Web site at www.CaribbeanWebCams.com.
To
discuss what's on the WebCams and ask questions about Bonaire
WebCams, visit our discussion
group at BonaireTalk. For information about the Bonaire
WebCams in particular, visit our Frequently
Asked Questions page.
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Past
Updates
Year
2000-2006 Updates:
November 24 , 2006 - The weather station
is back up finally. However we have lost wind direction and
accurate rainfall measurement over the six months it was out
of commission. Time to fund a new weather station, perhaps.
November 1 , 2006 - We have just added the
seventh(!) Bonaire WebCam, courtesy of REMAX
Paradise Homes. The new WebCam is the DowntownCam.
And word it we may have the weather station finally operational
again next week.
October 7, 2006 - Internet connectivity
from Bonaire via Flamingo TV appears to be the pits today.
Hence the spotty reception of images from the four core WebCams.
September 28, 2006 - The BeachBarCam has
gone off-line. We expect to have it operational again in about
two to three weeks.
August 15 , 2006 - We have removed reference
to the current underwater temperature from our site until
such time as we know we have a working underwater temperature
probe. The weather station will hopefully be back on-line
within a week or so.
June 29 , 2006 - The Bonaire
WindsurfCam is live!
June 28 , 2006 - Stay tuned - we are adding
a new Bonaire WebCam this week, and hope to have the weather
station back on-line as well before the weekend. And, the
Bonaire BeachBarCam will be moving to a new location as well.
May
8, 2006 - Our weather station has died. This turns out to be a combination
of wet cement dripped on it, and the electrical power system failing. We are looking
at solutions.
March
20, 2006 - We finally found the root cause of our flaky connection - a
poorly integrated network connection. All is now very well with our Internet connection.
February
20, 2006 - The Flamingo TV Cable Internet connection used by the Bonaire
WebCams at Eden Beach has been flaky since sometime yesterday, and completely unusable
since around 4pm yesterday. As a result, the WebCams at Eden Beach appear frozen.
DonkeyCam is fine because it's connected via another ISP. We hope FTV can fix their
issues soon.
February 5, 2006 - This web site will be
down for several hours tonight as we upgrade to a new, more
powerful server. UPDATE: It took less than two hours to do
the move, and everything's working great on the new server.
February 5, 2006 - Welcome the DonkeyCam!
It has been integrated into the web site, including archives,
which date back to the evening of January 25, 2006.
November 4 , 2005 - A power outage on Bonaire
at around 11:17am this morning lasted long enough to drain
our UPS batteries and cause our on-island capture server to
crash and cause some damage to data on the hard drive. The
system required manual intervention to boot. This was accomplished
at around 9:45pm. No captures between 12:32pm and 9:45pm were
made because the hardware was down. Our apologies to anyone
posing for the WebCams during this time. You'll have to come
back to Bonaire.
On a separate note, we expect to be moving cameras around
in mid-January 2006 once current construction at Eden Beach
have been completed.
August 14 , 2005 - The ReefCam is back on-line again,
thanks especially to the help of Seb Schulherr, Mary Wills,
and Cecil & Sue Berry. Hats off to some great Bonaire
WebCam fans and BonaireTalkers.
July 23, 2005 - The ReefCam is off-line, perhaps
until mid-August, as the audio crew for a concert on the beach
appear to have severed the ReefCam cable accidentally while
digging on the beach. Caribbean WebCams staff is off-island
until mid-August and can't get back to Bonaire any sooner.
We are seeing if we can talk someone through the repair operation
remotely, but can't guarantee that will work.
June 7, 2005 - The ReefCam will be going off-line
from about 9:15am until Noon today so we can reposition mooring
block on which the ReefCam is mounted. See
here as to why
we need to do this.
May 31, 2005 - The packet losses blocking much
of the WebCam real-time traffic have mostly gone away, although
afternoons are still problematic. The ISP, Flamingo TV Cable,
is working on resolving this system wide issue. Also, we
put the call out to past sponsors to remind them to make their
pledged annual donations to help cover the cost of
the Internet connection on Bonaire.
May 27, 2005 - The WebCams were down for about 2 hours
today as we completely gutted our Bonaire capture server room
at Eden Beach, installed shelves, and wall mounted our video
amplifiers (and cleaned out all the rat poison and rat droppings
- ick!). Also installed a new server and capture hardware
to which we plan to switch to in the coming months.
May 25, 2005 - We switched ISPs on Bonaire
due to cost issues, and ran into serious packet loss problems
simultaneously. Seem to be worst in the afternoons.
