Eye On CameraWare -- headline

Written by cwnews

Recently we had an opportunity to chat with MrDan, the creator of CameraWare, and he granted Eye On CameraWare an exclusive interview! We thank MrDan for taking time from his very busy day to answer a few questions, many of which had been asked by YOU, our loyal readers!

Personal Info

cwnews: Can you give us a little background on when and how you got involved in computers?
MrDan: I started reading books about computers when I was 8. I began programming when I was 13 and began programming professionally when I was 17.

Who is TTI?
TTI is the company that owns the CameraWare technology. It was founded in 1982 to develop high-end software products.

In researching facts for this interview, I couldn’t help but notice several references to TTI’s "proven capabilities for rapid software development and quick response times to customer needs." Have these notable capabilities been instrumental in CameraWare’s success?
Yes, without those capabilities, this CameraWare project would have taken at least 5 times longer than it did.

Pre CameraWare

What prompted you to create CameraWare? When was that?
CameraWare is a spin off of a much larger project called Surveylens. This project is for doing surveillance of large buildings that might contain 10,000-20,0000 cams. In March 2000, we noticed a lot of hits on a webpage from another one our products, NameKeeper, from a domain name called Nightspice. They were using a camera viewer from www.webcamnow.com. It occurred to us that, without too much additional work, it would be possible to build a service similar to Webcamnow as a test for our Surveylens technology. But, of course, ours would be faster and more versatile.

Do you remember the day you first envisioned CameraWare?
The day after we saw Nightspice!

CameraWare

How does CameraWare work?
CameraWare works by capturing images on a PC, sending them encrypted to a relay server, and then allowing a web browser to access the relayed images.

What sets CameraWare apart from other types of video conferencing software?
Video conferencing software is normally designed to handle one, or perhaps a dozen, viewers. CameraWare allows thousands of viewers, as well as thousands of cameras. For example, a popular CameraWare Internet Star might have 1000 viewers at one time, all watching them on camera! That’s not possible with traditional video conferencing software.

How long did CameraWare take to create?
The Surveylens technology CameraWare uses, as well as the specific CameraWare changes, has taken almost 3 years to develop.

When was CameraWare officially released?
September 1, 2000

What has the response been like?
CameraWare growth has been phenomenal, averaging over 20% growth every month since its release.

That sounds like an explosive growth rate! How does that compare to other software?
It is the fastest adoption of any software technology that TTI has ever developed.

In my article on the History of Video Conferencing, I said, “Before we could enjoy videoconferencing for what it is today, we had several hurdles to leap. First, we had to develop a way to connect people by a physical means, then we had to create the technology to do it and lastly, make it cost efficient to use on a wide scale.”
Would it be safe to say that, using the Internet as the physical means of connecting people, CameraWare satisfies the other two requirements of delivering technology and cost efficiency to the consumer?
In terms of cost efficiency, its hard to beat the price of free!
As far as technology goes, CameraWare contains a number of patent-pending technologies that make it the most advanced software of its kind

Post CameraWare

Do you ever get time to just enjoy viewing?
I am always working on multiple projects simultaneously. One of those projects usually involves viewing the cameras.

Did you expect CameraWare to grow at such a phenomenal rate?
No, we thought the growth would slow down after we reached around 20,000 daily viewers. Instead, we’re now over 36,000 viewers per day and still continuing to grow!

Have there been any developments in CameraWare that you didn’t expect in the beginning?
Yes, we didn’t realize how important being able to make remote changes to broadcaster parameters would be to the project. For example, being able to correct mistakes made in selecting categories and such.

Why do you think CameraWare is so popular?
Because it gives broadcasters a forum to broadcast inexpensively and get immediate feedback on their broadcast popularity. It also gives viewers a very wide selection of cameras to choose from, and people to meet, in the various CameraWare communities.

Do you have any favorite CameraWare stories or memories?
My favorite use of CameraWare use so far has been at a wedding. Many people around the world viewed the wedding event.

Have you ever appeared on camera?
Um, not very often.

Do you ever sleep?
How can I tell?