Re: Video Streaming Services - Status and Survey

[Jim Goodin <jimgoodinmusic@gmail.com>]

Like Rainer I too found live streaming to be one of the best
discoveries of 2009.  I think as he was þhe first to my knowledge, we
all owe Matt Stevens a big thank you for discovering or maybe should
say, the first in our (FRI, FEB 5, 2010) midst to use live video
streaming as a performance option.  I had been thinking about this for
a while but didn't realize there were 'free' options that one could do
this with till Matt did his first cast last spring.

I like Rainer and Jeff have used uStream and more recently LiveStream
and have found Livestream to offer more production possibilited.
Years ago I used to work in commercial television production and
livestream studio gives the real 'control room' feel.

The above said this past weekend through Jeff's encoragement and help
I used. Adobe's Flash Media Encoder for our DigItSignal show and will
say it made the production process as well as 'online' process a lot
easier and less stressfull (sometimes the browser reload time can seem
to take forever when you're about to go live).  FME allows a 'local"
record capture which was also a real positive.

I do have more real time experience with ustream so I'm still
evaluating livestream but initial vibe with LS feels better and more
flexibility.

LS does have the bwidth and audience limit on free accts that I'm not
sure ustream does.

Since october and vsv I have been using NinJam for either add,l
musician colllaboration or total audio mix, utilizing 2nd computer to
feed the ninjam mix to the video streaming server feeding to it from
the primary computer.  This has had soom growing pains which have been
shared by Digitsignal bandmate jeff.  In DIS though we are working on
a day when we can do multi camera we currently use public domain film
classics for video with our NinJam audio.

Last week we did a test run switching between 4 camers from Sweden, NY
and Florida and though we were able to do that, we were not able to
maintain control of the audio feed.  Each time we switched camera LS
studio switched audio sources losing the NJ feed and taking Peter Jeff
or Ray's camera sound..

In summary its an amazing option that's provided an opportunity to
perform for places I may never get to and I plan to continue to make
it a large part of my live performance in 2010.

Jim
www.ustream.tv/channel/sunday-morning-at-11
www.livestream.com/digitsignallive
www.livestream.com/jimgoodinlive



On 2/5/10, Petri Lahtinen <aikuinen@gmail.com> wrote:
> Milo made a very good point. These are the business ethics = no ethics. 
>You
> give us the content, we get the profits.
> And the business is unprofitable all the time = there's a paradox to 
>chew on
> :-)
>
> "YouTube will lose parent Google $470 million this year as it can't 
>generate
> rewarding revenue from advertising. "
>
> 
>http://www.ecommerce-journal.com/news/14514_youtube_to_lose_parent_google_470_million
>
> -Petri-
>
> 2010/2/4 Milo <milo.vuc@gmail.com>
>
>> You forgot to mention that none of these businesses pay fees or
>> royalties to the artists and video producers. At the same time, their
>> annual profits are going up and up and up...
>>
>> On 1/14/10, Rainer Straschill <moinsound@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi everyone,
>> >
>> > those video streaming things have been the #1 cool thing for me in 
>2009,
>> > and I continue to do a bi-weekly performance series (first official
>> > session this Saturday) and have done daily ones this past week since
>> > Sunday. Also, Rick's festival has been transmitted nearly in full (and
>> > archived online), so there's even a looping relationship here...on to
>> > some findings and a call for your inputs to these topics.
>> >
>> > My own experience:
>> > I have worked with three services in total: ustream.tv, justin.tv and
>> > livestream.com. At least livestream also has a "premium" version with 
>a
>> > hefty price tag, but all of those offer "free" (meaning ad-financed, 
>no
>> > charges for viewer or presenter) accounts.
>> >
>> > What they have in common:
>> > They're free, allow you to record your shows and make them available 
>for
>> > posterity, and allow embedded players to be placed e.g. on your 
>website
>> > and viewing them does not require registration for the viewer. All of
>> > them allow you to transmit via a browser-based flash plugin or with 
>the
>> > free Adobe FME software.
>> >
>> > The lowdown on all three of them:
>> > a) ustream:
>> > This is the one where I started, and where I have the most experience
>> with.
>> > Nice:
>> > *   the system of announcing your own shows, following other people 
>etc.
>> > seems laid out fine. There also seems to be a large viewer crowd.
>> > *   there are some basic editing functions for your archived videos
>> > which are, as I might say, sufficient.
>> > Not nice:
>> > *   they have a service which allows cueing in other performers 
>(called
>> > "co-hosting"), drop in clips form youtube etc. Unfortunately, the last
>> > time I checked (at the VSV festival in October), these functions were
>> > flawed or didn't work at all.
>> > *   even when using the FME encoder, you still need to run the web
>> > browser plugin, which can be an issue for older computers (and "older"
>> > here means anything with a passmark below 900).
>> >
>> > b) justin:
>> > Nice:
>> > *   This is the simplest of the three. Set up your account, download 
>the
>> > xml file for the FME, fire up the FME.
>> > Not nice:
>> > *   Well...doesn't offer that many nifty features as the others do.
>> >
>> > c) livestream:
>> > This seems to be the most powerful one of the three in terms of
>> > features.
>> > Nice:
>> > *   A nifty wealth of features, including some configurable banners at
>> > the start of the video etc. There's the so-called "studio", which 
>allows
>> > you to also upload videos, create an on-demand playlist, define
>> > storyboards for a live (or archived show), cue in other performers 
>etc.
>> > Not Nice:
>> > *   There are some limitations to the free accounts. First one is you
>> > need to get your channel certified to be allowed to transmit to more
>> > than 40 viewers. This is not a big issue, as it's just filling out a
>> > form and waiting for a day or so.
>> > *   More limitations for free accounts: the biggest is that you are
>> > limited to a 500kbps stream bandwidth and 4:3 aspect ratio.
>> >
>> >
>> > Ok, now it's your turn. More observations to add? Other services which
>> > do something like that? Comments? Questions?
>> >
>> >
>> > Yours,
>> >
>> >              Rainer
>> >
>> > --
>> > http://moinlabs.de
>> > Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/moinlabs
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Petri Lahtinen
> http://www.petrilahtinen.com
> http://petrilahtinen.blogspot.com/
> http://www.myspace.com/petrilahtinen
> http://twitter.com/PetriLahtinen
> http://petrilahtinen.bandcamp.com/
> ---------------------------------------------------
> "Only become professional musician if there is no choice." -Robert Fripp-
> ---------------------------------------------------
> "Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead."
> -Charles Bukowski-
>

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