Live Video Streaming

Alex53

Alex53

Alex53

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I'm looking at doing some live video streaming online. Not sure how many users will be viewing, but lets say it could be 100 at peak and 10 or so average.

The setup I am looking at will probably include a camera connected to a PC with plenty of storage, sendind the video to some online streaming service (rather than serving the video directly to the users)

Could you guys recommend;
1. A decent camera that can film under normal indoor lighting.
2. Will I need some kind of capture card or just a firewire connection?
3. An online live streaming service. (or could I do it form dedicated linux web server at Vidahost, would that do?)

What kind of software an I looking at getting? My guess is I will need something on the PC that captures the video which uploads the stream to the server, and I also need to be recording what is being captured, so that it can be uploaded to a Youtube channel later.

Any tips from someone who has done this will be greatly appreciated.
 
Nah, its work related. Live video of events/meetings in a particular room. The PC connected to the camera would be used just for this.
 
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So it will just be the video/audio from the camera which you will be streaming? no PC inputs?

If that is the case, then hardware will all be based on the quality you want.

If you need decent quality then you will need a good videocamera with AV/Component/HDMI output and A capture card with the previous inputs.

Have a look @ adobe live media encoder, which can stream to a site (ustream is an easy one) and save to HDD at the same time.

Web Cams can also be used to pick up video and audio over USB/Firewire, but their quality will be significantly worse, but a lot cheaper.

Quick note that the quality you can stream will be dependant on the upstream bandwidth of your internet connection.
 
Thanks, just installed adobe live media encoder and looks ok.

I think we will get the server side of it, Adobe Flash Media Streaming Server, and get our hosts to install it on our dedicated server.

Not too sure about the camera. We need it to cover the whole room, i.e. wide angle, but most cheap cameras dont have a very wide field of view. Are there wide angle adapters for camcorders? I'd feel horrible spending thousands on a proper camera with interchangeable lenses just to broadcast an online stream which doesnt need to be very high quality.
 
You can get wideangle convertor lenses for video cameras if they don't come with a native wide lens. The big advantage of an actual camcorder is that they can handle movement a lot better than PC webcams.

What is your main focus? the audio from the events?
 
Yeah the audio is the important bit. There is already an audio system in place with several mics going to a desk of some sort, so the plan is to take a line out from that into the line in of the PC.

What I am thinking about now is how to get the cable from the camera to the PC. The camera will have to be mounted at a vantage point like the ceiling, which means the PC can't be a couple of metres away. In fact ideally the PC will be in the back office. That means long cables, but I'm not sure how long you can make a firewire cable. Someone has suggested Axis cameras to me, which work over ethernet, however, adobe live media encoder and similar software dont seem to work with that kind of input.

I guess the other alternative is getting a video capture card and connecting the camera with the good old video out / video in yellow cable, which I know can be quite long, but again, can that be seen by adobe live media encoder as a video source.
 
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I've never streamed using network cameras before so I can't say that they will 100% work with MediaServer but the Axis drivers work with Windows Media Encoder, so I'd imagine that there should be no issue with Adobe's version: info
AXIS Video Capture Driver enables video stream input from Axis network video products to third party products, e.g. media servers. This version is supported by Windows Media Encoder® included in Microsoft® Windows Media® 9 Series and supports MJPEG streams from most Axis devices.
Click to expand...

As far as firewire/usb are concerned you can always convert them to Cat5/6 then back again at the PC.

where is the (audio)desk in reference to the back office? got a floor plan handy? :)
 
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I've got a little usb webcam in the office and both the adobe media encoder and the server working on my PC. Configured a live stream and was able to watch on other people's PC.

Next will be a visit to the actual place to see where we can put the camera and where the audio desk is. No idea where that is yet.

Thanks for your replies :)
 
By the way, when you mention converting firewire to ethernet and then back again, I've been googling for such a device with no luck. Any pointers? :)
 
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