[SatNews] This new partnership enables some new live features...

Applied Satellite Technology Ltd. (AST) has formed a partnership with Streambox, Inc. AST will offer the Streambox Live IP-based video contribution service, fully integrated with AST’s suite of Value Added Services, ASTLive!™, available on the BGAN satellite platform. By downloading the Streambox Live encoding software free of charge onto a laptop field news crews and other organizations using AST’s services can now transmit live or file-based video via mobile satellite terminals. Through the AST/Streambox partnership, all video transmitted by Streambox Live users will be automatically streamed to AST’s Streambox Live Server. Users will be able to set up an account, browse the Streambox Live Server, and select videos to manage, route, and broadcast live. The Streambox Live Server adds Forward Error Correction (FEC) to the video stream and transmits the video to the customer with added packet redundancy and recovery for smooth video playout with minimal latency, and the highest-possible picture quality.

“Broadcasters are increasingly demanding a ‘pay as you go’ broadcast model to more closely map their usage to service costs,” said Mark Sykes, AST’s Airtime Director. “Combine that with new cost effective streaming pricing from Inmarsat and AST’s optimised Internet routing solution (Performance IP), which makes BGAN live broadcasts over the Internet a reality, and you have the perfect solution for all types of broadcasters wishing to relay news and events in real time from remote areas of the world using satellite IP services.”