What does the International Space Station and Hollywood have in common? More than you think. NASA will be exploring the tech that powers both Hollywood movies and scientific exploration with the highest resolution live broadcast from space yet on April 26.
Expedition 51 commander Peggy Whitson will be broadcasting live from the ISS in 4K ultra-high definition to an online platform powered by Amazon Web Service as well as to the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas. Whitson will join Sam Blackman, CEO and co-founder of AWS Elemental, and Carolyn Giardina, technology editor for the Hollywood Reporter.
The live discussion, titled “Reaching For the Stars: Connecting The Future with NASA and Hollywood,” will take a look at how technology is helping both scientific research and filmmaking to level up. Both imaging hardware and cloud capabilities are making higher-resolution video possible for both seeing the details on Mars and watching the latest movie in detail not possible before.
The 4K resolution is courtesy a RED Epic Dragon cinema and broadcast camera delivered to the ISS by a Japanese cargo craft back in December. The Epic Dragon is capable of resolutions up to 6K, which is nine times higher than HD video. That high-resolution camera is paired with an encoder by NanoRacks, which converts the video for compatibility with the web platform.
Viewers will need a 4K capable screen to see the full effect but a down-sampled stream will also be available on NASA’s Facebook page and on NASA Television.
Also joining in on the discussion will be Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a NASA astronaut; Rodney Grubbs, a NASA imagery expert and programs manager; Bernadette McDaid, Bau Entertainment’s head of development for virtual and augmented reality; Khawaja Shams, vice president of engineering for AWS Elemental; and Dave McQueeney, IBM Watson senior principal investigator.
The live stream from 250 miles above the earth begins April 26 at 1:30 p.m. (ET) here.
