We are pleased to announce that the audio bird monitoring is now available on the DOC AI Cam. 

Your camera should update itself when it next connects to the internet, or you can do this manually by pressing the Software Update button on the general tab.

Bird monitoring on the DOC AI Cam

When recording audio the DOC AI Cam will make one minute recordings at random times through the day and night at a rate of 32/day.

Audio modes

The DOC AI Cam has 4 audio modes:

1. Video only, no audio
2. Audio only, no video
3. Video or audio (audio outside of the video recording window)
4. Video and audio

In the next version of Sidekick there will be an Audio tab to configure this. For now the audio mode is selected by clicking on the Advanced Link on the General Tab in Sidekick (after you've connected to your camera) and then selecting Audio. 

Video and Audio

In this mode audio recordings are made all day and night. However when a one minute audio recording is happening the camera is unable to make a video recording. So there is a chance you will miss a predator if it is in the field of view of a camera for only that minute.

If you are monitoring predator levels and have lots of predators, then this mode is recommended because it probably doesn't matter if you miss a predator. It allows you to monitor predators with the camera and birds active during the night with the microphone.

Video or audio 

This mode is for when you are recording nocturnal predators with the video and you don’t want to miss any predators. For example you may be trying to hunt the last few predators in your area, or detecting re-invaders.

In this mode you will only get audio recordings in the daytime if you’re using the default video recording window (half an hour before dusk to half an hour after dawn). If you’re using 24 hour mode you won’t get any audio recordings.

In this mode the DOC AI Cam will make less than 32 recordings/day. This will be in proportion to how long the recording window is. For example if the recording window is for 12 hours it will average 16 recordings for the day. In the default mode the recording window varies as the length of the night changes. This changes throughout the year depending on the exact location of the device.

Test recording

After you've selected an audio mode you can do a test recording by pressing the Take Test Recording button. 

Manual

This (mostly written) manual describes some more details about the bird monitor operation and how to review the recordings, along with some frequently asked questions. Note you can only view the recordings on https://browse.cacophony.org.nz/ not yet on the new version https://browse-next.cacophony.org.nz/

Offline operation

If your camera isn't connected to the internet (via modem or Wi-Fi) then the audio recordings will be stored on the camera. To get them off the camera you will need to connect the camera to the internet (for example your phone's hotspot). The next version of Sidekick will allow you to download the recordings to Sidekick and upload them from your phone, in the same way you can do this with audio files.