The I.T. industry is made up of lots of companies who declare themselves to be solution providers of varying sorts but I wonder how many times a prospective customer really goes to one of these firms and says "I have a problem" and how many times the provider actually has to go off and come up with a solution.
Not too long ago I was presented with an interesting problem that really needed a solution. And an inexpensive one at that.
A good friend of mine asked for my assistance with an I.T. problem he had. He farms for a living and was wondering if some modern technology could take some of the hassle out of his job, in particular the need to be out late or very early checking on livestock during lambing/calving season. He recently built a new shed for baby animal production and wanted to setup a CCTV type system that would let him keep an eye on the beasts over the Internet. We got to talking about his requirements and it quickly became obvious that an IP camera accessed via the Internet was the best fit for his needs. Of course, it's not as easy as simply buying one of these and turning it on, and due to the agricultural nature of the environment there were some unique challenges to be dealt with that you wouldn't encounter in an office setting.
Problem Number One: No Power.
That's right, the first issue to be addressed was that the shed is quite remote and used to house farm animals so there's no electricity supply. Any equipment that was to be installed needed to get power from somewhere therefore some research had to be done. I had a feeling that the answer lay in the caravan/motor home world so I took a look at how electrical power is delivered in those situations. A car battery or similar is obvious, but you don't just remove the plug from your kit and wire the battery up directly, instead a piece of equipment called an inverter (or more accurately, a DC/AC inverter) is attached to the battery and then provides power via a standard 3 pin plug. Inverters are used in caravans and the like to power electrical items like TV's, DVD players, lights, and so on, and are able to provide a fair bit of power over extended periods; running a router and a camera for days and days without charging is no problem to a setup like this.
Problem Number Two: No Internet
Like I said, the shed is off the beaten path so there's no phone line to provide nice and easy broadband Internet access. The quick solution to this is mobile broadband from one of the mobile companies and luckily 3G coverage on O2 and 3 Ireland was available. To be able to use a Mobile USB Broadband setup required a router with a USB port and capabilities to use 3G to access the Internet. The Zoom 4501 router was chosen as it is relatively inexpensive and has quite a good compatibility list for USB modems. 3 Ireland offer a Huawei modem that's on the list and it connected up the first time it was tried, though it did present a sneaky little difficulty later on.
Problem Number Three: DHCP
In my previous posting I discussed the problems with DHCP and broadband and accessing equipment like cameras over the internet without a static IP address. It was working on this project that I really learned about Dynamic DNS and its capabilities and for the most part DDNS worked perfectly. The only problem was with the default configuration of the USB modem which threw off the DDNS routing as it had its APN set to one of two options, and it was the second one I needed. A quick call to the good folk over at 3 Ireland tech support sorted this quickly.
With these challenges sorted out the solution was implemented. The equipment list is actually quite short and as solutions go it's simple, which is always the best kind of solution. A large car battery is connected to a DC/AC inverter to provide power to a router that uses a USB modem to connect to the Internet. Into the LAN port of the router is connected an IP Camera (with pan, tilt, and night vision capabilities) that also gets its power from the battery. The camera has a small webserver on board to enable access to the imagery, controls, and settings. The router has port forwarding enabled so that requests from the Internet are serviced by the camera. The router is also connected to a DDNS provider so that, even though the WAN IP address changes, users can access the camera via a URL.
Doing a small project like this is an absolute joy as there's a surprising amount to be learned along the way and there's a great kick to be gotten from seeing it work - which it does! I was concerned that there'd be major problems or that the end result would be of too low a quality to be useful but luckily it turned out fine.
Like any first attempt at something there are some things that can and will be improved. On the hardware side the camera is an entry level model so it would be the first target for an upgrade in order to improve quality and add in the ability to zoom (a function that adds quite a bit to the price) especially as now I know how the whole thing goes together and therefore the risk of failure is greatly reduced. I'd also change the model of router to one that had the 3G modem built in so all that was needed was a SIM from a broadband provider. The things I'd add in terms of hardware is a small solar panel to charge the battery continuously and a decent IR lamp to better illuminate the shed for night vision. In terms of software, or more accurately configuration, I'm planning on looking at what benefits can be gained from tweaking QoS settings on the router.
