Tag Archives: remote

The Alternative To An ATC Tower

Staffing an air traffic control tower is an expensive business. The technology has recently been developed to allow air traffic control to be delivered remotely. Sweden was an early pioneer of this approach. A series of high definition cameras on the airport combined with high speed data links to a remote facility that is already well staffed means that an airport can be controlled by staff many miles away. This is the approach London City Airport now has taken.

The controlling staff for LCY are now based at Swanwick in Hampshire rather than on the airport itself. No doubt, this is cheaper than having London based staff in the quantities required. It also means that the low traffic levels that LCY has are not having to be covered by an unnecessarily large staffing level locally if the Swanwick staff are able to provide the necessary cover for what is not a busy airport. The visibility of what is going on at the airport is provided by high definition video feeds and there is a tower at LCY which is the one that provides this coverage. I got to see it when I was walking along the south side of the docks near the runway. It will be interesting to see how approaches like this get developed for more airports that need air traffic services but do not have the volumes to justify the staffing involved.

Videoing the Hummingbirds

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Sometimes you just forget what you have tucked in the garage. I have been trying to get shots of the hummingbirds in our back yard and more recently shot a little video with the DSLR. Then it occurred to me that they might be wary of people but not of inanimate objects. Why not stick a camera on a post right next to the feeder.

While it hasn’t had much use recently, I have a GoPro (or two). I have an adaptor that would sit on top of a lighting stand which is plenty tall enough to get up to the height of the feeder. Moreover, I can control it all remotely using a phone/tablet including a live video feed. I sat indoors with the iPad on watching for movement on screen while doing other things. As soon as one appeared, a press of the button and they were being recorded. The initial attempts failed until I remembered to switch off the beeps and the LEDs that flash during recording. After that it was easy. The results were rather pleasing.

Phantom Quadcopter

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While watching the surfing at Santa Cruz, I wasn’t the only one with a camera. There were quite a few of us shooting from the ground but one person was taking it up a notch – literally. They were flying a Phantom Quadcopter with a GoPro mounted underneath. Phantoms are a hot thing right now. The view that you can get from an elevated position is excellent and the combination of the new quadcopter designs with the lightweight GoPro (and other brand) cameras makes for a very useful tool whether shooting stills or video.

The control system is quite advanced. The system keeps the machine were it is and you demand any change in location. Rather than having to constantly control the machine to stay where you want, it takes the majority of the burden from you. Very helpful if you want to concentrate on what you are filming. I am quite tempted to rent one at some point to give it a try. I have seen them in the wild a couple of times and find them rather impressive. I think it is a little too limited in role for me to think about getting one (although when has that ever held me back?) It would be good to try one first, though.