Overview

Tembe Elephant Park is situated in the north eastern corner of South Africa Africa. The Park is some 300 square kilometres in size. It has an extraordinary bio-diversity in both fauna and flora.

Mashlasela Hide is a wooden structure built on stilts which overlooks a waterhole which has an abundance of wildlife.

The location and views are best expressed with Google Earth The picture below is the water hole,  named Mahlasela, Mahlasela Hide - Tembe Elephant Parkwhere the camera is situated. The advantage of a waterhole location is the (only relative) predictability that elephants will come to the waterhole to drink and enjoy mud-baths. But the elephants will NOT be there all the time. The herds range over a park of hundreds of square kilometres. Some patience is required! The Africa Web Cams are powered by solar panels. Images are transmitted to Internet servers by satellite.

Co-ordinates for the Water hole (Camera side) and the Tembe Safari Camp where the satellite equipment is situates are below.

Mahlasela Hide

 

27 02' 48.36" South

32 26' 53.50"" East

Tembe Safari Camp 27 02' 48.36" South

32 25' 39.09" East

 
Technical - the way we make this possible

The operation and maintenance of the Web cam is technically complex. Access to the site is by 4 x 4 vehicle only. The Transmitter site is powered by means of  solar panels. This includes the camera, the Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) the UHF radio and the radio system that transports the video signal. The descriptions below elude to the operation of the system and commences from the camera viz.

Camera - zoom lens - microwave transmitter - microwave receiver, de-multiplexing & encoding - transport to the internet.

The hide The hide is manufactured from treated wood. It has a grass thatched roof and is built on stilts to give the observers a vantage.  
Camera The camera is a Network dome camera which is operated remotely for pan tilt & zoom

Microphone The microphone is situated under the hide at this time, it will be relocated to the observation pit near the waters edge  
Transmitter The transmitter and receiver radios are IP 5.8 Ghz radios - they are spaced approx 2.1 Km apart  
Video encoding The video is encoded on a PC and then transmitted to the internet for broadcasting  
     
     
 

 
 
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