TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Maho Beach Cam?

Does anyone know what's going on with the Maho Beach Cam? I haven't been able to get it for a few days. Maybe it is just me?? We will be leaving the foot plus of snow to be landing next Monday. Can't wait!

I haven't been able to access it since at least Friday, so it's not just you. Be happy you'll be there in a week! Most of us have a lot longer than that to pine away! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Based upon what they just posted on their (Maho Beach Cam) facebook page and website, it is history.

Says so on the web cam page it is no longer going to be available. They are looking for other options for a cam location.

Wonder if it's a "Sunset" issue. To bad they can't move it to the other side, Tortuga, on top of the RI.

I see Your post is directed to me. Just what I said. No need to show me.

Wow, that stinks...

I posted the link for ALL to see. That is what this board is about, informing people. Rather than just making a statement, I thought others might be interesting in seeing for themselves.

I did not include the link in my previous post as I was just aware of the facebook mention initially. Since not everyone is on facebook I was not going to link to that. Once I found the website, I then posted that link.

I totally agree with you. I would bet it is a Sunset issue.

It may be a 747 issue. Not as attractive.

Since the note on the webcam states that they are looking for another location, I have to 'assume' that they were unable to reach a continuing agreement with Sunset. Thinking about it from Sunset's point of view, if people can watch the webcam for free, why would they go to the bar and pay for virtually the same view???

I'm thinking they should approach the folks at Alegria to put the camera there. They're not getting much income from room rentals, as far as I know! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

"Thinking about it from Sunset's point of view, if people can watch the webcam for free, why would they go to the bar and pay for virtually the same view???"
Good point.

I pay monthly for the PTZtv. I really only watch Maho. Thank you for sending the information from the Sunset website. I had NO idea they were stopping it!!!!!! Need to cancel my subscription.

Why do you pay for it? Just curious. I've never been asked to pay and I've watched Miami, NYC, SXM etc.

You can get a premium subscription, that doesn't have ads on it. No idea how much the cost is.

I just read the many comments on the Maho Beach Cam FB page, and they confirmed that it's a Sunset issue. They also said that the outages over the last few days had to do with their equipment being tampered with, so they had to exit the location. Alegria and the Sonesta/Royal Islander complex turned them down for a set up.

This is so sad. That cam was my moment of zen - just listening to the waves was relaxing after a long night at work <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />

Huh, surprised the other locations turned them down. I loved watching planes land and take off and to check out the crowds and the ocean. Seems you don't know what you've got till it's gone.. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />

It's been sporadic. We watched our friends plane take off January 19th,my sisters plane take off last Saturday, our friends & relatives saw us land with WestJet Sunday January 8th. Also our kids & grandkids watched me yesterday between 1 & 1:30 st maarten time waving my hand at the camera. Yes,that was me with the brightly colored top blowing around. Little did I know at the time that I was waving goodbye to everybody!!! We flew out at 5 pm st maarten time & the screen was black then.
Very sad to see that go! Hopefully something can be done to get it back.
Really enjoyed the new sunset beach bar though.

I watched the webcam also but sitting there having lunch & seeing the Jets live coming across the bay is a big thrill for me! Just sayin'. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

It was so enjoyable watching the crowds, waves, planes, cars, jet blasts, planes, people, turquois water, beach sand, giant jets, planes...well, people who LOVE SXM get the idea. Moments of Zen....for sure.

I mostly watched it to see the condition of the sand and waves. Planes were a bonus.

Sunset Bar & Grill issued a statement on Facebook:

Due to the fact that we took down mahobeachcam today within good reason, we do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
We want our loyal viewers to know that we are replacing them with NEW cameras for continued viewing pleasure. Our webcam will be back up and live on www.sunsetsxm.com shortly. Thanking you guys in advance for your understanding, patience and continued support!

Good to know. Thanks.

I appreciated the post. Thanks <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Huhm, based on the record that the Sunset web cam has had in the past, I wonder how long 'shortly' will be??

Well that sucks

Hopefully sooner than later!!!!! At least there is hope. My brother was a captain and flew the Gulfstream 200 for NetJets and every plane coming and going there reminds me of him. He flew to SXM several times. p.s. The Premimum subscription was $15 per month without ads and was full screen. I watched every day. Can't wait for Sunset to get it going again.

This is outrageous!
A few years ago we lost the ability to supervise "free drinking" and now air traffic.
How much can those of us with too much time on our hands be expected to endure?

And now we have an official explanation what happened. It sounds very odd.

From Facebook:

"Good morning everyone. This is Lou Gnandt (Co-Founder at PTZtv). I returned to the US from Sint Maarten late last night and have been reading all of our viewer's posts this morning. Thank you for your support and the overwhelming compliments on our Maho Beach/ SXM Airport broadcast. As many of you have noticed, our live stream was constantly being disrupted due to power outages. We shipped a battery backup to the island last year and had it professionally installed. The outages continued even with the battery backup (and being we take great pride in our high quality broadcasts), I flew to Sint Maarten 2 weeks ago to conduct an onsite analysis to pinpoint the issue. Not finding any problems with our equipment, I installed a remote monitor/alarm to alert us if our power cable was disconnected from the battery backup. I also installed a brand new camera at that time. As soon as I flew back to the states, we started receiving alerts from the newly installed monitor/alarm indicating that the main power source of our equipment was being tampered with. I jumped on a plane and showed up unexpectedly on Sunday afternoon. When I discovered more tampering took place (in addition to the power cord being removed), it was an easy and instant decision to remove our equipment box immediately to secure our broadcast equipment. The cabling and camera were removed by me personally before the sun came up on Monday morning. The equipment will remain on the island and is being stored in a secure location with a very trusted friend. Now the good news! We are working on securing a new location for our equipment. Please don't ask because I am not at liberty to discuss any of our future plans at this time. I will say that we LOVE the island and people of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin and will do everything in our power to restore the high quality broadcast to which we spoiled you with. Our broadcast quality bar is set very high and we realize anything less would be a total disappointment to our viewers. Again, thank you for your support and stay tuned to PTZtv. The best is yet to come! "

I looked at the cam on Sunday and noticed the camera was viewing from a different spot on the roof of Sunset. The cam was following incoming planes from out over the ocean to the end of the runway and there was some wood construction obscuring the camera view out to the southwest. So, if Sunset goes ahead with their own cam it may well be an improvement.

whiteshell your first post and it is not a hello or a question? Where are you working? As to any improvement I doubt it. SBAG is probably only looking at making money not providing a service.t The previous SBAG camera was not reliable and poor quality. I am sure the majority here enjoyed the PTZtv cam.

Thanks for posting.
Never a dull moment.

Just because it's their first post is not reson to question or belittle. TTOL poster have to start somewhere and I saw nothing questionable or objectionable on that post. Lighten up.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I saw that unusual view as well the other day like whiteshell described. It was really different! Time will tell.

Well whenever we are on island as we are right now, we will no longer stop at sunset for lunch and cocktails. If he doesn't care about us the feeling is mutual.

Well, I actually have no idea who was right in this situation, but it would seem to me that you are making a decision based on hearing only one side of the story? And I'm not sure how you arrive at "he doesn't care about us"?? While I loved the Maho Cam as much as anyone, both sides are in fact running a business, not doing things out of the goodness of their hearts...

Huh???? I'll still patronize them as I did long before that camera was there. What's wrong with them wanting their own camera? Just wait to see what they come up with.