Jeremie

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.

Makes me wonder if using a motorcycle pinlock system would be interesting? If the size of the visor of a full face helmet is comparable to the one of a motorcycle helmet, maybe you should have a look.

This is not the first time this has been done. I have seen a video of something like it a few years ago, possibly the same place. And if I remember correct, the guy died a few months later on a skydive or BASE jump. But I'm not sure about the details Hi, The caption below mentions that it's been out of service for a year and that it will be taken apart next month.

OK, thanks. I'm going there on Monday. I'll let you guys know at the end of the week how it was!

Hi, I was planning in going near Avignon the first week of July and was wondering if any of you had ever been skydving at the Pujaut DZ? What did you think of it? Blue skies

Another question: assuming you can fly on your back, land on water or snow slowly enough... who wants to try first? It's not like you can make a second pass if you screw the first approach...