Pegasus Aviación taps up LiveU to improve airborne firefighting services

Aviation firefighting

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Spanish firm Pegasus Aviación has tied up LiveU to help its firefighting services, using the company’s mission-critical IP bonding solutions to provide live streamed images and internet sourcing coverage from difficult environments where connectivity is scarce.

Pegasus Aviación, also operates in Portugal, Italy, Chile and Uruguay, is the parent company of Pegasus Aero Group, a 100% Spanish-owned aeronautical group with over 50 years of experience in the aeronautical field, providing a wide range of services to public and private clients.

Currently, a key objective within the company’s strategic plan is the technological modernisation of the fleet. José Antonio Rodríguez, head of projects, planning and support at Pegasus said: “Our expertise is founded on the provision of training, maintenance and operation of aircraft in emergency environments – mainly forest fires – and the rescue of people on land and at sea. Today, we face the challenge of optimising these operations using on-board technology, for which we were looking for options that could provide us with greater connectivity in environments with poor coverage. That’s where our journey with LiveU began.”

LiveU’s technology, widely used in the broadcast and video streaming sector for all types of live image capture and transmission, is based on IP bonding, a technology that LiveU pioneered and is a market leader in the industry.

This underlying technology facilitates the bonding of bandwidth from multiple cellular networks, the main examples being mobile and WiFi, to create real-time broadband connectivity. This means that connectivity can be achieved in remote locations, and on the move, where other technologies would normally fail, enabling not only high-quality live video streaming but also internet connectivity for other data services. Individual field units, containing the multiple modems required, can be carried in a backpack, or installed in an aircraft, subject to the approved specifications of the relevant aeronautical authorities.

Pegasus Aviation is currently using many LiveU’s LU300 compact field units in its helicopters to enhance its imaging services in Chile and Spain. These can be controlled by Pegasus Aviación through LiveU’s cloud-based management system, LiveU Central. It also uses LiveU’s DataBridge technology to access high-speed internet while the aircraft are in flight.

Rodríguez added: “This technology greatly enhances the information we can obtain from our operations, allowing us to capture live video images from places where it was previously unfeasible. These real-time images play an important role for our customers, allowing emergency managers to make decisions with fresh information from the field. LiveU is an important technological step forward for us and we are looking to expand its use in the other countries we serve through our fleet of over 130 aircraft.”

Jean-Christophe Albou, Sales Director, France and Southern Europe, LiveU, said: “We have always known that our technology has great potential beyond its use in broadcast and streaming verticals and we’re now seeing its use grow in emergency services and first responder sectors. This is a prime example and we’re very proud to see it helping in such a vital industry.”

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