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Rory Cellan-Jones

Live from your mobile

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 10 Mar 08, 10:14 GMT

What would happen if everyone, anywhere, could have their own live television station from a mobile phone? So I could broadcast something as banal as my walk with the dog, or citizens could go live in conflict zones?

Well that is already possible 鈥 and in fact it鈥檚 happening. A number of services including and , are competing to make "live" the next big thing in web video, and YouTube is poised to introduce its own live service.

The chief executive of Flixwagon popped into the 大象传媒's Television Centre a few days ago on a brief visit to London from his company's base in Israel. I took Eran Hess up to our live News 24 studio to record the interview you can see above - it seemed an appropriate place to talk about software that puts live television in anyone's hands.

I had already been using Flixwagon for a few days and found it fascinating but slightly scary. You download the software to your phone, install it and off you go. Once you start broadcasting your output - or "flix" - can be seen within seconds on the Flixwagon site, and then reviewed later. You can choose whether you want your broadcasts to be public or private - and remember that because you are live, anything could happen in front of your phone, and be seen unedited by anyone. The difficult thing to work out is - what is the point? Yes, you can see my live dog-walk - but do you really want to?

"So, who really wants to go live?" I asked Mr Hess. "People do," he insisted. And he wasn't worried that the impending arrival of the company which made online video a hit in the first place would sweep Flixwagon away. "YouTube going live is an opportunity 鈥 not a threat. The whole idea of live is getting validation.鈥

I was less clear about how Flixwagon and similar sites would make money from live video, but Mr Hess seems to be banking on acting as a bridge between professional broadcasters and citizen journalists. So he has done a deal with MTV which has seen the station give phones with Flixwagon to what it calls "street journalists" to cover the primaries in the United States. Their clips are shown live on the web - whether it's an Obama victory speech or vox pops with New York voters - and some make it onto MTV itself.

Eran Hess also revealed that he had just done a deal with an Israeli news channel which will supply phones with Flixwagon to citizens in the towns of Sderot and Ashkelon where rockets fired from Gaza have been landing. It will be interesting to see whether Arab stations respond by putting the same tool in the hands of Palestinians in Gaza.

So a phone and a piece of software - and a 3g network - are you all need now to start putting your message across to a live audience. It promises to give new vigour to the whole idea of citizen journalism, and poses a challenge to existing broadcasters. Because of course these citizen journalists are not bound by any code of taste, decency, truth or impartiality, which could give their broadcasts a dangerous, edgy quality which might appeal more to viewers than the professional version of television news.

Welcome to a future where everything may be televised - live. I'm not entirely sure I like the idea.

Comments

I think this service sounds phenomenally useful and interesting and I鈥檓 all for user-generated content. One thing I鈥檓 beginning to worry about though is the guidance provided. After reading the User Agreement everything sort of makes sense but how many people really read this? Is it time that we began re-thinking/giving clearer guidance on how to use various media and perhaps an even more engaging mechanism for coming up with these user agreements/terms of service, like a Wiki. Just an example but this would promote collaboration and help people further understand not only the implications/legalities but the thought processes underlying them.

At Macworld Conference & Expo 2008, I was 'given' a Nokia N95 phone by Mobile Broadcasters.. QIK

QIK enabled me to broadcast LIVE from Macworld 2008, which featured sessions, keynote, interviews with vendors, interviews with Mac Celebrities and coverage from the various party's in the evenings!

QIK is a great tool to broadcast with, and I had fun using it. Watch my LIVE coverage from one of the world's best Technology shows.. Macworld 2008 at this url:

If you want to ask any more questions about QIK's use, then contact me via: www.dsoundz.co.uk

Thanks - and enjoy the coverage from Macworld 2008!

This kind of technology really is making a difference. As a technologist unable to get to the US this week, I've still been able to keep up with what is happening at SXSW.

