Simple Thought Productions provided the Live Streaming Technology to allow FoxDayCam.com to bring the joy of Fox Day to the world. During the three day broadcast people watched from all over the world to see if the Fox would find its way to Mills lawn early in the morning. During the wait students took to mills lawn to be part of FlashMobs, play RockBand for the camera, and simply say “Hi!” to anyone who was watching.

Students pose for the FoxDayCam
Photo by J.D. Casto

Originally the site was setup by Steven Madow as a way to share his perfect view of the Mills lawn that would let him be one of the first to see the Fox on Fox Day. For “the last two years living on Mills I was able to look out my window and see the fox and I wanted to share that experience with everyone.” Steven setup a webpage and a static shot of the lawn that updated every 15 seconds. Word spread quickly about this new page via facebook and word of mouth. Rollins’ Alumni and Owner of S.T.P Josh Chesarek wanted to help Steven take the Fox Day Cam to the next level by making the image live for the web and some smart phones. “Fox Day is one of the many great traditions of Rollins College and being able to share it with current students and past alumni as well as friends and family all over the world was an amazing thing.” The Response was amazing. Shayla Alamino (Class of 2012) says, “I think the Fox Cam is a great idea. It definitely amps up the anticipation of Fox Day and sort of creates almost its own entertainment. It encourages college students to go out to Mills Lawn and do tricks and just participate in the festivities.”* Steven had also included a facebook portal with the site that allowed viewers to comment on what was happening at the moment and share their thoughts with everyone who was watching. “I think the Fox Cam brings us all together and builds a community through the World Wide Web and Facebook. We can all watch the same thing at the same time and comment on it” said Dustin Schwab (Class of 2010)*. At the viewing peak there were over 380 people watching for the fox with an average of 220 people watching at any given time during the 3 day broadcast. Over 3,000 people viewed the stream at some point before the stream was taken offline friday afternoon, one day after the fox left mills lawn.

The Fox mid-morning
Photo by Nastassia Alayeto

“The technology that S.T.P. provided FoxDayCam.com was amazing. For 3 days I was able to broadcast the video without issue. When we went to the page the live feed loaded right away. I had tried to get things to work with other live video websites but I couldn’t get it to work.” Steven went on to say “the mobile streaming was amazing. Students could not only watch via the web but if they visited the page on their iPhone or Android Device they were able to watch the Live feed over their mobile network!”

S.T.P hopes to provide this window into the Fox Day tradition in the years to come.

*Student Quotes reprinted from the Student Newspaper The Sandspur

Viewer Statistics

World Map of FoxDayCam.com Viewers

• Total Data Usage: 1.2TB (1,200GB or 280 DVDs or 1,024,000 floppy disks)
• Maximum Throughput: 122.7 mbit/sec
• Maximum Concurrent Connections: 388
• Average Viewing Time per stream: ~1 hour
• Unique Viewers:3,003
• Total Viewer Hours: 6,209

US Map of FoxDayCam.com Viewers

In the News and Various Links:

• Fox Day and the FoxDayCam.com were shared via the CFNews13 website as well as its morning and mid-morning TV broadcasts.
• The Sandspur Fox Day Article by Jenn Stull
• Rollins College Professor Alan Nordstrom’s Blog about Fox Day and the Fox Day Cam

Main Wirecast Window

Quick Features:

• OSX and Windows Versions Available.
• Output to: WMS (windows version only), RTMP, Qucktime, Unicast, Multicast, Built In QT Server or WMS Server
• Chromakey when using a dedicated video card that supports the feature
• Encode in multiple formats and save to disk

Broadcast Settings

Broadcast Settings Window

On the broadcast page you setup where Wirecast is going to be broadcasting and saving the video. At the top you can add multiple destinations in multiple formats. We are using the OSX (Mac) Version so we have the ability to output to RTMP, QuickTime Streaming Server, Unicast, Multicast, utilize the built in server or record to disk. You can add as many destinations as you want but realize that each destination will require your computer to encode your source video to each format in real time. If you plan to encode to a lot of destinations you will need a fast CPU and some extra RAM to help it out.

Encoder Settings

Encoder Settings Window

As far as encoder settings go only the basic ones are available when you set the output format to flash. H.264 Video which allows for settings for the: Frame Size, Frame Rate, Target Bitrate (note the encoding is variable). The Audio is similar in that AAC is the only format and you can set Stereo or Mono, Bitrate, and Sample Rate. If you want to encode to quicktime for a quick time streaming server you have more options in codecs availibile but often you only have the same settings available. H264 does get a quality slider option in Quicktime format though!

