ROAR
Some day the will finally end up with one huge cavern up and down and across Manhattan Island with all these wires, pipes, conduits, and railroad tracks in one big room like a model railroad with no scenery!
Amazed the camera didn’t get taken out by the flying debris.
I’ve seen some “behind the scenes” footage of rock blasting on various cable tv shows and the cameras are usually placed in some sort of armored casing with transparent armor (i.e “bulletproof” glass) over the lense. But then again I recall at least one of these shows shot in a quarry pit where the crew had to write off the camera rig.
Also, a good blasting specialist tries to set the charges to minimize “flyrock” by focusing the blast into the rockface and throwing less debris back…
There seemed to be a lot of debris headed in the general direction of the camera - any one of which would have damaged if not destroyed the camera housing just from the weight and velocity of the rock striking the housing.
Or the camera housing could have been designed to resist such strikes. Modern ballistic materials are amazing. Plenty of design work has done on such things for use in Hollywood action films (although nowadays feature films use Computer gnererated Imagery more often than actual explosives).
I seriously doubt the crew hired by the MTA just set up a stock camera in an unprotected position but it is also possible that the camera is set much farther back than it would seem to the eye from viewing that shot (though obv. that might be difficult in the restricted confines of a tunnel).
How about a double mirror system much like a non encased peiscope ?
A single mirror system is probably a better optical choice and flipping the image is trivial. Either way, it is a lot cheaper to replace a broken mirror than a camera, though reasonable quality video cameras are dirt cheap.
- Erik
We could be getting more opportunities to watch a subway being built. The Star-Ledger reports the plan to extend the No. 7 subway line under the Hudson River to Seacaucus is “back on track.”
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/plan_to_extend_no_7_city_subwa.html
Last I heard, it is off again.
I do not believe it will ever happen.
ROAR