dis-connect/re-connect

I to have noticed this in the last couple of days.

I've mailed admin about it.

TY ceri 

I'd like to add my problem here, too, although after the disconnect, I cannot reconnect for a very loooooooong time.  I have never had a problem with the cams until the last few days.  Hope we can find a solution to this as I love these cams and hate it when I cannot connect for reasons other than power outages on your side.

Flower

this is still happening to me. Every 20 mins. the cam stops then it starts back up again. Any idea as to why this is happening?

It is happening on both cameras, now.  On Nk, it's no real problem, as it resets and starts right up again.  However on EP, it does not seem to automatically reset, and it takes a bit of fiddling, Stop/Start or clicking on the green Elephant Plains button to get it going again.

I've been having this problem for a few days, too.  In and of itself, it is NOT a problem except......when it re-sets, it re-sets the cam volume to over the middle volume.  THAT is way too loud....especially when I'm watching at work.  I'm watching in the pop-up viewer and have it happen on my home laptop with Vista & IE as well as on work desktop with XP & IE.  Frankly, this is approaching the point where I just won't be able to watch the cam any longer.....at least at work which is most of my camming time.  I hope there is a solution to this.  I'm not sure what I'd do without my cams.  Please help!

I'm hoping someone at admin is reading this thread.  If you go to the Wavelit site      

 http://wavelit.com/index.php?view=africam

It keeps running forever, and does not reset every 20 minutes.  I'm not advocating anything, just pointing out that the problem that is driving some people nuts does not exist if you access the cams that way.  There must be something that can be done to fix it so we can use the Africam pop up viewers.

Roger I sent you a PM.  But my suspicion is that those with the problem are using IE to view the cams.  The feed from africam if you are using IE comes from lightningcast.net as a advertising.com video feed.  Using Firefox I get no ads and have no problems.  So it is my suspicion that it is the hand off between the cam and the advertisments is where the problem is.  For a solution you might try using Firefox.  I don't know if it also has to do with anything but I have the Adblock plus plug-in with firefox too.  This is just my guess as to what might be the problem anyway as with firefox we get the feed direct from onenetplace.net without any problems.

I use IE exclusively and have no problem with a 20 minute cut-off. Cam runs fine. However...I don't use the embed players on the homepage. That seems to be where the trouble lies. I checked the source code and this piece of javascript is worth investigating. Assuming that the 1200000 is milliseconds....that translates to 20 minutes if my math is correct...

<!-- refresh wmv video stream -->
<script language="JavaScript"><!--
function refreshWMVStream() {
var f = document.getElementById('iframe1');
        f.src = f.src;

   window.setTimeout('refreshWMVStream()',1200000); // refresh every X secs
}
//--></script>

As usual Maxx - spot on

We have implemented the 20 min reset as we plan to run an ad every 20 min or so. the problem we have is that we desperatly need revenue to continue the service and feel that this may be an opportunity for Africam to balance its books.

We are in the early stages of this project, so feedback would be very helpful in formulating a solution 

I use Firefox exclusively, IE is useless on my computer. I have never had a problem viewing either cam until recently. I noticed the reset after 20 minutes, my problem now is that I cannot reconnect after the 20 minute reset. I have had to wait up to two hours before I was able to view the cams again (and I don't mean during the load shedding time). I refuse to use the Wavelit site, so will sit and wait until Africam can come up with a solution.

Flower

this is very strange - the 2 hours i mean.

We did do some testing here before we let it loose. reset/reload times were fine, even on South African bandwidth it seemd ok (our version of broadband anyway)

Using IE/Vista it reset / reloaded fine for embedded home page plus popup

FF worked well on the home page embed, but doesnt even reset on the popup so the problem wouldnt be that apparent there 

But the 2 hrs stumps me - is this happening every time ?  I cant imagine it having anything to do with java installed on ur machine as it starts the sequence - but maybe worth checking

Hi, I am having this same problem for the past few days. Every 20 mins the page refreshes and then I can't connect again. I click and click and it won't come back, sometimes even when I reboot the computer. I use IE generally, but I tried switching to Firefox and I can't even get the cam to come up. Can anyone help? THANKS.

Okay, just checked and everything is okay for the moment, the cam has been running for 90 minutes with no disconnect. I can say that the disconnect doesn't happen all the time (probably four times in the past six days and again not during load shedding), but when it does happen, I can not reconnect. EP seems to be worse, usually get NK back and EP follows about an hour later (weird!). I have always had good connections when others are down and complaining they have no picture, so I know that something is different/wrong with my connection now as I am now the one sitting in the dark reading what others are seeing (boo-hoo).

