Streaming live video

Anyone with experience?

[Birdman]

Hello,

I have a potential client that is considering broadcasting a live event via the internet. I have been doing some studying of the topic and have a decent idea of what is involved and what type of equipment is needed.

I would, however, like to hear from anyone who has experience in live productions similar to this.

How did it go?
Was it worth the money?
How much money?

Thanks in advance!

[Ove]

How did it go?
It was a succes! we streamed a snowmobile race for a whole day and in think there was people from WebmasterWorld looking at the event, we used a simple video camera and a very simple computer with a streaming account and we set the quality from 28,8 to 128 kb and the quality was great even with a 28,8 modem.

Was it worth the money? Yes it was worth it

How much money?It depends on how many users you should have on the same time watching, but its not that expensive.

/Ove

[Birdman]

Thanks for the positive reply, Ove.

Did you use Real, QuickTime, or Windows?

[Ove]

We used windows

/Ove

[lorax]

If you're going to expect a lot of people (big budget event) viewing the event you might want to check into Real Networks Helix Servers.

[Birdman]

I was doing some reading on Helix this morning but didn't really take it all in.

How many viewers would you consider alot?

Thanks again for the help. I would really like to work on this project but it's a bit scary, since I haven't done it.

[lorax]

>> alot?
Hmm... good question. There are alot of factors to be considered in defining "alot". ;)

Streams are bandwidth intensive. That being said, every piece of equipment used to produce and serve that stream to the INet is a link in a chain. The sum of all the pieces will determine the ideal number of viewers for your given situation. So you either need to know all about the pieces yourself or you'll need to find the person who does.

How many is alot? If I were to expect a few thousand folks I might consider Helix but then I'm not sure and I'm not an expert with streaming technology.

[BlobFisk]

I'll second Lorax on this one. I have no experience with QT or Media Player streaming, but with Real Player streaming, for 'lots' of streams (and I'd say a few hundred, rather than a few thousand) Helix is the way to go.

The basic Real Server system uses licenced streams - so to increase from the basic 20 (IIRC) streams, you need to pay a licence upgrade fee. I believe that Helix is independant of the number of streams.

Also, as Lorax said, for a large number of streams you need a lot of bandwidth. It might be an idea to get people to preregister (if possible) - that way you have an idea of how many people will be viewing and how much bandwidth you may need.

You could take a look at ShoutCast too - I've absolutely no experience with it, but I believe that it is a decent enough system, although it may require a plugin download by users...

[Birdman]

Thank you Ove, Lorax and Blobfisk for your helpful replies. I spoke with the potential client yesterday and he may be leaning towards "on demand", rather than "live". I would prefer it that way for my first time with video.

[Visit Thailand]

I am very interested in this topic and would like to ask a couple of questions I feel are related to the thread (hope I am not hijacking).

1) How do you stream live video when away from electricity and telephone lines?

2) When you mention the Helix servers do you mean that you continue with your normal host and simply stream the video from the Helix servers?

Thanks

[BlobFisk]

Visit_Thailand:

(1) ;) April Fools?

(2) I've found that people doing very intense audio-video streaming will have a helix server dedicated just for that purpose.

[Visit Thailand]

Thanks BlobFisk.

The first question was actually serious. You see many people doing video which seems to be miles away from anywhere.

Batteries are an option but they I presume would run out fast if you are loading etc.

[BlobFisk]

Hmmmm - perhaps a wireless connection to a line hard point (and batteries or a portable generator!).

Actually, thinking about it the most logical way would be to beam the audio/video to the server and do the encoding/streaming from there.

[lorax]

>> Actually, thinking about it the most logical way would be to beam the audio/video to the server and do the encoding/streaming from there.

Yes, I would concur. Are there any local tv stations that have that ability that you might be able to rent equipment/bandwidth from?

[HughMungus]

"Helix is the way to go. "

How so? Based on what information?