llamacam

Studio Lighting, IoT and Unifi Infrastructure

Wow, this blog is turning into a bit of a Ubiquiti and Unifi journal. However, in the midst of all of the Azure content I am creating, the networking infrastructure on my farm has taken hold of my attention. I never thought I’d be this much into it, but here we are. Again.

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing many to work from home, I have seen countless social media posts on how to update your home office. Even though I have worked from home for a number of years, I would normally go to the A Cloud Guru office to film my shows. Suddenly I have to shoot all footage from home. On my own. I have a decent camera, decent microphone and okay lighting. However, there is room for improvement. It is time to plan the next step.

https://twitter.com/larsklint/status/1296570058303397888

Introducing Llama Cam Powered by Ubiquiti and Azure

TL;DR; I used a couple of Unifi cameras, farm WiFi and the Azure cloud to share the joy of llamas with the world.

An Idea is Forming

“Hmmm, how can I share the fruits of my networking escapades with the world? Or, if not the world, at least a couple of people.”

That was the thought I had one evening while probably building a Lego model 🤷‍♂️. In the past 4-5 months I have upgraded my farm WiFi to the best I can make it. Why? Read about that here. In any case, I wanted to find a way to share some of the fun and excitement I get from all this equipment and figuring out how it works. Considering at the time of writing that the world is being turned upside down with the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to make something that could bring a smile, a bit of warmth, a bit of happiness.

The idea of Llama Cam was born. I have about 25 llamas on my farm (I say “about” as they keep spawning), and I often share them on video calls, web shows, social media and many other ways. People always like llamas, and why wouldn’t you! What if I could use my new Unifi cameras to stream live footage of llamas?

In fact, a single tweet confirmed my brilliant idea.

Llama cam is live. @ubnt pic.twitter.com/hTq0dIk9G6

— Lars Klint | 🚜🥑📹 (@larsklint) July 3, 2020