Village Gamer

UrtheCast emerged onto the technology scene in December of 2010 with a singular vision: to offer the world an interactive internet platform of high-definition (HD) video footage of Earth — video footage to be streamed in near real-time from the International Space Station, for free. Last week, UrtheCast’s Co-Founder and Executive Vice-President, Wade Larson, flew to Beijing to present UrtheCast’s case study in competition for top spot at this year’s G-Startup challenge. Up against some of the most innovative startups in mobile technology, UrtheCast poised itself to catch the eyes and minds of industry leaders and investors.

“The Fire Pitch portion of the challenge was especially unique. We only had three minutes to explain a project that’s ultimately going to change the way we view the world — it wasn’t easy, but we emerged as the winners of that round,” explains UrtheCast’s Co-Founder, Wade Larson.

As a part of the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC), the Fire Pitch challenge included 20 mobile internet companies, the winner from which — UrtheCast — went on to join the twelve pre-selected finalists. Each finalist pitched their case study in three minutes to a panel of top venture capitalists and angel investors. Those left standing entered the final round of the G-Startup challenge; a competition that received initial applications from 100 startups in 19 countries. This final stage of the challenge saw contestants exhibit their final case study in a time frame of ten-minutes.

While presenting, UrtheCast kept the spotlight firmly held on its ground-breaking goal: to change the way we view the world by creating a new community platform.

“Though we didn’t win in the final round of the challenge, we received an overwhelming reaction from attendees. The impact we made here with individuals was just as rewarding as winning would have been. It’s clear that UrtheCast speaks to people on a personal level. You’ve got to love that,” says Larson.

Once the UrtheCast cameras are turned on, image data will be offered by means of a consumer-centric website. This platform will be open-source, allowing users to create applications for sale on the UrtheCast website and on smartphones. As the Space Station passes over a particular geographic location, video data and imagery will be collected of that area, thereby providing the opportunity for awareness of current events across the globe. As another layer of interactivity, users will be able to track the Space Station along its orbital path and plan events on the days the Station passes over their city.

As a Canadian-based international startup — with key relationships with RSC Energia, Rutherford Appleton Labs, and McDonald, Dettweiler, and Associates (MDA) — UrtheCast is committed to the telling the stories of the Earth and her inhabitants. UrtheCast cameras will bring you this story, after their scheduled launch aboard the Russian Soyuz Mission. The beta version of UrtheCast’s interactive platform will be made available this summer, 2012.

For a chance to become one of our beta testers, please visit the Urthecast website.