Africa Web Cams
In September 1998 AfriCam created the world’s first virtual game reserve by starting its first live transmissions from a waterhole in Djuma Game Reserve, part of the Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa. The technology used was simply based on off-the-shelf products commonly used in the security surveillance industry: a CCTV camera connected to a video capture card in a normal desktop pc. Software - shareware from the Internet - then took a JPG image slice every 30 seconds and uploaded this file to the web server from where it was then served onto the Internet.
Today all its cams still operate on this principle, except that some of the technology has advanced. Thus the remote cams are connected via high frequency video links operating in the Giga Hertz range, not the buried cable of before. Some of the cams can be operated remotely via radio linked pan / tilt / zoom units. Furthermore, they have moved away from Windows based systems to tailor made Linux solutions that are better suited to the demands of the systems; all cams are operated 24 hours per day, seven days a week, 365 days a year
For the Africa lover the next best thing to actually being there has to be to have a window permanently open on their computer’s desktop, showing live pictures of – say – a herd of elephants around a waterhole in Africa. However it is important to realise that the African bush and modern technology do not always work well together. Also, if the picture that you see is dark, it may be because it is night at the cam’s location!
Africam can be accessed on www.africam.com
However we find that the best individual cams are easier to view in their original internet locations. Thus:
Elephantcam - located in Tembe National Park in South Africa.
http://elephantcam.net/
Taucam located at the Tau Game Lodge in South Africa’s Madikwe Game Reserve
http://www.taugamelodge.co.za/WebCams.asp
Finally National Geographic intermittently hosts an excellent webcam (needing RealPlay to be installed on your computer) at:
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/wildcam.html
As an alternative to a live webcam, you might like to view the stunning images of Africa that are available from Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/
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