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Silver Dollar City & Celebration City Discussion => General Silver Dollar City Talk => Topic started by: sanddunerider on May 04, 2018, 07:26:53 AM

Title: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: sanddunerider on May 04, 2018, 07:26:53 AM
This would be a good weekend to have webcams throughout the park. We could watch the excessive traffic from the safety of our homes.. ;D

We have discussed this before, but has been awhile...
Whats your thought? 
Yes or no?   
Locations?
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: kbosch1 on May 04, 2018, 09:30:24 AM
Personally, I'd love it.  One of the square area and then maybe one from LR overlooking lake towards FL.   The entrance at the log/axe sign would be cool.
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: Gilligan on May 04, 2018, 11:27:20 AM
I'd love it!
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: KBCraig on May 04, 2018, 10:47:07 PM
Parking lots, and traffic on 76.  ;)
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: sanddunerider on May 05, 2018, 08:36:50 AM
Parking lots, and traffic on 76.  ;)

YES,  and I thought 1 or 2 overlooking the square, one facing TT/TNT entrance, tall enough to see line and the ride, Train Station, WF & AP, top of suicud hill looking down hill, facing the area around saloon, couple in the OR and Swing area, walkway alongside of The LOst River one at each in, FL,.   

We could see so much with just 8-10 cameras,  and they could be stationary...  But adjustable would be even better 8) 8) 8)
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: runner1960 on May 05, 2018, 03:33:43 PM
I personally do not see the value of it. I have a ton of other fun things to do than look at other people on a webcam. I am sure it would not cost much to install but then they would pay for upkeep and bandwidth. And in reality webcams are boring as sh**.
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: Swoosh on May 05, 2018, 04:23:58 PM
I personally do not see the value of it.

They already explained the value above.
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: MCLFLN on May 06, 2018, 07:59:39 AM
I'd love it
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: sanddunerider on May 06, 2018, 08:20:11 AM
I personally do not see the value of it. I have a ton of other fun things to do than look at other people on a webcam. I am sure it would not cost much to install but then they would pay for upkeep and bandwidth. And in reality webcams are boring as sh**.

Hmm.?  that would be a no then.. :D
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: sirwillow on May 06, 2018, 05:34:01 PM
I personally do not see the value of it.

They already explained the value above.

Outside of people at home seeing the crowds on busy days and deciding not to go, what would the value of it be?

Much more important to the park, what benefit would it get out of it?  outside of a few of us who'd like to peek in occasionally, who would even want to watch it?

There are very few parks that have online live webcams. I can only think of 2 offhand (Cedar Point and Holiday World)  And I'm not sure what, if any, real benefit they get out of it.  Obviously not enough to draw the attention of any of the other "big boys" of amusement parks (e.g. Disney, Universal)
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: Tmboote on May 06, 2018, 10:05:25 PM
^ I love watching the Cedar Point webcams occasionally. It’s also crazy how much people on TPR talk about seeing something on the webcams. Sure most people wouldn’t watch the webcams, but if they don’t require that much work on the part of the park, why not install a couple just to entertain some of your guests who can’t actually be at the park and like that kind of thing? It would kind of be like checking ride wait times on the app even when we aren’t actually at the park, which a lot of us a probably guilty of doing.
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: Swoosh on May 06, 2018, 10:15:08 PM
I personally do not see the value of it.

They already explained the value above.

Outside of people at home seeing the crowds on busy days and deciding not to go, what would the value of it be?

Much more important to the park, what benefit would it get out of it?  outside of a few of us who'd like to peek in occasionally, who would even want to watch it?

There are very few parks that have online live webcams. I can only think of 2 offhand (Cedar Point and Holiday World)  And I'm not sure what, if any, real benefit they get out of it.  Obviously not enough to draw the attention of any of the other "big boys" of amusement parks (e.g. Disney, Universal)

Cameras on 76 would beneficial to study traffic patterns and deploy more traffic directional workers when need.  Same in the park.  They could help when the bottle necks get busy to deploy people to help direct guests. 

The benefits are not that difficult to figure out. 
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: KBCraig on May 06, 2018, 11:18:06 PM
Outside of people at home seeing the crowds on busy days and deciding not to go, what would the value of it be?

Much more important to the park, what benefit would it get out of it?

That would be the value of it: to the park and its employees, and to visitors.

Scheduling is a nightmare in any customer-drive business. Moreso in a business subject to changing customer counts because of the vagaries of weather.

I work for a company that is the third largest in its industry in the US, and breathing down the neck of #2. It's an industry used by every single person in the US. A few years ago they purchased a nationally-known competitor specifically because of their superior computer systems, and now they're rolling it out to all banners, so that the parent company has unity across all its stores.

"Customers make appointments", as they told us when we were dreading the change. Even though it doesn't seem obvious in a business where anyone can walk through the door at any time, they do. Our auto-scheduling system takes in an amazing amount of fine-grained data and compares the previous four years' worth of sales data against all available variables.

