Channel Islands Live

Channel Islands Live! leverages the power of technology to bring one of Californians most unique national parks along with its diverse flora and fauna (both above and below water) directly to you.

A lot of hard work went into setting up the EagleCAM but we were successful thanks to some creative thinking and strong legs!

To get the video signal from the camera to the mainland we had to set up a microwave link from Santa Cruz Island to a site in Ventura County. So.... first order of business was to get the microwave dish over to Santa Cruz.

The dish was brought over on the Island Range (a NPS boat) and skiffed to the shore.

Some good strong legs, backs and arms helped carry not only the dish but batteries (60lbs each!), solar panels and much more.

Santa Cruz Island map and picture of skiff bringing the microwave dish to the island.

3 shots of people carrying equipment of the hill to the camera site.

Since there is no electricityat that location, a power supply was set up using solar panels and batteries to keep the equipment up and running. To send the signal from the island to the mainland a series of network switches and video encoders/decoders was needed.

See a schematic of the whole set up.

Once the equipment was set up on the island and dishes were set up and directed on the mainland, a live signal link was established.

EagleCAM looking down on the nest