Livecast: The Intel & Sprint go-to XOHM WiMAX app

As Intel and Sprint have promoted the WiMAX forest at events across the U.S., the Livecast tree shows up in every picture.

Livecast, formerly known as ComVu, has been one of the most featured demonstration applications for WiMAX at shows ranging from CES and CTIA to last week's XOHM launch event in Baltimore. Livecast provides a live video broadcast service for portable platforms, including 3G mobile phones and WiMAX-enabled devices. A Livecast studio application handles streams from multiple devices for viewing and management in real time, so enterprise, government or media users can switch between multiple devices to monitor an area or event.

The Livecast client is smart enough to take advantage of GPS if it's available and blends in a location and time stamp directly to a stream for use with geo-tagging applications and online maps; a Livecast viewer can watch a stream in real time or on archived playback and follow the location of the Livecast device on a Google map as the video is displayed.

A typical WiMAX demo using Livecast has a centralized studio view set up in a fixed location, typically a display station at a trade show booth. Multiple video streams from two to four vehicles roaming around an event venue are fed into the studio view in real time with WiMAX serving as the high-speed broadband link between the mobile vehicles and a Livecast server; studio view acts as a dashboard to monitor streams with the ability to view locations and flip between streams/vehicles.

Each vehicle is typically equipped with an ultramobile PC (UMPC) with a web camera and a WiMAX dongle to provide connectivity. PC-based operating systems supported include Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2 and Apple OS X version 10.3.9 or better. 

A version of Livecast Pro is available for beta download; in an unscripted and unplanned demonstration for this reporter, a 2 MB self-installing package took less than 5 minutes to install on an Acer Aspire One computer running Windows XP. The installation procedure was smart enough to recognize the onboard web camera in the Aspire One without prompting and, other than typing in a user name and password, little effort was required to start live and archival streaming.

Livecast CEO and founder William Mutual said Livecast, unlike competing products, took live streams and directly processed them into Windows Media and Apple Quick Time streaming formats. Once in those formats, streams are transcoded on the fly, if necessary, to different mobile device codecs for viewing on their respective clients.

While Mutual is reluctant to talk about it, his company has strategic relationships with AT&T, Motorola and Alcatel-Lucent, as well as Intel and Microsoft.  In January, the company was selected to join the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program. The program is best described as an incubator for high-potential startups working with Microsoft, providing an extensive support network, access to Microsoft people and programs, and guidance on future directions.

Mutual indicated Livecast has done extensive work with Microsoft's Silverlight product, and the company may have some announcements following the introduction of Silverlight 2 [Silverlight 2 was announced today]

For more:
- Go look at Livecast's website for yourself.

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