What can this thing really do?

Wirecast Title Window

So lets get to the point, what can this thing really do that makes me want to shell out nearly $500? In a word, layers. Wirecast allows for multiple layers to be put into your stream. These layers can contain media to help enhance your video stream. The media can be Video, Audio, Images, or text. There are presets that allow you to combine multiple inputs onto one screen (think field news reporter talking to an anchor back in the studio). With enough CPU you have the ability to create some really cool content that can be streamed live or recorded to disk to be delivered on demand later. So lets take a look at a demo I made that combines multiple inputs and titles.

Wirecast Demo

Click to Watch!

This demo will show you a quick video that was created by Wirecast. It uses two previously recorded mp4 files along with a live input from a webcam. I added some titles and transparent images to use.

Desktop Presenter

Desktop Presenter

Desktop Presenter is a small program that comes with Wirecast and is available as a PC or Mac Download. It is worth noting that it is a separate download from Wirecast which is available on the same page you download Wirecast from after logging into telestream’s system. The software is quite simple in that when it is running it is capturing part or all of your desktop. You can set it to capture the entire screen or just one of multiple screens for people running them. You Can also set it to just capture a specific window, say Photoshop, which will follow the photoshop window around and you don’t have to worry about leaving the window of interest in one place. Along with the image you can also capture the sound from that system if its playing back any. This can also be muted. The biggest place I have put this mini app to use is on presenters laptops. This allows me to sync their power points to the video and switch between them during the event saving me from having to do this afterwards.

Known Issues

While working with Wirecast I found a few things that I thought to be bugs. Most have little work around that solve the problem or at least allow you to deal with it. First up is the issue where Wire Cast and JW FLV (now longtail) do not seem to play nicely when working with 16:9 media. I have used the official Flash Media Encoder Live and do not have this issue so it seems to have somthing to do with how the meta data is sent from the encoder to the player. Basically 16:9 videos are displayed as 4:3. A temporary work around is to set the JW to Exact Fit. This works and looks good while the video is being played in a window format but if you go full screen it will stretch to fill the screen which will re-introduce the error if your content is 16:9 and the viewers monitor is a different aspect ratio. The other which is more of an improvement issue is that when you first start wirecast or import a file it polls the media and creates a thumbnail for the shot. That never updates so in terms of using multi cameras as a live switcher when they are shooting content in different areas you do not have a quick glance. The work around for this is to activate the preview monitor, disable the auto live and click to check before hitting the go button. This works but it would be nice if one could set a refresh of the image live or every few seconds.

Final Thoughts

Overall Wirecast offers a large set of tools to help enhance your broadcast. With multiple inputs you can mix together creating compelling content live has never been easier. Add to that the ability to archive for later distribution in multiple formats on the fly and you have a powerful tool.

Purchase

Wirecast can be purchased online via the Telestream online store.

Wirecast for Windows

Wirecast for Mac

Why should I care about Blu-Ray?

Blu-Ray as is one of the few means of delivering an interactive HD experience to consumers. Web Video and options meet the need of some market segments but it does not generally fill the segment for long form content and extended viewing. HD content is still hard to deliver to everyone as it requires large amounts of bandwidth. Blu-Ray disks fill this need. We have always had a some what slow adoption of the next “big thing.” We slowly moved from floppy disks to hard CDs. we gained over 600MB of storage in a single jump. This was eventually surpassed by burnable DVDs which took content up another 4000 MB. Blu-Ray offers to take us all they way to 50,000 MB. Its also not just about more space. The Blu-Ray spec offers advanced programing through its Java technology that allows for much more advanced menu systems and features on the disk than what is possible with DVD. This ability, when utilized, can allow for much greater interaction with the viewer.

The Blu-Ray Spec – What it means to me

There are currently 2 actively released specs on the market as of this witting (The original 1.0 is to no longer be released as of Nov. 1st 2007). Profile 1.1 and 2.0 are the current releases. There are a few differences between them. Provided below is a grid showing all of the current specs for video along with some of the main requirements and capabilities.

Click For Larger Image

One of the most important differences between 2.0 and 1.1 is the presence of an Ethernet port which can be linked into your home network and get online. The benefits of this are two fold. One, you can usually get updates for your firmware easily over the connection when they are available instead of having to send off for a disk or download firmware and burn it to a disk to then put in the player. And secondly, it allows disks that feature the Blu-Ray Live option to download additional content that is only available online. Needless to say it is a good idea to get a 2.0 spec player if you can afford the extra cost.

