San Francisco TV station Slings the news
The Slingbox is known best for its ability to let consumers watch their home TV channels remotely using a laptop or smart phone. But a local San Francisco news station has found a way to utilize the trapezoid-shaped set-top box to cheaply and easily deliver live news, traffic and weather updates wirelessly back to its studio.
The news operations director at CBS 5, Don Sharp, devised a way to replace more than 20 of its cameras affixed to the tops of local bridges, freeways and buildings that use microwave technology to relay video back to the station with smaller cameras combined with a Slingbox Pro and a high-speed wireless EVDO card, at 800 kilobits per second.
Normally, news stations have to pay $25,000 for cameras to monitor traffic and weather, in addition to the cost of maintaining the units and renting the space for them. Compare that to a smaller camera for $500, a $300 Slingbox and $60 per month for each data card and it could potentially change the way broadcast TV news does business. That's especially true if someday all live shots were done with a small portable camera and Slingbox, since that could eliminate the need for gas-guzzling microwave trucks normally needed to broadcast breaking events.
While CBS 5 is currently believed to be the only news outlet known to be using the Slingbox this way, Sling Media, maker of the device, says it already knows of other stations that are interested.
In the future, CBS 5 hopes to use Slingbox-connected cameras to do live shots from press conferences and local sporting events.
I visited CBS 5 to see how the newsroom is using the Slingbox. To watch a video, click here.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica. 
- EVDO Router?
- by notyoutoo May 9, 2007 2:19 PM PDT
- Hrm, AFAIK the Slingbox Pro doesn't have a USB or PCMCIA slot, so KPIX must be using some kind of router between their EVDO card (the guy showed a USB-based card) and the Slingbox. Anyone know what kind of router they're using? Also, I wonder if this doesn't push the limits of the EVDO TOS, which in 2005 read:
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- it's a Sprint EVDO air card
- by sfbryan23 May 9, 2007 7:35 PM PDT
- I specifically moved from Verizon to Sprint because they will send you a warning letter if you go over 5gb per month, then they turn you off. Sprint is unlimited. $59 is the price for corporate customers.
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- EVDO Router with USB Port
- by EVDOinfo May 10, 2007 7:19 AM PDT
- With the latest RK1010 firmware, the Kyocera KR1 Router now fully supports the Novatel USB Modems from both Sprint and Verizon.
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(3 Comments)"Unlimited NationalAccess/BroadbandAccess services cannot be used (1) for uploading, downloading or streaming of movies, music or games, (2) with server devices or with host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, Voice over IP (VoIP), automated machine-to-machine connections, or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, or (3) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections."
More recently, there's been talk that there's a 5GB data limit per month. I bet local TV reporters could easily generate that kind of usage shooting and uploading video.
DOH. I'm sure though that KPIX talked to somebody at Verizon about this beforehand though, right? But how do the rest of us get such accommodations for our $60 EV-DO accounts?
More about the KR'1 latest firmware is at this page:
http://www.evdoinfo.com/content/view/1973/64/