​Huawei flagship killer Honor 8 attempt the highest smartphone livestream ever

September 5, 2016.

Today Huawei’s newest flagship killer Honor 8 will be put in a weather balloon in Sweden to set a sensational world record: to be the first smartphone livestreaming from the stratosphere, 30 kilometers up, setting the record for highest smartphone livestream ever.

See it live here at 12:20 CET: http://bit.ly/Honor8Space

Images from test flight, launch place (Esrange) and Honor 8 product stills available here: http://bit.ly/Honor8SpaceImages

The Honor 8 will be sent towards space from the SSC Esrange Space Center in Lapland, northern Sweden. The entire journey will be livestreamed on Huawei Sweden’s Facebook page. The balloon carries an Honor 8 smartphone, a GoPro camera, a downlink for livestreaming and equipment to regulate temperature and battery

“We wanted to do something extraordinary when launching Honor 8. So why not be the ones to do the highest smartphone livestream ever? Honor as a brand stands for braveness and authenticity. What represents these two elements better than a journey towards space?”, says Peter Lundkvist, Marketing Manager, Huawei Device Sweden.

How did we do it?
After initial meetings, it was clear that with Honor’s will to push boundaries and Swedish Space Corporation’s knowledge and experience in space engineering – launching and live streaming Honor 8 towards space was a challenge that the SSC and Huawei wanted to tackle together.

“One of the main challenges with this project was to create a reliable solution that both presents the smartphone in a just and elegant way and is able to handle extreme temperature conditions. We’ve tried to tackle the challenge in multiple ways, and I believe that we’ve finally got it. Now we’ll just hold our thumbs and hope that our calculations are correct!”, says Marcus Lindh, Space Engineer, the Swedish Space Corporation

Temperatures below -50˚C can be expected at some altitudes while the radiation from the sun adds a risk of overheating at higher altitudes. The whole payload (except for the phone itself) is powered by space certified batteries specifically designed for use in vacuum and regularly used on SSCs rocket and balloon missions. The Honor 8 uses the original batteries, but will be charged continuously during the mission towards space.

The Balloon
Once the balloon is on it’s way, the downlink will alternate between the cameras on the phone and the GoPro that films the phone rising towards space. The cameras will livestream and broadcast everything. A geographic fence is implemented to automatically cut down the balloon with a pyrotechnic cutter if it floats away too far or gets too close to the ground.

The balloon reaches a diameter of approximately 12 meters when fully expanded on an altitude of 30 km. The balloon will land within the Esrange landing area in the northern Swedish Lapland by parachute after about 2,5 hours. It will then be picked up by a helicopter at the GPS position received from the tracking device.

The workload for this mission is shared between Huawei Sweden, SSC Stockholm and SSC Esrange. The payload containing the Honor 8 is developed and tested in Stockholm. The parts related to earth reception of downlink, balloon and parachute system and launch activities are prepared at SSC Esrange in Kiruna.

Questions or interview requests around the space trip?
Isak Hagen
Press contact, Huawei Sweden
Isak.hagen@isobar.com
+46 73 432 17 50

About Honor 8
The Huawei powered brand Honor recently launched its newest flagship device Honor 8. The phone has been specifically designed by Honor, the leading e-commerce smartphone brand for digital natives, to meet the ambitious, fast-paced lifestyles of this generation. It combines breakthrough design with supreme speed, high-quality camera capabilities and smart functions, making it the perfect match.