Broadcast Live From The Palm of Your Hand

Broadcast Engineering Report: ComVu touts PocketCaster for newsgathering

Thanks to Broadcast Engineering for including a report on PocketCaster for this month's email blast and website publication.

"ComVu Media, a company perhaps best known for enabling bloggers, online social networkers and other media-savvy consumers to webcast video from their mobile phones, is looking to make the leap into professional broadcasting.

At this year’s NAB, it demonstrated how its PocketCaster software could be used to transmit live video at near-broadcast quality from a mobile phone directly into Avid nonlinear news editing software."   Read more...

Spotlight on Silverlight at Streaming Media East - Come See Us!

Come see us at Streaming Media East Conference in NYC. We're demonstrating in the Microsoft Booth #223.

Exhibit Hall Hours:
Tues. May 15th, 10am - 6pm
Wed. May 16th, 10am - 4pm

Microsoft introduced its Silverlight technology to the Streaming Media crowd at this years event. Kicking off the conference with a keynote by Microsoft's Sean Alexander.

ComVu jumped onto the Silverlight beta bandwagon with a demonstration of PocketCaster for Windows Mobile 5 devices and our Mobile Video Studio, leveraging Silverlight's video support.

Delivering "Broadcast Quality" live mobile video, with a little help from our friends!

Yes, it's true... With a little (actually a lot) of help from our friends from Nokia and Avid at NAB, we were able to demonstrate the ground-breaking live video transmitting at up to 30 fps at 640 x 480 resolution, streaming from a mobile phone over a wireless data network to an Avid® nonlinear editing system.

Install PocketCaster on your Nokia N95 phone, press start, and with a HSDPA data connection you can now get full screen video imported in real-time by an Avid system (via DV25 over IEEE-1394).  Anyone using a Nokia N95 device -- including field reporters -- can now capture and broadcast video directly to air and concurrently stream live video to Web-portals, blogs and 3G-enabled phones. 

Here's what our friends had to say about it...

"As mobile devices continue to grow in popularity, it's becoming easier for people to capture video on the the fly, especially in breaking-news situations," said Johnathon Howard, director of On-Air Product Management at Avid. "The Nokia N95 with PocketCaster software is a great example of how the world of content is changing, and enabling virtually anyone to capture and share video clips to multiple outlets."

"Nokia is pleased to see ComVu leveraging the open platform and powerful video capabilities of the Nokia N95," says Bill Plummer, Vice President, Multimedia Sales and Channel Management, Multimedia, Nokia North America."This marriage of Nokia handheld multimedia computers to ComVu's PocketCaster application and automated delivery systems and Avid's media solutions heralds an all new era in virtually anytime, anywhere broadcasting."

Read more...

If you're interested in hearing more about this solution for your organization, please let us know at: sales (at) comvu.com. We'll get you up and going quickly.

Interview with ComVu

Many thanks to Benjamin J. Higginbotham at Technology Evangelist for his interview with ComVu's Scott Jamar at the recent VON Conference.

Scott discusses the key features of PocketCaster, ComVu's business model and where the industry is moving.

Hands-On PocketCaster Demo at CTIA

Are you heading to CTIA Wireless in Orlando next week?

Please stop by the Nokia booth, #2537, Hall B1.

We'll be demonstrating PocketCaster at Nokia's NSeries Zone on Tuesday all day (Mar 27) and Thursday morning (Mar 29).

We'll be showcasing our new audio feature designed for professional event Webcasting. It uses the built-in FM receiver in the NSeries phones to capture high quality audio feed from a sound board, and integrates it real-time with a PocketCaster video stream.

So, who cares about broadcasting high quality audio? How about... independent bands, political candidates, reporters, awards ceremony producers, business speakers, and trainers!

Other demo opportunities... As a LBS Challenge finalist, we'll also have a demo station at the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge Awards Ceremony & Cocktail Reception on Wednesday (Mar 28), from 3-6pm at the Valencia Ballroom, Orange County Convention Center. This event is open to everyone!

If you'd like to arrange a meeting in advance, please email us or call: 604.844.2263 ext 2#. See you there!

A Historical, Hysterical First! LIVE Webcast of RAZZIES with PocketCaster

And the “Winners” are...MSNBC.com, Nokia and ComVu for the first ever LIVE Webcast of the entire RAZZIES award ceremony (from a cellphone! Nokia N93)

How was it possible?

As our supporters have been saying, “It’s the convergence, stupid.”

Quality camera optics, powerful processors built into the latest video-enabled phones, high-speed data networks, and an automated streaming media system like PocketCaster.

It’s an exciting time to be making mobile Webcasting history, and this is only the beginning.

Thanks to Lost Remote TV Blog for a pre-event post, and continued analysis from readers. Consensus was clear… video was stellar, audio needs an upgrade. Audio problems were obviously due to the over modulation of on-board mics on the phone. A solution that includes a direct tap from the audio board will solve the problem (a Bluetooth or FM receiver set will work).

ComVu Team at 3GSM

ComVu's business development team is enjoying the hectic meeting schedule in Barcelona, which the 3GSM World Congress is famous for enabling. It's a great opportunity to meet face-to-face again with folks we've been working with around the world, and establish new relationships. If you're at 3GSM at are trying to reach ComVu, just contact our Vancouver office to facilitate meetings.

Hot From Silicon Valley 2.0

We got a little rap time from Hot From Silicon Valley 2.0, a blog on hot start ups and entrepreneurship from mobile social software (MoSoSo) to location-based services to mobile broadcasting (us!). Check it out at http://hotfromsiliconvalley.typepad.com/hotfromsiliconvalley/2006/12/comvu.html.

Mobile Monday Global Summit Award

As we start our blog, we of course think of all the events and announcements made prior to "blog start date" such as ...

MOBILE MONDAY (HELSINKI), GLOBAL SUMMIT 2006.
One of our hightlights this past summer was being awarded the top prize in the business-to-consumer category of the MobileMonday Global Peer Award held in Helsinki, Finland and sponsored by Nokia. ComVu was selected by the 15-country jury, out of 21 finalists from around the world, for our PocketCaster service! The 2nd annual MobileMonday Global Summit brought together mobile business leaders and over fifteen hundred participants from around the globe. The event conference sessions, focused on mobile trends and visions, profitability for businesses and fun for consumers.

The MobileMonday award was fantastic for us - attracted global recognition and awareness, and we made some really great friends in Helsinki ... and apparently no vodka was involved. Our grandest thanks to the local MobileMonday chapter for nominating us!