Here's a "song-running-through-head alert," and you can blame the folks at Mushroom Networks. The company today announced that country music legend Willie Nelson has deployed its PortaBella BBNA.
The BBNA is a broadband bonding device that aggregates the bandwidth capacity of as many as five cellular data cards into a single shared connection, and Nelson is using it on his tour bus.
It's not the same as the Novatel MiFi hot spot device because it uses cellular-based broadband and not Wi-Fi. Basically, here's how it works. Mr. Nelson and company can take separate USB cellular data cards from any carrier and plug them into the PortaBella unit, which will then aggregate all the cards into a single high-speed stream that can be shared among the team. It has a 10/100 base T Ethernet port in the back for connecting to a network or to devices like computers.
It's a less expensive system – one estimate puts it at about $300 a month for Nelson's tour bus – than satellite Internet services – and faster and more reliable, the company says.
Touring groups like Nelson's commonly use satellite or single router technology to connect when they're traveling between venues. Now they can use their current laptop data cards and bond them together for a connection for the entire bus.
"Sending music files just got easier; and I always have my e-mail now." stated Nelson in a press release.
The PortaBella concept evolved from Mushroom's flagship Truffle product targeting the enterprise. According to a company rep, some large broadcasters are looking at PortaBella as a way to stream video footage from the field using cellular rather than satellite trucks or microwave connections.