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Reticulate Micro, Inc., a defense technology company, announced that it successfully streamed live video over a UHF TACSAT radio link – a first for the industry, according to a press release.
Reticulate conducted the demonstration on Feb. 28th with the U.S. Army, using Reticulate Micro's VAST™ encoder and NanTenna's Ultra High Frequency (UHF) TACSAT antenna. The company says it's the first time a commercial provider has demonstrated live video streaming in a tactical environment over the Army's legacy TACSAT network.
"This demonstration showed it is possible to stream video over dial-up speeds. Today, there is no other solution capable of streaming real-time video over legacy tactical networks such as HF and TACSAT," said John Dames, CTO of Reticulate Micro.
"Reticulate Micro's open-standards, software-defined encoder delivers higher compression and lower bitrates capability than other encoders (as low as 5kbps in video-only mode). VAST does not rely on hubs or cloud services and delivers direct streaming capabilities required for tactical use," the comnpany said.
Additionally, NanTenna's "low-profile, high-gain" antenna played a role in establishing signals, enabling reliable connectivity both in stationary and on-the-move scenarios.
Mike Henry, a 29-year military combat veteran, who previously served as Technical/Operational SME on the Joint Staff J6 Joint Tactical Integration Element, commented on the significance of the demonstration, stating, "This innovative capability brings substantial gains in a disconnected interrupted and low bandwidth (DIL) tactical environment by shortening the kill chain and bringing disruptive C2 technologies to the future fight. Providing direct live streaming capabilities, over HPW on the UHF TACSAT architecture and eventually MUOS with KLV metadata, dramatically enhances the PACE plan like we have not seen before."
Reticulate will continue to do validations of its VAST video system across all tactical communication networks in use today and will make this data available to government customers.