It would be nice for visitors if the park scheduled for 26k through the turnstiles and only 3k showed up, and nobody got sent home, but that's not a business reality. For the park, it's a disaster if they schedule for 5k and 20k show up.
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: runner1960 on May 07, 2018, 06:42:16 AM
I personally do not see the value of it. I have a ton of other fun things to do than look at other people on a webcam. I am sure it would not cost much to install but then they would pay for upkeep and bandwidth. And in reality webcams are boring as sh**.

Hmm.?  that would be a no then.. :D

Yes, That would be no.
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: runner1960 on May 07, 2018, 06:49:33 AM
I personally do not see the value of it.

They already explained the value above.

Outside of people at home seeing the crowds on busy days and deciding not to go, what would the value of it be?

Much more important to the park, what benefit would it get out of it?  outside of a few of us who'd like to peek in occasionally, who would even want to watch it?

There are very few parks that have online live webcams. I can only think of 2 offhand (Cedar Point and Holiday World)  And I'm not sure what, if any, real benefit they get out of it.  Obviously not enough to draw the attention of any of the other "big boys" of amusement parks (e.g. Disney, Universal)

Cameras on 76 would beneficial to study traffic patterns and deploy more traffic directional workers when need.  Same in the park.  They could help when the bottle necks get busy to deploy people to help direct guests. 

The benefits are not that difficult to figure out.

Then they need a traffic cam and not a webcam. MoDot has traffic cams all over the state that provide data to help with those kind of problems. A webcam just provides a picture and does not collect data.

http://www.modot.org/mobileweb/trafficcam.html
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: sanddunerider on May 07, 2018, 08:08:08 AM
What about the cameras, moving or still,  were looked at as  an advertising tool?? 
As a potential new visitor, a person or family would go to the website, click on cameras and check out the coasters, paths, eateries and landscape.  they see people doing stuff.. 
would that not be a good selling tool?

Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: shavethewhales on May 07, 2018, 09:34:01 AM
Parks that have webcams usually have them for the benefit of coaster fans. They can kind of be a minor advertisement for the park's coasters. Cedar Point's webcams are often referred to by enthusiasts, and I know a few people that leave them up on their second monitors at work.

I mean, they can be interesting. When a storm or something is rolling in, it's fun to check how it looks at the park, or to check how it looks on a day you expect to be crowded, or even just to see how the new coaster is doing. 
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: Swoosh on May 07, 2018, 10:48:29 AM
I personally do not see the value of it.

They already explained the value above.

Outside of people at home seeing the crowds on busy days and deciding not to go, what would the value of it be?

Much more important to the park, what benefit would it get out of it?  outside of a few of us who'd like to peek in occasionally, who would even want to watch it?

There are very few parks that have online live webcams. I can only think of 2 offhand (Cedar Point and Holiday World)  And I'm not sure what, if any, real benefit they get out of it.  Obviously not enough to draw the attention of any of the other "big boys" of amusement parks (e.g. Disney, Universal)

Cameras on 76 would beneficial to study traffic patterns and deploy more traffic directional workers when need.  Same in the park.  They could help when the bottle necks get busy to deploy people to help direct guests. 

The benefits are not that difficult to figure out.

Then they need a traffic cam and not a webcam. MoDot has traffic cams all over the state that provide data to help with those kind of problems. A webcam just provides a picture and does not collect data.

http://www.modot.org/mobileweb/trafficcam.html

Actually they are live cameras on most park websites.  However if you know the direct url to the camera you can also view it as a live camera instead of the “every 5 minutes update”
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: sanddunerider on May 07, 2018, 10:51:50 AM
I mean, they can be interesting. When a storm or something is rolling in, it's fun to check how it looks at the park, or to check how it looks on a day you expect to be crowded, or even just to see how the new coaster is doing.

I would like to monitor the city during a calm heavy snowfall.  I think it would look cool!
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: sirwillow on May 07, 2018, 12:44:23 PM
What about the cameras, moving or still,  were looked at as  an advertising tool?? 
As a potential new visitor, a person or family would go to the website, click on cameras and check out the coasters, paths, eateries and landscape.  they see people doing stuff.. 
would that not be a good selling tool?

Photos and short video do a much better job showing all of that and advertising than a webcam can do.  Quality, control, color, and being close up- web cams on towers can't even come close to competing with that.  They aren't even in the same realm, as anyone who deal with photography and video should be able to tell you. (notice I said should)

And for traffic, Runner pointed out that it's traffic cams and controls that they need, not webcams, which again aren't going to accomplish much.

I know it's easy to fall into the assumption that if it's something talked about on TPR or other sites it must have an impact.  But in reality coaster enthusiasts make up a very tiny percentage of customers (a good bit than 1%) and really don't have much of an impact on the bottom line.

And if they were that big of a producer, then you would see Disney, Universal, Busch and every other park out there using them.  Instead you can count the number that have active web cams on both hands.

