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.

Key Features of the Zao App for Android and Iphone

• 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

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.

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 Smart Phone

Broadcast App in Field

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

Emergency Responders

• Encrypted
• ONVIF Compliant
• Works with a variety of VMS systems