All too often I.T. ends up being an over-engineered solution to a non-existent problem. Thankfully this time the problem was real (and therefore worth solving) and the solution simple and inexpensive.
Showing posts with label Shameless Self Promotion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shameless Self Promotion. Show all posts
Monday, January 17, 2011
Thursday, November 19, 2009
I'll Make Ya Famous!
It's been a strange post-birthday week or so not least of all because of the gift I received from the guys at the radio station Liffey Sound FM - a primetime slot for a rock show!
The 10:00pm to Midnight slot has come up due to the end of the current show The Glory Train, which always seemed to be an odd choice of programme for that time on a Friday as it's all about religion. The notion of replacing a religious programme with a rock show is so wicked it's hard not to laugh out loud at the very thought of it! The Murt & Niall Rock Show is about to move from the realms of pub-talk to a real live actual radio programme...
Now, a week after I was offered the slot and as we face into the last days before the show goes on air, I find myself looking at how best to make the show as good as it can be. Odd questions pop into my head that if I can answer them then we'll have a cracking show. I guess the most important of these questions is: what kind of radio show would I tune into on a Friday night? This is a tough question as I really limit my radio time to when I'm in the car. So, if I were driving along one evening and an ad came on for a programme to be aired on a Friday night, what would it have to be about to make me listen?
There are four radio shows that I can think of that made me want to listen to them.
1. The Russell Brand Show - the now infamous programme that recently made the career of the self-confessed S&M Willy Wonka. I listened to the shows podcast, which condensed a two hour show into roughly 45 minutes as the music was cut out due to the restrictions on music in podcasts. The show was pure comedy driven by Brand with loads of help from his writing partner Matt Morgan. Regulars on the show included Noel Gallagher of Oasis and a resident poet who summed up the show at the end. The podcast featured celebrity interviews and these along with some smaller features that included mails and texts from listeners made up the bulk of the show. The comedy was driven by Brand discussing what he'd been up to that week.
2. Superman - the BBC Radio 4 drama mini-series from about twenty years ago - brilliant from start to end!
3. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - the BBC Radio 4 drama mini-series from donkeys years ago - brilliant from start to end!
4. The upcoming BBC Radio 5 show about "The Thick of It" featuring interviews with the cast and writers, but I'm only interested in hearing this show as I'm a fan of the TV series.
So, seeing as how this isn't meant to be a radio drama, is funny the way to go, ala Brand? Loads of Irish radio shows feature humour but not one would make me go out of my way to listen in, and Russell Brand is a comedian, with the time and the talent to write comedy on a regular basis, as well as the experience of performing stand up for years. Maybe, eventually, a show could develop into something like that, but I've spent this week trying to find humour in news reports and coming up short, and the prospect of trying to wing it on the first outing isn't worth contemplating.
There's not likely to be any middle ground with the show, as one friend of mine put it, it'll either be brilliant or shite! The absence of a happy medium here is the really scary part as now we have to work hard to ensure it's not shite. Ironically, the best way to achieve this may be to limit the amount of on-air time we give ourselves at first and let the music just play.
One of the lads at the station offered this advice. Practice it twice and then forget about it; his reasoning for this being the idea that if somethings over-rehearsed then when something goes wrong (and it absolutely will) then there's no wriggle room to get out of trouble, if you've practiced too much then one mistake ruins the whole thing, though at this point, practicing too much is the least of our worries.
Anyway, The Murt & Niall Rock Show commences tomorrow (Friday) night at 10:00pm till Midnight on Liffey Sound 96.4 FM and on line at live.liffeysoundfm.ie , so we'll find out then how we get on.
The 10:00pm to Midnight slot has come up due to the end of the current show The Glory Train, which always seemed to be an odd choice of programme for that time on a Friday as it's all about religion. The notion of replacing a religious programme with a rock show is so wicked it's hard not to laugh out loud at the very thought of it! The Murt & Niall Rock Show is about to move from the realms of pub-talk to a real live actual radio programme...
Now, a week after I was offered the slot and as we face into the last days before the show goes on air, I find myself looking at how best to make the show as good as it can be. Odd questions pop into my head that if I can answer them then we'll have a cracking show. I guess the most important of these questions is: what kind of radio show would I tune into on a Friday night? This is a tough question as I really limit my radio time to when I'm in the car. So, if I were driving along one evening and an ad came on for a programme to be aired on a Friday night, what would it have to be about to make me listen?
