Vikings fans have a new view just before the arrival of the new year.
A high-resolution gigapixel webcam from EarthCam has been mounted on the upper bowl of the new Vikings stadium to show a view that looks from east to west with the Minneapolis skyline in the background. The first images from the camera went on-line Friday.
The camera is one of several that is being used to chronicle the progress of the largest construction project in state history and is the first to be mounted inside the structure. The high-tech camera takes an archive photo every 15 minutes and will be used to provide amazing time-lapse videos between now and the end of the Vikings first regular season home game of 2016.
Three high-tech cameras mounted on buildings outside the stadium captured the progress since the Dec. 3, 2013 groundbreaking, providing interesting profile and overview shots, as well as a live stream camera that delivered action to viewers from the southeast of the stadium. The live cam has been paused for relocation because the progress of the stadium has grown beyond its viewpoint. It is being relocated and scheduled to return in mid-January.
A panel of judges and producers recently named the stadium webcam collaboration as one of EarthCam's "25 Most Interesting Webcams for 2014" out of thousands of nominees. Other winners included cameras on the International Space Station, atop the Washington Monument and the World Trade Center Cams.
There are future plans to place live streaming cameras inside various rooms, such as a suite, a club space and the locker room in the summer of 2015.
