Saint John launches webcams to showcase city online

Saint John launched new webcams to help showcase the city online.

The City of Saint John is the latest community to put itself live and online for all to see, by using webcams to highlight locations for an internet audience.

The city installed three webcams which include views of Kings Street and the Loyalist Plaza area.

The webcams went online a month ago and so far have received about 15,000 visits.

“We've had 75 per cent from this area, though some from Toronto, Montreal,” says Brian Woods, who works in the IT department for the city. “One of the cool things is that people from England have been looking and even one from China.”

Two of the cameras are located on the top of the City Hall building, the other camera is located in the city market.

“Something as simple as us putting up our Christmas decorations, we had people who e-mailed us saying they saw it on the web cam and then came in to see it in person.  So it's very good for us in that respect,” says city market manager Kevin Loughery.

The webcams are not a new approach, other cities around the world have been using live webcams for years, as a means of promoting and presenting a positive image.

“It's one of those things you need to have, everybody has them,” says tour company manager Danielle Timmons.

Timmons says webcams have become indispensable for travellers.

“I've looked at lots of web cams. I've looked at them to check weather if I'm driving. I've looked at them to look at cities and see what's going on in a particular city. I've looked at the ones that are on the front of cruise ships,” says Timmons.

It cost less than $5,000 to install the three cameras. Woods says they are not connected to other surveillance cameras placed in the uptown.

“There are areas of the city that have surveillance cameras, those are advertised as per our requirements, and we do try to put surveillance cameras in areas to protect city assets, that's a separate system,” says Woods.

The website will soon feature a view of Kings Square and other additional locations.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Mike Cameron