There are four radio shows that I can think of that made me want to listen to them.
1. The Russell Brand Show - the now infamous programme that recently made the career of the self-confessed S&M Willy Wonka. I listened to the shows podcast, which condensed a two hour show into roughly 45 minutes as the music was cut out due to the restrictions on music in podcasts. The show was pure comedy driven by Brand with loads of help from his writing partner Matt Morgan. Regulars on the show included Noel Gallagher of Oasis and a resident poet who summed up the show at the end. The podcast featured celebrity interviews and these along with some smaller features that included mails and texts from listeners made up the bulk of the show. The comedy was driven by Brand discussing what he'd been up to that week.
Russell Brand - Rode Manuel's granddaughter and got the boot (luckily not the clap!)
2. Superman - the BBC Radio 4 drama mini-series from about twenty years ago - brilliant from start to end!
3. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - the BBC Radio 4 drama mini-series from donkeys years ago - brilliant from start to end!
4. The upcoming BBC Radio 5 show about "The Thick of It" featuring interviews with the cast and writers, but I'm only interested in hearing this show as I'm a fan of the TV series.
So, seeing as how this isn't meant to be a radio drama, is funny the way to go, ala Brand? Loads of Irish radio shows feature humour but not one would make me go out of my way to listen in, and Russell Brand is a comedian, with the time and the talent to write comedy on a regular basis, as well as the experience of performing stand up for years. Maybe, eventually, a show could develop into something like that, but I've spent this week trying to find humour in news reports and coming up short, and the prospect of trying to wing it on the first outing isn't worth contemplating.
There's not likely to be any middle ground with the show, as one friend of mine put it, it'll either be brilliant or shite! The absence of a happy medium here is the really scary part as now we have to work hard to ensure it's not shite. Ironically, the best way to achieve this may be to limit the amount of on-air time we give ourselves at first and let the music just play.
One of the lads at the station offered this advice. Practice it twice and then forget about it; his reasoning for this being the idea that if somethings over-rehearsed then when something goes wrong (and it absolutely will) then there's no wriggle room to get out of trouble, if you've practiced too much then one mistake ruins the whole thing, though at this point, practicing too much is the least of our worries.
Anyway, The Murt & Niall Rock Show commences tomorrow (Friday) night at 10:00pm till Midnight on Liffey Sound 96.4 FM and on line at live.liffeysoundfm.ie , so we'll find out then how we get on.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Karl Spain Wants To Rock?
It's an incredibly weird feeling watching yourself on TV. It's one thing to see yourself on the security camera feed in the off-license or even on a big plasma screen in the window of an electrical goods shop but it's something very very different to sit down at home and see yourself on Network 2 of a Monday night.
Karl Spain Wants to Rock is a five-part documentary that follows comedian Karl Spain as he travels from Limerick to Dublin with a bunch of hard rockin' tribute bands, stopping in various spots along the way to play gigs and vote off one band each time in the style of most reality TV programmes. One of the stops the gang made was in Tullamore, and this is where I came in.
I know a couple of lads in the radio business. To be fair, anyone who's ever been to a pub in Tullamore knows someone who spins a few tunes for the local radio station, Midlands 103. One of those fine gents was approached by the production company, Bang Bang Teo, to be a panel member for the Tullamore round of "The Scrap Metal Tour", but unfortunately he couldn't participate, due in part to his lack of interest in rock music, but mostly to the fact that he had a regular paying gig as a DJ that was on at the same time. He sought me out, knowing that I love a bit of the ol' rock music and am well able to talk shite when called upon.
Karl Spain - Rockin the mike!
I had a great old chat with Brian, and whilst busy trying not to sound too much the fanboy, I still managed to draw him out on subjects like his experiences meeting Metallica (which was an easy conversation to have as I had only watched "Some Kind of Monster" the night before). Brian Tatler is a gentleman, an elder statesman of rock, if you will and it was a pleasure to meet him and, I suppose, work with him. I say work, but all we did was sit at the back, listen to the bands, talk a little to the camera, and drink free booze. Karl was cool enough too, but he really was working and so he was 'always on' - making funny little comments at the drop of every hat - I would like to get chatting him in more relaxed times to get his perspective on being on the comedy circuit in Ireland.
