As you know, I just love Webcams and have spent time on the laptop in the evenings this week doing work but having the Manx Radio Commentary on in the background and the Bungalowcam as a small frame on the top right of my screen.

Can someone over there ask the Department of Transport if they could speed up the framing from the north 'cam on the Bungalow for people like myself who cannot get over but still take an unnaturally avid interest in all things Isle of Man.

My own webcam is a streaming thingy and was easy for an old man like me to set up, in fact I was using it on the Island during the TT as an experiment.

So please could DOT arrange their webcam to give us a proper view of practice and or racing.....like the NW200 set up ???

Thank you.

ian huntly Wrote:As you know, I just love Webcams and have spent time on the laptop in the evenings this week doing work but having the Manx Radio Commentary on in the background and the Bungalowcam as a small frame on the top right of my screen.

Can someone over there ask the Department of Transport if they could speed up the framing from the north 'cam on the Bungalow for people like myself who cannot get over but still take an unnaturally avid interest in all things Isle of Man.

My own webcam is a streaming thingy and was easy for an old man like me to set up, in fact I was using it on the Island during the TT as an experiment.

So please could DOT arrange their webcam to give us a proper view of practice and or racing.....like the NW200 set up ???

Thank you.

Evening Ian,

A great idea and one I have also considered commenting about previously, but never got round to it.
I am just about to reach my allotted three score years and ten, and due to medical problems can no longer visit to see my beloved TT/ Grand Prix/all things IOM.
As you I visit every day at least once thanks to the web-cams, but do have difficulty in understanding why they cant be live streaming.
I have no idea how expensive or difficult it would be to make all the cameras live streaming, as I am no expert on things of this nature.
But it would make such a difference for many people besides you and me if it could be done.
I would gladly settle for the one you identify at the Bungalow if that was all the DOT could manage, but I am sure there are many possible future IOM visitors who use the cameras as well as such as you and myself.
What a boom it would be though for TT/Grand Prix fans who can't get over there.
I hope someone out there from the DOT or tourist board see your article and makes a possitive response.

Well done Ian for raising the subject.

They know how to do it; they are just trying to work out how to make it pay-per-view.
The technology is available to have fixed streaming webcams all around the course but they would be terrified no one would come over to spend their money on the Island.
My feeling is that it would have the very opposite result,with new viewers wanting to come and experience the sights, sounds and the smell of the TT first hand.
It could also be a small thank you, for all their years of support, to those loyal fans who are no longer able to make it.
The injured riders in Nobles would love it.
You are going to have to stop this rational thinking Ian or you could have your IOM visa revoked.

"The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it."
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

The cost of doing live streaming is horrendous! Internet Bandwidth has to be paid for, and being in the middle of the Irish Sea, have to go down a few pieces of Fibre Cable which doesn't make it cheap........

There would also be a problem as I guess someone (Greenlight?) have the TV rights, and this includes streaming live pictures over the internet.

A small home webcam is great for close up images, but if this was live say at the Bungalow, then all you would see is a blur in the distance as the bike came through - and that's it.

No. I'm sorry, some of the webcams today are as clear as necessary, I got my three from China at very reasonable prices....

I was sitting at Crosby watching the bikes as they went past both "actually live" and on my laptop system transmitted and received !!!

As to cost I would be very interested to see what budget is put aside at the NW200 for their system...It is great and is continuous streaming during practice and racing...

We would pay for it if it came part of the TT Package !!

If you look at the page below you will see my laptop set up in the Crosby Hotel following the lap times and also seeing the bikes going past both live and on the laptop using a dongle to send and receive pictures from a high pixel webcam. IT CAN BE DONE !

http://www.ttfan2.co.uk/08rac4.htm

ALP, you hit the nail on the head - someone has 'been given' the rights for how much we may never know. In so doing, with their vast marketing skills, have painted themselves into a corner, so they couldn't implement Ian's idea even if they could now see the merit in it.
Beg to differ on the image quality; anything would be better than nothing.
What we need is 15 Ians (perish the thought) around the course linked up to someone with a business in Douglas with a big strong server set up and we could all go to their website and watch. It might even be good advertising for their company.
In the meantime half the world will have to remain in the dark about how fantastic the TT and MGP are.
Back to the syncronised swimming in Beijing...ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Please note, I was on the island using my laptop to follow the racing etc, so the IOM did not lose my presence, in fact it added to my presence, so if there had been active TT webcams it would have been great to add "visual" to "transponder" information.

Actually the thoughts about transponders were treated similarly to my ideas about using webcams only a short time ago...We now use Transponders !!! What's next ???

I am at present cloning myself to attack the Island next year with 15 TTFans.. and then you'll see something happening.

I would like Mr Phillips public opinion on this thread/string. PLEASE.

Ian, I believe that you are correct - up to a point. However that may be OK for a VERY small number of viewers. The amount of bandwidth required for anything like the expected number really would be expensive IMHO

I observed the weather conditions at the Bungalow right up to fifteen minutes before the start of the Newcomers....Then it ALL went blank..

Was it numbers of people watching, as I was, causing overload or was it all switched off on purpose ???

Shame if it has become political because us fans want to see the racing up on the mountain......

Come on, be fair...

http://www.dotet.co.uk/index.php?type=we...e=a18north

Thanks Ian! Like the man says, can't see much, but that fact that you can see anything at all is nice. And you don't have to pay to listen to the commentary online at the Manx.

Shows what can be done if you want to do it

http://www.easyfreewebcam.com/cam/brandywell/