360 view cameras

[halla]

Has anyone looked into the 360 view cameras. They look like they could make driving a big motorhome easier and safer. Not sure how they could be incorporated, but I would love to learn more about them.

[ablarson]

Steve Whitt (old head of Alpine) is heading up a new company that has designed 360 degree camera system specifically for large rigs. I should know more in a month or so. I'll keep you updated.


Newbie
2 RV Trips to date
19 States
2016 Dynamax Force HD

[halla]

That would be great. Thank you


2016 Dynamax Force. Just-Rite2

[Rancher Rob]

Has it been a month yet?

[TRN]

I have to admit that I love this idea. My second job is as a professional driving instructor for Mercedes Benz. MB has a fantastic 360 camera setup (now called "surround view system"). We highlight the system driving offroad with the GLS450 and let me tell you, you can drive the vehicle without looking out the window if you want (although the camera shuts off above 10mph). The side view camera which you can toggle to see either the front or rear wheels would be fantastic for tight areas. Sign me up.

[bclemens]

There are multiple systems on the market. Velvac has one, RVS has one and I think ASA has one.

The issues on the early generations is that they need to be placed within a very small window to work properly and stitch the images together. So each floor plan has to be calibrated and then they have to be very precise when installed. The newer ones, seem to care less and will stitch the images together taking into account margin for error.

My other issue was that there was no Horizon view. It was just "around", which is fine for a car when you have a rear view mirror, but in an RV, not so much. Though again, as they progress, I think some are incorporating a horizon view.

[Rancher Rob]

Last Friday I met with a local sales rep for Brigade Electronics. They have a pretty nice system that is more commercial oriented but that they've installed in some higher end RV's.

Their system is modular and you can add , change and move cameras. It has a central brain unit that combines the camera feeds together in a single 360 degree view. They have a DVR option with a hard drive for days, if not weeks, of recording time. It has an accelerometer to detect crashes and hard braking which initiates a separate recording. It can auto upload to the cloud via verizon. It has a fairly fast frame rate so no stuttering picture. Camera options include HD, multi-position, branch protection shields, and FLIR.
It also records on an SD card in parallel to the hard drive for an easy review process.
They have 5", 7" or 10" monitors.
You can also monitor via smart phone.

Downsides are:
Commercial pricing. I think a full 360 system with DVR is about $4.5k
No individual camera recording. It just records the combined 360 picture.
No onboard video motion sensing alerts for security to alert you when someone is walking around or in your rig.
The HD cameras have limited options and screen choices (I think just the 7" screen)
No onboard review. You have to pull the sd card or hard drive and connect it to your computer to review the recordings.

Question - Do you all see a big benefit to having a DVR? For security, I could see it being helpful to give the cops a face to find but for driving and collisions, I figure with or without recording, the insurance company will pay for the damage and wouldn't give enough discount to make it worth the extra expense.