Weekly Conversation, this week with Scott Levine
This week we are meeting with Scott Levine, Chief Operating Officer of Senza Tech, LLC who works with connecting people and places via high quality, real time video transmissions. The news is that they use their patented Senzacaster®, plug and play box, using public internet instead of satellite.
Be ready for some tech talk!
Occasion
What would you say the biggest advantages are compared to previous technology (satellite). Are there any limitations on what is possible to do?
Answer:
It is much simpler than before. The end user just plugs the device into any public internet connection and connects the video source, the rest is controlled remotely. No need for an on-site technician.
Another advantage is the huge cost savings. The price starts at 25% of what a domestic satellite cost and 10% of an international, and that is for equal or better quality. This is due to the fact that the complexity of the transmission has been removed.
There is no need to send an engineer that, traditionally, does a survey/recce of the send and receive locations which includes parking, “seeing” the satellite, power, booking satellite time, conversions and manpower on site.
Occasion
What kind of things are reasonable to broadcast? What is the most common mistake?
Answer:
We see a lot corporate video events. Recently we teamed up with Mediatec to provide two way, low latency broadcast quality video between Baku, Azerbaijan and Parsippany, NJ in the U.S. for one of your (Occasion) events. This would have been very cost prohibitive to do before. Now the corporate executives can address their employees at a distant convention without having to leave their homes.
And there are other, more novel uses. Like transmitting to overflow rooms when event space is too tight or doing taped interviews with executives. The producer can remotely ask questions in real time and record the entire interview right into their edit system.
Occasion
We also want to ask you something that some might be concerned about - is the uptime reliable and is it safe to transmit? Is it possible for the signal to get hijacked - considering there might be confidential information transmitting.
Answer:
Our system is capable of AES256 encryption and the device only uses outbound connections. So if the SenzaCaster® does not initiate the request for information, there is no transmission… which means the devices cannot be hacked.
The Senzacaster can only talk to another Senzacaster device that is configured for that particular link. We are doing a tremendous amount of medical procedures for distant teaching; surgery, joint replacement etc. which in the United States, requires the highest security procedures to protect patient identity. It would be much simpler to hijack a satellite signal than a Senzacaster transmission.
Occasion
What are the biggest challanges when connecting two live settings hundreds of miles apart? With different time zones?
Answer:
The biggest challenge is the human factor…plugging in the internet cable. The Senzacaster is distance agnostic…it doesn’t care how far its transmitting. We utilize AWS (Amazon Web Services) to transmit our signal. Our signal makes a small hop from the origination site to the AWS cloud, and then it takes the ride to our servers on ”the big pipe.” And since the senzacaster can do standards conversion internally, there’s no issue with a European signal mixing with a US signal. Anything in/anything out.
Occasion
Finally, what is your best recommendations for clients that wants to have a direct link in their event?
Answer:
The best advice I give to potential clients is… ”Let us take the worry and hastle out of the signal transmission… you can now give your full attention to creativity and getting your message formulated.” Once our Network Health test www.senzatech.com/downloads has been run, its smooth sailing.
Occasion
Thank you Scott for talking to us today! If anyone is interested to know more about the device or this technology, you can visit Senzatechs website.
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