When Heart Aerospace set out to fly its experimental Heart X1—the world’s largest fully electric aircraft—for the very first time, the team knew the milestone couldn’t just be recorded and edited later. It had to be broadcast live.

There was just one catch: doing it meant broadcasting from a remote runway in upstate New York, keeping total onboard camera weight under six pounds, and transmitting multi-angle video from an aircraft traveling at 90 knots with zero opportunity for an in-air rehearsal.

At Sorrentino Media, we tell our clients that we don’t sell live streaming—we sell certainty. In a recent panel discussion, our owner Michael Sorrentino sat down with Alex Alvarado (Digital Content Lead at Heart Aerospace) and Ben Ratner (Solution Specialist at LiveU) to break down the exact workflow behind this historic broadcast and what it means for the future of enterprise live production.

The Challenge: 90 Knots, Carbon Fiber, and Unpredictable Weather

Traditional broadcast setups weren’t an option for an experimental electric flight. When Heart Aerospace brought Sorrentino Media in to engineer the live broadcast in Plattsburgh, New York, our crew had to solve several high-stakes technical hurdles:

  • Strict 6-Pound Weight Limit: Space and payload capacity on the aircraft were tightly restricted, limiting all onboard camera and transmission gear to just six pounds.

  • Extreme Aerodynamics: Cameras had to be securely mounted on the leading edges of the wings, underneath the nose, and on the tail while enduring speeds of 90 knots.

  • Connectivity Dead Zones: The Plattsburgh tarmac had minimal cellular reception, and the Heart X1’s carbon-fiber fuselage acted like a signal sink, blocking wireless transmission from inside the cockpit.

  • Zero In-Air Testing: Because this was the aircraft’s maiden flight, we could only run high-speed tests on the ground—meaning the first real test of our airborne signal happened live.

  • Summer Weather Delays: Upstate New York thunderstorms repeatedly pushed the flight schedule back, requiring a flexible production workflow that could pivot at a moment’s notice.

The Solution: iPhones, Cellular Bonding, and Cloud Master Control

To meet the weight limit without sacrificing broadcast reliability, we turned to a mobile-first workflow we originally developed for remote corporate executive shoots during the pandemic.

1. Bonding Cellular and Starlink in the Sky

Instead of heavy broadcast cameras, we mounted iPhones to the wings, nose, and tail of the Heart X1, capturing local 4K recordings while streaming live. Using LiveU software, we bonded available cellular signals with the aircraft’s onboard Starlink connection—which was already transmitting flight telemetry to the ground. Combining cellular and satellite Wi-Fi diversity allowed us to maintain a stable feed from thousands of feet in the air and miles away from the runway.

2. Syncing Ground, Air, and Follow-Plane Feeds

Alongside the onboard iPhones, we deployed ground cameras and follow-plane camera kits to capture exterior angles of the takeoff and flight. Using delay systems, our engineering team kept the airborne mobile feeds and traditional camera kits synchronized in real time.

3. Directing Remotely at 4:30 AM via LiveU Studio

After multiple weather delays across the summer, the Heart X1 finally received clearance to fly on a morning when Michael was 400 miles away in Washington, D.C. for another client shoot.

While our field team operated the local fly pack on the runway in Plattsburgh, Michael logged into LiveU Studio—a cloud-based master control room—from a D.C. hotel lobby at 4:30 AM. Connected to Heart Aerospace’s flight radio via Zoom, he switched the live multi-camera broadcast remotely as the plane lifted off the tarmac.

Dual-Purpose Value: PR Milestone Meets Flight Engineering

For Heart Aerospace, going live delivered immediate value across two completely different departments:

  • Investor and Public Relations: Broadcasting the flight live gave investors, partners, and the aviation industry unfiltered proof of a major technological milestone.

  • Real-Time Engineering Diagnostics: While telemetry graphs provided raw flight data, live visual feeds from the wings and tail allowed engineers on the ground to immediately see how components like the ailerons were performing in real time.

3 Takeaways for Corporate Live Production

Most organizations aren’t launching experimental aircraft, yet the broadcast principles behind the Heart X1 flight apply directly to enterprise town halls, product launches, and sales kickoffs:

  1. Redundancy is Everything: Relying on venue Wi-Fi or a single internet connection is a gamble. Borrowing broadcast news standards—such as multi-modem cellular bonding and secondary cloud backup feeds—protects your event from unexpected network drops.

  2. Cloud Workflows Lower Production Costs: Cloud master control rooms and compact camera kits eliminate the need for massive broadcast trucks and heavy hardware footprints, making multi-camera live video accessible for corporate budgets.

  3. Live Video Drives Higher Audience Retention: Across our productions for brands like Reddit, IBM, and Fanatics, we consistently see that live broadcasts generate stronger audience retention and authenticity than heavily scripted, pre-recorded videos.

Bring Broadcast Certainty to Your Next Event

Whether you are hosting an executive town hall, a multi-location hybrid conference, or a high-stakes product launch, Sorrentino Media brings network-level engineering and reliability to every frame. Based in New York City, our team handles everything from on-site multi-camera crews to remote cloud production nationwide.

Ready to plan your next live broadcast?

Contact Sorrentino Media to discuss your upcoming project and see how we can make your next live event effortless.