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]

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.

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?

[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... :-)

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.