Lately there has been some buzz about streaming live video applications for S60 powered phones. In my mind the most popular one so far has been Qik, which I've used quite a number of times and have already mentioned in a few articles. Live video streaming is a great way to share your times with friends and family over the internet for other friends and family to see, and I think it's going to slowly become more popular as these technologies become more accessible.
The other day I got to meet a few people from the mobile industry at a Wom World get together in Los Angeles. Wom World is the company that helps promote Nokia Nseries & Eseries products. One of the guys I met was Jeb who runs Brilliant Expos, a company specializing in setting up Mobile events and expos. Awesome dude I wish we had more time to talk. He brought to my attention the Flixwagon application and spoke about how much he enjoys using it to stream live video from his Eseries phone. I had heard about Flixwagon a few times before but never got the chance to try it. If you remember Ricky from Symbian Guru just recently got married and this remarkable event was captured live by four Nokia N82's and Flixwagon. According to Ricky's recap the live streaming was a great success and over 9,000 people watched his wedding live throughout the day over the internet. Congrats again to Ricky and his new bride. This event is exactly what Nokia means by there catch phrase "storytelling rediscovered" which they tagged for the Nokia N82.
Now back to Flixwagon. Right now it's in alpha which means it's still under testing and you have to sign up and be put on a list to try out the service and application. If you check out their website you will be welcomed with a very professional and clean layout where you can start viewing recent live video streams. You will notice that there is already a huge community of Flixwagon users and is growing every day. Once you have your own Flixwagon account you can share, edit, and manage all your videos along with your profile. Adding your Flix's to Youtube or any website where you can embed code such as your myspace, blog, etc is simple with the code that Flixwagon gives you. If you haven't noticed I recently started sharing my videos here at Symbian Addict in the column to the right. You can view my recent videos and any live video that I may be shooting. You can also set privacy preferences to decide who has access to your live and stored videos. Viewers can add comments while you are streaming live so you can see them on your phone and respond back in real time.
The video quality so far has been pretty good for me especially since I'm currently using the Nokia N95-4 which has North American 3g bands. I haven't yet tried out video quality over an Edge connection but Jeb assured me that the quality is reliable and sufficient. So far the Flixwagon S60 application has been a breeze to use and easy to set up. The application seems light and doesn't slow down the phone or lock it up. As soon as you launch the application an internet connection is opened so that you can quickly record the moment and begin the broadcast when your ready. You set up the privacy preferences before you start recording or just do a one click video and start recording a public video stream immediately.
I have attached a few screenshots below so you can see what the application looks like.
As you can see the interface is very simple and straightforward. It can't get any easier.
Below is an example of the video quality that is uploaded. I was with my girlfriend in one of those drive through automated carwashes while her car was getting a bath.
The video quality is crisp and sufficient for internet video streaming. You might have noticed a little bit of clipping because of my deteriorating 3g signal in the concrete enclosed carwash, but overall the quality is acceptable.
Overall I find this application extremely useful and a great addition to my Nokia multimedia computer. It opens up a new window for sharing stories and memories in my life. When I show others around me features like this on my Nseries phone they are amazed by the technology that Nokia brings.
So if your interested in Flixwagon click here and check out the website. While your at it you can sign up on to see if you can get yourself an account and a copy of the application. Don't forget to check out the guided tour page to learn about everything that Flixwagon can do.
Have you tried out Flixwagon or any other streaming video applications yet? What are your thoughts about live video streaming with your S60 handset?
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Hey Mike,
Thanks for a great post!
Many more cool features are coming up very soon :)
Sigh, looks like Flixwagon doesn't function on the N93... and neither does Qik.
Can you confirm that?