Comments on: Our Mobile Technology Arsenal

By: marycontrary

marycontrary — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:45:59 +0000

i refuse to pay 30-45$ a night to stay in an RV park w/o wifi
and the extra 30$ a month for a puny 5gb is lame, even with an iphone

satellite is on it’s way, but wayy too inefficient and expensive for clunky roof mount plastic dishes that will be obsolete in 3 years

but what i have heard about if you are very tech savvy *wink wink* is wildcatting internet ie. homemade devices that tune into satellite 2 way…. i am following the technology neurotically

I think there is also a car coming our in 2011 that comes supplied with in motion wifi connection…hello again satellite!…at least the high demand for in-motion internet will push the prices down and speed up the technology…hopefully

ohh yeah, dont forget about the C.B. radio! my older airstream rv came with one that had never been used…hours of entertainment chatting with the truck drivers

By: Cherie Ve Ard

Cherie Ve Ard — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:08:35 +0000

We’ve thought about that.. but opted not to. We just simply change locations too often, and would never have the thing reprogrammed correctly to our current location to be useful. Instead, we monitor the local weather to know if anything is impending and take proper actions. Now.. a GPS location aware weather radio.. we’d be all over that!

By: Erik Scott

Erik Scott — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:48:02 +0000

Being out in the boonies, occasionally in tornado alley, you ought to think about adding a NOAA weather radio to the mix. It might give you enough warning to park so you aren’t broad side to the prevailing winds, if nothing else. Cheap at places like Tractor Supply and even Radio Shack, and I’ve seen many that are 12V so you can just strap it across the RV battery. New ones are programmable by county so they don’t wake you up for a storm 100 miles away.

By: Cherie Ve Ard

Cherie Ve Ard — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:39:59 +0000

It definitely is a time suck We’ve gone to renting TV series on Netflix, and just have them delivered to wherever we happen to be at. Working really well – gives you a limited amount of time suck but at your schedule, no commercials and you can focus your concentration to just content you enjoy.

By: Japhy

Japhy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:12:31 +0000

Ah yes, I forgot all about the 5gb cap. Well, my wife and I both got droids, and they’re about to enable tethering for $30 a month so maybe I’ll just do that and between the USB modem that I have a year left under contract and the droid, I may be able to work it and just seek out wifi more often.

Or I just need to give up on the idea of TV, which is probably the best thing to do anyways. I don’t watch a lot, but when I do, it seems like it sucks you in for hours. Definitely not the best use of my time.

By: Chris Dunphy

Chris Dunphy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:38:47 +0000

Eric — The iPhone does let you be on a call and surf the web, if you have 3G or WiFi coverage. This is indeed often handy – and it does work fine with AT&T. It is 10x as handy when you are tethering – but it does work even when you are not.

On Verizon’s network, you can not use your phone for voice and EVDO data at the same time.

By: Eric Hansen

Eric Hansen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:26:29 +0000

thanks for the insights. the Peplink is pricey for sure, but great when you have multiple vehicles with many people all trying to connect, which is the case in some of the productions i’ve worked on. they just connect to the Peplink’s wireless AP and the Peplink figures out which WiFi or cell signal to connect to automatically. you’re definitely paying for the “set it and forget it” feature. they make a cheaper version that’s just a 2 input router – one USB input for a cell modem and one ethernet in for a regular broadband connection for $300. i’ve pitched a few of my clients on it to use the cell modem as a backup when the broadband goes down. i live in Jackson Hole, WY and the DSL and Cable connections go down all the time. having an automatic cellular backup is priceless, especially if you’re using the internet for credit card processing in a retail or restaurant environment. but they are designed for mobile use too.

i love the new AT&T commercials with Luke Wilson talking up the ability to use data and talk at the same time with 3G, even though you technically can’t do that with an iPhone on AT&T. if they ever enable tethering, it will probably be an extra $30/mo.
Eric Hansen´s last blog ..Looking for some Twits

By: Cherie Ve Ard

Cherie Ve Ard — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:00:26 +0000

Eric.. in regards to AT&T versus Sprint coverage.. it varies widely by where you’re at. All depends on where the towers are, and which service has the faster towers in that area. We used to have Verizon, and I’d have to say they had the best all around coverage. But by and large, highly recommend having at least one GSM and one CDMA option to best cover your bases.

