Video broadcast question

[ideafixer]

I want to broadcast my wedding over the Internet live. I am over average technically, so I don't think this would be hard for me to achieve. What I need to know:

1) Best camera for the price. Preferably wireless. What do I look for? Trying to be under 150 in price.

2) Bandwidth for upload. I know t-mobile and other cell phone companies have hot spot access for about 6 bucks an hour. What kind of pipe do I need?

2) I would like to use a service for handling the broadcast. I checked out eyeball networks and clipstream. Any other ideas?

3) Other considerations you may have.

 

[theEclipse]

ideafish-

I myself am trying (just for kicks.... ;-) to setup a live broadcast. I will try and answer your questions as best as I can for you.

First off, let me make sure that I know what you are trying to do: webcast your wedding. If this is not the case then you should probably ignore the rest of this post as that is what I will be focusing on.

How many people do you want to serve the video feed to? If it is not many (guessing here but probably less than 10) then you can probably easily setup a streaming/broadcast server yourself at a static ip and link to that ip from your website for people to view your wedding. Apple has a free streaming server (equivilent to quicktime streaming server) called darwin. I have yet to be able to get all the config done completly so I dont know how well it works. I was able to find a broadcast server for free called ubroadcast (this is what actually encodes the video stream into an mpeg4 or simmilar).

Assuming you are able to get a web connection with a static ip (dyndns ??) and a signifigant upload speed then you should be able to do it yourself (without 3rd party streaming server).

As far as the camera, I would get a miniDV camera. They are all over ebay and it is easy to get a good one. If you can, pick up one that has a firewire plug. Some broadcast servers will read the a/v straight from the camera through firewire (no tv tuner card required!). I am not sure what you mean by wireless, but if you are talking about the normally RCA-type connection being wireless for <150 you are in for dissapointment.

As far as bandwidth upload, I dont think that you will be able to get anything signifigant from a cell phone signal--even if it is a high speed connection. Think of the sheer volume of information that would have to be transmitted.... It is possible, I suppose.

Here is my weak link: the third party streaming server. I have no idea how this would work--never even thought about it really. Using this could dramatically reduce the load on your personal internet connection. (1 a/v feed -> 3rd party streaming servers -> all the people | 1 a/v feed (for each person) -> all the people). I have no idea about this.

Hope this was of some help to you. It was abit of help to me to write it out. ;-)

Robert Carpenter
"Disobedience to conscience is voluntary; bad poetry, on the other hand, is usually not made on purpose." - C.S. Lewis (Preface to Paradise Lost)
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http://www.robertcarpenter.net

 

[jrlance]

Don't get married.

 

[ideafixer]

The service I am talking about is StreamHoster.com It looks like a good service for a one time deal.

 

[theEclipse]

interesting. It looks like they would be a good one for that indeed.

Are you planning on doing a live webcast or are you just going to send your footage to them?

Robert Carpenter
"Disobedience to conscience is voluntary; bad poetry, on the other hand, is usually not made on purpose." - C.S. Lewis (Preface to Paradise Lost)
ô¿ô

http://www.robertcarpenter.net