MPEG2 Vs H.264

Blu Ray supports a number of formats. MPEG2, MPEG4 H.264, and VC-1 video. This offers the choice of 3 video codecs over DVDs 1 (mpeg2 @ 720*480). Different content on the disk can also be in different codecs as well for added flexibility. The choice is yours as to which you use. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. There are many articles which go into detail about the benefits of each codec. For this article we are just trying to get an idea of the benifits that pertain to making a Blu-Ray disk. For authoring purposes with Adobe Encore we have the option of using MPEG2 and H264.

MPEG 2 is the same format that DVDs use. The difference is that you can use resolutions up to 1920*1080 and bitrates up to 40mbit. This is up from 720*480 with a maximum bitrate around 9mbit. This allows you to have HD video in the same codec that you used before for DVDs. MPEG 2 is a fairly simple codec so modern computers can process it very quickly. This can save you a lot of time when it comes to rending at the cost of using up more space on the disk.

H264 is a newer codec, part 10 of MPEG4 spec. This allows you to get more video on the disk at the same quality. The downside is that the complexity of the codec adds processing time to your encode. Depending on your processor speed as well as your encoder an hour of video could take most of the day to encode. If you don’t need the full 25GB or 50GB capacity you may be able to save some time using MPEG2 over H264. In our tests MPEG2 @ 18Mbit from an HDV source showed no noticeable difference once compressed and on disk from playing directly from the source.

Solutions for delivery

• Adobe Encore CS4 ($799 w/ Premiere CS4)
• Sonic Scenarist (Must contact for price)
• DVDit® Pro HD($499)

A small magic bullet

If you are having trouble playing back BD-R disks one of the first things you should try and do is update the player’s firmware. This is easy to do if it is online but if not you still have options. Most of the manufactures of the early models will mail you a disk that can be put in your player to update its firm ware for a small fee.

Sources and Additional Reading

A collection of useful links and sources for this article for additional knowledge:
Blu-Ray Disc Association
Blu-Ray Disc General White Paper (Aug. 2004)
BD-R Disc Physical Specifications (Feb. 2006)
Wikipedia Blu-Ray Disc Article

FSH-200 with Canon XL-H1A

For this review we paired the Canon XL-H1A with the FSH-200. It is worth noting that the XL-H1A is not listed as being “fully” compatible with the FSH-200. The current list as of this review can be found here. During our testing however we were able to have the DTE sync with tape recording, record without tape, and provide time remaining and status info to the camera display. This would suggest the XL-H1A might be added as a “supported camera” in the future. Because of this link that displayed the FSH-200′s status it allowed us to utilize the device with confidence while we shot some run and gun interviews. We knew when the device was recording and when it wasn’t as well as the remaining disk space so we knew when we needed to switch out the media.

Storage

The Compact Flash provides the storage capacity for the FSH-200. While you can technically use any size you like You will probably want to work with 16GB or 32GB Cards.

A 16 GB card will give you 1.1 Hours of recording time in HDV and DV mode. If you utilize the Quicktime file format the storage will be slightly less. 32GBs will get you 2.2 Hours. With only one card slot this means that you have a recording limit of 2.2 hours with this device. One should be aware of this limitation if they are looking for a device for longer record times and might want to find a device that has multiple Card Slots that supports hot swapping.

Focus Enhancements suggests the Sandisk Extreme III 32GB. For our review we saved some cash and went with the Kingston Elite Pro 32 GB 133x While the media is technically a little slower there is a significant cost savings and we experienced no issues in terms of recording. The Kingston averaged a transfer rate on our Windows 7 Test system of 11 megabytes a second. With large files the increased speed of the Sandisk could easily justify the speed increase. Long story short either speed cards will work and both are faster than capturing from tape.

Size

The size of the FSH-200 allows it to fit onto the back plate of the XL-H1A nicely using its mount. The kit comes with a mounting kit to bolt onto the the Hand held grip of most cameras. We opted to use this to mount it to the back plate. With a little extra padding it was fitted securely to the camera. Its physical size is 2.75 in. wide, 5.4 in. high, and 1.25 in. deep. This size is very small and fits nicely onto the back of the camera and is very light even with the battery and card installed.

