Streaming Live Video- What's Needed?

jrazz wrote on 8/15/2007, 10:26 AM

I have been approached about doing an event and streaming it live over the net. I have not done this before. What would be needed to accomplish a live webstream for those of you who have done it?

Is there a certain server package needed? What about compression? Just looking for some information from those who have done this. Is it more pain than it is worth?

j razz

Comments

jrazz wrote on 8/15/2007, 10:41 AM

I did find some information on Windows Media 9 Encoder. Anybody have any experience using this to stream live audio/video? Windows Media Encoder 9

j razz

TGS wrote on 8/15/2007, 11:34 AM

It depends on how many people watch. Probably not cost effective.

richard-courtney wrote on 8/15/2007, 11:40 AM

First, how many sites will be receiving your broadcast?

One only than you can use the free media encoder mentioned.
Make sure you have someone that can access and change your
routers as you may need to punch holes in the firewalls.

If more than one you need to contact the ISP at each destination
to make sure they will accept and pass "multicast" packets.
If they can then you use media encoder or another free program
such as Videolan.org 's VLC program. You will send out to a
special address and anyone else on the same ISP can pull
your stream from that. If dealing with more than one ISP you
will need to contract time with a multicaster. You send your
stream to their server and then all the receiving sites grap
your stream from them.

jrazz wrote on 8/15/2007, 11:41 AM

I would not be buying the equipment, just ensuring that they get up and going and then doing the filming for them.

It is a local radio station that services an area of over 140,000 people. They are wanting to stream video and audio, not just audio.

j razz

richard-courtney wrote on 8/15/2007, 1:32 PM

For a radio station that won't be doing alot of NLE I might
recommend Newtek's Tricaster.

Simple to use as a camera switcher, adds graphics, does the
streaming.

jrazz wrote on 8/15/2007, 1:55 PM

I checked out the comparisons between the 3 versions. It seems to be a nice little unit. I would assume that you still need to hook this into a server that will process and make the stream available. Thanks for the information on the Tricaster.

j razz