Gorillas, Polar Bears, and a 500 lb. Turtle

We caught up with a company that's set up webcams in ports, zoos, and highways and is now offering its CD-sized web-based camera controller to everyone.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Associate Editor [August 15, 2001]

Just as one of the Internet's oldest webcams, which ran an image of a coffee pot in Cambridge, England, was taken offline (because the coffee pot was sold by graduate students who want an espresso machine), LiveWave cut the prices of the next generation of webcams.

You may have seen LiveWave's products when its gorilla webcam was chosen as one of EarthCam's "top 25 webcams of the Internet" last year. Or perhaps you saw the gorillacam on NBC Nightly News.

Today, you can go to the site, see the cameras in action, and pan and zoom them yourself. The eight cameras, listed here, include Boston's Logan Airport, various zoo cameras, and even a Boston bar and pool hall called The Rack.

When Jamie Edgar, LiveWave's vice president of programming, says the company's cameras produce broadcast-quality content, he means that literally. The local NBC TV affiliate in Providence, R.I. NBC 10/WJAR uses LiveWave cameras on its website to broadcast traffic information—and to update viewers on the local fuzzy news story, the life of Kobe, a baby polar bear in the local zoo (pictured above with mother).

Edgar, who comes to LiveWave from a broadcast background that includes network and cable television, says, "the local cable TV system has lots of connectivity, but less money. They can set up a camera at a local landmark on a pole, and send someone down there in a car with a clip-on microphone to do a weather report instead of sending a whole truck crew."

A list of LiveWave's greatest broadcasts includes Discovery's Shark Week 2000 which featured daily live webcasts from the New England Aquarium, and Martin Sexton live from the Lizard Lounge in Boston.

Bundle of fun
LiveWave is offering a bundle that includes a Panasonic KX-DP702 camera, LiveWave's proprietary CC-100-LE Encoder/Server, and software for $4,995. The bundle (pictured below) is designed to enable customers to allow web page visitors to view the camera's content and control the camera over the Web. The camera will be taken out of the bundle at the end of September, 2001.

The bundle is a simpler version of LiveWave's broadcast-level technology.

The "LE" version of LiveWave's software enables streaming of either a low bandwidth 160x120 image at 1 to 20 frames-per-second (fps) or a high bandwidth 320x240 image at 3 to 15 fps.

User preferences in the software allow camera owners to limit the field of view of the camera.

Once the server is hooked up to a network and given an IP address, users with a Java-compatible browser can pan and zoom the camera through an easy-to-operate interface (the broadcast-level technology can control features on more expensive cameras, such as gain).

The server is small (6.18" long x 5.7" wide x 1.77" high) and light (approximately 2.1 pounds). It can be installed anywhere as long as it receives power (choice of line voltage: 110V (100-130) or 230V (180-260) AC). The Panasonic webcam requires 12 V DC power.

With the server, users avoid requiring extra software and drivers and the conflicts they can bring. LiveWave's proprietary software puts it all in one package. Edgar claims the product can be set up by anyone who owns and maintains a home computer.

Although the bundled camera is for indoor use, LiveWave does sell waterproof housings for outdoor installations, and has even developed an underwater housing for The New England Aquarium. The only trouble with the aquarium, Edgar says, is a 500 lb. turtle that attacks the camera whenever it moves (the sharks leave the camera alone).

Partnership
LiveWave has a new reseller program. So far there are no ISP partners, but the program has been popular with equipment vendors and system integrators.

The program allows its members to field sales inquiries to the LiveWave office, in return for which LiveWave expects to be able to contact members of a partner's sales team. LiveWave also provides support and updates on its products.

LiveWave expects each partner to set up online training for the sales team and to post a link to the LiveWave website.

To date, partners have had success with the following customers: cable television networks, broadcasters, hospitals, corporations, universities, retail establishments, government agencies, real estate, construction sites, and Internet sites.

Backstage at LiveWave
Although LiveWave was founded in Providence, its Network Operations Center (NOC) is in Boston, where it is connected to a fiber backbone—and to the local Verizon Television Operations Center (TVOC) for broadcasting TV content anywhere in the world on IP backbones or over satellite feeds.

In the NOC diagram (right), additional services, such as the ability to archive and broadcast video content, are shown and described. These features hint at the future uses that LiveWave envisions for this product.

LiveWave already earns some recurring revenue from its enterprise sales. For example, in the case of WJAR, the company maintains the NBC affiliate's webcams for a monthly fee.

The company expects people to use the product for anything from monitoring work sites to allowing homeowners to check the progress of a contractor.

The owner of Boston's The Rack nightclub, for example, can take a look around the club even when he's on the road.

Origin story
LiveWave was founded by Peter Mottur, a producer and editor of videos. His first company, HydroActive LLC, focused on broadcasting the action at Providence's marina. As the site gained popularity, he strove to automate part of the broadcasting process and developed software that allows users to control cameras remotely.

With that technology, Mottur founded LiveWave and secured initial funding in June of 1999 (the company is now completing its series C round). The initial funding enabled the company to hire programmers and broadcasters to develop products for the TV industry.

A version of those TV-quality products is now for sale to the general public.

The founder retains his interest in the marine environment and was last recorded on LiveWave products when he installed LiveWave's aquarium cam (right).

At last count, LiveWave employed fourteen people in Newport, R.I. and Boston.

The company is looking forward to installing its next webcam, in the zoo home of a pregnant Rhinoceros. That's one subject that nobody wants to annoy.

—End