Real World Use

None of the above matters if the FSH-200 cannot come through where it counts. Capturing your content and delivering it to your editor faster than you can when capturing tape. To put the FSH to the test we loaded it onto our camera for a few soccer games to see how it preformed. During the game we left the camera in Syncro mode so the device would record when the tape was recording. We also utilized the split record feature to have the FSH-200 create a new file after each goal which allowed for rapid editing of highlights. It is worth noting that doing this resulted in a small audio drop at the end and beginning of the next clip. When we did this when our announcer was not talking it was not noticeable as there appeared to be no video frames dropped. If the announcer was talking however the small droop stood out. In terms of file limitations if one uses UDF format the camera has no problem recording long video takes without having this drop out as it does not have to create a new file every 2 or 4GBs.

A few notes about actual usage. The Compact Flash Cards are very snug. Removing them takes some gentle rocking back and forth to free it. The battery also operates using a latch and a very tight fit. Per the instructions to remove the battery you have to press the release button and give the unit a shake to free the battery. As the unit is solid it seems to take this well but I was afraid I would drop the battery. With a little gaffers tape on the bottom I was able to provide my self with a tab to remove the battery with out fear of the battery taking an unexpected flight.

Media Formats

HDV Formats

• .m2t 720p 24/25/30/50/60
• .m2t 1080i 50/60
• QuickTime 1080i 50/60
• QuickTime 720p 30

DV Formats

• AVI Type 1
• AVI Type 2 | AVI Type 2 24p
• QuickTime | QuickTime 24p
• Canopus AVI
• Matrox AVI
• RawDV

Connections

Three connections are at the top of this device.

• Firewire (6 Pin – 1394)
• USB 2.0 (1 x USB-A female)
• GPI and RS-232C control; 1 x 3.5mm minijack

It is worth noting that the Firewire connection is only for video capture. The USB interface is used to transfer data to a computer.

Conclusion

The FSH-200 provides an excellent solution for shooters to pair with their DV and HDV cameras. Using the FSH-200 allows the best of both worlds. Its price is worth considering but it is easily offset by the time it can save if you shoot large volumes of video that needs a quick turn around.

Following up with our article on Streaming Live video on the web we now want to take a look at simply putting video footage online to share with the world. There are a lot of options when you are simply allowing viewers to download your footage. So let’s take a look at some of them and what they can do.

Codecs for All – Choose your Audience

One of the first things that you will want to do is to pick a codec or even multiple codecs to encode the video into. There are a large range of video codecs on the market today which each has their own strengths and weaknesses.

Commonly used online video codecs:

• WMV
• MPEG4-ASP(DivX, Xvid)
• H.264
• Flash (H.263 Sorenson Spark)
• On2 VP6

*In another article we will discuss the pros and cons of each of these codecs

The video codecs are the compressors of the video information in your file. In general when uploading a video to the web you want it to be the smallest file size possible while maintaining as much of the original video quality as possible. In this case we use a “lossy” codec. This means that we take the information in the file and use computations to reduce the amount of data needed to describe each frame of video. In doing so there is some amount of loss of quality that can never be recovered but the file size is reduced greatly. Some codecs do a better job at keeping quality at small file sizes, but this generally incurs a performance penalty on older machines. File size is important because the larger your files the more disk space and bandwidth they will use. If you have a popular file it can quickly consume your bandwidth allotment and cause an overage on your account which can cost a lot of money. Compressing your video files with a lower resolution and decent bit rate will often result in a better image quality and smaller file size.

The next consideration for codecs is will your audience be able to play the files with a default setup or will they need to install some extra software in order to watch your video. It is an important thing to consider and it really helps if you know your audience. If most visitors to your website are on a Mac or Linux you probably will want to use H.264 in a Quicktime container. Likewise if your audience is all Windows based you might want to use a WMV9 codec so they can play the file with the default install of windows. Adobe Flash is a popular option that has the highest install base (98% as of Flash 7 and increasing each month) on Windows, Mac, and Linux that can allow video to be played in the web browser, but there are some limitations regarding hardware acceleration of video which can potentially affect performance as well as user interface inconsistencies among the various Flash video players available.

Calculating the Bitrate

Bit rate is the key to file size and download times. As a general rule of thumb two things happen with higher bitrates. The image and audio quality increases, as well as the file size. One of these rules is broken each time a newer, superior codec is released. The quality of a new codec can be equal to an older codec with a lower bitrate in most cases. With a lower bitrate a newer codec could afford you to have a smaller file that looks the same but if you encode the file at the same bit rate the file size always be the same size.

