Livestream Livepack: a 'satellite television truck in a backpack'

"Game changing" is thrown around way too frequently these days, but man, this thing just might be. The Livepack is being described as "a satellite television truck in a backpack" by creator Livestream, and for all intents and purposes, it is. Put simply (or as simply as possible), the pack includes everything one would need to stream "HD quality" footage: encoding hardware, a Firewire cable and the real kicker, a built-in wireless connection with six load-balanced 3G modems over three carriers (AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint if you have to know). Users simply provide their own camcorder, mash a button when it's show time, and out goes the signal. The Livepack can currently be rented for $2,500 per month (includes 30 hours of streaming) or $1,500 per month if you commit to a year-long agreement. So, who's up for showing the world their high school prom live in HD? Demo vid is after the break.

[Via Red Ferret]

[Polymath Posted Oct 1st 2009 10:59AM]

This would be great for disaster response! If you mounted one in each forward scout/response vehicle that was sent in directly after the hurricane, fire, flood... etc happened you could get immediate video feed for damage assessment. The fact thats its an all in one package and has USB / Ethernet /Firewire connections makes it extremely versatile when it comes to the choice of camera. Since it goes out over cell carriers means that COW towers could be used as haul backs if the disaster took out the local wireless communications.

I'd like to see something like this in fire trucks as well. In large fires that require more than one or two engines it would give other responding departments, engine companies, and incident commanders that are en route an idea of what they are about to drive up on. Not to mention all the other government agencies that would have to deal with the aftermath. Some departments have cameras on their engines and NYFD have done a few webcasts of some of their fires. But I have yet to see it in anything like this outside of specialized response units in big budget or federal departments or that was this easy to set up and use.

[crispyjones Posted Nov 20th 2009 7:29AM]

Interesting, but *not* a replacement for a satellite truck. A sat truck hits geostationary satellites, and will work anywhere. I would expect this to work well in most metro areas and along interstates. As soon as 3g coverage fades you can use it as a desk to write your story.