The bands were great and while I'm not going to go into why we voted the way we did, I will say that it was a unanimous decision to send Ireland Maiden home and we voted in isolation, not knowing that they had come second last in the Limerick round the night before.
Tribute rockers Ireland Maiden
Watching the show on Monday night was odd. I had no idea about the task that the bands had been set to get punters into the gig, so that was fun, however any enjoyment I might have gotten from the programme was wiped out by my trepidation at seeing myself on the boob-tube. The best way to convey the feeling of watching yourself like this is to ask a question:
Have you ever listened to a recording of your own voice?
Most people have, and most people hate the way they sound. The first reaction to hearing yourself is "My God! Do I really sound that way to other people? Jesus Christ!" This is usually followed up with a short-lived vow of silence. Now, multiply that feeling by a million-billion times and you're still not close to what it's like seeing yourself on TV. After watching myself I not only swore a vow of silence but also promised to redouble my efforts on the invisibility potion I had been working on since I was a child. However, once you realise that you're your own worst critic these notions quickly pass and you can get back to the idea of fame and fortune as a TV star (though probably not for RTE).
I will admit to one coping tactic I employed, though not deliberately, I watched a recording of the show on my own in the middle of the night, more than a little concerned about how it would turn out. This fear was baseless as it wasn't me that looked so bad but Tullamore itself, which if Karl Spain Wants to Rock is anything to go by, is a practically deserted, dreary, grey, little place inhabited only by senior citizens, who all hate rock music and snubbed the show by not turning up for the gig.
Firstly, the town was quiet that Sunday, unusually so, due to the fact that local sporting hero Shane Lowry (all the way from Clara, just up the road from Tullamore) was that very afternoon busy winning the Irish Open Golf Championship. This would lead to a huge piss-up in Clara that night, which is where everyone was instead of in the Bridge House listening to the bands with us.
Shane Lowry - Local Hero
Secondly, and probably most importantly, no one knew it was on. There was no advertising in Tullamore that a gig like this was taking place, never mind that it was being filmed for a TV programme. This may have been down to the producers wanting the bands to do the task of drumming up business, but a few posters wouldn't have gone a miss. A bit of radio advertising might have helped, but Midlands 103 probably serves the wrong demographic, which is almost certainly why the radio station that features in this weeks episode is not the local one at all, but i105-107 in Athlone - a town over twenty miles away from which few people would travel for a rock gig in Tullamore.Tullamore is not blameless. The town has a very poor live music scene and there is no venue ideally suited for bands of any persuasion, especially rock. This means that there's no real interest fostered in the town, so those who like live music are more likely to travel further afield to see bands. The really sad part of this can be summed up by the way Karl Spain bigged up the next episode of the show, when the bands travel to "the metal capital of the Midlands - Mullingar!" Sarcasm aside, there's a grain of truth in that label and it's a shame that the live bands who once graced the stage in #1 Church Street all those years ago haven't been seen in town for such a long time.
I'm glad I got the chance to be a part of helping Karl Spain rock, if for no other reason then I got to down a few pints and listen to some great bands without having to put my hand into my pocket. I'm also glad that it made me take a second look at Tullamore and how it's music and other cultural outlets need to be helped along, especially after three successful Fleadh Cheoil were held in the town. I'll definitely be making more of an effort to annoy local landlords and promoters into putting on some decent music. I might also pester those lads on the radio too.
I won't spill the beans as to who won the overall competition as there's still three more episodes to go, so if you want to know you'll have to watch, or ask me in three weeks time.
One final thought - the best part of being on TV is seeing your name in the end credits, I nearly knackerd the Sky+ box rewinding that part!
Martin Minnock - Metal Blogger (as they said in the show, though this new blog has yet to feature any music stuff - yet! (This will be resolved this week (promise (brackets!!!!!)))
To find out more check out these lovely, lovely links:
Programme Website: http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/karl_spain_wants_to_rock.html
Tour Website: http://www.scrapmetalthetour.com/
Diamond Head: http://www.diamond-head.net/
Fleadh 2009: http://www.fleadh2009.com/
Shane Lowry: http://www.eskerhillsgolf.com/shane_lowry/introduction.html
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