The ZAO supplies these sailing boats with a high quality video connection to the shore
Real TV Group GmbH specialise in live video recording including outside broadcast and 360 degree VR productions. They have a specific passion for outdoor sports that includes sailing. With 3 offices based out of Germany, one location is on the Hamburg port where they have the responsibility for video streaming and have created their own TV Channel, as well as providing live content for customers such as 52 Super Series.
Real TV had a problem with live productions from remote places. Live broadcasting from sailing boats presents its own challenges both with the hostile sea environment, but also the expense of streaming using RF solutions always requiring a line of sight to an antenna system, often located at sea.
H.265 transmission from open sea
The Zao from Soliton seemed an obvious solution to their problem. The rugged and lightweight unit can transmit over multiple bonded mobile phone connections simultaneously to stream video, without the need for any RF or satellite solutions. The live video feed from the camera can then be ultimately streamed to any internet connected decoding platform. In addition, the Zao is using H.265 encoding which is the next generation encoding standard after H.264 with 50% more efficiency. This provides more reliable connections as it only needs half the bandwidth of traditional H.264 systems and is extremely proven.
Michael Trapp, CEO of Real TV Group commented “Our initial test of the Zao was very impressive. It was very easy to use and we could reliably stream live content up to about 7km off-shore until the point the mobile phone signal disappeared. We then rented the system a few times via our reseller Presentec for a variety of different outdoor live productions, before committing to the Zao system and buying our own units. We are very happy to have found a cost-effective solution to simplify our live broadcast activities.”
