Security Camera System

The security camera system at WICC has been installed for a month or so. The greatest feature of this system is the Blue Iris monitoring software. Two weeks ago while I was out there, we calibrated the motion detection on all four cameras. The results are astounding; there are at least two red foxes and six to seven white-tailed deer, and on the weekends, the place is busier than Grand Central station.

The nighttime images are interesting, people with flashlights walking down the beach at 1 am and a naked guy causally strolling by the front gate at midnight.  I will never go to this site at night without the police.  Never, so don’t even ask.   This is a video of a fence hopper with a can of spray paint in his hand:

Likely he intended some site beautification.  His friend is out of the frame to the left when the cameras are spotted. A few seconds later both can be seen running away on the North facing camera. I find that rather funny. This is a still picture:

Blue Iris screen shot
Blue Iris screenshot

On the right-hand side of the screen, one can see all of the triggered events from all the cameras.  The Blue Iris software is great, it can handle up to 64 IP cameras and has all sorts of neat features; color coding cameras, recording on motion, night time sensitivity settings, ability to NAT the camera interface to the public network, etc.  The Blue Iris also has an iPhone and Android client which will allow remote access to the Blue Iris server and the server can be set up to push events to the mobile device.  At $9.99, the app is a little pricey, but for high-security situations, it might be just the ticket.

We must also get some signage warning about trespassing and video surveillance and post them on the fences and buildings.

It lives! The PRE BMX III

I have just finished putting back together this PRE BMX III console.

PRE BMXIII analog audio console, reassembled
PRE BMXIII analog audio console reassembled

We basically ripped the guts out of this unit and in doing so, I was reminded of how well these things are built.  The PRE BMX series consoles were truly wonders of audio engineering.  It is a testament to their ruggedness and serviceability that so many of these units are still in use twenty to thirty years after they were manufactured.

This console suffered some pretty bad water damage to the backplane:

PRE BMXIII module backplane
PRE BMXIII module backplane

Which was replace, along with many switches and buttons.  The Mic2, Mic3 and CD1 modules seemed to have taken most of the damage, there were several logic ICs and IC sockets that needed to be replaced on those modules.  Of course, this was not inexpensive; the parts were somewhere north of $3K plus about 40 man hours of labor… that adds up fast.

The good news, I think that the studio was back in service last night.

Dude, ur phone!

About a month ago, I dropped my phone on my way out of class, this is the result:

Droid HTC incredible with a little bit of wear
HTC Droid Incredible with a little bit of wear

Now, that looks bad, I’ll admit, but the phone works just fine. It is my three-year-old HTC Droid Incredible and I have just customized it just the way I like. I was going to replace the front touch screen but after reviewing several youtube videos, that process looks like a right pain.

Unfortunately, every time I take it out of my pocket somebody invariably says: “Oh my God, what happened to your phone?”  My strategy of late is to grab the phone and say “WHAT! WHAT!” while turning it over frantically to find some critical flaw, then look questioningly at the person.

Most often, the other person will look at me and figure out that I am messing with them.  Some do not.

Message from the General Manager

Or whatever those guys are called these days:

lumbergh

Especially when that sink is located on the second floor, above the studio on the first floor.  ‘Tis but a small thing really, one of those little details, but in light of the sink also being clogged, it becomes very significant.  That, coupled with the fact that the building is uninhabited at night and disaster is afoot.

Clogged sink
Clogged sink

The water was running slowly all night…

Wet ceiling tiles
Wet ceiling tiles

It filled up the sink.  It ran across the floor.  It soaked the carpet. It seeped into the sub floor and out of the ceiling on the first floor and then into this nice Pacific Recorders BMX III console.

Pacific Recorders BMX III console, draining
Pacific Recorders BMX III console, draining
Pacific Recorders BMX III console, draining/drying
Pacific Recorders BMX III console, draining/drying

Do you know that burning electronic/plastic smell?  Yeah, that’s it, mixed with stale funky water, wet wood and a nondescript mildewy odor; that is what the room smells like.  Very pleasing.  The furniture below the console was soaked too:

Studio furniture after water damage
Studio furniture after water damage

Some of the input module edge connectors; didn’t fair so well:

PRE BMXIII burned edge connectors
PRE BMXIII burned edge connectors

The backplane for the power supply buss has to be replaced and these switches with the water bubbles in them, have to go too:

Pacific Recorders BMXIII buss select switch full of water
Pacific Recorders BMXIII buss select switch full of water

We dried out the furniture with an industrial strength hair dryer.  By three PM we had unsoldered all of the bad parts and cleaned off the modules and the console back plane.

Parts for repairs are on order from Mooretronix.  I doubt this will be repaired before next Tuesday.

Somebody came in and was all “awww, this sucks bla bla bla.”  Well, maybe, but I get paid by the hour and frankly, there are much worse things that I could be doing…