February, 2005 - We tried fixing the underwater temperature
probe and hardware several times to no avail. As such the
current UW temp is invalid and fake, and will remain such
until we completely replace the system with something more
reliable.
December 16, 2004 - We installed a new UPS yesterday
which should give us about 2-3 hours of power when the power
fails. We also removed the faulty underwater temperature measurement
system. Any UW temperature information presently being presented
on the site is not accurate and once we force it to 80 degrees
Fahrenheit, will be an estimate consistent with what water
temperatures are normally like this time of year.
November 20, 2004 - The heavy rain and resulting moisture
and condensation blew out our Best Power 610 UPS. It was removed
from the system configuration, and the capture server is once
again running. Outage was approximately 24 hours - circa 1:30pm
on the 19th to 1:30pm or so on the 20th. We are now searching
Bonaire for a reasonably priced replacement UPS.
November 19, 2004 - Thanks to all the rain we've had
this week, we've had some power problems in the shack where
our WebCam capture server is on Bonaire. Hope to have the
problems resolved tomorrow. Until then, no fresh WebCam captures
will appear here, since there's no power to power the WebCam
cameras.
October 14, 2004 - With the able and extensive help
of Bonaire WebCams fans and supporters Tom Cousino and Smack
Anderson, a new underwater temperature probe was successfully
installed (and encased in PVC this time around too).
October 7,
2004 - The weather station used to get live weather information freaked out
last night and was reporting unusual results. Turned out to be a modem problem
(the modem in the weather station console) - cycling power on it did the trick,
and by 6:15pm it was back on-line reporting data correctly. Note also that a replacement
underwater temperature probe will be installed within the next two weeks.
September 14, 2004 - The ReefCam cable has been
patched and put in a PVC pipe to prevent similar future mishaps.
September 13, 2004 - #2 - Just before noon today, a
bulldozer clearing the beach at Eden Beach of rubble left
by waves during Hurricane Ivan ran across the cable connecting
the ReefCam to our capture server, severing it in the process.
We expect to solder the cable back together tomorrow, Sept.
14th. Until then the ReefCam will be out of commission.
September 13, 2004 - We have rethought our refresh
times, and now public users get a 4 minute refresh, logged
in Basic Members a 3 minute refresh, and all other logged
in Members get a 2 minute refresh of pages with WebCam images
on them.
September 11, 2004 - We have added a Sponsors
Page to our Web site. Also, we have now set the following
refresh rates for page reloads: 6 minutes for the public site,
4 minutes for Basic (non-paying) Members, and 2 minutes for
all paying members. To benefit from these faster reloads if
you are a member, you must log in to your Member account (and
it will stay logged in until you close the browser window
or explicitly log out).
September 9, 2004 - We are very pleased to report that
our WebCam system survived a night of wind and rain due to
a brush-by of Hurricane Ivan. The whole Bonaire WebCam system
ran uninterrupted through the storm (of course, it was dark
and not much could be seen). However, because of the massive
surge in Web traffic to our site, we had to change our refresh
times for the public site to once every 10 minutes (paid members
still got 2 minute updates).
September 5, 2004 - We have discovered that
the underwater temperature probe cable has been severed by
sharp rocks. As such the temperature being shown is not correct.
We hope to fix this in the coming weeks with some new technology
(and PVC to protect the next probe cable).
July 14, 2004 - We have finally updated this
Web site to contain current information about the location
of the WebCams. Please note that the StreetCam is now the
BeachBarCam.
July 3, 2004 - The WebCams, the weather station, and
underwater temperature probe, have been successfully moved
to Eden Beach Resort over the last week and are now fully
live and operational! Many thanks to Eden
Beach Resort, Bongos Beach Bar & Restaurant, and WannaDive
Bonaire, our location sponsors!
June 12, 2004 - The ReefCam will be taken out of the
water tomorrow morning, June 13th for service, and will not
be live again for approximately 3 weeks. On June 20th, we
will be turning off the StreetCam and two BeachCams in preparation
for our move of the entire WebCams system to Eden Beach Resort.
We expect to be transmitting live from Eden
Beach no later than July 3rd. Please visit the WebCams
section at BonaireTalk for
the latest status updates.
June 8, 2004 - The Bonaire WebCams have been saved. Click
here for details.
May 25, 2004 - URGENT NOTE! The Bonaire WebCams may
cease to exist in less than a month. Please visit this
discussion on BonaireTalk for details.
February 7, 2004 - Our server move went well and is
now complete.
