FAQ

Control: How can I control the Camera?

The Live page provides the following camera control functions:

• Click within the Live Image
• Arrow Buttons
• Zoom Buttons
• Click within the Panorama Image
• Preset Buttons (below the Panorama Image)

By clicking into one of the images the camera centers where you clicked.

Control: Camera doesn't move as expected?

Only one user can control the camera. To gain control over the camera klick on "Start control". Then the left control pannel will show you, if you got the control (green) or if and how long you have to wait (red).
On every hour, the camera control gets blocked for about one minute to allow the taking of the pictures needed for the panorama views. All the panoramas generated you can retrieve from the Panorama archive.

Panorama: Where do the ghosts come from?

Every panorama view gets stitched together from a series of single pictures, taken one after the other. The same cars, trams or pedestrians might show up more than once or only partly, provided they were just at the edge of one of the original pictures.

Live Video Streaming: Java or ServerPush?

The camera compresses the pictures for an optimal and fast video transmission. A client side Java applet decompresses the data stream received and displays a series of pictures. Therefore, nearly all Java enabled web browsers are readily able to use and control the LiveCam without prior installation of additional software.
Unfortunately, the Java applet might not be working properly, eg when the PC has not enough computing power. In such situations, the user can switch to use ServerPush. This results in lower comression which generally leads to a lower picture refresh rate. Certain browsers do not support ServerPush, they receive the data stream but are not able to display the pictures. It might also be necessary to use the 'restart' link on the page to re-initiate the data stream from the LiveCam.

If you have not yet installed Java, you can download and install the Sun Java Virtual Machine for example.

IPv4 and IPv6 - What's that?

IPv4 is the name for the Internet protocol generally in use today. However, IPv4 has a limit of no more than of 2³² = 4'294'967'296 addresses available. That is not sufficient for the future need of the global Internet.
That's why back in 1995 the specifications were published for its successor IPv6. It provides 2¹²⁸ = 3.4 * 10³⁸ addresses as well as further improvements.
SWITCH supports IPv6 since 1996, but the migration will still take many years while both will be used in parallel.
Since end of October 2004, the Webcam is IPv6 enabled, most probably as first webcam with user-control.

In case you experience a problem since end of October 2004 or if you would like to do test with IPv6, the following 'test pages' are available:

   IPv4-Start: http://cam.ipv4.switch.ch/index.en.html
   IPv4-Video: http://cam-i.ipv4.switch.ch/login.cgi?t=j&l=1&ch=2

   IPv6-Start: http://cam.ipv6.switch.ch/index.en.html
   IPv6-Video: http://cam-i.ipv6.switch.ch/login.cgi?t=j&l=1&ch=2

Additional information about IPv6 you can find on the following SWITCH web pages:
http://www.switch.ch/de/network/services/ipv6/
http://www.switch.ch/de/network/services/ipv6/references.html

May I use the camera images on my home page?

Yes, it's fine, if you refer to the source and/or link to the camera page. Every hour, the four pictures with fixed URLs get updated automatically:

Where is the camera located and how does it look like?

Several pictures as well as a detailed description you can find on the About page.

Is it easily possible to have such a LiveCam at my location?

For sure! The camera together with the server is known as RediCam and can be ordered at redics. Depending on your requirements there are some different systems available.