Streaming from outdoor event

Joe-Bloggs

I'm looking at streaming an outdoor event in a location where I'll have no proper wired broadband so I'm looking at the mobile options that are available.

Currently I like the look of the 3 mobile MiFi unit since it has a 5.6Mbps upload speed but I'd rather stay away from 3 mobile if I could. Does anyone know if Vodafone or o2 have anything similar coming or could I get a MiFi unit and use another operator's sim card in it?

Also does anyone know how well streaming over the mobile network will work?

Matt Bauer

I got the MiFi an hour ago. Just testing it in rural Mayo, in here are my results:



Where I am right now I have almost no signal strength, had to put it by the window to get any signal at all. I would strongly suggest that you make sure you have good coverage where the outdoor event will be first. Also, it might be a good plan to have a "backup plan", e.g. if 3 is down you can fall back to Vodafone or another provider.

You could also get a router like the Dovado, which is very good and works with any USB dongle.

Matt Bauer

Further to my previous post, you will never see 5.6Mbps upload speed. The best I've seen is 2Mbps, usually not much more than 1Mbps and it can be significantly lower, could be as low as ~100kbps if your area is congested in my experience. There is no guarantee, as the mobile providers can't control contention.

I just want to make sure you're not expecting to be able to stream 5Mbps video. Assuming the area is not congested and you have an excellent signal, you may be able to reliability stream 500Kbps upstream. But again, due to the nature of the technology, there are no guarantees.

Joe-Bloggs

Thanks for that the info is a great help

I know there's no chance of ever getting close to 5.6Mbps upload but it should still be better than others available