How do I do a live wedding webcast?

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Helen Habib

Jason, only if you want to broadcast to more than 50 computers, you will need Windows .NET 2003. I've personally used Windows Media Encoder to broadcast an opening ceremony at our office to other branches of the company. I didn't use .Net 2003, I just downloaded the encoder, installed it and broadcast it through Windows Media Player and up to 50 PCs could have shown it. The camcorder was connected to the PC via firewire.

The users on the PCs were given an I.P. address, they just turned on their Media Player and entered the I.P. numbers to view the ceremony.

P.S. Not to contradict what was said earlier about Media Player showing to only 10. 10 is the default setting, but you can change this setting in the registry to 50, but 50 is the maximum PCs you can enter.

Ahh. I was selecting the wrong option in the setup steps. I choose the :push to server" when I should have chose the "clients will pull down" option.

Yep I tested it out and was able to stream a 270Kbps stream from my GL2 -> firewire -> shuttle PC (Core2Duo 2Ghz-2GBram) with 40% CPU utilization -> USB wiFi adapter -> Linksys WRT54GL -> Linksys cable modem -> to a friends work computer. Not bad. But depending on how multiple connections are handled, a consumer internet connection will pretty much only allow one connection. Unless I bump the window size down to 120 from 320x240.

Now here is another question for ya'll.... I would expect that 15fps would be a better use of bandwidth than 30fps, with all that standing around etc. I would rather devote more of the bitspace to the audio than the extra frames. What would you as a viewer of a wedding in a far far away nation rather have?

1) Higher resolution video (ie the 320x240 screen instead of 240x180 or 160x120)
2) Faster frame rate (29.97fps vs 15)
3) Stereo audio vs FM quality (-96kbps from stereo) vs Voice quality (-28Kbps from FM)

[Gabe Strong]

Originally Posted by Jason Robinson

Ahh. I was selecting the wrong option in the setup steps. I choose the :push to server" when I should have chose the "clients will pull down" option.

Yep I tested it out and was able to stream a 270Kbps stream from my GL2 -> firewire -> shuttle PC (Core2Duo 2Ghz-2GBram) with 40% CPU utilization -> USB wiFi adapter -> Linksys WRT54GL -> Linksys cable modem -> to a friends work computer. Not bad. But depending on how multiple connections are handled, a consumer internet connection will pretty much only allow one connection. Unless I bump the window size down to 120 from 320x240.

Now here is another question for ya'll.... I would expect that 15fps would be a better use of bandwidth than 30fps, with all that standing around etc. I would rather devote more of the bitspace to the audio than the extra frames. What would you as a viewer of a wedding in a far far away nation rather have?

1) Higher resolution video (ie the 320x240 screen instead of 240x180 or 160x120)
2) Faster frame rate (29.97fps vs 15)
3) Stereo audio vs FM quality (-96kbps from stereo) vs Voice quality (-28Kbps from FM)

I actually do consulting on this now, which is a direct result of a contract I had
doing live webcasts for state meetings. I have used Windows Media Encoder, Wirecast (which ROCKS), Quicktime Broadcaster, and LiveChannel. Windows Media Encoder
can send to as many people as you want, if you hire a streaming server provider.
Akamai has a couple smaller subsidiaries that do this, they do a great job. My meetings
had from 98-305 viewers, and I never had a single problem. It's really a two part
process. First, you set up the whole room for 'video production', cameras, mixer,
microphones, and such, then you set up the webcast part. It takes a bit of time
and a little knowledge, but I'd bet most videographers could handle it, I did the
whole webcasts by myself, running cameras, switching, audio mixing, and titling,
setting up the webcast, and all. Not the best way to run things but I did what I
needed to do with the budget I was given.....and they were happy so that's
all that mattered.

[David Schuurman]

amazing, I just got asked to do this and came on here and BAM here is this thread.

So realistically I can't really do windows media encoder from a laptop right?

and I would need a fairly fast internet connection?

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by David Schuurman

amazing, I just got asked to do this and came on here and BAM here is this thread.

So realistically I can't really do windows media encoder from a laptop right?

and I would need a fairly fast internet connection?

I used it from a Core 2 Duo @ 2GHz with 2GB of DDR2 RAM on a shuttle PC connected to the internet with my Linksys USB WiFi adapter (B/G) to a Linksys WRT54GL running WEP on CH1, connected to my CableOne modem, on a residential consumer speed cable internet connection (3000Kbps/300Kbps), and tested it with my friend from his work connection. We averaged a 250Kbps stream with ONE viewer.

At 320x240x15fps with pretty bad audio he was able to view just fine. The CPU sat around 50% the entire time, so a beefy Laptop would be needed.

[David Schuurman]

Also, what would you charge in addition to your regular fee to do this?

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by David Schuurman

Also, what would you charge in addition to your regular fee to do this?

I have no clue.... it is hard enough to get Brides to book video in our market, let alone live web streaming. I would probably ad on $500 at first and see if that was worth it.

[Gabe Strong]

I did it with an older single processor Windows laptop using Windows Media Encoder and it
worked just fine. I sent a 300kbps stream out to my streaming server.....actually they
had me set it up so they could 'pull' from me. I also had a dedicated T1 line just for my
webcast that no one else was on.

I charged over 2 grand for this service, each day I did it. Of course I was taking care of everything, including paying for web server space, setting up the dedicated line and
all the rest of it. It was also a 4 hour event each time, a little longer than most weddings,
but that's what I charged.

[Giroud Francois]

"I would probably ad on $500..." then you are working for free + the hassle if it does not work.