I was idly listening to some of the bbcs outside broadcast talkback circuits a few weeks ago, and they occasionally refer to specific cameras as Pole Cam and Wire Cam. With today's tiny cameras, I wonder if these are just small cameras on a pole and a wire. One assumes the former is to see over peoples heads, but how do they keep it stable, and the latter is on something like zip wire, but why?
I was idly listening to some of the bbcs outside broadcast talkback circuits a few weeks ago, and they occasionally refer to specific cameras as Pole Cam and Wire Cam. With today's tiny cameras, I wonder if these are just small cameras on a pole and a wire. One assumes the former is to see over peoples heads, but how do they keep it stable, and the latter is on something like zip wire, but why?
Brian
On Tue 09/08/2022 10:20, Brian Gaff wrote:
I was idly listening to some of the bbcs outside broadcast talkback
circuits
a few weeks ago, and they occasionally refer to specific cameras as Pole
Cam
and Wire Cam. With today's tiny cameras, I wonder if these are just small
cameras on a pole and a wire. One assumes the former is to see over
peoples
heads, but how do they keep it stable, and the latter is on something
like
zip wire, but why?
Brian
Wire cam is the camera that is slung on wires above a football pitch.
There are four wires to electronically controlled steel cable reels at the four corners of the roof and the camera kit is attached where the cables meet. The person controlling them has two joysticks, one that controls end
to end and side to side movement and a second which controls height. The camera, with batteries and transceiver on the cable joint is a stand-alone unit.
"Woody" <harrogate3@ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:tctbte$1c18e$1@dont-email.me...
On Tue 09/08/2022 10:20, Brian Gaff wrote:
I was idly listening to some of the bbcs outside broadcast talkback
circuits
a few weeks ago, and they occasionally refer to specific cameras as Pole >>> Cam
and Wire Cam. With today's tiny cameras, I wonder if these are just
small
cameras on a pole and a wire. One assumes the former is to see over
peoples
heads, but how do they keep it stable, and the latter is on something
like
zip wire, but why?
Brian
Wire cam is the camera that is slung on wires above a football pitch.
There are four wires to electronically controlled steel cable reels at
the four corners of the roof and the camera kit is attached where the
cables meet. The person controlling them has two joysticks, one that
controls end to end and side to side movement and a second which controls
height. The camera, with batteries and transceiver on the cable joint is
a stand-alone unit.
For both pole cam and wire cam, I imagine that the camera is
gyro-stabilised to keep it steady and prevent it wobbling. Either that or else the sensor has more pixels than are needed for the image, and the
image is electronically stabilised by reading different rectangular grids
of pixels as the image moves on the sensor, to keep the image steady - as
is done by many dashcams and GoPro type cameras.
The mini camera that was used in cricket stumps to show a batsman's eye
view was variously known as a lipstick camera or a willy camera - both
being long and cylindrical ;-)
At pop concerts and sports events, you sometimes see the wire cam
following the action when the director switches to static camera for a
wider shot.
Oh its a different world now, quite clearly, I remember the time when they used an airship over the event.
On Tue 09/08/2022 16:54, Brian Gaff wrote:
Oh its a different world now, quite clearly, I remember the time when
they
used an airship over the event.
And that ain't too long ago either.
Drones are amazing and relatively cheap!
On 09/08/2022 17:01, Woody wrote:
On Tue 09/08/2022 16:54, Brian Gaff wrote:I doubt you could get permission to fly one over the pitch or crowd.
Oh its a different world now, quite clearly, I remember the time when
they
used an airship over the event.
And that ain't too long ago either.
Drones are amazing and relatively cheap!
"John Williamson" <johnwilliamson@btinternet.com> wrote in message news:jlfh1bFi8mpU1@mid.individual.net...
On 09/08/2022 17:01, Woody wrote:
On Tue 09/08/2022 16:54, Brian Gaff wrote:I doubt you could get permission to fly one over the pitch or crowd.
Oh its a different world now, quite clearly, I remember the time when
they
used an airship over the event.
And that ain't too long ago either.
Drones are amazing and relatively cheap!
Yes, I imagine that "flying" a camera on fixed wires is regarded as safer than flying a helicopter-like drone which would fall from the sky if it
lost power or a rotor, or received "stupid" commands. I imagine the main thing that wired cameras have to avoid is loss of retractor tension in all the wires, which would have a similar effect, and that can be achieved relatively easily by locking all the retractor motors with pawls if there
is a power cut or other error condition.
"John Williamson" <johnwilliamson@btinternet.com> wrote in message
I doubt you could get permission to fly one over the pitch or crowd.
Yes, I imagine that "flying" a camera on fixed wires is regarded as
safer than flying a helicopter-like drone which would fall from the sky
if it lost power or a rotor, or received "stupid" commands. I imagine
the main thing that wired cameras have to avoid is loss of retractor
tension in all the wires, which would have a similar effect, and that
can be achieved relatively easily by locking all the retractor motors
with pawls if there is a power cut or other error condition.
If you use a wire supported camera, all you need to do is make a risk assessment, and convince your insurers it is safe. To use a drone in a
built up area in the UK, you need permission from the CAA. The police
drones mentioned in another post comply with very stringent rules and operating restrictions, have a "pilot" and an "observer" controlling
them, and are only allowed to operate in certain circumstances.
The cameras that run parallel or at right angles to the 'action' generally run on a set of parallel wires. Cameras that can go to any part of the stadium and up an down vertically are generally referred to as 'Spidercams' because their supporting wireslook rather like a spiders web. If you look at the manufacturers website there is a good explanation of how they function. Wiki/Google is your friend too if you google 'Spidercam'.
https://www.spidercam.tv
On 14/08/2022 19:42, joe bloggs wrote:wires look rather like a spiders web. If you look at the manufacturers website there is a good explanation of how they function. Wiki/Google is your friend too if you google 'Spidercam'.
The cameras that run parallel or at right angles to the 'action' generally run on a set of parallel wires. Cameras that can go to any part of the stadium and up an down vertically are generally referred to as 'Spidercams' because their supporting
https://www.spidercam.tv
Surely an actual spider's web consists of a lot more than four straight >lines.
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