US Relay's eLiveStream allows rafters, anglers, scientists and residents interested in the rivers to operate the public safety camera network from their web-browser.

Challenge
Last year’s fires in California left hillsides cleared of vegetation, placing residents near the rivers at significant risk to flash flooding and debris flows. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) was seeking an early warning system that could be viewed on-line by the National Weather Service, emergency managers, and local residents during storms. Part of the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project. the system was also to collect a visual record of flooding and other river events to offer scientists important research data for preventing future disasters.

Solution
Deploying its eLiveStream™ rebroadcasting service, US Relay designed for USGS a fully integrated, end-to-end IP video system that provides real-time video for use by viewers in evaluatin flood conditions on several rivers in the Orange County area of California. Three Axis 213 and 214 PTZ IP Network cameras, equipped with high sensitivity to capture Motion-JPEG and MPEG-4 video in lighting conditions down to 0.005 lux, are mounted on the banks of the Truckee River at Tahoe City, the Santiago Creek in Modjeska, and the Santa Margarita River in Fallbrook. The cameras are enclosed in state-of-the-art Dotworkz D2™ all-weather camera housings featuring a thermoplastic fiber composite construction that will not rust or corrode.

Results
US Relay’s eLiveStream now allows rafters, anglers, scientists and residents interested in the rivers to operate the webcams from their web browser. No plug-ins or downloads are needed. The dedicated IP cameras serve just one stream of video, reducing USGS’s bandwidth requirements and eliminating network bottlenecks. Video can be viewed in one of two modes: a static camera mode that updates every few minutes, or the camera operation mode that allows full use of the cameras PTZ functionality to scan the monitored area. The hosted Web pages also show the latest gage readings, river flow/discharge rates, and water-surface elevation, along with daily one-hour animations from the image archives.

View USGS live streaming webcams