*Sharelink received a major upgrade last month. Check out all of the new features here.*
I’ve seen some crazy live streams on the Internet, but this story really puts the live in live streaming! After seeing a local news station host a live broadcast from the shark-infested waters off the coast of Australia, cinematographer and diver Mitch Oates decided that he could do it better and cheaper. Here’s the video below:
🦈 Searching for Great White Sharks in South Australia with @sharkcagediving https://t.co/yRJIa0lfjU
— Mitch oates (@MitchOates) November 22, 2017
Now, Teradek isn’t suggesting you risk life and limb to get your content out there, but we have to admit that Oates takes live streaming to a whole other level. And he was wildly successful at it too! Sailing almost 20 miles off the coast of Australia with scuba gear, a shark-proof cage and some broadcasting equipment, Oates was able to achieve clear video & audio despite barely being able to see land!
So what was his secret to hosting such a crazy, successful live stream? The Teradek VidiU Pro + Sharelink. Sharelink is an Internet bonding service for VidiU Pros that can combine several Internet sources into one robust connection for live streaming. But its best part is its ability to combine up to 4 iPhone LTE hotspots and use their connections to deliver live video with redundancy. By having so many Internet uplinks working together, you could deliver a live stream with much more ease than a single Internet connection.
Streaming from a boat in the middle of the ocean challenges cinematographer Mitch Oates to deliver a high quality video with limited bandwidth. He relies on Sharelink’s bonding capability to stream over two cellular sources: an LTE modem and an iPhone 6 hotspot. No matter where the ocean takes him, Oates is able to deliver a 720p live stream with clear video to over 100,000 dedicated viewers.
“It 100% would not have worked without Sharelink and the VidiU Pro. Even though the Internet connection had such a slow upload speed, the video encoder inside the VidiU and the bonded connections made the pictures look fantastic on Periscope. I think the 100,000 people who tuned in were stoked that they were watching such a high-quality video.”