The Edison Tech Center Goes to the Amazon,
Using LED's and Thin Film Solar Technologiesby Mike Whelan
I had the task of shooting videos in the Peruvian Amazon and needed to overcome a number of technical problems to make the video production work. The video production was to highlight the topic of development and health, and the study was lead by Paula Skye Tallman. I came to the Edison Tech Center in Schenectady, New York to present the unique needs for this shoot. Written below you will find out how I and Steve Normandin at the Edison Tech Center applied technology to overcome incredible conditions.
Madre de Dios region: few roads and no powergrid
From the start I decided that I'd need a system that conformed to certain guidelines:
a.) Easy to use since when one is traveling fatigue or an oppressive temperature/humidity, and can cause mental errors that can damage equipment easily.
b.) Use only rechargeable AA batteries, by having only one type of battery it allows interchangability: LED camera lights, camp headlamps, ham radios, and camera battery chargers must all be powered with AA. AA alkaline batteries are also the most available battery world wide should the rechargeable batteries get lost or confiscated.
c.) The system must be both durable and WATERPROOF. If the system is easily corrupted by humidity or rain it is completely useless for rainforest travel. Flimsy wire connections or fragile materials are not suitable.
d.) The system must be light. Heavy loads tax energy. Food must be carried in so expending calories carrying extra weight is a problem.
e.) No toxic waste: When large budget film crews have gone into the jungle they typically carry a load of lead acid 12 V car batteries. I will be traveling solo at times and cannot leave toxic spent batteries in the environment. Carrying these batteries in a backpack is not an option.
In the story below I will outline the final system used that solved all of the technical problems.
Finding a Power Source:
Traveling East from bright lights of Cuzco gradually one leaves behind the mobs of tourists that stick to the Cuzco-Macchu Pichu route. The Andies Mountains have traditionally defended the lowlands from attack and development, and they still do. Only narrow mud roads climb over the 3000 meter passes into the Amazon Basin. All food, tools, and gasoline must arrive by short 3 axle trucks on roads cut into the side of treacherous cliffs. Sometimes small waterfalls pour onto the road and vehicle as the route winds through tropical ravines.
When camping in woods along the shore of the river I found there was no place to set up the panel, so I had to go to the edge of the river and either lay the panel on the river rocks in the sun, or string the panel up to tree branches to get the desired angle.
The Peruvian power grid ends far before the 9000 ft. mountain pass, and when one gazes down onto the great forest lands below there is little visual evidence of human activity. After descending into the high jungle one finds small villages with less than a dozen small local restaurants and stores. Power here is generated most of the day by gasoline generators and it is fairly reliable. Cement power poles carry power to most of the residents in Pilcopata, Salvacion, and Shintuya. Finding a power source to recharge camera and light batteries is not a problem here, however my journey required going further.
At a certain point the thin vital road link to civilization ends at the Madre de Dios river, and from here it is necessary to travel by boat. This river is untamed - it is full dangerous rapids and sand bars that threaten to strand overloaded boats of villagers. It is not uncommon for boats to swamp and people to spend a night on a mosquito infested sandy riverside next to wild jungle.
Small villages of indigenous people populate this river. Most people live without running water and electricity is on only a couple hours each day, sometimes, that is only there has been a recent gasoline shipment to run the generator. This are is where I used the thin-film solar panels made from Copper indium gallium (di)selenide, also known as (CIGS).
The panel was made by Sunlinq and was rated for 12 watts of power. The panel was attached to a "reservoir module". Daniel W. Whelan designed the system. The module was a collection of AA batteries in a sealed fishing tackle box totaling 12 volts. This reservoir of power could fully supply a AA battery charger and acted as an intermediate step between the solar panel and the battery charger. It provided stable source of energy despite cloud conditions.
There are many types of electric lights, and one must use the proper tool for any particular job. (See our History of Lighting web page) For this Amazon job I chose the LED. Eventhough the LED has been around since the 1960's thanks to the work in Syracuse, NY by GE engineers, it has not had the proper color temperature for video production until recently. Companies like "Lite Panels" have popped up and challenged traditional industry leaders like Lowell and Arri. Lite Panels and other companies did not have the product I needed to shoot the video. First of all Lite Panels has unacceptably high prices and poor quality products. I've heard frequent complaints from industry workers about flimsy products which if dropped once cease to function. The ballasts for the lights are positioned on the back of the circuit boards, which means that air ventilation holes must be made on the actual panel, which opens up the LED board and connectors to damage due to water and dirt. All the light products available on the market were also too heavy for being able to be spring-clipped to a branch (multiple light stands were too heavy to carry in).
In this photo: Steve Normandin and John Harnden
Steve Normandin and I worked together for months prior to the trip to find a light waterproof LED with a daylight color temperature. We experimented with different products. Some products had light boards that were so poorly soldered that the lights began to malfunction when put under stress. We experimented with various light housings. Eventually we found a light that had a detachable ballast that could be contained in a waterproof plastic housing, and had an array of lights with good CRI (color rendering index). The final product was flat, super light, waterproof and bright. It was used on multiple interviews in Cuzco and jungle areas.
The Edison Tech Center used existing products to redesign special lighting systems that operated in the hostile natural conditions.
Testing the light in a bamboo grove on the Madre de Dios RiverAbout the Camera and Camera Batteries:
The footage for the project was shot in AVCHD format and stored on small 16 GB chips. The camera did not contain a hardrive or any moving parts. This was intentional. Hard drive cameras are prone to permanent dysfunction at the slightest shock. When I used magnetic tape in the jungles of Ecuador in 2001 I had frequent problems with humidity on the tape. In the selva the air is almost always at 100% humidity. When the tape develops condensation this can lead to the tape becoming hopelessly mangled in the machine. The camera in 2001 would decide to shut down at random times, making it very difficult to finish all of the shooting tasks in the given number of days. This time in 2009 I experienced no shut downs. The camera batteries were small since not much power is needed when there is no moving parts. I recharged the camera batteries off of the 12 V module which was recharged via the solar panel.
Going Tapeless, a mixed success:
The Panasonic HDC SD-100 camera performed well for the most part and was wonderful in being low weight. After the shoot, the MTS format of the video clips proved a nightmare to work with. You cannot even view the MTS clips using any standard Windows or Mac software. The video needed to be converted to a MOV format using Final Cut Pro (a $1200 program). Unfortunately there is no user-friendly free software for converting MTS format, and thus I do not recommend any camera that uses this format until Panasonic offers free MTS support for Windows Media Player and Quicktime. Some clips were lost due to corruption of the MTS files, luckily this did not occur on any vital footage, but the thought that 5% of what you shoot is randomly corrupted is worse than the reliability of miniDV tape.
Final Product :
Finished modules of the video have been released on YouTube, you may view the project videos on the Manu Biosphere Project page. Each module of the video contains discussion on serious topics like oil exploration, pollution, corruption, gold mining, water quality, and more. The videos attracted the attention of Hollywood actor Ross Thomas who has talked about collaboration in the future. The video also has been picked up by many websites that highlight injustice against native amazon people and create awareness of environmental destruction in the rainforest.
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The shrinking size of video storage
YouTube Video: part of the Manu Biosphere Project talking about oil exploration.
copyright 2010 Edison Tech Center
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