Live tomorrow night…

[Craig Seeman]

[Dave Gage] “Bill mentioned using LiveStream. I’ve been using Adobe Connect with lots of issues and will likely try a trial of GoToMeeting in the near future.”

It seems that AC and G2M are geared towards presenting PowerPoint style presentations. Maybe the technology has changed but the display frame rates seem on the low side. On the other hand the screen display resolutions are high. You can do screen display on Livestream with their Livestream Producer’s screengraber or Wirecast’s Desktop Presenter. Wirecast’s Desktop Presenter allows sending screens or windows across a local area network whereas Livestream’s Producer doesn’t do that.

[Dave Gage] “Up to this point, I’ve been using my Quad i7 17” MBP built-in FaceTime HD camera and mic which works “okay”. I don’t own a stand-alone video camera that the Mac will see, but I am considering buying a Logitech 920 webcam/mic to see if it works better for me.”

Blackmagic Ultrastudio MiniRecorder has both HDMI and HD-SDI input to Thunderbolt for $140. Allows for virtually any consumer or professional video camera as source. I’ve used Logitech C910 and it works great for “host cam” if you’re right in front of the computer but not good if you’re shooting a speaker at the front of a room.

[Dave Gage] “So, I’ve tried two 3rd party solutions for this: Webcam Settings, and iGlasses. Both have problems.”

I’ve used both as well and I much prefer Webcam Settings. It works like a real webcam driver in that you actually control the camera internals.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/webcam-settings/id533696630?mt=12

Again, that said, using the BMD MiniRecorder is the way to go to use a real camera.

[Dave Gage] “Anyway, I’d love to discuss this more, possibly in a new thread or offline.”

Maybe on the COW Web Streaming forum so others can benefit.
https://forums.creativecow.net/webstreamingaudiovideo

[Bill Davis]

Add on note about the tech.

One real hassle is scaling the laptop outputs for both the web AND simultaneously for live projection. Unless you’re rich enough to have a projector that does 1920×1080 native, you have to do what we did and insert something like a Folsom scaler to take the HD web feed and “dumb it down” so that we could put it on a VGA projector for the live audience.

I think poor Brad spend a very nervous 45 minutes during show setup trying to get the live room screen AND the web feed both locked down and working right. Every time we turned around, the audience projector would be showing one or two color channels, but not the entire RGB signal. THAT was fun.

Also I was using a 15″ Macbook Pro and Tery Williams from AJA had a 17″ model – so we also had two different native original aspect ratios to feed the scaler!

It’s this kind of digital plumbing that gets truly NUTS when you do a show like this.

Kinda why I did those two “unannounced test” shows – just to start to understand where things might go wrong, before I let much of anyone know we were doing this.

Broadway’s got that right. Open the show out of town so that you can fix what’s wrong before EVERYONE’s watching – balanced against test things to death and NEVER go live. At some poing, perfect or not, you’ve just got to push the “send” button.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Craig Seeman]

[Bill Davis] “What tech? Too much at present!”

But do you want to simplify?

rMBP with two BMD MiniRecorders for your two HD-SDI inputs. Mixer with USB out into the rMBP. Of course the Tricaster works but I’m just thinking smaller simpler and even less expensive, especially for a user group.

[Bill Davis] “I was looking at our Livestream on Jeff Way’s iPad, and watching the delay involved. not bad, really, but FAR from allowing a remote presenter to contribute and monitor, as I expected.”

Send a switched feed back into Skype. Monitoring the live stream itself is useless for a remote presenter due to the lag and this is especially so when viewing an HTTP live stream as would be seen on an iOS device.

[Bill Davis]

[Craig Seeman] “For a time Ned Soltz and I were live streaming the MoPictiv (formerly NYCFCPUG) meetings.”

BTW, Craig, I didn’t know that you know Ned. He and I go way, way back. Next time you see him definitely say Hi for me.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Craig Seeman]

Granted there are quality advantages to all that hardware but you’re certainly aware of the complexity disadvantages.

