Beginning in 2018 the Devil Horse team began using the BlackVue dash camera system in the race truck to document the Mexican 1000. In a typical consumer passenger car application, you would use one camera system. To get maximum coverage off-road racing we opted to mount two DR900S dual-camera systems in the truck. We used one system in a traditional configuration with the main (4K) camera mounted high on the interior of the windshield pointed forward and the rear channel camera (1080HD) pointed backward off the top roof cage tube. The second system was utilized to capture the interior cockpit and the drivers with the main on the dash center looking back at the drivers and the rear channel cam on the passenger "A" pillar looking across the interior diagonal. Immediately we were impressed with the image quality and the clarity of the audio captured by the HD cameras but there are several unique features of the BlackVue units that really set them apart from traditional "action" POV cameras.
Front-facing main cam
Rear-facing cam secured with a Ram mount and Axia clamp
Center dash driver cam
"A" pillar driver cam using a Ram mount with Axia clamp
The BlackVue DR900S camera systems are an "always recording" camera system and just as the name implies they record as long as there is power (we wired directly to the battery to ensure recording even when the engine is off). The two-camera system records the front and rear camera simultaneously to one card. We change cards during pitstops as the cameras record in a loop and will begin to record over the earliest footage when the card becomes full (the amount of time it takes to fill a card depends on the card size). We are never absolutely sure how long we may be running before seeing our crew so changing the cards at every stop is a good habit to ensure maximum free card space during each race stage.
A great feature on the DR900S is GPS supplied speed data that can be overlayed on the footage as well as the geographic position which can be viewed in the BlackVue app. It's really quite entertaining to see the speed you were going when reviewing footage or using the app to help recognize where some clips were captured.
The truly unique capabilities of the BlackVue become apparent when we start to talk about the connectivity of the DR900S "over the cloud". By connecting to a phone, car integrated internet, or in the case of the race truck we used cellular WiFi pucks with signal boosting antennas, the cameras can transmit a variety of data. For consumer cars that are parked, if the cameras detect an impact (they have onboard accelerometers) they will send a push notification to your phone and a clip of the "event". Also you can remotely check in on your car to see what is happening around it.
An amazing feature using this cloud technology is the ability to transmit Facebook live video from the cameras as long as we had a decent cell signal in the truck. Our crew would monitor our cameras using the app on a phone and could see when our DR900S would detect cell service and then begin a FB live video.
As far as we know this was the first time anyone had ever broadcast a live video from a race car racing in Baja!
Front cam: 8 megapixels sensor / 4K Ultra High Definition (3840×2160 @30FPS).
Rear cam: 2.1 megapixels STARVIS™ sensor / Full HD (1920×1080 @30FPS).
The front camera’s ultra-wide 162-degree angle takes full advantage of the 4K UHD resolution.
The rear camera records in Full HD at a 139-degree angle with outstanding low-light sensitivity (great for cars with tint).
Your BlackVue captures critical details while driving or in parking mode.
With BlackVue over the cloud, check on your car from anywhere, anytime.
Get the BlackVue DR900 S 4K Dash Camera system here
Use a massive 512GB Micro SDXC card to film longer without changing cards
