A bonded-cellular backpack for walking Kick streams — stays live as you move through the city, casinos, anywhere. Same job as the $2,000 pre-builts, built yourself for a fraction.
The camera, power banks, and bag are already in hand, so that $390 is genuinely all that's left. Software (BELABOX / belaUI) is free and open-source; add ~$10–20/mo for a relay + cellular SIM data. The pre-built's premium is assembly + support — not better streaming.
SRTLA bonding spreads one stream across all three cell connections at once. If one drops (elevator, dead spot, packed casino floor), the others carry it — and it auto-lowers quality instead of cutting out. A relay server converts the bonded feed to RTMPS because that's all Kick accepts. The little board runs the whole show; you control it from your phone's browser — no laptop in the bag.
| Board | Notes | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Radxa Rock 5B+ 8GB recommended | Built-in HDMI input (no capture dongle) + native USB-C power. Two fewer things to break. | ~$175 |
| Orange Pi 5 Plus 8GB | Works great — but needs a +$20 USB capture dongle and has a finicky 5V/4A power input. Nets out about the same. | ~$150 |
| Orange Pi Zero 3W | The $30 trap — too weak, won't work. | ✗ skip |
Only 8 GB RAM is needed — more doesn't help.
Green rows are already in hand. The total is only what's left to buy.
| Part | What / model | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Encoder board | Radxa Rock 5B+ 8GB — built-in HDMI-in, USB-C power | $175 |
| Storage | eMMC 32–64GB module (reliable boot) — or A2 microSD ~$12 | $18 |
| Cooling | Metal case + fan (GeeekPi/52Pi) | $20 |
| Bonding modems ×3 | USB LTE dongles (Huawei E3372h, US-band), 3 different carriers — or tether 3 phones for $0 | $120 |
| Powered USB hub | 7-port USB 3.0, self-powered (iDsonix/Sabrent) | $30 |
| USB-C cables ×2–3 | short (less voltage drop under load) | $15 |
| Camera cable | micro-HDMI (Type-D) → HDMI, short right-angle | $12 |
| Camera | Sony A7C R — the video source | ✓ owned |
| Power banks ×2 | Anker Prime 250W — powers the whole rig, hot-swap for all-day | ✓ owned |
| Left to buy | Tether phones instead of buying dongles → ≈ $270 | ≈ $390 |
Prices are approximate current street prices and shift with sales.
3 modems is the sweet spot for walking (2 min, 4 = diminishing returns).
Must be different carriers. Two SIMs on the same network share the same dead spots and congested towers — bonding them barely helps.
Budget ~$100–150/mo for 2–3 data lines across carriers.
Whole rig draws ~20–28W. The two Anker Prime 250W banks (≈199Wh) run it ~6–7 hours.
Hot-swap: run one, keep one charged, swap without going offline.
Both banks are under 100Wh → carry-on legal for flights.
| Option | What | Cost/mo | Overlays/BRB |
|---|---|---|---|
| BELABOX Cloud start here | Managed relay, point-and-click, phone control | $10 | optional |
| Self-host VPS | $5 Linux box: SRTLA receiver + ffmpeg -c copy → Kick | $5–7 | no (clean) |
| Managed cloud OBS | IRLServer/IRLHost tiers — overlays + auto-BRB built in | $15–50 | yes |
Kick accepts RTMPS only (H.264, CBR, ≤8000 kbps, 1080p60). Encode H.264 ~6000–7000 kbps so the relay can copy straight through and bonding has headroom.
belaUI (free web dashboard) runs the show from a phone — encoder, bitrate, audio, and a live per-carrier signal view while you walk. It replaces carrying a laptop.
Three bonded carriers work anywhere there's any cell signal — everywhere you'd stream in a city. The only place all three go dark is true no-tower wilderness. Skip Starlink unless you're going genuinely off-grid.