http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=0iff4OUoqm8

Today the media got a taste of the future of fire-fighting, via a state-of-art-chopper fitted with Momentum’s video-streaming system, m-View. The event started with a tour of Firewatch 76, a commercial Sikorsky S-76 helicopter. Then the media was given a demonstration of Firewatch 76 in the air, streaming live video using m-View.

The media event was held by Victorian Premier the Honourable John Brumby, at Avalon airport. While the Coulson-owned helicopter is usually hard at work in the US, it’s on loan to Victoria for the fire season. The demonstration included the Firewatch 76 following the giant DC-10 water bomber to monitor three water drops, streaming the vision live using m-View. The Honourable John Brumby viewed the Firewatch 76 vision live on a Blackberry device on the ground as the DC-10 roared overhead, describing the m-View experience as ‘amazing’. 

Last year the State Aircraft Unit (SAU), a joint initiative between the CFA and the Department of Sustainability and Environment, started using Momentum’s m-View to stream live video from the air and the ground back to decision makers in command centres. Impressed with the Aussie technology, they recommended m-View to Canadian company, Coulson. A few weeks later, m-View was installed and operational in the Firewatch 76, prepared for the North American bushfire season later this year.

The chopper uses a MAVEO unit — a rugged, all-in- one portable video-streaming solution that is easily and rapidly deployed for remote, unmanned monitoring. It’s currently being used in vehicles, planes and helicopters, with full pan, zoom and tilt functionality that can be controlled remotely. A ruggedised mini-computer acts as the video capture point, central processing core and mobile broadband internet connection. Live video from the camera is streamed via the 3G network (even from the air), and can be watched by decision makers at command centres or by key stakeholders on any internet-enabled device such as a laptop, netbook, PDA or phone.

Today’s event sees Momentum come full circle – in 2004 the Honourable John Brumby, then Minister for State and Regional Development and Minister for Innovation, launched the first commercial release of our video-streaming technology; and today he showed the media how it’s being used in 2010. 

Momentum’s m-View is currently deployed for fire- fighting in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland and soon, California. It’s also being used for the full range of emergency services applications, virtual medical consultations (e- health), to connect field workers with the office, for surveillance and for many other applications.