Hey all,
I wanted to introduce a new web platform for live streaming of underwater survey: https://www.remotesurvey.live/
Main purpose is to facilitate remote underwater survey, which is particularly relevant in current times with travel restrictions and other disruptions, and very applicable to BlueROV inspections!
Anybody is welcome to sign up and give it a try (currently all free) but I am looking for a few interested beta testers from the BR community!
It is currently in use by a Norwegian diving company (streaming the headcam from air divers to the office and clients) and a cable lay vessel for ROV video streaming to shore typically (during cable pull in etc.).
Amongst others, an example business case for such tool is for remote hull survey of ships where an inspection contractor (with a BluROV2) can execute the survey in a harbor, and stream it to the shipowner and classification society, saving time, hassle and travel costs for all parties. The platform has been used with DNVGL in Norway for such a survey and i believe most class societies would now accept such techniques.
There are some basic instructions to get started here.
More specifically, for streaming with a BlueROV2:
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You first need an internet connection on site. Any 4G modem and sufficient upload bandwidth will do. You can either use wifi to connect to the router, or else if you prefer wired connection stability, you would need to add a switch where the Blue ROV2, surface computers and modem are connected.
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To setup streaming:
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easiest will be to stream your desktop screen on the surface computer using the OBS software (free, open source and available for all platforms) - follow the instructions given in the get started page
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Alternatively, if the raspbery pi onboard the ROV has Internet access, you can push directly an RTMP stream from gstreamer to the URL provided on the webplatform (same method as for streaming to Youtube Live by the way). This will give better quality than screen capture, but only the raw images without overlay.
- On the web platform, you ll be able to setup a “project” page to view the stream and in addition have a voice call, chat and shared whiteboard with all the participants logged on the webpage.
Pricing: Free use during this testing period. Then, there will be a free tier for testing and low volume usage, and beyond that an hourly rate (alternatively daily / monthly / yearly rate).
I have to admit I haven’t used a BlueROV for a year or so, so my description may not be very accurate, but the principle should still be valid!
If you d like more details feel free to ask below or in private.
Congrats for all the amazing projects constantly coming up on these pages and thanks for reading
Jean-gregoire Kherian
PS: Only functional (and tested) with Chrome and Firefox browsers!!
Ps2: if you end up on a crashed page at some point, please let me know what steps you took before getting there and i ll do my best to fix it