January 30, 2004 - We will be moving the server you
are seeing this site on from Billerica, Massachusetts to Waltham,
Massachusetts on Friday, February 6th, sometime after 8pm
EST, and thus this site will be inaccessible for an indeterminate
number of hours that evening or the following one. We apologize
for the inconvenience.
January 25, 2004 - The North BeachCam has been replaced
with a new one to get rid of the yellow streaks we had been
seeing due to CCD wear and tear. Remember how your parents
used to tell you not to look right at the sun because you
might hurt your eyes? Well that's what happened to the old
BeachCam. Anyhow, the new one has a decidedly reddish perspective,
at least on the iron shore in the foreground. We believe it's
because a distant relative of the cam is presently on Mars,
and our new BeachCam wants to show its support. It makes for
excellent sunset shots, however!
January
26, 2003 - Our weather station is now running again,
and we have signed up with Weather Underground to keep archives
of our weather data.
November 15, 2002 - Our remote weather monitoring system
has decided to no longer properly report the current temperature
and other readings. As such all weather information will be
off-line for at least the next month until we manage to get
it repaired.
October 17, 2002 - We added an on-line archive of the
Guest Book people sign and comment in when posing for the StreetCam.
You can find this historical archive at Guest Book Archive.
September 27, 2002 - Our Internet connection on Bonaire
was fully restored at around 2:30pm AST today, and we are in
the process of updating the archives with the captures taken
but which did not get to the Web server over the course of
the last 44 hours. This will take one to two days to complete.
September 25, 2002 - Live image and weather updates
will be sporadic through at least some time tomorrow due to
a lightning strike which damaged the Internet connection on
Bonaire used by the WebCams to update this server.
May 27, 2002 - The ReefCam has been reinstalled (at
approx. 8:15am) and appears to be working properly.
May 26, 2002 - The ReefCam started getting "misty-eyed" a
couple of days ago (meaning that some minute amount of
water apparently got in and is condensing on the inside
of the lens). We've taken the camera out to dry (at about
4pm) and will reinstall it tomorrow.
March 7, 2002 - We've replaced the ReefCam cable and
the ReefCam is back in operation again!
February 25, 2002 - It appears our outage problem with
the Bonaire ReefCam is related to the cable used to connect
the camera from shore. Because the cable has to be custom made,
we project that the ReefCam will not be operational until at
least the second week of March, 2002. Our apologies.
February 21, 2002 - The Bonaire ReefCam has been taken
out of service for maintenance and possible repair. Should
be operational again within a week.
February 2, 2002 - We've introduced a new Membership
feature for those wanting to get a little more out of this
site, and for those who want to help support the Bonaire WebCams.
By becoming a member, you can get access to our extensive image
archives, a quick download button, and even send electronic
post cards of your favorite images (maybe even those featuring
you!) to your friends and family. Visit our Membership
Information for more details!
November 17, 2001 - The Web site will be down on and
off between 10am and 1pm as we upgrade our server hardware.
October 25, 2001 - The Web site was down for about 4 hours
tonight as we performed a planned move of our Web server between
different co-location facilities.
October 14, 2001 - A donkey ate our guestbook at the StreetCam
- we're not kidding. We'll put a new one out once we've figured
out how to donkey proof it better.
October 7, 2001 - Fuzziness fixed. Was an electrical
connector problem.
October 6, 2001 - The ReefCam is back on-line - image
is a little fuzzy at times, however, and we area working to
resolve this. It appears the problem was a faulty cable.
September 28, 2001 - The ReefCam went off-line at about
2:50am this morning with technical problems. Further investigation
needed to determine why and how long it will take to restore
service. Please be advised that the BeachCams may be down for
a period of time today as a result of this work.
April 15-22, 2001 - The Coral Reef Alliance and the
Bonaire WebCams have teamed up to support Earth Day via a special
ReefCam and StreetCam event. For details, see our Press
Release and the announcement at BonaireTalk.
March 26, 2001 - The procedure for capturing live Bonaire
WebCam images from within your browser has changed somewhat
today. Please review the FAQ
to see how this might affect you. Also, people using ad blocking
software or older browsers may not be able to see the WebCam
images - click here
to find out why.
February 25, 2001 - The replacement ReefCam has been
installed and is transmitting crystal clear images once again!
Check out the comments in our Cam
Community.
February 19, 2001 - The ReefCam has had a small moisture
leak, resulting in condensation on the protective lens cover.
A replacement camera will be installed on Sunday, February
25th, during the morning, at which point the camera will be
out of commission for about one hour.
