Maritime Telecommunications Network (MTN), of Miramar, Florida, has joined with the American Broadcast Companies (ABC) to provide a live, real-time broadcast on board a submerged submarine.
ABC's Good Morning America segment "Run Silent, Run Deep" was broadcast last Wednesday from aboard a US Navy submarine while the sub was under water, and under way. This was the first broadcast of its kind and–like other broadcast firsts–it took MTN to make it happen.
The nuclear submarine, USS Scranton, and the US Navy support vessel USNS Dolores Chouest, which followed the sub, were each equipped with a 1900 MHz high-gain CDMA antenna and microwave communications equipment. The sub had cellular telephones installed below deck and the ship was equipped with a CDMA PICO Cell and cellular telephones outfitted by Wireless Maritime Services, a joint venture between MTN and Cingular Wireless.
The submarine transmitted the live video broadcast to the Chouest using bi-directional microwave radios. The cellular technology was used to support all of the live two-way communications between the studio in New York and the sub below the surface. All of the video and cellular traffic was uplinked via MTN's video broadcast network using satellite communications technology.
While the technology was complex and ground-breaking, the viewers experience was that of any broadcast, crystal clear and real-time. MTN's technology allows live real-time, full bandwidth satellite video feeds at the site of the action, enhancing the quality of news coverage by not only reporting the scene, but taking the viewers into the scene itself.
Richard Hadsall, MTN's founder and Chief Technology Officer, has been called upon many times by government agencies and the world's largest broadcasting companies when they want to do something outside the box, such as developing and operating NBC's "Bloommobile," providing a live broadcast of the Titanic for the Discovery Channel, communications for military personnel during Desert Storm, and many live radio and television broadcasts from ships at sea including "Live with Regis and Kelly" on Norwegian Cruise Lines' Pride of America.
"This was just another exciting and challenging event we so love to provide. Like all of our live special events, MTN again provided a flawless live broadcast, complete with all of the necessary communications services required to make the event run as well as if it were on land," stated Hadsall.
