Airbus A380 takes to the skies with video streaming

Thousands watch A380's landing at Heathrow on web site

A live video stream of the Airbus A380 Superjumbo’s historic first landing in the UK was hosted by Rackspace this week.

The Airbus, which had UK design and manufacture input, touched down on Heathrow airport’s southern runway at 13.20 pm on 18 May watched by Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Rackspace customer, VideoStreaming was responsible for running the streaming application to provide live online footage of the landing which was watched by thousands of BAA employees via the online video link to the BAA’s official Heathrow airport site.

The live video stream was intended for an estimated audience of 1,000 - 5,000 BAA staff and VideoStreaming chose Rackspace for its flexibility.

‘We needed a flexible managed hosting supplier which was best placed to deliver that level of demand and turnaround the job in a tight timeframe,’ said Gavin Howard, creative technical director, VideoStreaming.