To calculate the file size you need to know the video duration and the video/audio bitrate you want to use.

Sample File Info:

• File Length: 10 Minutes (600 seconds)
• Video Bitrate: 500 kbit/s
• Audio Bitrate: 128 kbit/s
• Total Bitrate: 628 kbit/s

With this info we can calculate roughly what the file size will be. Our total bitrate is 628K kbit/s combining the video and audio. Each second of video weighs in at 628 kbits. One kbit, or kibibit, is 1024 * 8 or 8192 binary digits. If we divide by 8 we will get a total of 78.5 KiB (Kibibytes, most commonly and mistakenly referred to as kilobytes) a second. Multiply this by the duration in seconds (10 minutes * 60 seconds per minute = 600 seconds) and you get 47100 KiB. If you want the size in MiB divide that number by 1024 (1024 KiB = 1 MiB) for a total of 45.9 MiB for a 10 minute file at a bitrate of 628 kbits a second. The other useful bit of information we got was that if someone wanted to watch this file while it was being downloaded without having to wait for buffering (progressive download [more on that later]) they would need a connection that could download at 78.5 KiB or faster. This would work for most broadband connections, but depending on your customer base or intended audience they may have slower connections, such as those limited to 30 KiB/s download speeds.

Containing the Data

Now that we have the video and audio compressed with our new codecs we need something to hold them for delivery. Most windows users will recognize these by the file extensions.

Common File Containers:

• ASF/WMV
• FLV
• MP4/MOV/M4V/M4A
• MPEG

These containers are responsible for syncing the data from the video and audio streams so they play back together correctly. Some containers are also capable of storing additional information such as meta data or subtitles. Most containers are also capable of containing a number of possible codecs so it is important to realize that just because the file extension is .mov it could be one of many codecs used.

Progressive or not Progressive

The next thing you need to decide is if you want to provide your videos as a file that is downloaded and then viewed or viewed as it is downloading. The second option is called progressive downloading. Progressive downloads are similar in nature to streaming video but it depends on what client is used and the server setup on whether you can get all the features you normally would with a true streaming setup. With progressive downloads and properly formated video files you can allow your audience to start watching almost instantly, neatly bypassing expensive or difficult to setup true streaming solutions. It also can be setup to allow them to randomly access the file, that is seek to any point in the file without loading the whole file and play from that point onward. These are usually the two most sought after features of streaming services which can be done with a simple web server and a PHP script or server plugin, such as the H.264 streaming plugin for lighttpd.

Progressive downloads are a great tool to allow people to watch your content quickly on your website. It also brings them back if they want to see it again. This allows for repeat visitors as well as more options to increase ad revenu if you use it. The down side is that depending on cache settings a single user who watches your videos time and time again will consume more bandwidth which can increase your costs.

If you allow your viewers to save the content directly to their computers they can then watch it as often as they want without using additional bandwidth. The trade off obviously is that you will not get the increased traffic to your site.

Each method has its pros and cons which must be considered when selecting a solution for your website and audience.

Summing it all up

The world of online video is constantly evolving with updates, new codecs, and delivery methods. The key is to make sure you use the right options based on your audience. When you base your choices on your audience you will be more successful in delivering your content to them.

Ever since the breakthrough of YouTube more and more people have been interested in video online. The next step is to provide live events around the world for others to watch. In the past this would usually have taken a team of video and computer personnel to produce. As streaming has become more popular the tools to do so have also become more commonplace and accessible. This allows smaller operations to have the ability to stream events live even when the veiwership never breaks 100 viewers without breaking the bank. Lets take a look at some of the technologies used.

Formats

To start lets talk about the two dominant streaming solutions: Adobe Flash and Windows Media Video (WMV). WMV has long been the de-facto standard when working with live streaming video. One of the biggest live events that used WMV was the 2007 Live Earth where it was reported over 9 million video streams were served. While the server power behind such a feat is mind boggling it still shows that with the right setup one can truly reach a global audience. At the time MSN had declined to comment how many of the streams were concurrent which is one of the most important metrics when trying to reach a large audience.

Next up is the relatively new format and the subject of this article, Flash, which can utilize the Sorenson (H.263), VP6f, and H.264 video codecs and has support for FLV and MP4 containers. Flash has long been popular but it first became notable when put to use by YouTube to serve all of their videos. While Youtube utilizes primarily progressive downloads the format is quite capable when it comes to streaming. Flash has one of the widest footprints of all video platforms across many operating systems and devices. A newer codec you can utilize is H.264, also called MPEG4 Part 10 – Advanced Video Codec (AVC). This newer more advanced codec can maintain a higher picture quality while using a lower bitrate. The trade off is that it requires the viewers to have one of the latest versions of Flash (version 9.0.115 or newer), and it also requires a more powerful computer to process the video.

