SeattleWireless TV Broadcasts Again

adpowers writes "After a month long hiatus, SeattleWireless TV is back. This break allowed them time to include footage from August's Wireless Field Day. The episode also includes a how-to for making a BiQuad antenna and an interview with SeattleWireless founder Matt Westervelt about how SW is different from other community wireless networks. You can download an MPEG version with BitTorrent. Windows Media and Real Media versions are available on the website."

Comments

Back when I was a kid

[GMontag]

Back in the olden-days all of our TV channels came to us via wireless. It was a great improvement having moving pictures to go with the sound.

Now we have the cable, like everybody else, but it doesn't sound like you youngsters know that there was TV before the cable.

Re:Back when I was a kid

[dougmc]

but it doesn't sound like you youngsters know that there was TV before the cable.

And I wonder if you youngsters even know that before there was voice, there was just simple beeping ( .-- .... . . ). And before that, there were moving pictures again, but they took the form of smoke signals ...

Seriously though, my daughter (2.5 years old) thinks that TV is `on demand'. She comes into a room, sees a TV and starts screaming for Dora! (the Explorer.) And since DirectTV lets you have Tivos on every TV very cheaply, we do. So she gets Dora on demand.

She has no concept of the idea of having to actually wait for a specific show on TV ...

Re:Back when I was a kid

[GMontag]

Yea, when my son was around that age he was so used to me re-winding movies and stepping through frame-by-frame to see certain FX he would want me to re-wind the news too.

Re:Back when I was a kid

[ncc74656]

Yea, when my son was around that age he was so used to me re-winding movies and stepping through frame-by-frame to see certain FX he would want me to re-wind the news too.

When the traffic info comes up on the radio on the way home and I don't catch it until it's almost over, I think an "instant-replay" button on the car stereo would be a Good Thing.

Re:Back when I was a kid

[GMontag]

Alpine had an automobile deck years ago that had recording from air capability. Combine that with auto-side select, etc and you have an analog version of a 90 min. loop mp3 setup. No telling what is available but I wouldn't be surprised if somebody's home-brew car system has something like this already worked out.

Amazing!

[BallPeenHammer]

Wireless TV! What will they think of next? Perhaps wireless radio!

Re:Amazing!

[WegianWarrior]

There is also this marvelous idea to make hardcopies of e-mail and physicaly transport the hardcopy to the recipient, thus allowing you to communicate with people who don't have access to the internet, or even a computer. The lag is a little worse thought, but I'm sure they are working on that.

Re:Amazing!

[Shakrai]

Is that TCP/IP over rubber?

Re:Amazing!

[ONOIML8]

Not freakin likely. I've been working in the radio communications industry for years. People continue to call it "wireless" and I keep installing more and more wires. I recently had to install a 5 GHz radio for a network link, Proxim advertised it as wireless and.....I shit you not....my boss was pissed off that the installation required me to go through the roof and run 75 feet of WIRE! "It's supposed to be wireless" he said.

He had a good point.

Interesting concept

[blah1019]

I doubt it will catch on tho. Next you'll be telling me we can get radio from a satellite.

broadcast...? or better?

[certron]

I guess for it to be a real broadcast, it would have to be on at a certain time, and have to have real people 'tuning in' to see it. In this case, it is more of a video press release/news program.

Don't get me wrong, this is pretty cool in itself, but I was a little disappointed when reality reminded me that this wasn't some multicast video streaming thingie, with a program being available almost simultaneously over all nodes in the network. (Although, a sniffer-based audio/video player could be kinda cool, too, and actually be like a real broadcast, with lots of little repeaters...)

Then again, traditional time-based network shows (or informative / documentary shows) may be on the way out, and this is, in fact, a future video structure.

Re:broadcast...? or better?

[ibennetch]

I guess for it to be a real broadcast, it would have to be on at a certain time, and have to have real people 'tuning in' to see it. In this case, it is more of a video press release/news program.

A broadcast is defined essentially as any over-the-air transmission intended for the general public -- as in, not designated for any particular person. So while this may not meet your definition of a broadcast, it may well meet the FCC's definition. Although I can't find any reference in the article to what you're talking about, but then again I only skimmed it...

Re:broadcast...? or better?

[ibennetch]

I guess I mis-read the parent of my previous post...I think they were refering to the "tv show" in general, not something specific to the field day, which is what I was expecting when I made my "Although I can't find any reference in the article to what you're talking about, but then again I only skimmed it..." comment...

Re:broadcast...? or better?

[Robotron2084]

Well, currently, even with buckets of cash Time Warner can't seem to get a Matrix trailer out to everyone. Their supply chain(Akamai)saturates too quickly.

Bram Cohen of Bittorrent has said that he'd like to create a live streaming Bittorrent for the purposes of a virtual 'real broadcast'. This is the only real solution for those without buckets of cash and internet2 connectivity.

But the problem in this is that the ability to enforce 'tit-for-tat' downloads is lost in a live broadcast, and this is what makes Bittorrent so effective. But Bram's a smart guy, perhaps he'll find a way to shuffle crc checks around to create virtual tit-for-tats, and build a new bttp:// protocol.

Even with such a fantastically cool protocol, creating live content would still be hard to make beyond a webcam and a microphone. Video and audio mixing equipment, lighting etc. quickly eats away at your amateur budget.

I don't know if time-based network shows are on their way out for big companies, but it's a lot easier for people like Peter to make SWTV with a month of post-production. The content can recieve more polish, and the focus isn't on the protocol used, but the show itself.

I'm off to make a Bi-quad antenna :)

Re:What a couple of nerds.

[WegianWarrior]

These guys are massive nerds.

This is Slashdot. The fact that they are nerds are just a pro around here.

FCC Part 15

[Goody]

The episode also includes a how-to for making a BiQuad antenna

How about they do an episode on how to get an Amateur Radio license so you can operate under FCC Part 97 (not 15) and build your own antennas and perform all the radio modifications you want -- legally :-)

Re:FCC Part 15

[Goody]

you would have to broadcast your callname over it, and then we cant transfer porn.

It's called a callsign, and it's not pr0n, it's "binary files" to test link integrity... :-)

Re:FCC Part 15

[Blimey85]

Is it really that hard to get a license? I thought the hoops were easier to jump through these days... back when I got mine (95) it's wasn't very hard... a bit of studying for a couple weeks and then a series of tests and your good to go (if you pass the tests).

Re:FCC Part 15

[Anonymous Coward]

Then again, using a HAM license prevents one from using encryption, doesn't it?

Re:FCC Part 15

[ncc74656]

Part 97 also doesn't allow encryption, so you can forget about secure communications. Depending on what you need to do with your wireless connection, this could be a problem.

Please leave Bittorrent windows open

[Robotron2084]

This is the obligatory post to remind people:

Please leave Bittorrent windows open so that others can easily download the file. Seattle Wireless is doing their best to cope with /. effect. Leaving the BT windows open helps reduce the server load on their computers, and improve performance for others.

Re:What a couple of nerds.

[peekitty]

He's trying hard to look like Rowan Atkinson. You'd get laid more often too if you were a Mr. Bean look-alike.

Slashdot rules

[LearnToSpell]

Normally it's a pain in the ass to grab anything linked here, but I'm currently getting 1180K/sec, and it's going up. Thanks Slashdot! Thanks BitTorrent!

MPEG mirrors?

[Anonymous Coward]

Many universities block BitTorrent, so a fast mirror of the MPEG video would be useful (especially an HTTP server on Internet2 or a connected network).