Fireworks Testing Tonight On The Web

[The Forbidden Eye]

This is what happens when you hold off the most beloved holiday fireworks show for a year.

[Malcon10t]

So, is the cam going to check out the non-existant fireworks tonight? Just in case?

[Disney Analyst]

I saw fireworks on the mattercam, but then an idiot turned the cam

[UncleTheodore]

you try the link on the first post?it's up.

[disneyballerina]

Yay! I hope nothing caught fire tonight. Awesome that we are able to watch this -- I love it Disnerd!!!

[pixie chick]

Just watched it. I'm a little sad that I can't see & hear them from my house anymore. Thanks for hosting!

BTW, you might want to aim a tad lower next time. There was a lot of empty space at the top of the screen & some of the fireworks were getting cut-off at the bottom. Not complaining, just an observation.

[Disney Analyst]

pretty stuff.

[Bruce Bergman]

So, is the cam going to check out the non-existant fireworks tonight? Just in case?

Umm, yeah. It will did.

Could be aimed a hair lower, or Disnerd needs to rig up a retractable tower for the camera to go up higher for the show, then lower it when done. They make those air-powered masts for the TV News Remote Vans, but they are expensive. Or the good old fashioned Rohn triangular telescoping lattice masts and a little 120V winch motor will get that camera up another 30 or 40 feet. A few limit switches and relays, and it could be easily automated.

And it can lower into a cylinder to act as a daytime sun shield for the camera lens, too...

I have GOT to get down there tomorrow!

--<< Bruce >>--

[Disnerd]

Problem is that there is another condo building if front of me. Have been thinking about some kind of telescopic tower. But I have to do it on the Q T so the condo Nazis don't come after me. And the lady facing me is such a snoop! She'd freak if she saw the camera. Also I wasn't home and it looks like the show moved in the the sky. Part of the problem with Weds. show was that the aiming system and the detination system went out of wack. And the tubes were launching shells in the wrong areas and exploding them at the wrong times. Which is one of the reasons there was a fire. Oopps!

[Bruce Bergman]

Problem is that there is another condo building if front of me. Have been thinking about some kind of telescopic tower. But I have to do it on the Q T so the condo Nazis don't come after me. And the lady facing me is such a snoop! She'd freak if she saw the camera.

Your neighbor "Mrs. Kravitz" is easy enough to fool... The next time you go into New Orleans Square, check out the chimney tops very carefully, especially the one on the very top floor of the Disney Gallery over the outside balcony.

Just to the right of the Fantasmic! sound booth up on the "third floor", there's a white arch type chimney cap that turns and swivels a few times during the day, unlike the other chimney caps around it that are fixed in place - because there's an outdoor TV camera housing hidden inside it. That's the camera KABC-TV News gets their Disneyland TSI /Twain Dock weather segment background shots from.

And now you know... The rest of the story. Good day!

--<< Bruce >>--

[MinionLumbo]

you must spread some reputation around before giving it to Bruce Bergman again.

[Bruce Bergman]

You mean you never watched the Channel 7 News (5AM 6AM 11AM 4PM 5PM 6PM 11PM) and saw those wonderful Weather segment or Station Break cutaway shots of the Mark Twain and/or Columbia sailing by, and the Cider Mill with kids crawling all over, and back-figured from the angles and panorama where they have to be taking those pictures from?

Then you start looking at the rooftops in that area, and noticed that there's one little "chimney cap" that is often pointed in an odd direction?

They took a plain old Pelco outdoor camera enclosure and cut a big arch of sheetmetal to make the "Saddle" cover to hide the profile of the camera box. Then they mounted the Pan-Tilt base on top of the false chimney column, with a sheetmetal curb around it to disguise the silhouette and look like a regular sheetmetal chimney cap.

I could duplicate the look of the other chimney caps on Disnerd's building easy enough, and you can even false up an entire chimney column in the right place easily enough, too. Sheetmetal, Plywood, and Acrylic "stucco" texture to simulate real concrete stucco or brick/block of the other chimneys. Match the profile and the colors, and you will NOT notice it from the ground unless you were deliberately looking for it.

The only thing that can be a problem is disguising the camera housing itself, since most modern buildings use a round draft diffuser cap. They lucked out with the New Orleans styling.

--<< Bruce >>--