HeroCast for skydiving?

[Jeremie 0]

Hi,
This came out a couple of months ago:

https://gopro.com/herocast
Developed with Vislink, the HEROCast ™ wireless transmitter enables professional broadcasters to deliver engaging live content with the immersive POV footage and unique perspectives that made GoPro famous. Wearable, mountable, and designed for use in harsh environments, HEROCast makes capturing and broadcasting live content easier than ever. Smaller, lighter, more cost-effective and 50% more power-efficient than any other wireless broadcast solution on the market, HEROCast is ideal for sports, concerts and all of the events you cover.

...and of course I asked them if this could be used for skydiving, ie putting it on the plane to stream the climb and exit for tandems (so the people accompanying the tandem could watch the experience). See below their answer: bottom line the range isn't enough but they seem to be willing to have a look, would there be someone here that knows about broadcasting and video that might pick up where I left (I don't know crap about this)?
It would be great PR for tandems. Even better if it could stream the freefall itself. Plus you could have someone do the video editing on the fly.

Answer from Vislink HEROCast:
There are a few things that need to be explained to gauge whether the solution is appropriate for your needs. In your original request for information you asked whether the solution would work when diving from 13000 feet (around 4000m). We quote a transmission range for the HEROCast of between 500 and 1000 meters. Under some circumstances it may be possible to extend that range but it is likely to reliably reach 4000m and would require carefully configuration of the receiver antennae. The range is partially dictated by the output power of the HEROCast transmitter which is 100mW. For comparison this is around 5-10% of the output power of a mobile phone. This is because the frequency range is specifically licenced for use by broadcasters and as such transmitters can not be allowed to interfere with each other.

As we stated our original email the unit has been designed for professional live broadcast applications and can be used with existing DVB-T compliant wireless receivers. If the range of the unit is appropriate for your application you would need a receiver unit and antenna to receive the signal. We are offering a basic unit for this purpose for around €10000 with antenna. Hence a typical end-to-end solution would cost in the region of €16000.You would also need to secure the relevant permissions to use the frequencies.

I would be interested to understand how this fits with your expectation. Your application is fascinating and to help us formulate our future product plans it would be good to know at what price level you believe a video solution for skydiving may be acceptable. We would also probably need to consider alternative (and unlicenced) frequencies.

[DSE 3]

At this point, this particular solution will not work for skydiving.
There are solutions, but nothing small, nothing that is currently stable enough to use day in/day out, and cost is quite high. Frequency, power, and antenna specifics prevent Herocast from being a viable option. I'm very surprised to see them suggest at all, that 4000m would be "likely."

Teradek has some answers, but again...cost is high.

Editing on the "fly" isn't really viable either, as a file needs a closing header, so cuts aren't possible. video has to buffer to be seen, and in that process there are stops/starts. Cutting on the fly is exceptionally challenging, made easier only because we'd know what was "next" after an exit or deployment. Beyond that...

Great idea for a problem that doesn't exist. Streaming to the ground however....is a great (and old) idea. It'll happen, just not right this moment.

[Laszloimage 0]

I rigged a few live view systems for both airplanes and free fall with outstanding successes. (including live view demo jump at Yankee Stadium's jumbotrone! ) Unfortunately they are all analog SD 480i video systems...
Now I'm trying to get a few grand to start experiment with digtal 1080p h264 streaming... If I get the funds I'll make it happen significantly cheaper than HeroCast and should be able to work to 4-5000 meters.

[DSE 3]

Walk away from h.264; everyone else is/has.
HEVC is where it's at, bro..

[Laszloimage 0]

Thanks for the HEVC info! Right now I'm tweaking with existing and affordable systems like Teradek Clip (not even the higher end Bolt...)
since nobody really wants to pay for skydivers, therefore there's no real broadcasting budget... So right now I would be happy to put together a simple h264 1080 30p helmet mountable system for $2-3K. Even that amount seems far out of reach when I tell people about it's cost.
4K live feed using HEVC would be awesome though...

[DSE 3]

I have a Bolt, and it's not usable for skydiving. I wish it were. It's sketchy above 8K.
h.265/HEVC is about half the load of h.264. Teradek (and others) are virtually immediately converting to .265 for a variety of reasons (.264 will also be available).
we won't see a 4K live feed for a while, and few places have displays (yet) that can manage it. That said, even Walmart has bailed on HD now, in favor of 4K.

[Laszloimage 0]

I hope by the time I have the budget for the digital sytem (hopefully soon)
Teradek Clip will be available in h265 too. Half work load (meaning half band width) more range for the given transmitter power...
I read up on h265 yesterday... :)
I hope in the next month or two I'll have some positive results either way.
Thanks again!

[Laszloimage 0]

Those who interested stayed tuned!
I got the budget to build a digital wireless air to ground system.
It's 1080p h.264 but digital...
Hopefully in 2-3weeks I can provide test results.

ps. I successfully provided live feed demo jumps places like Yankee Stadium and Mets Field using SD analog.

[Laszloimage 0]

...it was longer than few weeks to get back, but here it is.
It is digital and, it has the range, and hooks up to control rooms in stadiums.
At the DZ the range is couple of miles! In urban environment a mile or two, during a game barley a mile.
The reason for the "decreasing" range is the wireless devices and their noise. They cause no interference in the signal but a stadium full of people with cell phones and all the broadcasters create lot of "noise" which means less signal to noise ratio for the receiver, therefore less range.
It provided live HD feed already at Yankee and MetLife stadium displayed on the Jumbotron.

[EnricoPalazzo 1]

Interesting!
Would this be available commercially, with after-sales support, and what would be the price?
Can you provide more details (e.g. a video) of setup and operation?

We've been looking into Herocast, but quickly realized that this would not be adequate for skydiving (mainly because of range, but also because of cost vs. benefit).

[klippetop 0]

Did a 5000 ft testjump for a small Danish production company that had designed a nice system for streaming from a gopro. It even worked on an AFF from 13000 ft. It did stutter a bit in the plane but after climbout it was perfect.

It's kinda wierd to watch the jump live.. :)

Unfortunately I'm not an electrical engineer so dont know the details, but I have pictures of the setup. From what I remember price were around EUR 4.000.

The guy who designed it works in a company called CPH Live if anyone is interested.