We ride snowmobiles. We take notes. We take photos. That's our job. At SnoWest we're print journalists. We are paid to ride hard, observe and transfer what we see, do and learn onto paper so you can see the snowmobile industry through our eyes.
And we've been doing that for more than 30 years.
But times have changed. Things are a little different.
No. We still ride snowmobiles. We still take plenty of notes and photographs. And surprisingly, we still get paid. But with the advancements of modern media, we can literally allow you to see the snowmobile industry through our eyes.
Thanks to the internet, sites like YouTube and digital photography, it doesn't take much to strap on a small camera and capture everything we see and do. It's called point of view (POV).
Since we're already packing enough stuff with us when we snowmobile (GPS devices, avalanche beacons, digital camera, extra goggles, gloves and emergency supplies, etc.), we really don't have a lot of room for much more. That's where the V.I.O POV comes in rather handily.
Small, compact and lightweight, this digital recorder can easily be tucked into an inner jacket pocket and packed along on any ride. And its operating functions are so simple, even someone from the baby-boomer generation can figure it out.
Last winter we recognized the need to offer some video streaming on our websites and within the pages of our digital (on-line) magazines. So we contacted V.I.O. and got hooked up with the POV.1 waterproof camera and digital recorder.
This simple and compacted video system is shock resistant and can deal with the elements. which is something useful for snowmobilers. It consists of a mountable camera head, built-in digital recorder, wireless remote and the necessary software. It's powered by four AA batteries and has a 4GB SDHC card. (We're getting about 60 minutes worth of video per card before we have to download.).
The wide angle camera head has a 110-degree range and easily mounts to a helmet, a sled or can even be held by hand. When attached to your helmet, what you see is what it sees. And when you turn your head, it would be looking at whatever you were looking at.
The camera records 720x480 resolutions at 30 fps (whatever that means . but basically, the quality is good and the picture is clear). You can also set up video frame rates to 25fps, 24fps and 15fps. A built-in microphone captures the sounds, but does have its limitations.
The POV.1 records its videos on MPEG4, making them viewable with Windows XP, Vista or on a Mac.
The POV was created by Viosports.com, an internet video streaming company founded by David Ollila in 2000. Ollila created the helmet camera system in order to capture hands-free action video for his site. The POV.1 was introduced in 2007 as the first affordable digital wearable camera.
For more information contact V.I.O. at www.vio-pov.com.