By integrating services such as Qik and Twitter and working with people I know, I have been easily able to keep up with what is going on - as it happens, rather than as it is reported some hours later. I've also had the opportunity to use these services to proxy questions to the presenters, which has been an intersting experience to go through, especially when the answers come back through the camera!

It takes a little getting used to (in terms of video and audio quality), but given I am several thousand miles from the event it's as good as being there.

Beyond SXSW, companies like 大象传媒 and individuals like Robert Scoble have been particularly relevent in using this technology. I am in no doubt there is a time and a place for its use and there is also a time and a place NOT to use it. I am confident it will become more prevelent - and quality will be driven upwards.


  • 4.
  • At 05:44 PM on 10 Mar 2008,
  • Dennis wrote:

So why should I be interested in watching someone's personal TV station?
The history of IT is of people coming up with interesting technical things and then trying to see if anyone wants them. Some things take decades to come in (credit cards) and some come and go within weeks. As a for instance Interactive TV, video messaging, location based services, video on demand, Friends Reunited etc. I have even spoken to a number of people recently who have grown tired of Facebook.
If you look at the major revenues from telcos it's still voice and SMS so don't be seduced by technology, it's all about what people want to do - not technologies.

Hi Rory,
Thank you for a great coverage. Here are my thought about the question you raised -

Xen

I've been toying with Qik - I have a Nokia N95 8GB. It's really robust. I suppose, as with all these technologies, content is king, and to be fair, most people's lives are pretty lame.

  • 7.
  • At 10:05 PM on 10 Mar 2008,
  • matt wrote:

This kind of technology is a bit like the gps-location-buddy-finder apps that are technically possible but the customer is somewhat unsure about using it.

My company in the UK has been developing similar over the last couple of years. As always with these kind of mobile apps, finding successful ways to monetise them is the challenge. Developing the tech off the back of ambitious VC money and flipping it to a media company is the only way.

Yeah Qik technology is really cool. I saw Jason demonstrate it in SXSW and I believe this would create a new breen of citizen journalism.

Too bad one of the requirement is an unlimited Data plan from your mobile phone provider and in some countries it is not available. The mobile telcos for example here in the Philippines are controlling the unlimited data plans.

How can you get an invite to QIk or Flixwagon to try their beta sites?

Hi,

It's saddening and telling that in the last few months, the 大象传媒's News.-Tech. guys have profiled 2 companies doing live video mobile broadcast, yet a British Company, that has not only won a Royal Television Society Technology Award, but who the 大象传媒 is already a customer of, has been totally ignored, even when it's been doing the same live mobile broadcast from 2003, with a product called Forlive.


That company is Forbidden Technologies, they're products include FORscene and ForUpload. I do not work for them.

There's also Cellcast.tv, which has similar technology for its own broadcast uses at Sumo.tv


I just wish mainstream technology journalists, actually knew [more] about technology. :(


Kind regards,

Shakir Razak

  • 10.
  • At 11:20 AM on 11 Mar 2008,
  • Ian Mills wrote:

Hi:

What do we call this? Cellcasting?
Mocasting?

It could be really useful at the scene of an accident for anyone on site to transmit to emergency services in real time.

Regards,

Ian

  • 11.
  • At 11:40 AM on 11 Mar 2008,
  • Lawrence wrote:

You should also check out

This is a lot more mobile phone centric with Live being one feature.

The Live video is also paired with a social networking community

  • 12.
  • At 08:56 PM on 11 Mar 2008,
  • wrote:

Does anyone know if these mobile broadcast apps include any GPS or similar tracking data? In otherwords could an entity reverse track who has viewed a stream and log the viewers phone # (and or personal info)? If someone was cellcasting an illegal acitivity, could they be tracked and prosecuted???

Just some thoughts as I research cellcasting in more detail...

  • 13.
  • At 06:03 AM on 12 Mar 2008,
  • Robert wrote:

What is the point of broadcasters and consumers spending millions on HDTV technology if we are going to be fed such low quality sound and pictures? Plus, of course the undoubted probability of filling up our lives with even more trash

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