Stratos Global — Sat Support For BBC (SatBroadcasting™)

Stratos Global Corporation is providing the BBC with an Inmarsat BGAN X-Stream mobile broadband satellite service to broadcast live coverage of Helen Skelton‘s record-breaking Amazon River kayak journey in aid of Sport Relief. The deployment of BGAN X-Stream to cover “Helen’s Amazing Amazon Adventure” represents BBC News‘ first use of live 384 kbps video streaming from a remote location. This traffic is routed via the Stratos global IP network, known as StratosNexus, into Television Center in London.

Twenty-six-year-old Helen Skelton, one of the presenters of the broadcaster’s popular Blue Peter children’s program, began her six-week kayak challenge in aid of Sport Relief on January 20th in Peru and is expected to finish the trip in Brazil at the beginning of March. By the midway point of her challenge on February 9th, she had traveled three times further than the previous Guinness World Record for the longest solo journey by kayak. She also set a world record for the longest distance in a kayak in 24 hours by a woman, paddling 75 miles (121 km). Helen hopes her efforts will inspire families across the UK to support Sport Relief.