Live streaming questions : HVR V1P

[Gavin Hughes]

Hi all

I am hoping someone maybe able to help me in answering some questions I have.

I felt this would be the ideal place to post due to owning a HVR-V1P camera.

Bit of background info about me as I'm not a Video Technician, I work in the IT Department but have been tasked in carrying out some research.

The company I work for are looking at holding a live debating event which they wish to be recorded. Normally this wouldn't be a problem as we have a small editing studio to post edit the video footage and then distribute the files digitally.
This year the company wish to do a live streaming event to the internet.

Is it possible to live capture to a computer from this camera ?
I am assuming its possible through the firewire port or the HDMI out (Guessing need a TV Capture card for that)

If it is possible has anyone tried this out ?

What sort of software should we be using with this task ?
We have a copy of Premiere Pro, Can this do it ?

Or failing that could you advise on any companies in the United Kingdom that would specialise in recording an event and streaming it to the internet ?


Sorry I know its a lot of questions but its been difficult to find what I'm after.
Thanks

[Andrew Smith]

Sony V1P camera via firewire to your laptop, then encoded and upstreamed to your favorite web streaming service. Do some dry runs before the event itself.

On the flip side, some people have found that doing web streams of the event results in people choosing to not turn up in person and as a result event visitor numbers decrease ... which is not the best thing for viability. So they move back to not providing live streaming of the event.

Andrew

[Gavin Hughes]

Hi Andrew

Thanks very much for the information.

Do you know what software is best to encode and upstream ?

Also if you have any experience with this do you know what sort of upload speeds I'm going to need.
Because one issue we have is that they have a 8Meg connection with 512kb upload :(
Were probably looking at having to get a third party company in to supply a decent broadband connection.

I've taken a look at a few of the webcasting services such as ustream etc so will trial run some of these.

[Andrew Smith]

Ustream uses your browser to do the work. Chances are your regular ADSL connection will be enough, but do comprehensively test it beforehand.

More info at this previous discussion: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/open-dv-...streaming.html

Andrew

[Seth Bloombaum]

Currently I'm using Wirecast from Telestream.

There are many ways to get it wrong in webcasting, I can say this with some authority, having experienced most of them.

Step one, determining bandwidth. What bitrate will you put out that doesn't exceed the download speed of your viewers, yet provides sufficient quality for your content?

This discussion, and the previous one that Andrew references above, should probably be taking place on the http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/flash-web-video/ forum.

[Andrew Smith]

What sort of content will you be streaming coverage of, and will that be in HD or just standard definition?

Andrew

[Gavin Hughes]

Hiya Guys

Thanks for joining in the discussion, This is all very useful information.

We are holding an E-learning debate at the Oxford Union in October, This is the second one and they wish for some people who can't make it this year to be able to view live over the internet.
We would want to record onto tape for post editing too.
The content is mostly going to be a stationary subject in an auditorium discussing the pros and cons of E-learning.

The quality would only need to be Standard Def, probably nothing more than 640 x 480 or if we can get enough upload bandwidth.
I honestly know very little about video recording so I'm just doing the groundwork research.

Half the problem is that the event is being held out of our Building so were unable to test the bandwidth of the connection so we are looking at third party wifi / broadband suppliers for the event too.
To be honest a little out of my field and depth on this so if anyone can recommend a company to do this sort of thing that would be appreciated too.

[Andrew Smith]

Just stick with standard definition, in this case. Don't know what you have over there, but you may well be able to do the job with a wireless internet connection.

FWIW, I started using a tape purely as a backup for the recording just in case the webcast had issues. After the technical problems that we had along the way, I now just record to tape and upload a finished recording to Vimeo later on. Don't even bother with the webcasting anymore.

Andrew

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Gavin Hughes

We are holding an E-learning debate at the Oxford Union in October, This is the second one and they wish for some people who can't make it this year to be able to view live over the internet.
We would want to record onto tape for post editing too....

Half the problem is that the event is being held out of our Building so were unable to test the bandwidth of the connection so we are looking at third party wifi / broadband suppliers for the event too.
To be honest a little out of my field and depth on this so if anyone can recommend a company to do this sort of thing that would be appreciated too.

Originally Posted by Andrew Smith

...FWIW, I started using a tape purely as a backup for the recording just in case the webcast had issues. After the technical problems that we had along the way, I now just record to tape and upload a finished recording to Vimeo later on. Don't even bother with the webcasting anymore.

Having worked in webcasting for 15 years, I do agree with Andrew. If there isn't a pressing need for a webcast to be live, on-demand viewing is much better. And, this "pressing need", that's from the viewing audience's point of view.

The issue is this - we all are used to getting the information we want from the internet, when we want it. If I say to you that you'll need to be in your office chair at 10am next Tuesday for three hours, I'd have to offer you a pretty strong reason for doing so, yes?

Often clients or sponsors don't want to hear this. Sometimes they say "I'm in charge, the viewers will be there because I'll tell them to be there!" Sometimes, it's "Our content is so timely and compelling, surely people want to see it the instant we reveal it!" Or, "But it's live video on the internet! Inherently so unique, everyone wants to see it..."

Well, that's not how people generally see the content resources of the internet.

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Generally, wifi is not good for webcast origination - there are issues with packet order that effectively increase latency, and wifi is usually shared bandwidth. Neither of these is good for the encode side of a webcast. You want clean dedicated upload bandwidth of at least 1.5 times your total stream bitrate.