When there's an exciting news event, news stations dispatch mobile broadcasting stations and crews of engineers which set up cameras at every possible location and go to great lengths to get the story. Riots in Kenya, war in Kosovo, the US presidential election campaign - all these draw media groups from far and wide.

And what if the broadcasting network in question is comparatively small, and lacks the resources with which to fly camera crews to the other end of the globe? Or what if it were merely a local-community TV network seeking to air a high-school basketball championship? LiveU Ltd., an Israeli start-up founded just over a year ago, aims, so it claims, to revolutionalize the world of live broadcasts.

LiveU's technology enables the transmission of high-quality video broadcasts from anywhere over cellular WiFi and, in the near future, also WiMAX networks (for longer ranges). This will mean that theoretically, there will no longer be any need for mobile broadcasting units, since LiveU's device can be connected to any camera - standard or professional - and can relay live broadcasts at high quality, certainly better than that available at present.

The company was founded by CEO Shmuel (Shmulik) Wasserman and several other entrepreneurs. Wasserman was previously VP marketing at Ceragon Networks Ltd. and before that he served in a senior management role at ECI Telecom. Wasserman and his co-founders got the idea for the company when an important soccer game they wanted to watch was not carried live. In their disappointment, they realized that here was an unmet need which could generate considerable interest and have a massive market. Although their disappointment at not seeing the game was their inspiration for founding LiveU, Wasserman and Cohen don't remember which clubs were playing.

LiveU raised an initial $500,000 shortly after it was founded from a group of private investors headed by Yigal Jacoby, one of the founders of Armon Networking and Allot Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq:ALLT). Last summer it received a further $3 million from US venture capital fund Canaan Partners.

Wasserman explains that at present there are two commonly-used methods. The first is live broadcasting via satellite uplink "but this is costly and cumbersome." The other is via cellular handsets, but the quality of the picture on handsets is often too poor to be aired. "Our technology can support live broadcasts over existing networks, overcome heavy network traffic, and transmit a broadcast which is uniform in quality," says Wasserman. "Using algorithms, we tackle the problems that networks have in the transmission of reliable, quality video broadcasts."

Globes: At what stage is the product?

Wasserman: "We've launched it, and it works. We've completed a series of trials in Israel, in which leading institutions also took part, and we're now set to penetrate markets overseas."

Who will be your customers?

"We target web sites and large television networks. The media world is our world. In the first stage, the product can drastically reduce costs to television and news stations. In the second stage, it can provide an advantage when it comes to live reporting from the field. While until now, stations had to dispatch a costly mobile broadcasting unit with a full crew to broadcast live from the field, the device we're offering can be used by any field correspondent reporting live. It will enable events to be covered from differing angles in real time.

"In addition to websites, we will also be targeting professional news stations, national television, and a big hit in the US at present - local television. We've created something new, which is easy to operate, and its advantages are obvious. We're already being used at web sites, which can offer live coverage at a low cost relative to today's prices."

What is your business model?

"We will supply the broadcasting service, with payment on a per use basis, and the device will, of course, be available for purchase. We will offer large organizations usage packages."

According to Wasserman, there are currently no reasonably priced solutions for live broadcasting. "You have video sharing sites such as YouTube, or Metacafe and others, but when you're talking in terms of end-users, any bar mitzvah party could, actually, be aired live, for the benefit of an aunt in Brazil who couldn't make it. Storms, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or high school graduation ceremonies could all be aired online at a reasonable cost."

LiveU is currently in the process of setting up its distribution network in the US, which will be headed by company co-founder Avichai Cohen.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 19, 2008

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