About this piece

Stay On Air: an animated explainer of an outside broadcast at a marathon finish with seven feeds over three mobile carriers. When the crowd overloads one carrier, load balancing drops the feeds on it; connection bonding keeps the picture on air. Made by Munir Kotadia. Full description, screenshots and options: All the work, described.

Bonding in the field

A mobile network drops mid-broadcast. Does the picture stay on air?

An outside broadcast at a marathon finish, running on three mobile carriers. Seven feeds leave the van. Then the crowd overloads Carrier A's cell.

Everyone on air

7 of 7feeds live

Seven feeds leaving the van, and the carriers each one uses

Load balancingNot played yetEach feed rides one carrier. Failover restarts the feeds that were on the failed carrier.

Connection bondingNot played yetEvery feed rides all three carriers at once, inside one encrypted tunnel to the hub.

Illustrative scenario. Timings are simplified to make each step visible.