Before I was aware of it, I had decided I would buy an 85cm Ten-Haaft Oyster Digital/Twin or Vision from Transleisure: However, I decided on the CAMOS because:
Advantages:
1) The design concept was much more appealing. Rather than have a beefy motor and beefy gears to withstand massive windloading, the gubbins (a technical term) are shielded from the nasty elements by a plastic dome. You can then have a lightweight, precision aluminium dish/LNB that outperforms much larger dishes. This, together with a lightweight structure with a far smaller moment of intertia allowing small motors to whip it around at high angular rates, enable other interesting benefits.
2) It can be used while the vehicle is in motion. Slap a matchbox-sized cheap gyro on the back of the dish and a bit of control electronics then keeps the dish pointing at the satellite as you whirl around roundabouts, hit deep potholes, etc. Now, if you have Sky+ and don’t want to miss the latest soap episode, just record it as you are going along and watch it later (Sky+ works fine with the single LNB CAMOS, though cannot simultaneously handle two channels). Or pat your trusty GPS as your co-pilot twizzles the swivel seat, reclines it, and watches the TV in comfort. Or keep the kids amused. Now, I haven’t used it much this way, partly because I rarely feel the need and partly because of a technical downside (discussed later and now claimed overcome). But where I have found it VERY useful is to choose where to park on a pitch that has trees, tall bushes or hedges partially hiding the satellite. Fire up and as you slowly manoeuvre, even over uneven pitches, you see (actually quite handily in my rear view mirror) as the picture is lost and recovered. No satellite TV availability checks to delay the handbrake-on, kettle-on, arrival routine!
3) The picture cannot be lost as a result of the vehicle rocking when parked up, whether due to high winds or people entering or exiting a small van. This is not due to the in-motion facility, which is normally suppressed when parked up to avoid the whirring of it seeking the strongest signal and the consequent unnecessary current consumption, but because of the wind-shielding dome and an efficient, smaller dish having an inevitably larger beamwidth.
4) Less demanding roof space requirements. My roof is crowded, and although an Oyster would have fitted, it would have been a tighter squeeze entailing some positioning compromises for other stuff.
The CAMOS was fitted by Murvi, who conducted highly technical commissioning tests prior to installation. This entailed them propping it on a tea trolley and whizzing it around outside their premises with the dome off seeing how hard it was to get the dish, trying to maintain a degree of decorum, to lose lock on the satellite. It was a good game, apparently.
Pitfalls:
1) Visual impact. It’s a blister on the roof, having a bigger impact on some vans than others. It doesn’t bother me, but would some. I’m still under the Speedferries height limit, though they do measure me! I’ve had people think it was a hot water tank or headroom for a shower, but on the upside, it seems a good ice-breaker question on site and makes a change from the weather or the dog. Here are some photos.
2) Noise. Depending on the roof construction, the dish seeking can be obtrusive. I’m not sure whether this is any different from Oysters and others. My version (but see later) takes a similar time originally to seek the satellite as an Oyster and can vary considerably but repeatedly depending on one’s compass heading (the dish starts up in the same place and performs a fixed search pattern). However, after it has found the chosen satellite (whether Astra 2, Astra 1, Eutelsat/ Hotbird or Sirius) it sleeps silently in that fixed position on the press of a button. When used while mobile, despite the van being commendably rattle-free, I can’t hear the continual seeking/peaking. So in practice it’s not much of a pitfall, really.
3) Once powered off, on switch-on again it searches from scratch. When away from hook-up this is annoying, because you only want it powered when you want to watch something. The consumption is small, but significant and I suspect greater than other automatic static dishes. It ought to have the facility to position first to where it last was, then search from there if it can’t see the satellite. (Understood to be an option in latest version)
4) Sometimes slow signal recovery when lost in motion due to shielding. The search/ tracking software was an early implementation, I guess. Obviously just zooming under a motorway bridge gives you a temporary loss of signal, but sometimes when the tracking gets lost and it reverts to search, it takes a while to find the satellite again. I don’t know, but it’s almost as if it doesn’t remember the azimuth/elevation it should be aiming for and starts from scratch again, a bit like as if it had been switched off.
Latest versions:
CAMOS have announced updated versions and these will be available imminently. Upgrades are not possible; I think the split of electronics between those housed in the dome and those in the controller is different (the controller is also a lot smaller). A cheaper “static” version is also available; this strikes me as more a marketing/pricing issue, as the gyro is cheap, as are the extra electronics required for in-motion, but if you don’t want the facility, certainly you can “save” quite a bit.
The updated in-motion versions apparently overcome pitfalls 3 and 4 above. Indeed initial search when static is MUCH faster, too, quite right when this lightweight dish can be shoved around so quickly. I’m told the speed of the digital receiver used can also be a factor, and some Sky receivers are slow, so this is something perhaps to pursue in more detail.
I also understand that its power consumption is lower.
The initial versions were very reliable, but some failures were due to a burned out microswitch as the system powered down and the dish/LNB came to rest on the microswitch. This component has been changed.
Summary:
Some of the above pitfalls aren’t discriminatory, as they refer to features the competition doesn’t have. And the updates address them anyway. Perhaps a better question would be, with the benefit of hindsight, would I choose CAMOS again and under what different circumstances would that change to preferring an Oyster?
The answer to the former is easy, yes (and I pride myself on my objectivity and avoid the easy trap of justifying past purchasing decisions). As to the latter, I’d prefer an Oyster if:
a) I envisaged significant operation at the edges of the satellite/transponder footprint, where an 85cm dish would outperform a high precision CAMOS. The simple physical geometry of capture area counts here. I haven’t yet had the CAMOS down to SW France to judge Astra 2D reception, or below Barcelona for Astra 2A/2B, but it has worked fine on all channels in rain (there was no choice….) half-way up Scotland’s Western Highlands.
b) the permanent dome was considered to be unacceptably unaesthetic or if the total van height with a CAMOS would cause a problem.
c) I needed to watch one satellite channel while recording another, record two simultaneously, or simultaneous one-way broadband internet/ GPRS backchannel and satellite TV.
Otherwise, a CAMOS would still do it for me!
Dave Burleigh