Imaging equipment
In both Australia and New Zealand, the Sierra-Olympic Vayu HD uncooled microbolometer array has been used in TAAC programs. This imager has a 24 × 14.5 mm sensor that produces a 1920 × 1200 pixel image and has a refresh rate of either > 30 (Generation 1, New Zealnd) or 60 Hz (Generation 2, Australia). We viewed output from the thermal imager on a Blackmagic Video Assist 7” 12G HDR monitor (blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/blackmagicvideoassist) and recorded video onto SD cards for later review. A Panasonic GH5 4K video camera was also mounted to the top of the thermal imager to collect comparative visual footage of animal detections. The imager and monitor were mounted to a custom-built frame which was then suspended using an Easyrig Minimax ca