January 20, 2001 - Just installed a guestbook and mail
box at the StreetCam location. Sign in and leave us a message.
December
31, 2000 - Happy New Year from all of us here at Caribbean
WebCams! Please be advised that tomorrow, on New Year's
Day, from 2pm AST until around Midnight, the StreetCam
camera will be replaced by our "PartyCam", showing a view of
the annual Bonaire New Years Day Party thrown by Jake & Linda
Richter (maintainers of the Bonaire WebCams).
December 26 - The WebCams and weather information will
not be updated during most of the day today as we perform a
technical overhaul of our Bonaire-based network. Separately,
a power outage early Christmas morning knocked out our weather
station. Historical values have been reset by necessity. Merry
Christmas greetings from all of us at Caribbean WebCams to
all of you!
December 15 - Added a new page showing some of our favorite
Bonaire
ReefCam Images. Page can also be reached from the Bonaire
ReefCam page.
December 12 - The Bonaire ReefCam is named one of the
the 25 Top Web Cams of the year 2000 by EarthCam's panel of
prestigious judges! Click here
to see the complete list of winning Web Cams (the ReefCam appears
at upper right). Our press release is here.
December 10 - Power supply in the Bonaire-based server
was finally replaced (after the power supply visited Europe
three times and Venezuela before getting to Bonaire from the
U.S.), and weather information has been restored.
November 26 - Weather station data will not be updated
for next few days because of a power supply failure in a Bonaire-based
server.
November 16 - Replaced ReefCam again. New camera finally
producing bright pictures, once again.
November 6 - It appears that the replacement ReefCam
does not have a working white balance unit, making images generally
look quite dark. Another unit is en route to replace this one...
November 3 - Replacement ReefCam installed and
operational!
October
29 - Bonaire ReefCam taken off-line due to apparent
leak into "leak proof" housing. Expect to be
back on-line by end of week.
October 23 - Internet routing problems through Miami
again.
October 12 - Replaced the south beachcam with a new
unit. Aimed the camera to provide a near-panorama from northe
to south with the two new cameras.
October
3 - Replaced the north beachcam with a new unit. Old one
cooked in the sun. The new camera has a wider field of view.
Also cleaned the ReefCam on a night dive.
September
26 & 27 - Intermittent Internet problems between Bonaire
and the U.S. today are preventing regular updates of images
and weather information.
September 21 - Cleaned the ReefCam (looks like divers
have been helping us keep it clean as it usually is needed
more often).
September 15 - Added BUY.COM
to our list of shopping partners. Also added links to allow
you to vote
for our site to become one of the WebCam World Top 100 sites!
And, we've been made the featured camera of the week at SpyCamera.com!
September 11 - Added American
Express
to our list of shopping partners.
September 10, 2000 - Power outage on Bonaire between
approx. 8:30am and 12:55pm prevented us from capturing and
transmitting images from Bonaire. Cleaned ReefCam lens at 10:00am.
September 9, 2000 - Our site is named WebCam site of
the week by Helmut Halfmann's Realtime
Camera Paradise, which MSNBC has called the world's biggest
LiveCam index. Also added link to RitzCamera
on our Shopping
page.
September 6, 2000 - Added a barometric pressure and
trend read-outs to the current weather information. Also added
a new shopping section,
in association with Amazon.com,
Sharper
Image ,
Brookstone ,
Swiss
Army Depot ,
Ritz Camera ,
and REI
which we will be expanding over time to include more products
and other vendors.
September 5, 2000 - Our site is named the Featured WebCam
at WebCam
World, which is one of the largest WebCam listing sites
in the world! Cleaned ReefCam at 11:00am.
September 2, 2000 - Cleaned ReefCam at 4:00pm.
August 30, 2000 - Our first award! ReefCam has just
been selected one of EarthCam's Top Ten WebCams in the World!
(Oh, and we also cleaned the ReefCam today at 9:00am.)
August 29, 2000 - We've added a link to our privacy
policy to each page of the site. Please review it if you
are interested in our policies.
Cleaned ReefCam at 8:30am.
August 26, 2000 - Posted signs at ReefCam on where to
hover for optimal visibility for Internet viewers.
Cleaned ReefCam at 1:00pm.
August 24, 2000 - Internet router belonging to Teleglobe
malfunctioned in Miami, interrupting updates from Bonaire to
this site during the afternoon for over 5 hours.
August 23, 2000 - Router outage in Miami (see Aug. 24,
2000 description) during afternoon for over 3 hours.
Cleaned ReefCam at 4:30pm.
Officially launched site this day.
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