I’d use Wirecast Desktop Presenter and target the screen or windows and let Wirecast scale. The quality may not be as good and they’ll be a slight lag and you’re installing this little utility on each presenter’s computer so it has its on inelegance.

Would using Tricaster’s iVGA helped?

[Bill Davis]

[Craig Seeman] “Send a switched feed back into Skype. Monitoring the live stream itself is useless for a remote presenter due to the lag and this is especially so when viewing an HTTP live stream as would be seen on an iOS device.
“

We had a team of 4 doing the FOH video mix.

One Director/video switcher.
One Audio guy.
Linda, doing Social Monitor for Q&A.
And Brad doing the Webcasting.
So I presume I have to add another body and laptop to do a Skype connect?

What I “don’t” want is the show needing to look more and more like NASA mission control!

I’ve seen “big budget” webcasts that look EXACTLY like that. 20 bodies or more sitting at long tables at laptops with everyone doing a specific job. That’s exactly the model I DO NOT want to pursue.

So the question becomes what’s the smallest crew footprint consistent with quality results?

I think the MOST important body is likely Audio. Even if you just have a web feed, an RF problem or mic with a failing battery can stop effective show to audience communication in it’s tracks.

One person CAN do the video stuff – particularly with robo-cams like we’re using and nothing fancy with the virtual switching – and I have to admit I’m a bit interested in the tech like Sony’s new “all in one” Anycast rig – one box with the monitoring, switching AND web delivery all in a single portable unit. Combined with the proper LiveStream account that handles the social media stuff directly in the webcast window, that might allow a 2-person team to do a quality live to the web show.

But until I can find a way to make this kind of project even a very modest revenue generator, it’s all theoretical.

Like many others, I’ve proved I can deliver a decent product at this point. Now I need to see if I can turn it into a sustainable enterprise.

I can do a few more “out of pocket” shows. But without revenue, it will eventually become just too much hassle to sustain.

Next month, if the audience grows, I’ll have a story to tell potential sponsors. If it stays flat or doesn’t gain traction, it’s will become just an expensive hobby – and nobody I know has much use for one of those.

Time will tell.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Ronny Courtens]

I had no problem whatsoever with the technical side of the webcast. I’m a hopeless perfectionist myself but if the message is interesting I, and I think most people, can be extremely forgiving about the rest. Of course you can always do better but technically this went very, very well for a first live show and I must say in all honesty that you did a real good job presenting it.

On another forum I frequent real-life workflow breakdowns and videos of FCPX in action are the most watched topics. I am a major participant on two very popular FCP-centric forums. If you can incorporate live demos of FCPX at work in your webcasts I will not hesitate inviting everyone there to watch them.

– Ronny

[Dave Gage]

[Craig Seeman] ”
[Dave Gage] “Anyway, I’d love to discuss this more, possibly in a new thread or offline.”

Maybe on the COW Web Streaming forum so others can benefit.
https://forums.creativecow.net/webstreamingaudiovideo“

Craig,

Since this is off-topic here, I did start a couple of new posts in the “COW Web Streaming forum”.
https://forums.creativecow.net/webstreamingaudiovideo
(I wasn’t aware of the existence of this forum. Great, another forum to follow.)

Thanks,
Dave

[Bob Woodhead]

Bill, I’ve looked all over but couldn’t find any links…. is there an archive of the ‘cast available?

“Constituo, ergo sum”

Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
CMX-Quantel-Avid-FCP-Premiere-3D-AFX-Crayola
“What a long strange trip it’s been….”

[Bill Davis]

Bob,

Not right now. I wasn’t sure how to store and “re-broadcast” them prior to my swtich to LiveStream.

Now that I’m on LiveStream, they have an internal “storage” system for past shows. But I’ve got to find the time to clean up and post my prior shows.

I’ll get there. But it’s more unpaid time to fit around real work. (sigh)

I also don’t know whether or not it makes sense to do something like Movieola is doing – the “day of game” broadcast is free, but archive access costs a couple of bucks a show. That way I can start at least a tiny steam of revenue.

Much to consider.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.