I have tried rebooting, the whole nine yards. I have tried connecting through all the links and typing the URL directly into WMP with the same results. As far as checking java......I have no clue how to do that and what to look for, so will need some guidance to do that.

 Flower

I am having a different problem then what has not been mentioned.  On NK cam I am only geting 260 K/bits second. On the EP cam I get 200 k/bits second.  EP cam gets stuck, but the numbers still go around so I do not notice until someone mentions that something is going on at EP and I do not see it.  I click on EP to renew the cam but it does not come back on.  I have to actually do a control delete to stop the program.  That problem only happens with the EP cam.  I watch the cams in IE and FF.  Does anybody have any idea what is happening here?  The other cams I watch are 314 k/bits second, and I have no problem with them.  Thank You

You are not alone. I am having the same problem. I hope it can be fixed. I do not like to view cams at wavelit. Take care let me know if it is working better for you.

Cheryl 

I first thought maybe there was some malformed code....but caught the script fairly quickly.

I wonder if you are really helping yourself, though. Don't know too much about how advertisers pay per impression and per click-through....but I believe they record IP addies or use cookies and won't tally more than one impression in certain ammount of time....like 24 hours? Years ago....when too many people were getting ads on their sites, then sat there for hours on end clicking to raise the impression rates...the advertisers got smart and started tracking.

In short....are you sure that each 20-minute refresh is actually being recorded by the advertisers as a legitmate hit? If they aren't....then people are getting bumped for no reason. Also....some flash sites that serve up recorded video are able to incorporate small transparent ads at the bottom of the video while it runs. Can it be done with live feed Windows Media? A small transparent ad popping up at the bottom of the video....every 20 minutes...is infinitely better than disconnecting people. They can still see what is happening. I don't know too much about it...but maybe something you can explore.

Maxx said: “some flash sites that serve up recorded video are able to incorporate small transparent ads at the bottom of the video while it runs. Can it be done with live feed Windows Media?”

Getting ad inventory is our greatest problem as this is still such a new media space, transparent ads or overlays would be great but we don’t know anyone who can do this for live streaming media with a decent $ rate.

The ad agencies track both unique and media views/ unique but we are well within that norm even with the 20min Ad break.

We have engaged the ad networks on this and can assure u that it is legitimate - this helps frequency/re-inforcement. There is also the likelyhood that a different ad will be served. Click fraud has been a serious problem for the networks and they have mostly systems in place that detect this early 

We have spoken to 2-3 of the 'overlay' ppl and yes they are all Flash focused - there dont seem to be solutions for WMV, although down the road SilverLine might help. However, we are seriously looking to migrate our entire streaming system to FLV. 

Not to ignore ur specific problem - but this is unrelated to the reload/refresh issue? 

Something I am also curious about is with those that do recordings of the cams. Especially while they leave the background or other recorders going while asleep or away from computer in hopes of catching anything that may happen on cams and share it with the rest of us as well.

Are the recorders able to "automatically reconnect" after the breaks in feed now? I would assume that the Ads will have a different feed in to the stream when it is implemented. I know with the buffering problems at EP now, trying to get a video to upload to Youtube is nearly impossible as I have been told that youtube sees them as corrupt unless quite a bit of time is taken to try and cut out as much of the buffering feed as possible. With our very valued Recording Folks having to go with a Plan B and upload them on Photobucket, they are still having to go thru quite a bit to even get it uploaded there.

I share this concern because I have seen a few people post that they learned of Africam by coming across a Video that had been uploaded on Youtube or Photobucket.

I do understand the need to try and get revenue to help keep the Streams going, but is the "possibility" of something like opening an Africam Store at Cafe Press or some where like that not an option that can be explored?

I am having the same problem as you. Please help do not know what else to do. Thanks,

Cheryl 

I, too, am having problems viewing both NK and EP. I use Firefox exclusively and can get the commercial that runs at the beginning of the feed. Once I click any of the links to the right or the bottom the cam says "connecting to media". Period. Nothing ever comes on. I thought it was the router but if I can get the commercial I'm thinking it has nothing to do with the problem. I haven't changed my settings at all but I still can get nothing except the advertising. Does anyone have any ideas? I am desperately missing Africam!!! You are welcome to PM me with any suggestions you might have.

OK, I have paid close attention for the last day or so as to what is happening to me.  I am using Internet Explorer and XP.  I view Nkorho on the popup player from the orange side bar of the home page.  I view EP on the imbedded viewer in the center of the page.  Nk resets every 20 minutes and restarts almost instantly.  EVERY TIME.  EP, on the other hand resets every 20 minutes, but WILL NOT restart at all without my intervention.  I must either do Stop/Start or click the green Elephant Plains button under the viewer.  This also happens EVERY TIME and so far I have been able to manually restart it EVERY TIME.

