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Live from Camp Pendleton with ViaSat SurfBeam 2 Pro Portable (video)

Zach Honig — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:34:00 -0500

There's no power outlet, land-based internet connection or even a decent cell signal in sight, yet we're posting this live, at fast broadband speeds. We're miles deep into Camp Pendleton, connected to ViaSat's SurfBeam 2 Pro Portable mobile satellite transceiver and sending data to and from ViaSat-1 located more than 20,000 miles above our heads. SurfBeam 2 wasn't designed for us to kick back and surf the web in the middle of nowhere at speeds that we could barely achieve while tethered to a cable connection just a few years ago, but we're doing just that, with ViaSat's roughly $20,000 go-anywhere satellite broadband rig. We first heard about Pro Portable last month at CES, which the company is marketing towards military, emergency management personnel and even broadcasters -- that's right, the sat truck of the future fits inside a hand-carry suitcase, and sends HD video from the world's most remote locations right back to broadcast centers at record speed, nearly eliminating that lag that makes certain CNN reports painful to watch.

Pro Portable really can go anywhere -- disassembled, it fits inside a fairly modest suitcase, but screw it together and you have a full-size dish. There's also a four-port Ethernet router and an optional battery pack, which provides up to four hours of juice. Think of it as Exede broadband for far-off-the-grid types. Sadly, Pro Portable isn't priced low enough to make its way into your on-the-go blogger kit, but it costs a small fraction of the million dollars you can spend on a sat truck, which rents for thousands of dollars a day. It's also far more transportable and discrete, offering consistent 12 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds nearly anywhere in North America. How can SurfBeam 2 hold up during a bandwidth-intensive HD upload? See for yourself just past the break -- our 230MB hands-on video made its way from the ground to space and back to Viddler in just shy of 13 minutes, and our Skype video call looked fantastic, without any noticeable lag.

Gallery: ViaSat SurfBeam 2 Pro Portable hands-on

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Shell opens America's first pipelined hydrogen-fueling station in Southern California

Richard Lai — Wed, 11 May 2011 10:44:00 -0400

Residents of SoCal's Torrance should consider themselves lucky, as they're now living in America's first-ever city to have a pipelined hydrogen-fueling station. You can thank Shell and Toyota for picking up this government-funded green project. Sure, while the few other hydrogen stations still rely on delivery by supply truck (presumably running on diesel, ironically), this nevertheless marks a new milestone for our squeaky clean fuel, and it's only a matter of time before more stations get piped up to Air Products' hydrogen plants. If there's any indication of a time frame, Wired reminds us that 2015 should see the arrival of many new mass-market hydrogen cars from Toyota, Honda, and Mercedes-Benz. Not long to go now, fellow tree huggers.

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Time Warner Cable adds bundle of HD channels in Southern California

Darren Murph — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:34:00 -0500

Today's a pretty big day for TWC cable systems all across the country, and just as North Texas was gifted with a bucketful of new networks last night, it seems that many locales in Southern California were hooked up, too. Far too many HD newcomers were added to cover in this space, but for details on exactly what areas will get equipped (and when), follow your nose to the read link. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Thanks, Michael]

Filed under: Cable, New content, HD

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Cox delivers a half dozen HD channels to San Diego, California

Darren Murph — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:33:00 -0400

While Time Warner Cable and AT&T have been bolstering their HD lineups in sunny San Diego, Cox has been sitting idly by watching the time pass. Finally, the carrier is stepping up and doing a little something to keep things competitive by offering up a fresh half dozen HD channels in the California city. Beginning on October 15th, Cox will deliver MTV HD (730), Spike HD (745), VH1 HD (746), Nickelodeon HD (747), CMT HD (761) and Planet Green HD (783), while Palladia HD will be relocated to slot 732. If you're still unsatisfied, you can also look forward to Comedy HD and AMC HD hitting the EPG in the near future.

[Thanks, Jason]

Filed under: Cable, New content, HD

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Ventura, CA gets two NBC HD channels from Charter, more on the way

Darren Murph — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:01:00 -0400

Charter doesn't have the greatest reputation in Ventura, California (or most anywhere, for that matter), but the company is apparently trying to garner some love by throwing in two undisclosed NBC stations in high-def just before the Olympics kick off this Friday. Customers will still be waiting until 2009 to see video-on-demand, but HD junkies will be thrilled to know that more channels are on the way. According to company spokesman Del Heintz, nine more HD channels will be added to the lineup in September, though your guess is as good as ours as to which ones will go live. So, who's up for watching to see if it actually delivers on said promise?

Filed under: NBC, Universal-HD, Cable, New content, HD

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TWC posts rollout schedule for HD channels in Southern California

Darren Murph — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:20:00 -0400

For the zillions of folks located in Southern California, you may be wondering when exactly the new dozen from Time Warner Cable would hit your neighborhood. Wonder no more, as TWC has posted a rollout schedule with loads of communities filed under July, August and September. You know what they say about patience, right? [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Thanks, Scott]

Filed under: Cable, New content, HD

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Time Warner Cable slings a dozen HD channels to Southern California

Darren Murph — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:06:00 -0400

While TWC is busy rolling out SDV in San Diego, the carrier is also gearing up to do some reshuffling and add a full dozen high-def channels in Southern California. Aside from a few SD slot changes (which are detailed in the read link for those who care), the real news comes with the arrival of HGTV HD (433), Food Network HD (434), CNN HD (432), History Channel HD (439), A&E HD (439), Golf / Versus HD (423), Discovery HD (418), TLC HD (437), Disney Channel HD (435), ABC Family HD (436), ESPNews HD (426) and National Geographic HD (440). According to the most recent programming alert, all of the HD stations "will be launched in all areas," but there's no telling how quickly each market will be hit once the rollouts begin on July 9th. Keep a close on that EPG, SoCal. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Thanks, Tony]

Filed under: Cable, New content, HD

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