Belmar Beach NJ Webcams Coming Soon!

Belmar Beach NJ Webcams Coming Soon!

Happy Summer Everyone!

Belmar (http://belmar.com/beach) is and always has been a happening place to be and live. This summer has really been fun with the nationally recognized annual Belmar 5K (http://www.belmar5.com/), The Sandcastle Contest (http://belmar.com/recreation-news/2009/07/nj-sandcastle-contest/), and so many more things coming up that will be of great interest and fun for families, fisherman, sports enthusiast, beach lovers, and those seeking to live in a town that is really moving forward and has eveything to offer.

The big news for today is: Two New Webcams Coming Soon to Belmar.com

August 8, 2009 by MayorKenPringle

The Borough is installing two new webcams that will enable visitors to Belmar.com to enjoy Belmar's spectacular scenery. The new webcams will be installed on the roof of the Taylor Pavilion at Fifth and Ocean Avenues, and on the roof of the Senior Citizen's Building at Eighth Avenue and Railroad. The Taylor Pavilion roof location will enable Belmar.com visitors to enjoy beach and Ocean Avenue views, while the Senior Citizen Building roof top camera will capture views of the marina, commercial boat docks, inlet and back bay of the Shark River.

Currently, visitors to Belmar.com can access a webcam only through a link to an NJ.com-sponsored webcam mounted on the front of the Eastern Lines Surf Shop on Ocean Avenue. Although this fixed, still-shot camera provides a view of only a narrow slice of Belmar's beach and boardwalk, it has proved to be enormously popular with Belmar.com visitors. In fact, despite its limited features, this one webcam accounts for upwards of 15% of all summer-time visits to Belmar.com.

The Borough's two new webcams will use a more feature-rich version of TrueLook software to provide streaming, as opposed to still-shot images, and viewers will be able to pan, tilt and zoom the camera to capture a wide array of scenes. The TrueLook software will also include a variety of special features, including enabling My Belmar members to sign up to receive photos of Belmar's magnificent sunrises over the Atlantic and equally spectacular sunsets over the Shark River. Moreover, unlike the NJ.com webcam, Belmar will be able to earn advertising revenue from these new webcams, and also use the cams in a variety of ways to promote Belmar's special events and downtown, marina and beachfront business communities.

The Taylor Pavilion webcam will provide a 360-degree view, enabling viewers to see Belmar's entire beachfront.

Taylor Pavilion's roof also provides an excellent vantage point for viewing Belmar's busy boardwalk and Ocean Avenue.

As part of the webcam project, the Borough is also installing wireless directional antennae on the roof tops of the Taylor Pavilion and the Senior Citizen Building that can transmit data at high speeds via line-of-site wireless links between the two buildings. (There is no broadband cable service east of the boardwalk).

This view from the Senior Citizen Building of the rooftop of the Taylor Pavilion at Fifth & Ocean enables the buildings to be linked via wireless line-of-site antennas.

This wireless network will connect to the internet via a high speed fiber optic cable that is being installed in the Senior Citizen Building. The Borough plans to rely on the same wireless network to enable visitors to Belmar.com to see the planned new 4k wind turbine at Taylor Pavilion in action, as well as to view real-time data about the turbine's energy output.

Because there is no broadband cable service east of the boardwalk, the Borough will use wireless directional antennas like this one on the roof of the Taylor Pavilion to transmit the data stream from the webcam to the rooftop of the Belmar Senior Citizen Building, a half mile away, where it will be uploaded to the internet via a fiber optic cable.

The wireless directional antennas Belmar is using have the capacity to be expanded in the future to provide full mesh-networking capability. This will enable Belmar to not only provide wireless access for internet and cell phone use, but also to expand the network over time beyond line-of-site locations. Under the plan, Belmar's 70-foot tall Senior Citizen Building will serve as the hub for the network, collecting wireless line-of-site data feeds from an array of directional antennas in the town. The building's easily accessible roof, existing broadband service, and clear line-of-site views to numerous other Belmar buildings and landmarks make it an ideal platform for the future expansion of the network. Future sites for the installation of webcams include the basketball courts and skate board park at Dempsey Park, the ball fields at Memorial Field, and the Community Sailing Dock, followed by other municipal parks, playgrounds and walkways.

The Belmar Tourism Commission is funding the cost of the cameras, weatherproof enclosures, wireless antennae and routers and cables, poles and mounting equipment, and will also manage the advertising revenue from the cameras, as well as their promotional use to support Belmar's special events and Belmar's businesses. Advertising revenue from the webcams will pay for the ongoing software and maintenance of the cams, and fund the expansion of the program. The design and technical aspects of the installation are being handled on a volunteer basis by long-time Belmar resident Marshall Boxer. Special thanks is also owed to Luis A. David, who is the Senior Learning Manager for SCOPE Center at Brookdale. Luis spent 23-years with AT&T Communications in both networking and engineering, and has been an invaluable resource for Marshall and the Borough in the planning and implementation of this ambitious project. Special thanks are also owed to the Public Works Department, and in particular Rich Neral, who is handling the installation and cabling of the system. Thanks are also owed to Borough Administrator Robbin Kirk, who has handled the procurement issues is spearheading the installation of broadband service to the Senior Citizens Building.

The webcam on the roof of the Belmar Senior Citizens Building will provide 360-degree views of the downtown and marina area of the Borough.

The webcam atop the Senior Citizen Building will provide views of the inlet and Seaport Redevelopment Area.

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