When you’re in 3G land on AT&T, you can still use your iPhone for calls/SMS even while tethered (umm.. not that we’d know anything about that *innocent smile*).

By: Chris Dunphy

Chris Dunphy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:48:22 +0000

Eric – I had not seen the Peplink MAX Mobile Router before. The feature set looks amazing, ideal for our sort of nomadic lifestyle. But the price is outrageous – nearly $2000?!?!

I think we are now averaging around 7GB/month via our Sprint account, but it does tend to fluctuate a lot depending on the sort of projects we are doing, and whether or not we are able to get access to WiFi sometimes as well.

Often we queue up large uploads or downloads for a day we plan to have WiFi. We might go work in a coffee shop for example.

I just checked out your site – awesome stuff.

Feel free to send any more questions our way.

By: Chris Dunphy

Chris Dunphy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:35:26 +0000

Jay — I just checked out your site – very cool. We are very open to you writing about how we use our rear window as a screen, though it is much smaller scale than the massive outdoor setups you generally feature.

Let us know if you’d like to some pictures of our rear screen in use.

Japhy — And even if you have a grandfathered in plan, if you go over 5GB too often, they may respond by canceling your account. We try to keep our usage from ever going too far over, which means that while on EVDO we have given up on things like Hulu and NetFlix streaming.

By: Cherie Ve Ard

Cherie Ve Ard — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:32:51 +0000

Japhy – One warning about streaming content over Verizon/cellular is that you will quickly eat up your 5GB/mo allotment (unless you have a grandfathered in plan with unlimited data).

By: Nomadic Matt

Nomadic Matt — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:32:08 +0000

woah.. and I thought I carried a lot of stuff.
Nomadic Matt´s last blog ..Of Shopping Malls and Supermarkets: Visiting the Unvisited

By: Japhy

Japhy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:50:25 +0000

Hmmm…I’ll have to look into a server then. I need all the geek points I can get.

I’ve been giving serious thought to how to go about outfitting my RV tech wise, and I like the whole media center thing. I don’t watch a whole lot of TV, but most of what I do watch is online for free now so I’m thinking of just going without satellite and using my verizon broadband to provide internet access and watch shows through hulu and netflix. I need to see how feasible it is from a speed standpoint though. Either way, having a server would certainly be helpful for storing movies and music.

As for the DSLR…I made the jump when Canon introduced their first digital Rebel back in 2003. I love, love, love the control the SLR gives you. But as you pointed out, it’s a pain to lug around. I rarely break it out and instead always use the Sony Cybershot that I always have with me.

By: Eric Hansen

Eric Hansen — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:55:36 +0000

I’ve been following your site for a little while now as I’m thinking about building a mobile editing suite into either a Class 3 RV or travel trailer. I have a question about your cell data usage. Between my production office and home, it’s difficult to gauge how much I use and if 5GB/mo is enough. Awesome that you guys got an unlimited plan before the carriers changed over. How much do you think you’re using per month? I have been looking at the Peplink MAX mobile router also: http://www.peplink.com/max-mobile-router/ to deal with multiple automatic connections. jailbreaking my iPhone for unlimited data could work too, but i would hate to have to tie up my iPhone to use the internet. how is Sprint’s data coverage compared to your AT&T service? thanks. i’m sure i’ll be posting more questions in the future.

By: Jay

Jay — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:38:54 +0000

Nice setup!

I’m wondering if we might be able to do a little write for http://openaircinemas.com about how you use your gear to do the outdoor movies.

Its an interesting idea indeed.
Jay´s last blog ..Happy Halloween from Open Air Productions!

By: Chris Dunphy

Chris Dunphy — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:34:41 +0000

Japhy — Cherie pointed out the practical reasons. But the most important thing has to be the geek points. *grin*

By: Cherie Ve Ard

Cherie Ve Ard — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:24:34 +0000

@Japhy The benefits for us include:

1) Extra storage space dedicated to media (movies, music, etc.) that is always connected to our trailer’s display screen. We had Oliver leave off their entertainment system, so our Mac Mini serves as a media center for us.
2) An automated back-up server for both of our laptops – redundancy of data is critical for us
3) Geek points (probably the most important one )

By: Don

Don — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:39:39 +0000

Thanks. Very helpful.

By: Japhy

Japhy — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:33:38 +0000

As a non-techie, I was wondering what benefits does the onboard server have as opposed to just running laptops and having them networked. Is it a storage issue or something else?