Hi all,
Any experiences with live streaming your commutes?
Following a recent Grand Union Canal (Paddington branch near Harlesden) towpath assault that ended with me personally probing the canal depth in January, I'm looking to regroup and hopefully reinforce my commute using a front+back (or 360) camera setup. One idea (apart from more conservative route selection) is to run a private live stream from the primary helmet/chest/handlebar mounted camera to a) provide reassurance to concerned family members b) have some video evidence in the cloud in the event of a robbery or a total loss of the camera/card. Looks like the mobile contracts available can handle the networking (I'm assuming RTMP streaming is not blocked by say O2), so the question is more about the camera setup.
The immediate option is to use a GoPro (Hero 7+) and stream privately to GoPro servers, FB (this option is unappealing from the privacy standpoint), or perhaps a private server.
The commute should be around 40 min long, so one would hope a GoPro would handle this on a single battery, although that is not clear given that WiFi would need to be enabled. Additionally, there are many reports of those devices overheating.
An Insta360 model would be another option, although they don't offer private streaming and overall they seem like a less robust option (e.g. apparently the R model cannot handle gapless streaming over 20 min). The cost of either is not ideal.
One new idea I picked up here is the Drift Ghost X. Apparently it supports live private streaming, but this being Huawei one does have to wonder about the reliability of the software. Case in point, the Ghost XL webpage seems to be down....
I am wondering if any of those solutions are even viable, given the risk of overheating or instability of live feeds over mobile networks. Battery life is less of a worry, that could be addressed by bar/chest mounting and using a power bank.
Another question is whether riding around with a lot of camera equipment, particularly something more expensive like a GoPro could actually attract scummy types more than repel them? Has anyone experienced harassment or worse specifically due to action cams being carried? Seems unlikely to me given the cost of some of the bikes people ride in the first place. But what about a £300-400+ GoPro kit?
Lastly, what about 360 cameras: obviously, these seem appealing from the coverage standpoint, but mounting options look ridiculous, except perhaps a helmet-mounted GoPro Max. Unfortunately 360 streaming is straight up not available on the GoPro Max and on Insta360 it is only available to YT/FB (and seems like it's less reliable, as one would expect given the additional massive bandwidth requirements). Overall, this seems like an overkill, even if it worked, but still curious if anyone has tried it.
Many thanks for any advice people can spare.
Any experiences with live streaming your commutes?
Following a recent Grand Union Canal (Paddington branch near Harlesden) towpath assault that ended with me personally probing the canal depth in January, I'm looking to regroup and hopefully reinforce my commute using a front+back (or 360) camera setup. One idea (apart from more conservative route selection) is to run a private live stream from the primary helmet/chest/handlebar mounted camera to a) provide reassurance to concerned family members b) have some video evidence in the cloud in the event of a robbery or a total loss of the camera/card. Looks like the mobile contracts available can handle the networking (I'm assuming RTMP streaming is not blocked by say O2), so the question is more about the camera setup.
The immediate option is to use a GoPro (Hero 7+) and stream privately to GoPro servers, FB (this option is unappealing from the privacy standpoint), or perhaps a private server.
The commute should be around 40 min long, so one would hope a GoPro would handle this on a single battery, although that is not clear given that WiFi would need to be enabled. Additionally, there are many reports of those devices overheating.
An Insta360 model would be another option, although they don't offer private streaming and overall they seem like a less robust option (e.g. apparently the R model cannot handle gapless streaming over 20 min). The cost of either is not ideal.
One new idea I picked up here is the Drift Ghost X. Apparently it supports live private streaming, but this being Huawei one does have to wonder about the reliability of the software. Case in point, the Ghost XL webpage seems to be down....
I am wondering if any of those solutions are even viable, given the risk of overheating or instability of live feeds over mobile networks. Battery life is less of a worry, that could be addressed by bar/chest mounting and using a power bank.
Another question is whether riding around with a lot of camera equipment, particularly something more expensive like a GoPro could actually attract scummy types more than repel them? Has anyone experienced harassment or worse specifically due to action cams being carried? Seems unlikely to me given the cost of some of the bikes people ride in the first place. But what about a £300-400+ GoPro kit?
Lastly, what about 360 cameras: obviously, these seem appealing from the coverage standpoint, but mounting options look ridiculous, except perhaps a helmet-mounted GoPro Max. Unfortunately 360 streaming is straight up not available on the GoPro Max and on Insta360 it is only available to YT/FB (and seems like it's less reliable, as one would expect given the additional massive bandwidth requirements). Overall, this seems like an overkill, even if it worked, but still curious if anyone has tried it.
Many thanks for any advice people can spare.
