ZAO App for Mobile

Professional Smartphone Live Streaming for Broadcasting & Public Safety Applications

Mobile phones have become ubiquitous for every day operation in both business and personal life. But consumer live streaming video apps do not have the sophistication required for professional use. Live streaming requires reliability, very low latency, a talk back feature, and for critical communications, it requires encryption and integration into a broadcast or Video Management System environment at the receiving destination.

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Zao App for Android and iPhone

Uses of the Zao App

For Broadcast, the Zao Android App can be easily used for a variety of TV production applications such as News gathering, Sports Production, Religious events, Live Music to live stream back to the MCR room of a broadcast station.

For Public Safety Applications it can be used for law enforcement, emergency first responders including ambulance and firemen, civil rescues, coastguards, and security personnel to send an encrypted video live stream back to a command and control center.

The receiving end can provide a mixture of different video formats for different customer requirements including HD-SDI, NDI, RTMP (Push & Pull) and ONVIF compliant RTMP. Alternatively, the Zao Android App can be used with the Cloud View solution.

Key Features

Easy to Use
Encrypted Option
Full HD Stream
ONVIF Compliant
Remote Operation
Talkback feature
Full Management interface of all devices
GPS
Use either camera on smartphone
5G Tested
Low Power Mode

This is where the Zao App for Android and iPhone reigns supreme

The latest generation of Smartphone means it has the hardware power to compress and live stream with broadcast precision and deliver a video experience that is now the envy of many external cameras that are far more expensive.

The flexibility of the Zao Android App is that it can support both H.264 and H.265 compression. The advantage of H.265 HEVC compression is that it requires only half the bit rate for the same video quality. It can support lower latency, typically under a second even where signal is weak. H.264 works better on older phones but also many more back-office applications at the receiving destination support H.264 so transcoding is not required.

The advantage of the Zao Android App is that you can easily switch between the two compression modes depending on your requirements.

Despite all the complexity under the covers, the app itself is easy to use with a red button just to start or stop the live stream and could be controlled remotely via a management platform. It has other features like turning on the light, dimming the screen to save power, choice of front or back cameras (and a thermal camera on some devices), locking the screen to prevent accidental changes and supports full GPS if live streaming to a map.

Installed on Smartphone

Broadcast App in Field

Full HD Broadcast Quality
Low latency
Create HD-SDI or NDI at receiving end
Emergency Responders

How the ZAO app works for live streaming

The app can be controlled on the front panel, or it can be controlled remotely via a browser-based web management application. It has different options for camera, lowering screen brightness, light for dark conditions and screen locking capability. The destination address can also be changed if required.

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What about the receiving end?

There are several solutions for the receiving end, normally installed within the Broadcast Data Centre or within the Command and Control Centre:

HD View

This is a software decoder that is installed on a Win 7 or Win 10 platform at the receiving end. Two versions are available: 1 channel and 4 channel. The receiving end can provide an HD-SDI video output, or it can be configured to provide an RTMP (IP) stream (H.264) that can be pushed to social media or other platform supporting standard H.264 RTMP protocols.

Zao VMS Plus – This is a cloud-based software decoder that can be installed in the cloud (for example Azure) or it can be installed on a virtual computer environment within the end user’s own data center. The Zao VMS Plus is the preferred choice for law enforcement or other emergency services as it can provide an ONVIF compliant RTMP/H.265 stream with very low latency to existing VMS system.

Zao Cloud View – A hosted or “On-Prem” solution that allows up to 12 incoming Zao Android encrypted video streams, and up to 6 receiving clients to view and record live streams either in the Command Centre or remotely in the field.

Supported Phones

AIRBUS

Tactilon Dabat is the world’s first hybrid smartphone and full TETRA radio in one device. In use by Emergency Services.

SAMSUNG

Lightweight popular telephone S8 / S9 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset. Ideal for broadcasters.

CAT

Rugged phone with a thermal camera, ideal for fire departments and other tough applications.

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