Slingbox and EV-DO: the low cost way to deliver broadcast news

While some news channels are busy busting out HD feeds of the six 'o clock rundown, San Francisco's CBS 5 is cutting costs in a huge way. By placing some 20 low-end cameras in various locales throughout the city, the station is utilizing Slingbox Pros and wireless EV-DO cards to beam live footage back to the station. According to a video interview with the news operations director, the traditional method of wheeling a fully-stocked van to the scene, begging for the FCC's blessing, and clogging up even more California roadways runs them "around $8 per minute." Their Sling-enabled system rings up at a measly $59 per month for each data card, and it also relieves them from having to purchase the $25,000 van-loaded rigs that many channels currently use. Of course, they admit that their money saving tactics aren't likely to remain exclusive for long, but be sure to hit the read link to see the interview and catch a few shots from the Slingbox on duty.

[Via CNET]

[Drew @ May 10th 2007 12:35AM]

I'll have to try that some day... That'll show Verizon for not bringing high speed internet to my small town.

[Josh L @ May 9th 2007 5:00PM]

I'm sure verzion will soon be cutting off of their 'unlimited usage'.

[akijikan @ May 9th 2007 5:06PM]

who said they weren't using sprint?

[Josh L @ May 9th 2007 5:20PM]

My mistake, I instantly thought verzion for some unknown reason.

[DaytonaZ33 @ May 9th 2007 5:03PM]

Well there goes the bandwidth of the entire Internet. Now millions of people in addition to thousands of news stations will be clogging the data routes with streaming TV.

[jim jonze @ May 9th 2007 8:44PM]

Quote: "Well there goes the bandwidth of the entire Internet. Now millions of people in addition to thousands of news stations will be clogging the data routes with streaming TV."

It's not a dump truck!

[Frankenstein Black @ May 9th 2007 5:06PM]

Said it before and will say it again, Get to Slinging before its to late! Any day now some Greedy mega corporation will come along and claim some type of patent infringement. Why? because the greedy SOBs think this type of content time shifting should come with an additional monthly fee (despite you already paying for cable or Sat and that all you can eat Data plan). NOW RUN, DON'T WALK!! http://us.slingmedia.com/page/home

-------
Currently Slinging IO to my Cingy 8525 watching Tobey (Spiderman) Maguire's appearance on Stern!

[Ariza @ May 9th 2007 5:08PM]

That is really smart - wonder if SlingBox will venture into enterprise grade products for this type of sling-ing

[akijikan @ May 9th 2007 5:08PM]

what happens when the news doesn't happen infront of these 20 cameras?

[JSM @ May 9th 2007 5:10PM]

This is Edison Carter coming to you live and direct from CBS5......

[Josh @ May 9th 2007 5:34PM]

justin.tv FTW?

[ray @ May 9th 2007 5:37PM]

verizon contract stipulate no streaming for EVDO.... BUSTED!

[bob cobb @ May 9th 2007 7:14PM]

"verizon contract stipulate no streaming for EVDO.... BUSTED!"
Where does it say that they use verizon? They could be using sprint

[bloodycrackdown @ May 9th 2007 7:05PM]

This whole thing seems misleading. First, let me say that cnet video stories are terrible. So it's hard to get an idea EXACTLY what they are doing with this tech. From what I can tell, they aren't using this for reporter live shots from stories in the field. This seems to be more of a thing for fixed cameras that give a 'citycam' type of shot for transistions into weather, and maybe traffic segments. We already use something similar in KC, except we aren't using cell phone data connections. We're using regular old wired internet connections. And we have a network of citycams set up. This replaces the old way of having microwave dishes on each cam that we had to tune in individually. But I'm not sure this idea would work great for reporters on live shots.

[MrC @ May 9th 2007 7:17PM]

http://cbs5.com/webcams/local_slideshow_027212125

I think they use them for these cams as well as ultra-portable ENG setups. The "Edison Carter" comment was probably not far off, at least in cases of breaking news where rolling a truck and getting it aligned with a tower would make it not "live" enough.

For standard live reporting, rolling a truck will be the norm for a while yet.

[TVGenius @ May 9th 2007 8:10PM]

That $8 amount he gave was more than likely to buy satellite time for live shots using a digital KU truck, not a traditional microwave truck. But with the gas prices in California, and running a generator to power all that high-wattage stuff, it's probably costing a heck of a lot more than that. Until latency can be managed to under a second, concepts like these won't replace live trucks though.

[Mike Klein @ May 9th 2007 9:12PM]

dudes you gotta read...right at top of article they state they are doing hd streaming.

There are hidef cameras from Axis which seem much more suited (small) for such a thing than a camera PLUS slingbox.

[ethana2 @ May 9th 2007 10:40PM]

Screw phones. Give me a wireless connection and let ME decide what I put across it. No pity for practices lacking in foresight.

[Adam @ May 10th 2007 11:19PM]

$25,000? That MIGHT get you the microwave transmitter itself. Not the mast, positioner, mastcam, monitors, switcher (optional), tape machines, camera(s), generator...

An ENG truck can run you $150,000 without breaking a sweat - and that's SD. :)

[Ari Moshe @ May 11th 2007 12:40AM]

Is it just me or does it seem completely unnecessary to use a slingbox in this situation?

[ChongO @ May 11th 2007 3:19PM]

If you already have a tv tuner on your windows based pc, just try orb.com wihtout all the extra hardware...

orb lets me stream live tv, my music library, videos, even live webcam to my motoQ. all without the hardware of sling. oh and its free...