The second part of this is the volume levels on the two players are vastly different from each other, EP being by far the loudest.  My normal setup is to have my main volume up high enough that I can set the Nk volume slider to the midpoint.  I then have to move the EP volume slider nearly all the way to the left to match it to Nk.  This is fine.  Allows me to hear both sites.  BUT.................when EP resets, it moves the volume slider back to the midpoint, and the bloody airconditioner at EP about blows me out of my chair!

I'm sure that all the above are fixable.

What is of greater concern to this member is the possibility that we may have to live with "commercials"  on our beloved waterhole cams.  The thought of having a Charmin' or Volvo commercial pop up while we're watching a Leopard drink at one of the waterholes distresses me a great deal.  At least on television, the program pauses during the commercial breaks.  With live streaming video, the action (or lack thereof) continues, and we will miss it.

I wonder if it would be possible for Admin/Africam to offer up some alternatives to adds on the cams, and at least give the membership the opportunity  to decide if we are willing to help make it happen?

Roger - thanx for the sterling & detailed feedback. Cant promise all will be fixed asap, but it wil get attention.

In terms of how do we handle this is the big question. Economic fact is we cant continue forever as we are - we have to make some changes. Changes can be gradual & well planned - then the change doesnt appear like a change at all !!

We are looking at options, with various combinations, to accomodate almost everybody, we are hoping. Ad frequency is one of them and a realistic one from a publishers/broadcasters point of view. Pay per view is another, but i dont think its time is here yet.

Paid subscription is certianally feasible, with various packages aimed at certian user groups with means, loyalty, contribution and time of service all factored in.

Merchandisng, whilst certianally a revenue opportunity, would never cover our bandwidth costs i speculate. SA is a VERY expensive place to use telecomms - in fact Africa in general really 

So those are mostly the parameters i guess 

I assume that bandwidth out of SA is the biggest cost associated with Africam? As near as I can figure....there is only one, maybe two submarine cables out of SA and also satellite. Which does Africam use?

Also read that a new submarine cable is being laid now. Does that bode well for the future?

Africam is at a disadvantage. Petes Pond is backed by multi-million dollar National Geographic and Wildearth has Telkom backing them and near future paid service is rumored. Just curious, but what if Telkom itself became an advertiser for Africam in exchange for reduced data transfer fees?

Just tossing ideas around since many a site has gone away trying to rely on ad revenues alone. My tech support site tried ads to balance the books and it didn't work. Instead, we run in the red on a constant basis.

 Spot on Maxx - but competition is coming and that will help - we have world cup 2010 and that has eventually spurred de-regulation. but it is  probably 18-24 months away at least.

We are engaging the incumbant though & hoping for a high level meeting soon.

Telkom's foray into media was abrubtly ended a few weeks ago when their new CEO announced that they were looking to rapidly withdraw their investment in Telkom Media. They pared the budget down by 30% odd immediatly 

So....challenges, fun & games - its rocky shores ahead for us with all this going on but we are convinced that if we keep our course we will pervail just fine.

Id probably agree that purely ad revenue is not optimal

So why not at least start a new thread maybe and inquire if the Africam Viewers would be interested if there was an Africam Store created?
If you take a look at the Link I shared earlier for Cafe Press, there is NO upfront monies needed from Africam to create one. Just a matter of uploading a few pics to choose from to be put on to the different products. Africam would choose the products and the logos on them, decide on a price for each type of product and they would be put in the different product categories and offered for sale.

Heck, I'd start a thread to see how many would be interested, but it's not my place to do so.

Yes, I know that won't solely bring in lots of money to keep Africam afloat, but I'm sure it would help some. Isn't something better than nothing? And us viewers would also have keepsakes/memorabilia from the cams that we love.

Okay, I have just reinstalled WMP11 and still cannot connect to NK or EP. At NK I just got the following error message:

Windows Media Player cannot play the file because a network error occurred. The server might not be available (for example, the server is busy or not online) or you might not be connected to the network.

At EP I just got the following error message:

Windows Media Player cannot find the file. If you are trying to play, burn, or sync an item that is in your library, the item might point to a file that has been moved, renamed, or deleted.

Both of these error messages show for each cam, alternating back and forth (network error one time, cannot find the file the next time).

There appears to be no rhyme or reason for this inability to reconnect. If I check back in ten minutes, I MAY be able to reconnect...or it MAY take another hour or two to get back on. If anyone has any suggestions to fix this problem, I would love to hear from you. Up until a few days ago I have never, and I mean NEVER, had a bit of trouble connecting to the cams. I miss my Africam!!!!!

Flower