Here's the one way I see webcams being useful- for a few very limited in park functions- security (though security cameras are far better), traffic (again the already mentioned traffic cameras and controls are much better), and a few operations things.  None of which there is really any reason to put online for people not working in the park to access.  I still fail to see ANY benefit to the parks by putting webcams online for the general public to see.

The only exception to that, maybe, is during construction of a new project. And even that video and still photos can show better than a webcam.
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: runner1960 on May 07, 2018, 02:01:00 PM
What about the cameras, moving or still,  were looked at as  an advertising tool?? 
As a potential new visitor, a person or family would go to the website, click on cameras and check out the coasters, paths, eateries and landscape.  they see people doing stuff.. 
would that not be a good selling tool?

What about the cameras, moving or still,  were looked at as  an advertising tool?? 
As a potential new visitor, a person or family would go to the website, click on cameras and check out the coasters, paths, eateries and landscape.  they see people doing stuff.. 
would that not be a good selling tool?

Photos and short video do a much better job showing all of that and advertising than a webcam can do.  Quality, control, color, and being close up- web cams on towers can't even come close to competing with that.  They aren't even in the same realm, as anyone who deal with photography and video should be able to tell you. (notice I said should)

And for traffic, Runner pointed out that it's traffic cams and controls that they need, not webcams, which again aren't going to accomplish much.

I know it's easy to fall into the assumption that if it's something talked about on TPR or other sites it must have an impact.  But in reality coaster enthusiasts make up a very tiny percentage of customers (a good bit than 1%) and really don't have much of an impact on the bottom line.

And if they were that big of a producer, then you would see Disney, Universal, Busch and every other park out there using them.  Instead you can count the number that have active web cams on both hands.

Here's the one way I see webcams being useful- for a few very limited in park functions- security (though security cameras are far better), traffic (again the already mentioned traffic cameras and controls are much better), and a few operations things.  None of which there is really any reason to put online for people not working in the park to access.  I still fail to see ANY benefit to the parks by putting webcams online for the general public to see.

The only exception to that, maybe, is during construction of a new project. And even that video and still photos can show better than a webcam.

Sanddune, I think as Sir Willow pointed out it would be a very small number that would visit based on this. Just a couple thoughts.

SDC probably ( I am not sure) has a marketing company hired for all things advertising and promotional. They might control all things that is seen. I.E. billboards, Brochures, TV ad campaigns. And most companies hire those marketing firms to run their Twitter, Instagram, Facebook accounts also. They tightly control this to make sure you see what they want you to see. A webcam used as advertising could be a disaster because they cannot control what a random person does. So, along with other things that are positive, the viewers are going to see peoples reaction when a bad situation happens. Oh Crap PK is down again cut the feed we do not want viewers to see people backing out of the line. Or we do not want potential visitors to see the mass of folks in the TT courtyard. They would also need to see how the installation and ongoing cost ( bandwidth is not cheap ) to operate the system is charged. Is a webcam for promotional a better use of our money , or is it better to have our marketing company put up 3 more Instagram post every day? My gut tells me that the social media would generate way more.

Who really knows but I bet if the Marketing team has not suggested it yet then it probably holds no value.

Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: HumphreyHawk on May 07, 2018, 09:48:30 PM
My 2 cents....

I doubt anyone will care about webcams but SDC fanboys and gals like us.  Maybe some employees who check in to see crowd levels/weather/etc.  I don't see them bringing in any additional ticket sales....or decreasing them.

Legally speaking....not sure if they would matter one way or another.  If they are just far away crowd shots and not recording then they shouldn't matter.  If they are monitoring shops and recording then I guess its private property and they have that right.....I'd imagine in that case they wouldn't broadcast those cameras though.

The warning I would give SDC is.....if you do advertise them (or one).....just remember the general public will be shameless on camera....might not be the wisest idea to leave any 'close up' camera's un-monitored.
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: HumphreyHawk on May 07, 2018, 09:51:07 PM
After thinking a bit more.....I guess live shots of the ride queues could be cool.
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: KBCraig on May 19, 2018, 01:08:09 AM
Something different: what park fan wouldn't love a Google Street View version of the park map, that is updated with each new attraction?

We talked about this a few years ago. Google actually has a pedal trike version now, for pedestrian zones. SDC could make a mule-drawn version.  ;)

It would have to be done before opening, to avoid all the processing power of blurring out faces (plus the problem of people just being in the way).
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: sanddunerider on May 20, 2018, 02:40:17 PM
Something different: what park fan wouldn't love a Google Street View version of the park map, that is updated with each new attraction?

We talked about this a few years ago. Google actually has a pedal trike version now, for pedestrian zones. SDC could make a mule-drawn version.  ;)

It would have to be done before opening, to avoid all the processing power of blurring out faces (plus the problem of people just being in the way).

 By no means would I expect that to happen.... But yea! that would be kinda cool... ;D
Title: Re: Webcams? yes or no..
Post by: HumphreyHawk on May 20, 2018, 05:01:38 PM
You can google street view through the DW Properties.  Just noticed SFoT has street view around the park.  SDC has POV pics from just about everywhere in the park....but no street view.