Foxdaycam.com with President Lewis Duncan Photo by Laura J. Cole

Simple Thought Productions provided the Live Streaming Technology to allow FoxDayCam.com to bring the joy of Fox Day to the world. During the three day broadcast people watched from all over the world to see if the Fox would find its way to Mills lawn early in the morning. During the wait students took to mills lawn to be part of FlashMobs, play RockBand for the camera, and simply say “Hi!” to anyone who was watching.

Students pose for the FoxDayCam
Photo by J.D. Casto

Originally the site was setup by Steven Madow as a way to share his perfect view of the Mills lawn that would let him be one of the first to see the Fox on Fox Day. For “the last two years living on Mills I was able to look out my window and see the fox and I wanted to share that experience with everyone.” Steven setup a webpage and a static shot of the lawn that updated every 15 seconds. Word spread quickly about this new page via facebook and word of mouth. Rollins’ Alumni and Owner of S.T.P Josh Chesarek wanted to help Steven take the Fox Day Cam to the next level by making the image live for the web and some smart phones. “Fox Day is one of the many great traditions of Rollins College and being able to share it with current students and past alumni as well as friends and family all over the world was an amazing thing.” The Response was amazing. Shayla Alamino (Class of 2012) says, “I think the Fox Cam is a great idea. It definitely amps up the anticipation of Fox Day and sort of creates almost its own entertainment. It encourages college students to go out to Mills Lawn and do tricks and just participate in the festivities.”* Steven had also included a facebook portal with the site that allowed viewers to comment on what was happening at the moment and share their thoughts with everyone who was watching. “I think the Fox Cam brings us all together and builds a community through the World Wide Web and Facebook. We can all watch the same thing at the same time and comment on it” said Dustin Schwab (Class of 2010)*. At the viewing peak there were over 380 people watching for the fox with an average of 220 people watching at any given time during the 3 day broadcast. Over 3,000 people viewed the stream at some point before the stream was taken offline friday afternoon, one day after the fox left mills lawn.

The Fox mid-morning
Photo by Nastassia Alayeto

“The technology that S.T.P. provided FoxDayCam.com was amazing. For 3 days I was able to broadcast the video without issue. When we went to the page the live feed loaded right away. I had tried to get things to work with other live video websites but I couldn’t get it to work.” Steven went on to say “the mobile streaming was amazing. Students could not only watch via the web but if they visited the page on their iPhone or Android Device they were able to watch the Live feed over their mobile network!”

S.T.P hopes to provide this window into the Fox Day tradition in the years to come.

*Student Quotes reprinted from the Student Newspaper The Sandspur

Viewer Statistics

World Map of FoxDayCam.com Viewers

• Total Data Usage: 1.2TB (1,200GB or 280 DVDs or 1,024,000 floppy disks)
• Maximum Throughput: 122.7 mbit/sec
• Maximum Concurrent Connections: 388
• Average Viewing Time per stream: ~1 hour
• Unique Viewers:3,003
• Total Viewer Hours: 6,209

US Map of FoxDayCam.com Viewers

In the News and Various Links:

• Fox Day and the FoxDayCam.com were shared via the CFNews13 website as well as its morning and mid-morning TV broadcasts.
• The Sandspur Fox Day Article by Jenn Stull
• Rollins College Professor Alan Nordstrom’s Blog about Fox Day and the Fox Day Cam