Sioeye_Iris4G_02The history of people doing crazy stunts on camera is full of notable achievements. Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel jumped over whatever he could think of, suffering nearly 500 broken bones in his career. The rise of home video cameras and the debut of Jackass introduced the idea that anyone could be a stuntman. GoPro let the camera survive just about any stunt you were willing to take on, and let you show off a first-person view of the action.

The Iris4G has its own waterproof case for wetter extreme sports
The Iris4G will include its own waterproof case for wetter extreme sports

A new Seattle-based company —led by general manager David Abramowski, a former marketing manager at Parallels — is taking the next step in documenting all your stunts: live streaming.

Sioeye introduced their Iris4G live-streaming action camera on Kickstarter today. Don’t be ashamed if you mistook it for a GoPro; the camera takes its cues from the form-factor refined by the biggest name in action cameras, but adds in an Android operating system and a 4G mobile connection to broadcast your ski jump or skydive to your fans.

As an action camera alone, the Iris4G is pretty powerful. Not only can it record up to 4K, but it also has GPS, a barometer and an altimeter built in for recording all your stats.

When streaming, the Iris4G can record up to 1080p while simultaneously pushing out 480p video over a mobile connection. It comes with 1GB onboard storage and has an SD card expansion slot.

The Iris4G also runs on Android, so third parties can create apps that take all that data and footage to create their own live-streaming content. But Sioeye isn’t relying on third-party developers to build for its device; users will be able to livestream on day one with the company’s LiveCapture service and include other data with the LiveStats feature. The video and stats will stream to native iOS and Android apps, as well as Sioeye’s web platform.

There are currently a few ways to stream live action camera footage to the internet, but they are a little hacky and all rely on your phone to get the task done. While that might make it easy to set up and control, it means your phone is doing a lot of work and its battery likely won’t last a full day.

But the Iris4G doesn’t need to go through your phone to stream its video; instead, it uses its own antennas to send out the broadcast. You might think that means another data plan just for your action cam, but Sioeye says that you should be able to pop out the SIM card on your smartphone and slide it into the Iris4G for a mobile connection.

The Iris4G is starting out with a Kickstarter, but they’ll be ready to ship in the first quarter of 2016. Sioeye was spun out of the Shenzhen, China-based CK Telecom, which currently focuses on manufacturing tech products for other companies. Sioeye will work with CK Telecom for manufacturing and software development, while the Seattle-based firm will cover marketing, logistics and customer support.

Sioeye is looking to raise $50,000 through Kickstarter, more to gauge interest than to gain capital for building the camera. The Iris4G is available at $100 for early bird backers, while it’s $350 for standard backers.

The camera will ship with a waterproof case, mount and a year of Sioeye’s premium cloud subscription. There are also $375 options with special mounts for surfers and snowboarders. It’s expected to cost $499 after its run on Kickstarter.

Here’s more from the company’s Kickstarter effort.

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