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EarthCam

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EarthCam
Type of site
Webcam Network
Available inEnglish
Created byBrian Cury (CEO and Founder)
URLearthcam.com
CommercialYes, advertising and licensing of its proprietary webcam content.
LaunchedMarch 27, 1996; 28 years ago (1996-03-27)
Current statusActive

EarthCam, Inc., based in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, United States, provides webcam content, technology and services. Founded in 1996, EarthCam.com is a network of scenic webcams offering a complete searchable database of views of places around the world.

As the company grew, EarthCam expanded beyond building its network of tourism cameras and extended its reach into other industries by developing and delivering technology for many applications in verticals including construction, transportation, and surveillance. Expanding beyond the pages of its main site, EarthCam.com, EarthCam's network of websites has grown to include WebCamStore.com, EarthCamMobile.com, and most notably EarthCam.net, a site for businesses and organizations to purchase webcams and EarthCam's proprietary software to manage their camera networks. Mobile applications for accessing EarthCam's live webcams and for clients to control their private cameras are available for Apple Inc. or Android (operating system) devices.

EarthCam and other live webcam services have a huge impact on entertainment and business, allowing for online "travel," meetings, and easy access to knowledge.[1] Virtual travel also became possible with webcams located at major worldwide tourist attractions such as London's Abbey Road,[2] the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach, Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles and the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign".

History

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Brian Cury, CEO and founder of EarthCam, Inc., launched EarthCam.com in 1996 to build a network of webcams offering views of destinations throughout the world.

In 1999 it was claimed 20 people per day were adding their webcams to the website.[3] By 2006 the website was a Webby Award Winner in the Tourism category.[4] It is viewed by fans in 192 countries and ranks among the top 1% of all websites, according to Alexa.com.[5]

One of the first highly publicised events that EarthCam produced, labelled "Webcast of the Century", featured celebrations from around the world at the turn of the new millennium on New Year's Eve 1999 / New Year's Day 2000. 100 cameras were located across the world, taking pictures every 30 seconds, viewed using an interactive world map on EarthCam.com.[3]

In October 2011 EarthCam built and installed the 'TorchCams', custom camera systems that generate live video and widescreen images, giving visitors panoramic views from the Statue of Liberty torch, the location that has been closed to the public since 1916.[6][7][8] The five cameras were donated to the National Park Service by EarthCam, Inc.[9][10]

In May 2015, EarthCam announced that it had chosen Davis Brody Bond - Architect of the 9/11 Memorial Museum - to design its new 10-acre campus in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.[11]

To ring in the new year in 2017, EarthCam installed 4K live streaming video cameras in Times Square in order to broadcast the first-ever 4K stream of the Times Square celebration live on YouTube.[12] Through the years, EarthCam’s streaming video quality has evolved, from still JPEG images updating once every 60 seconds in 1996 to 4K "ultra-high definition" streaming video today.

Website

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EarthCam.net provides live streaming video, megapixel, wireless, and solar-powered camera systems, along with managed services, for corporate clients and government agencies worldwide, including the General Services Administration (GSA). Powered by EarthCam's Control Center 8 webcam management service that is delivered as a user-controllable SaaS (Software as a Service) interface, EarthCam's professional webcam technology is used to view, document, and promote projects. Additional advanced imaging technology services are offered including gigapixel images and most recently, EarthCam Air, aerial photography which combines EarthCam’s webcam technology with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) services to produce geospatial images.

By visiting EarthCam, viewers have the capability to see historical places and landmarks around the world, especially in the US. EarthCam cameras located at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial[13] in Washington DC, the Flight 93 National Memorial[14] in Shanksville, PA, Seattle's Space Needle, Wall Street's notable Charging Bull and more deliver unique views, both live and archived. The archived images can be edited together to produce time-lapse videos such as the Ground Zero 10-year time-lapse[15] which was created from images captured at the site from September 2001 through September 2011.

Projects documented by EarthCam

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MoscowCam by EarthCam

References

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  1. ^ "The Technology of Live Webcams Has a Huge Impact". Live Global Cams. Archived from the original on 2013-06-14. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  2. ^ "Crossing Cam". Abbey Road. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  3. ^ a b Catherine Greenman, Who, What, When, Where and Y2K; The Stay-at-Homes Have Plenty of Chances to See the Parties, or Problems, Unfold, The New York Times, December 30, 1999. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
  4. ^ "Webby Nominees". Archived from the original on 2012-01-20. Retrieved 2012-01-24.
  5. ^ "earthcam.com Site Overview". Alexa.com. 2014-04-24. Archived from the original on 2016-08-21. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  6. ^ Jonathan Allen, Statue of Liberty to sport webcams from its torch, Reuters, October 26, 2011. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
  7. ^ "Torch Cam - The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island". Ellisisland.org. Archived from the original on 2014-07-18. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  8. ^ "US celebrates Statue of Liberty's 125th birthday". WSJ.com. 2011-10-28. Archived from the original on 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  9. ^ "Torch cams to give masses views from Lady Liberty » Kuwait Times Website". www.kuwaittimes.net. Archived from the original on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  10. ^ Kitty Bean Yancey, Statue of Liberty turns 125, gets webcams, USA Today, October 27, 2011. Retrieved 2012-01-27.
  11. ^ "EarthCam Headquarters Davis Brody Bond". Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  12. ^ "New Year's Eve - Times Square in 4K – EarthCam". YouTube.com. 2016-12-31. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  13. ^ "EarthCam - Build the Dream". Archive.is. 2012-08-04. Archived from the original on 2012-08-04. Retrieved 2016-08-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  14. ^ "Live Webcam | Flight 93 National Memorial". Honorflight93.org. Archived from the original on 2016-09-08. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  15. ^ "World Trade Center Cams". EarthCam.com. 2014-08-30. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  16. ^ "9/11 Memorial Webcam | National September 11 Memorial & Museum". 911memorial.org. Archived from the original on 2016-08-19. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  17. ^ "Multimedia". PanCanal.com. 2001-05-15. Archived from the original on 2012-10-27. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  18. ^ "Construction Cams". Bay Bridge Info. Archived from the original on 2011-07-04. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  19. ^ "George W. Bush Presidential Center Webcam « Manhattan Construction Group". Archived from the original on 2012-01-06. Retrieved 2012-01-24.
  20. ^ "EarthCam Construction Camera - OliverMcMillan - Buckhead Atlanta". Earthcam.net. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  21. ^ "LIVE: Cotton Top Tamarins and Rhinoceros Iguanas | Utica Zoo". uticazoo.org. Archived from the original on 2019-11-08. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
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