DI-based start-up in partnership with NASA to livestream eclipse

Luckily, those who do not fall within the path of totality for the “Great American Eclipse” on Monday Aug. 21 will not have to worry about missing the historical event.

Stream, a two-year-old online video platform produced by a Daniel Island-based start-up company located within the Charleston Battery’s offices at MUSC Health Stadium, will be live streaming the eclipse in its entirety in partnership with NASA.

Stream is an “enterprise video platform that supports live and offline video delivery for media publishers, brands, events and professional sports to allow them to have a white label video experience on their own website or mobile app, etc.,” according to CEO Will Jamieson.

He added that the company houses its own media server, which eliminates the need to involve a third party.

In what is anticipated to be one of the most, if not the most, viewed live streams of all time (NASA predicts that more than 100 million people will tune in), the collective effort will dispatch weather balloons attached with high altitude video equipment 100,000 feet in the air from more than 52 launch sites across the U.S. path of totality, explained Jamieson. Locally, balloons will be launched from the Charleston Riverdogs Stadium, the Moncks Corner Regional Recreation Complex, and off-shore.

According to NASA, a total solar eclipse occurs when the moon is close enough to the Earth to completely cover the sun. During the maximum phase of the eclipse, the sun’s corona, or rather its aura of plasma, is exposed to the naked eye.

Jamieson, who is an alumnus of College of Charleston, said that his previous experience in technology and connection with the university helped the start-up company make initial contact with NASA.

“We have a pretty good relationship with College of Charleston,” he said. “And College of Charleston is part of the NASA space grant. They knew a little bit about my background in technology, as I was a student there. They reached out to me looking for technologies they could use to power the live video for the eclipse. It just so happened that I was running a live video company at the time. Then went up to talk with the head of the NASA space grant in Montana and then ultimately to NASA HQ to pitch what it could do.”

In cooperation with the NASA space grant, universities across the nation are participating in the live streaming project.

“We have spent the last three years researching and building the camera payloads and ground stations in preparation for eclipse day,” said Angela Des Jardins, director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium and leader of the Eclipse Ballooning Project, in a press release. “The live-video distribution was the last technical hurdle we needed to overcome, and the partnership with Stream allows us to focus on the payload technology while they handle the video.”

To view the livestream, visit eclipse.stream.live or NASA.com.

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