Bitcentral's AirNow! uses cellular data technology to deliver real-time video from the field. Bitcentral Inc. is now marketing a new portable device for delivering high-quality news footage from the field in real time. AirNow! allows stories to be relayed via cellular data networks and can deliver this footage in real time.
Among the first users of AirNow! was Honolulu’s KHON-TV, which used the device to provide Election Night reactions from shoppers in a busy mall. The broadcast was the first of its kind to air from inside the Ala Moana Center, as ENG trucks are too large to fit inside the facility’s parking structure.
"With its ease of use and good quality video, AirNow! will give us the ability to get more stories to air our viewers care about,” said Joe McNamara, general manager at KHON-TV. “We were impressed with what we saw.”
AirNow also gives journalists a portable wireless hotspot so that their authorized notebook computers can link to the Internet. The AirNow! technology also provides the capability to air non-real-time stories from just about anyway within the reach of cellular data service, even while they are driving between assignments.
