Hughes and Streambox Make Headlines with Real-Time Newsgathering Solution
No matter how they get their news reports, today’s television and Internet audiences demand high-quality video, sharp images, and up-to-the-minute reporting. In the past, this has posed unique challenges when covering emergencies or reporting from far-flung regions, including war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Hauling, setting up, and then breaking down a considerable amount of equipment, often in difficult terrain and severe conditions, makes it particularly challenging to report from remote locations.
But innovative technology is now enabling live news feeds from almost anywhere in the world. In 2005, the introduction of Inmarsat’s broadband global area network (BGAN) facilitated connectivity to more than 80 percent of the world’s population and land mass via powerful mobile satellite modems. And today, technology from Hughes and Streambox means a single reporter can deliver streaming news as events unfold—with battery-powered equipment that fits into a small backpack.
The Hughes/Streambox solution, utilizing the global BGAN satellite service, streamlines the process of live media feeds, even from the most remote locations, without the need for a truck full of equipment. In a typical scenario, a major news organization equips a reporter with a video camera, a Streambox® portable encoder, and a Hughes BGAN portable terminal.
The Streambox technology encodes and decodes video footage in real time. Using highly efficient compression, Streambox equipment provides superior video quality at low data rates over BGAN and other IP networks. Combining the Streambox equipment with the Hughes 9201 BGAN terminal yields much higher bandwidth and transmission speeds than previous mobile satellite technology—up to 256 Kbps streaming video on a dedicated channel, similar to that of a videoconference. In fact, when two Hughes 9201 terminals are bonded together and used with Streambox encoders, a reporter can stream news reports at speeds approaching 500 Kbps.
The latest generation Hughes 9250 terminal will introduce a whole new level of high-speed mobile communications with multi-user capability and rates of over 464 Kbps—while on the move.
“The key to a successful news organization is up-to-the-minute, high-quality reporting, including images and video,” said Graham Avis, vice president of Hughes Mobile Satellite Terminal Group. “The Hughes/Streambox solution enables media companies to stream live, high-quality feeds that tell, and more importantly, show news audiences what is happening in the world—as it happens.”
“Because the Streambox and Hughes technologies work together hand-inglove, our customers are able to streamline their mobile newsgathering process for real-time video transport from remote locations,” said Bob Hildeman, chairman and CEO of Streambox. “The integrated Hughes/Streambox solution is a vital tool for news organizations delivering breaking news over low data rate networks.”
In addition to its use in newsgathering applications, the Hughes/ Streambox solution is also ideal for emergency response and assessment, military operations, and government and enterprise applications.
In today’s world of ubiquitous information, Hughes and Streambox are helping reporters, camera crews, and media companies deliver highquality reporting, images, and video news from around the globe— whenever and wherever the stories unfold.