NBC Dispatches 'Bloommobile' To Cover Hurricane Isabel

The Business Journal ^ | 9-18-03 | American City Business Journals Inc.

[Ex-Dem]

Miramar-based Maritime Telecommunications Network, which earlier this year built for NBC the satellite-based mobile communications platform widely known as the "Bloommobile," today announced the special-purpose truck is helping the NBC network in its live coverage of Hurricane Isabel.

MTN, which makes satellite-based communications, networking and other services for the cruise and offshore oil and gas industries, designed the vehicle NBC reporter David Bloom used to broadcast live reports from the war zone in Iraq before his death there April 6.

"NBC's use of the Bloommobile further confirms the versatility and value of this unique satellite-based mobile communications platform," said David Kagan, MTN chief executive officer. "We are pleased to be working again with NBC and its news staff to bring NBC viewers extraordinary coverage of extraordinary events."

The company said the truck is using its stabilized VSAT (very small aperture terminal) antenna to send NBC and its viewers live reports while traveling up to 70 miles an hour, just as it did in Iraq. The Bloommobile, a self-contained mobile transmitting station, stays locked on its satellite-based communications transponder even when the truck and camera are moving at high speed over uneven terrain, MTN said.

[Ex-Dem]

FYI, the Bloommobile is a modified M-88 tank recovery vehicle. Must look strange rumbling along down the streets of NC.

I remember a video clip (from back in March) where Bloom was sitting atop the thing. He was asking a soldier who was on the vehicle to help him cut open a MRE pack, so that he could show the contents to the people watching. I miss the guy. Sure, he worked for NBC, but his Iraq coverage was top notch and very positive.

Interesting way for his legacy to live on...

[martin_fierro]

Didn't there use to be an "AshleyBanfieldMobile"?

What ever happened to that overexposed airhead, anyway?

[battlegearboat]

I hope they don't get to cocky with it and drive it into the eye of Isabel.

[South40]

I'll bet he's riding shotgun.

[battlegearboat]

I heard she's dating Cofi.

[martin_fierro]

[Ex-Dem]

I don't think they need to be worrying too much about Isabel. The thing supposedly weighs around 70 tons.

Here's a pic (it's the ugly looking thing on the left).

[Ex-Dem]

Thanks. Question: Which end is the front and which end is the back?

[battlegearboat]

Oh...

Still, the reporter will demand to pop the top and wind up getting a 2X4 slaped upside his/her big haired head.

[alisasny]

I hope so. I miss the guy. He was a good reporter caught up in a bad field. If he had made it home he would have been on our side.

[Gringo1]

Here is mine from Korea....the M88 Tank Recovery Vehicle It is a mobile,self contained recovery and maintenance vehicle used to service and recover heavy armor in the field.......and it does it quite well too. Mine was call "The Luv Macheen"