AIRTAME vs. Google chromecast

craigbowman

craigbowman

Veteran
Yesterday I was testing our new Drupal 8 based intermedia stuff on a Google chromecast. I had noticed that while I could tab cast anything on my computer to the TV from my Chrome browser it was only going out at 720p and in order to go out at the full 1080p I'd have to do a deal with Google and have my own app in their play store. I looked around and came across a competing device which had no such limitations. Its called AIRTAME and is an Indiegogo crowdfunded project. I figured I'd throw a few bucks at the project which was looking to raise $160k. This was at around 4pm MST and the fund was sitting just over $122k. For interest I looked this morning and they were just over $136k. Apparently they just started on Nov 21 which was 8 days ago and have until Jan 01. Just looked while posting this and they're just a squeak over $138k. Guess there are some other annoyed chromecast customers.

This isn't a post for soliciting anything, hence no links, but more of a FYI about the power of crowdfunding when you actually have a project which strikes accord with a segment of the population and they get to vote with their wallet. I noticed most of the crowdfunded projects for content like movies and videos are not doing very well by comparison.
 
Just a follow up. Noticed those guys met their hundred and sixty grand goal today and are continuing to rake it in. So from 0 - $160k in like ten days. Their final 30 days is now all gravy.
 
Very interesting Craig. The Chromecast is a great idea but IMO has been severely crippled, particularly with respect to live broadcast media creators. I have been hoping the Chromecast dev would get some Livestream love ala Roku but no such luck just yet. The pricepoint opens all kind of subscription & live streaming possibilities to content creators. At $35 a crack, the cost of the device could easily be wrapped in the price of an annual subscription to live media from a broadcaster. So just send the devices to your subscribers, and now you're on the big screen untethered and bypassing the entire traditional media broadcast infrastructure and those massive legacy expenses.

Also, preventing Youtube live streaming to the device just doesn't make sense to me.
 
I would agree with you that the chromecast is somewhat crippled. That was why I looked around and discovered the AIRTAME and it doesn't appear to have any such restrictions. Its built on the Raspberry Pi. So just add a little software, some packaging and voila. There ya go.
 
I thought I'd do a follow up post on this. I checked back on them and noticed that they're taking in between $5,000.00 to $10,000.00 a day on average and some days over $20,000.00. As of this moment they have exceeded $450,000.00 with still over a week left. I don't know about you but that seems like fairly good revenue for stripping down a raspberry pi and slapping on a few lines of code. I used to think making $10k a month wasn't too bad but making $10k/day seems a whole lot better. Here's their link in case you don't believe it and want to see for yourself: http://igg.me/at/airtame/x/5560222
 
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