Mushroom Networks debuts broadband streaming HD TV camera

At the NAB Show in Las Vegas on Monday, Mushroom Networks debuted the Teleporter live video streaming rig, a portable video streaming module that bonds the connections of multiple cellular data modems for live HD video streaming.

Since early last year, a handful of companies have marketed their own "streaming backpacks" as cost-effective solutions for enabling live, on site video feeds that don't require a satellite truck and a news team of half a dozen people. The Ustream Livepack, and KIT Digital's Kyte LivePro Unwired, for example, utilize multiple cellular data lines to transmit video signals from a handheld camera to the Web or to television stations and can be run by a crew as small as one person.

Mushroom's mobile module weights 4.4 pounds and accepts four simultaneous mobile broadband modems on Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T and can stream HD video at rates between 300Kbps to 5Mbps back to its homebase unit. Ustream's Livepack, by comparison, is capable of video streaming up to 1Mbps at its highest video quality.

"By coupling our core Broadband Bonding technology with Network Calculus modeling we are able to effectively use statistics to smash the barrier of unpredictable behavior associated with cellular service to guarantee a certain level of quality necessary for transmitting HD video with extremely low latency," said Mushroom Networks' founder and Chief Science Officer, Dr. Rene Cruz.

Currently, solutions like this cost tens of thousands of dollars, but at CTIA 2011, we got a look at the future capabilities of streaming broadcast video as LTE networks become more widely available. Modules will shrink in size and require fewer data channels to stream high quality video, enabling a wider range of uses for this technology.

"Live HD video is not solely limited to TV broadcasters, but opens the door to anyone needing to create and distribute live content such as a blogger covering events or even Homeland Security agents protecting the borders," Cruz said in a statement today.