The Macgyver-Like Ways the Beluga Cam Boat Delivers Images to You

Matt Villano from whalehead.com takes us behind the scenes – or under the boat rather – to learn more about capturing the live stream of beluga whales on our Beluga Boat Live Cam.

Big-city amenities are hard to find in Churchill, a city only accessible by plane or boat. So when BJ Kirschhoffer and the technical team set out to capture high-speed Internet bandwidth to transmit camera images to the Web, they had to get creative. The solution: Establishing a microwave backhaul, technology on which cell phone networks have been relying for decades. To do this, explore.org partner Polar Bears International receives Web signals at its building in downtown Churchill, then broadcasts them out into the bay, where the Zodiac can retrieve them and use them to send data. “It’s complicated, but it works,” says Kirschhoffer. “Satellite is slow and expensive. This option is better for everyone.”