Video Streaming Solutions

Streaming live video online is something that is becoming more and more common. Channels and software like Livestream, Ustream, Youtube, Google's hangouts and Skype makes it possible from us to share video with people across the world. From conferences to broadcasting live on YouTube more and more people are connecting live online. We have had this ability for a few years now but as bandwidth increases and video technology gets better it becomes more easier to produce great video for live streaming on the web.

The most basic way to do this is of course with a webcam but for those of us who want to produce a higher quality video it is necessary to look at a better camera and therefore an interface for getting that live feed into our computer and out to the masses.

Now if your are just plain recording into a computer there are lots of options for that from capture cards to video breakout boxes, however if you want to stream live video on the fly out to the web then rest of this post is for you.

Up until recently this has been a bit of a struggle to find a relatively cheap way to stream live video affordability into a computer and out to the web. In this post we will look at some affordable streaming


Blackmagic Design's H.264 Pro Recorder:


What makes this little box so great is it does on the fly H.264 encoding from either HDMI,
HD-SDI/SDI, Component BNC, Composite BNC and 1/4 jack balanced audio inputs to
 USB 2.0.Now this is great because it gives you any input you could possibly ever want to a port that every
PC or Mac already has, USB 2.0. This is a perfect solution for anyone who wants to stream live video and not worry if they will have all the right connections required to make it happen.

 H.264 encoding is the key to makes this unit so great. H.264 is a standard video compression and is one of the most common formats used for compression, recording and distribution of HD Video. H.264 was originally introduced in 2003 and since has been widely adopted by Internet websites such as YouTube, Vimeo and the iTunes Store. Abobe and Microsoft have adopted it in recent years. It is also becoming more in common in HD and satelitte broadcast as well.

There are lots of software that will do H.264 encoding for you but the Pro Recorder is different because it does all the H.264 encoding in the box allowing you to stream the signal through a single USB.2.0 mini port into your computer.

Some key features include:

-Real time H.264 encoding.
-Can capture from professional decks in SD and HD H.264 files.
-Can record (not stream) to iPad, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and YouTube file formats automatically.
-Real time scaling and cropping
-RS-422 Deck control
-Batch capture for H.264 files.


Compatibility for streaming live:

LiveStream currently supports the H.264 Pro Recorder: LiveStream H.264 Pro Recorder

MX Light is a great third party program for PC that will allow you to do live streaming from the H.264 Recorder and the Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio: MX Light Streaming software.
It is compatible with LiveStream, Ustream and Justin TV.

Broadcasting is changing as we know it.

Broadcast is changing as we know it. Gone are the days where only big broadcasters in television held the means to reach mass markets across the globe. Now anyone can put a video on YouTube and reach people around the world almost instantly. For people who make their living in the television/media/broadcasting industry this is ever an increasing market with endless possibilities. Anyone in the Freelance or Video Production industry can now bypass the traditional broadcasters and reach potentially millions of viewers around the world. This is a big revolution. In my day to day interaction with production companies I am hearing an ever common theme. Many of them are ditching their previous broadcasting routes and focusing more and more on web distribution. With more video podcasts, webisodes and YouTube channels becoming an increasing way to access information and entertainment  people are getting onboard and there is money to be made as well. Take for example YouTube. The top one thousand channels on YouTube generated almost 90 million social interactions on the site. These interactions spread over onto other sites like Twitter and Facebook. Some of the 1,000 highest preforming channels make some good cash as well, with a average monthly payout for the top channels of $23,000 dollars. However this not the case for all channels and only the very top preforming channels reach these numbers, it does however show what is out there in terms of revenue and viewer potential. Some of the top YouTube channels reaches tens of thousands of people every week with millions of subscribers. Look at the success of channels like Ray William Johnson, Shane Dawson, Epic Meal Time and FPSRussia and it becomes clear that reaching millions of viewers all around the world is now a real possibility. Most of these top channels have been around since day one, are regularly updated and also employ many other people to help with their productions but they all started out has humble channels with a great idea. OpenSlate a company which measures the value of video content for advertisers found that YouTube has over a million channels that run paid ads on them reported YouTube writes cheques annually for more than one million people every month. These numbers are staggering and show you just the potential of this new frontier in Broadcasting. Traditional broadcasting routes are becoming outdated. This is opening the flood gates to millions of creative people who up until a few years ago didn't have a medium to get their ideas and content across. No need for pitches, chasing grants or getting broadcasters to sign off on your content when you can potentially reach millions of people through hosts like YouTube, Ustream and Livestream. At the end of the day what it all comes down to is content. Content is still king. If your idea isn't great or you have nothing to say than no matter how much production value you poor into something, viewers just aren't going to watch. However once the idea is in place it is now easier more than ever to get your video scene by people. It's also getting a lot cheaper as well. Putting a video online can be as easy as buying a webcam or as complex as building the a proper studio and everything in between. Many of the top YouTube channels started out as simple webcams and raised their production value as their viewership grew. For a few thousand dollars it is more than possible to build a home video podcasting studio. Something I will explore further in this blog in the coming posts.