Webcam Basics

Setting up a webcam to continuously broadcast images on the internet sounds like a daunting and expensive task. The reality, however, is quite different. Almost anyone can setup a webcam with minimal expense and effort. You don't even need a continuous connection to the internet or a dedicated server to become your own web broadcaster. This tip tells you how to do it.

To get a webcam up and running you will need five components:

1.
 A video source.
2.
 An internet connection.
3.
 FTP access to a web server.
4.
 Software to upload the image.
5.
 An HTML page to display the image.

Component #1 - A Video Source

There are a variety of options available to provide video input that can be broadcast as a webcam image. These range from expensive digital video recorders to inexpensive desktop video cameras. Exactly which type of device you choose depends largely on the interfaces available and, of course, your budget.

FireWire is a high speed interface that has been built into virtually all Macs made in the past several years. It is particularly well suited for capturing high quality digital video. Recently, there have been a large number of desktop video cameras (such as the Apple iSight) that use this interface. Apple recently included built-in support for a variety of these cameras in Mac OS X. Thus it is highly likely that even an inexpensive desktop camera will work right out of the box, even if it doesn't advertise Mac compatibility.
In ImageCaster, specifying your video source is the first step in setting
up a document. All available sources are displayed in a pop-up menu.


USB is a slower speed interface (relative to FireWire) that is generally used for user input devices such as keyboards, mice & joysticks. Many inexpensive desktop cameras are available that are USB based. Unfortunately, few advertise Mac OS X compatibility. However, third-party drivers are available from IOXperts and macam. These drivers allow many USB cameras to work with your Mac, even though they claim to be only Windows compatible. Check with either of these driver vendors to see what cameras devices they support. Fortunately, the list of supported cameras is large!


Good old fashioned Composite Video used to be supported in older, "A/V" Macs. Today, such interfaces have lost popularity in lieu of digital input devices. This is unfortunate because a wide variety of analog cameras are designed for video surveillance, which makes them perfect for webcams. Not to mention that old VHS-video camera gathering dust in the closet could have a new life broadcasting images on the internet! If this option appeals to you, a device called the InterView is available from EchoFX. This allows you to plug any composite video camera into your Mac via a USB adapter.
Setting up an analog video source using the InterView device and USBVision driver software from Echo FX.

Component #2 - An Internet Connection

This is the easiest requirement to satisfy. If you are reading this tip from our web site, you already have an internet connection! While a high speed, continuous connection is certainly desirable, a standard dial up connection will also do the trick. You don't even need the connection to be continuously live - you only need to be connected while uploading the webcam image. Using the Internet (Mac OS X 10.2) or Network (Mac OS X 10.3) panel of your System Preferences utility, you can configure your system to automatically connect to the internet whenever an application needs to. You can also configure it to disconnect after a specified period of inactivity, in case you need to keep the phone line open. These settings are modified by clicking the "PPP Options..." button.
Configuring your modem to automatically connect and disconnect
is done in the Network system preference panel in Max OS 10.3.

Component #3 - Access to a Web Server

If you presently have a personal home page, then you already have access to a web server. Virtually all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer free web space to their members. You can certainly use this space to broadcast your webcam. If you don't have access to such web space, you may be able to publish personal web pages through your company or schools' web server. Ask your web server administrator if you can have an account.

Once you have secured access to a web server, you will need to connect to the folder on that server from which pages are served. This is typically done using an FTP account (if you wish to broadcast via your .Mac account, you will use WebDav instead of FTP - see Using .Mac to Display Your Webcam).

The FTP connection to access to your web server is
configured in ImageCaster's "Destination" panel.

To connect via FTP, you will need to know the following:

1.
 The FTP host name. This typically looks like "ftp.mycompany.com" or "ftp.myisp.com/myusername".
2.
 Your FTP account name. If your ISP is hosting your web space, this is typically the same user name that you connect to the internet with.
3.
 Your FTP password. If your ISP is hosting your web space, this is typically the same password that you connect to the internet with.
4.
 The folder on the FTP server from where web pages are served. This folder will likely have a file named "index.html" in it, which is a standard name for a web site's "Home" page.

Most ISPs will have an online manual that provides all the necessary information for FTP access to your personal web space.

Component #4 - Software to Control the Process

 With all the pieces in place, a software program is necessary to coordinate the complete process. The video image must be captured from your input device, converted to an appropriate file format and delivered to your web server for broadcast on the world wide web. This sequence of events must be scheduled so that it is performed at a regular, repeated interval. Programs such as ImageCaster are perfect for the job.

The previous discussion in this tip provides a hint as to how to setup your video source and connect to your web server using ImageCaster. Another important step is scheduling the delivery of the image. Unless you have a high-bandwidth connection, you will want to limit the delivery of images to one every several minutes or so. You will also want to schedule hours of the day and days of the week during which the webcam is "live". This is because certain periods, such as nighttime when it is dark, don't make for very exciting webcam images! You may also want to limit the rate of delivery, or pause delivery completely, during periods where there is unlikely to be very much activity (such as weekends).
Scheduling repeating delivery intervals as well as active/inactive
time periods is a snap with ImageCaster's "Schedule" panel.


Component #5 - An HTML Page to Display the Image

An HTML page must be created that "contains" the broadcast image. This is simply a destination that people can point their web browsers to in order to view the webcam image. If you're savvy at creating & uploading web pages, this component will be very easy to create.

If you're not well versed at HTML, we suggest you take advantage of the web page templates located on the Web Page Panel. These templates assist you in creating your web page by providing user input on certain components of the page. Once an upload is invoked, an HTML page will be generated and placed in the folder specified in the Destination Panel.

That's it!

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