Public Radio streams conventions live via cell phone
September 16, 2008 · Filed Under Cool stuff, Great Ideas, Innovation, News
“KCRW, the National Public Radio affiliate in Santa Monica, Calif., decided several months ago to try streaming video of live events from cellphones to its Web site,” NYTimes.com reports.
Anil Dewan, director of new media, said the station first used standard video camera-based footage. “The technology got in the way,” he said. “It didn’t capture the energy we wanted in a live event.”
Instead, the station made a relatively small investment, Mr. Dewan said: three Nokia N95 phones and three plans with AT&T allowing unlimited access to the company’s 3G network. The station signed up with Kyte and sent phones and staff members to the Democratic and Republican conventions to capture events.
“It’s been a tremendous success,” said Mr. Dewan, with more than 124,000 views of 67 convention clips.
“It’s a small, nimble technology,” he said of the streaming process. “You can record and upload quickly to our Web site using Kyte. The content is fed straight from cellphones to the Web site. No one has to encode or edit it.”
Daniel Graf, the chief executive of Kyte in San Francisco, said it allows viewers to respond not only with text but also with audio or video comments.
KCRW is using Kyte’s services on a trial basis, he said. In the future, commercial users will pay a flat fee based either on traffic or on a share of revenue; individuals are not charged for private use of the service.
