Webcamnude s Can asearchc 500021 nsearche Content r 500021 h Agenda TERENA Webcam Koningsplein, Amsterdam
TERENA (Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association) coordinates and carries out technical activities and provides a platform for discussion to encourage the development of a high-quality computer networking infrastructure for the European research and education community.
23 Jan 2010: The web cam now supports multiple bitrates, which should make it possible to watch on mobile devices and slower connections.
Technical details
Camera
The physical camera is an Axis Q1755 surveillance camera. This model is able to deliver up to 1080i H.264 compressed RTSP streams. The camera has an onboard microphone, but we still use the external microphones we used in the past because they seem to offer better quality. You can hear the sounds of the street, the trams, people talking, etc. The camera is a fixed model, which means that there is only one viewing angle possible. It is not possible to move the camera.
Server software
The streaming media server is running Wowza Media Server 3.0.4, and relays the RTSP stream from the Axis.
Infrastructure
The server is an ESXi 4.1 VM running Ubuntu 10.04, configured with 2 GB of RAM and 2 vCPUs. This VM runs on a Dell Poweredge R610 that has two quad-core Intel Xeon L5520 CPUs, and 48GB RAM.
Network set-up
The VM is connected to our SURFnet6 internet connection, which provides IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity to the internet at 1 Gbit/s. Since 2003 our entire network is running dual stack, which means that all our services are offered via IPv4 and IPv6. The streaming server is no exception. Visitors with IPv6 connectivity automatically watch the web cam via IPv6.
Location
The camera is mounted on the outside of our office, on the 4th floor. Check the Contact page for details. To be more specific, the camera is a little bit of the right, just below the turret.
FAQ
The video keeps hicking up, especially during daytime. This might be caused by your internet connection. The stream is around 500 Kbps at night (when there is less information in the dark picture), but during daytime it can go up to 4 Mbps. If your connection is 4 Mbps or slower your might experience hickups. We do plan to offer a lower quality version of the stream in the future. Update. After upgrading to Wowza 3 we also enable the transcoding AddOn, which transcodes the stream into lower bitrates. The Flashplayer should automatically pick the right stream....
The sound is mono. The current set-up does not support stereo sound.
The image is too far zoomed in/out. There is no "best" position for everyone. It might occur that the image is too far zoomed out after a power failure.
Feedback
Please send any comments to the webcam admins.