Pan/Tilt/Zoom camera and its solar panel and wifi antenna.

View images at http://www.lavanet.com.au/mtelephantfirecam/

This site is kindly sponsored by:GBM technology, Camperdown

In Dec 2015 as a trial a private web camera was mounted on the trig point at the summit of Mount Elephant.

Also mounted here is a GPS base which is used for the auto-steer of local farm machinery.

The webcam uses the tractor guidance solar panel and battery.

It transmits by wifi 9km to a house internet connection.

The trial is continued this year with upgraded camera and internet connection.

Management of the camera is strictly controlled, with just 2 operators.

The aim of the trial is to spot smoke from fires when the fire towers have poor visibility or are not manned.

This is useful during lightning storms and to watch the development and control of wildfires.

In 2016/17 the trial was a project of Mount Elephant Community Management and not formally connected to the CFA or fire brigades.

The trial was a success, with many fires to 30km distance being spotted and tracked.

In Dec 2016 Lismore CFA Group moved to find funding to establish a permanent webcam on the summit and develop a protocol for its use.

Briefly, the camera operator can monitor the fire (similar to a fire tower) and can photograph critical stages to send to the fire controller's phone or computer.

During a fire it may be possible to view selected fire images at https://www.facebook.com/Firecam-Mount-Elephant.

The images below are examples of the output in 2016.

In the top left corner there is a date/time stamp and bit rate transmission.

The zoom is x1 to x20 and extra digital zoom if necessary.

The current camera at 13/1/2022 has x30 zoom.