Luxor4u

Are there any WebCams in public areas?

What would be the cost of setting up and maintaining a WebCam in Egypt?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if WebCams were set up to show, maybe once per minute, the main axes of the main temples and sites, and maybe even the souk and corniche?

I am convinced that this would help tourism in the future, as well as helping people to plan what time of the day or week is best for a visit to x, y or z.

In the UK I can check the traffic at every motorway junction in the country, as well as at many other places. I seriously think that WebCams are a useful tourist facility ...

Good idea Brian - we got webcams all over the place here and I can do the same as you. I can check major intersections, the ferry terminal, conditions at set locations etc any time of day.

I suspect that a webcam would not last long exposed to the summer heat!
The SCA is so strapped for cash that the idea would we well down on the priority list.
Lastly, the bandwidth in Luxor is too poor to sustain such a project except maybe by showing cached images every 15 minutes or so.

The bandwidth in Luxor is sufficient to support Skype, at least some of the time.

An image once a minute should be possible. 800x600 or 1024x768 would be adequate.

Does anyone here have experience of WebCams in other warm places? I don't see that 50°C would be a problem. I encountered such temperatures in Moscow in 1982, and my photographic equipment was not adversely affected.

I seem to remember that it was proposed that Luxor was to have a live internet stream for tourists to see for themselves how safe it was. But the idea probably bombed at the drawing board level.

Brian Yare wrote:Are there any WebCams in public areas?

I don't believe there are at the moment. Strange you should raise this question now though as only a week ago an Egyptian friend was telling me that WebCams are going to be installed around Luxor. He did not mention the Antiquities Sites but said they were going to be put around the Corniche and main streets. He made it sound like a definite but I've not heard this from anyone else or read anything about it being proposed. Like everything - time will tell!

For many years there was an excellent webcam at the Pyramids - http://www.pyramidcam.com/ but it doesn't seem to be live at the moment.

According to http://www.webcamgalore.com/EN/Egypt/countrycam-0.html the Sheraton has a live webcam and there are several in the Red Sea resorts.

But, the question has to be asked - are the proposed ones along the Corniche actual webcams or would they be surveillance CCTV?

LivinginLuxor wrote:
But, the question has to be asked - are the proposed ones along the Corniche actual webcams or would they be surveillance CCTV?

Sorry, my mistake in terminology. Yes, the ones my friend was referring to were Surveillance TV.

The charity SPANA has web cams set up in hot countries, supporters can watch the daily work at the centres.

LivinginLuxor wrote:According to http://www.webcamgalore.com/EN/Egypt/countrycam-0.html the Sheraton has a live webcam and there are several in the Red Sea resorts.

Yes, Stan, I had located the Sheraton WebCam. What a shame that it is pointing to the west. It would be much more informative (to me, at least) if it were pointing in the other direction along the river. But it does show that there is very little traffic on the river at present!

http://www.sheratonluxorview.com/

Something Barry and I discussed placing a web-cam on my dome roof directed 'clear line of site to Hatshepsuit.
But: 1. where is the earner ? 2. There is nothing to see other than the temple, no tourists.....
Ps: Honestly watching the ever changing crop rotation around me is more interesting.
Pss: The Sheriton webcam says 'live but nothing is moving not even the wind.

There shouldn't be a problem with the heat,[justify][/justify] as webcams are used all over the Caribbean in a variety of places, mainly hotels.

The Caribbean is not Luxor when it comes to temperatures. It may be 50C in the shade but a camera mounted outdoors will be subject to full sun at least some of the time. My roof sensor exceeds 75C in full sun during a hot summer day!
Nothing short of industrial or military grade could sustain those temperatures for long periods of time....trust me I am an electronics engineer!

I know from being in the Caribbean lots and living there that unless you're keeping a fan going under your laptop in the (ahem) warm weather your laptop can sure get cranky. And then there are the monsoons and then there are all the little bugs that crawl into everything coming from the warm wet weather and all - so my only point is that I think the electronics in the Caribbean might be rigged or set to deal with wetter weather but if it can be done it can be done.

What's the point ? Web Cams Why ? What's to look at ? ........

I suppose we could play "spot the tourist". Might take a while though

Sheraton Webcam, looking down the Nile..

http://www.sheratonluxorview.com/

Bullet Magnet wrote:Sheraton Webcam, looking down the Nile..

http://www.sheratonluxorview.com/

Think I just saw a ripple on the Nile!

Ooops NO. Sorry, my mistake, I've still got my curtains opened and it was a reflection from my own window!