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Cameras stream video to the world

Project targets economic development and tourism
Laura Walz

A series of cameras installed throughout the community are streaming live video to a website that is all about Powell River.

The project is a partnership between the Powell River Chamber of Commerce and Pacific Community Networks Association (PCNA), an organization that provides technical services to CAP (Community Access Program) sites and their clients in BC.

Kim Miller, chamber manager, said the organization has had a camera mounted on its building for about four years, but didn’t do much with it. “We want to get the cameras in diverse locations, so they are not just looking at the ocean,” she said. “It’s for people who want to invest here; they can look at the malls and see that there’s traffic and life here. It’s for investment, real estate, economic development, tourism, it’s for all of that.”

Bev Collins is executive director of PCNA and Danny McKenzie is the group’s provincial youth coordinator and technical manager. Collins said PCNA has supported CAP sites for 20 years across the province. “This project seemed to make sense because it was hands-on,” she said. “Danny could set a camera up and we could test out what it would be like. Then it can go to other communities.”

Currently, there are four cameras installed, with another three to four on the way within the next week. The camera on the chamber building has a view of the Wharf at Westview. Cameras are also on the Patricia Theatre in Townsite with a view looking down Ash Street to the hulks and beyond and Shinglemill Pub and Bistro with a view of Powell Lake. A fourth camera, which rotates, is at Powell River Town Centre Mall.

The cameras, which stream video 24 hours a day, seven days a week, don’t record. “The cameras are plugged into the Internet, then through the Internet connect right to our server; then it’s live out there,” McKenzie said. “There’s about a one second delay that’s just for buffering, to make it a smoother video.”

The live stream can be viewed on Powell River Live. Even though the site isn’t quite finished, as of Friday, November 22, it had almost 13,000 page views, with hits from Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Costa Rica, Spain, Guam and France, to name just a few.

There’s an opportunity for people to post comments under each of the cameras on the website, with comments tied to Facebook. “Hopefully, we can get some discussions going back and forth between them,” McKenzie said.

For people who are concerned that the cameras are an invasion of privacy, Miller pointed out they are in public places and they don’t record anything. “You can’t zoom in on faces or licence plates or anything like that,” she said. “Legally, they’re completely fine.”

Since the cameras are live, there is no way to pull any data from the past, McKenzie added. “If people are worried about being recorded, they’re not,” he said.

Miller pointed out that there are a number of cameras installed around town that do record, including at the malls and BC Ferries’ Westview terminal.

As well as the live streams, the website has live weather information and current tides. There’s also a section that displays any photos posted to Instagram tagged with #PowellRiver.

McKenzie is documenting how to set up the cameras and connect to the server, so the information can be spread out to other communities. “Another town that wants to do it can do the same thing,” he said.