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Panasonic Eclipse Live by Solar Power - Mt Carbine Outback Northern Australia
We drove up to Mt Carbine north west of Cairns to carry out some 3G network tests and document the rising sun. Why would we do that!! Panasonic Japan have contracted Empire Entertainment who in turn have contracted Visual Obsession to track, film and stream (on the internet) the Total Eclipse of the Sun on the 14th of November 2012.This reconnaissance trip was to determine two critical points: how high above the hills on the horizon would the sun be at 6.20am on the morning of the Eclipse, and the other point was to test the internet speed and availability. We drove around testing the 3G network prior to settling on a point near a power pole approx. 20 metres from the Mt Garnet road house. We set up cameras and laptop with 3G network dongle at 4.45am testing the bandwidth and signal strength.
Firstly we determined that the Eclipse will take place above the horizon but will not be visible earlier. The Mt Garnet road house is pretty much the town itself - its very small outback fuel food stop town.
Secondly the 3G network dropped out randomly even within the length of the car when the Panasonic Toughbook laptop was shifted from the back seat to the bonnet of the car! We believe there will be a large number of people using the 3G network at Mt Carbine on the day which will add to the slowness and drop outs experienced during our testing phase.