Well after a great deal of work and preparation WildEarth is finally ready to ‘go LIVE’ with the meerkat cam!
From 07h00 CAT (22h00 PST | 01h00 EST | 05h00 GMT) tomorrow morning the 6th April 2012 WE will be broadcasting the lives of the Gosa meerkat gang (www.facebook.com/Gosa.meerkat.gang) LIVE from Tswalu (www.tswalu.com), in the southern Kalahari, everyday at www.member4.mystagingwebsite.com/meerkats and www.ustream.tv/meerkats
The crew of 4 intrepid adventurers: Rob, Paul, Garth and Terry will take it in turns to carry the 3D rig for one hour at a time. The rig (pictured below) is a completely unique design that allows us to not only film the Gosa gang’s every waking moment from meerkat eye level, but to do so in High Definition 3D and to broadcast a LIVE 2D stream directly to the Internet. Nothing like this has ever been attempted before and WE are super excited to once again pioneer in the world of wildlife filmmaking.
The crew have spent the past month and a bit walking with the gang all day and getting to know them. You will see that the meerkats have now completely accepted the crew and the rig into their world and we can get so close that the meerkats stick their noses on the lens sometimes! There are a number of characters in the gang of 10 and some like us more than others, but the matriarch, Cleo, and her mate, Gandalf, have not only come to accept us, but seem to like having us around. Please take the time to read some of the Blog posts at blog.member4.mystagingwebsite.com to catch up on the characters and you will find many answers to your questions here as well.
Please direct your questions about meerkats, the gang and the broadcast to the ‘social stream’ where those viewers that know a bit more will try and answer. If you have been a part of the beta testing team or know a bit about meerkats or take the time to read all you can about Tswalu, the gang and meerkats PLEASE share your knowledge by answering the questions of others.
By ‘social stream’ we mean the chat rooms next to the cam players at www.member4.mystagingwebsite.com/meerkats and www.ustream.tv/meerkats as well as the Facebook Pages: www.facebook.com/Gosa.meerkat.gang and www.facebook.com/WildEarth.TV as well as on Twitter, just remember to always use the hashtag: #meerkats
WE sincerely hope that you enjoy this broadcast as much as we have enjoyed preparing it for you and ask that you share the opportunity as widely as possible with everyone that you know.
Written by Graham Wallington