While both are capable formats, we will be focusing on Flash for a few reasons:

• There is an open source solution for a server that has a lot of potential.
• There is also a number of Flash players that can display the live footage to the world.
• It is said that 98% of the computers on the internet have Flash.
• If you are programming savy and have Adobe Flash you can even go as far as to build your own player

We would recomend starting with the excellent JW FLV Player (utilized on this site) and work your way into skining it (requires Adobe Flash still) and then program your own player if you still find the need.

Abilities

As you can see, a high-end server with Flash Media Server 3.0 has the potential to serve out to a lot of customers. This is limited by the bandwidth availible to the server, and hardware. If you are going over a few hundred viewers you might find it best to utilize one of the all ready established CDNs (Content Delivery Network) that have hundreds of servers networked and ready to take on all of your viewers.

Alternatives to Flash Media Server include Wowza and Red5. Red5 is a free alternative.

What you need

To get started you will need a few things:

Now if you do not have a firewire port on your computer you do have the option of getting a USB Capture box that can take S-Video, or Composite RCA and feed it into the computer.

Streaming Server Options

Now that you have the tools to stream the video, what are you going to stream it to? At this point you have to decide which server option will work for you. If you are streaming in an environment where you need to be able to get quick support you are probably better off going with FMS or Wowza which are both just shy of the $1,000 price mark. If you are OK with tinkering with an open source project and setting it up You can look at the free alternative known as Red5. I was able to successfully setup Red5 on my dedicated server and use its built in demos to stream a nice image to it. I did run into issues when trying to stream 16:9 content which I have yet to resolve. What is important to decide and account for at this time is the number of connections (your audience) you will get for your live stream.

If you have a decent dedicated server with a 2GHz CPU and a GB or more of ram on a 100mbit line it is possible to host around 100 viewers with a decent video resolution. After the 100 viewer mark your milage will vary. If you are looking to host more viewers this is where you will probably be best served by looking at CDNs which can be found on Google. Keep in mind a quality CDN will not come cheap.

The good news is that if you have a dedicated server and a little know how you can setup a free server solution. You can even run the Red5 Solution on a home machine running Windows or OSX but your connection upload speed will probably only allow one or two connections.

The Flow of Data

The flow of data is fairly simple to follow but it is good to know. First your camera will capture your image and send it to your computer. This will either happen over the firewire connection or via the capture box. This data is fed into the encoder. The encoder is what converts your DV, HDV, or other native format into the streaming format, such as H.264. The encoder will follow the settings you select so that the stream fits your specificatoins to send it along to your streaming server over your Internet connection. The streaming server picks it up from there to send down to the viewer. Depending on its setup it can redistribute to other servers that are closer to the viewer as well (this is what the CDNs do, for example). From there the Internet takes over and delivers it down the maze of pipes to your viewer’s screen.

Real World Application

One real world example of this would be what we use to stream sporting events at Rollins College. This NCAA Division II school streams a majority of their sporting events for friends and familes of the players to watch.

To accomplish this we use a few tools:

• Canon XL-H1A HD Camera
• Laptop with Firewire port
• Canopus ADVC110 Converter
• Panasonic DMR-EZ28K DVD Recorder

We set it up so the camera feeds the DVD recorder. This gives us an instant copy of the game. The DVD Recorder feeds a Conopus box which is the feed for the internet stream. One possible addition to this setup would be a distribution amplifier. This would allow each device to get a clean signal without degradation. Because we are only passing through on device before the internet stream capture the loss is minimal. The stream is then compressed and sent out to a large CDN. In this case we went with a CDN because the average viewership is over 200 concurrent viewers.

Summing it all up

Hopefully this information has given you a small grasp on the huge world of online video streaming as it is by no means a complete view. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc… please feel free to leave a comment or contact us via email.

At Simple Thought Productions we love to test out the latest technologies and develop new work flows. One of our more frequent requests has been to stream live events for our clients. Usually The cost to setup with a Content Delivery Network (CDN) is prohibitive, however, most clients to not truly have the need for a CDN. Usually most clients will never surpass a few hundred viewers. So what about everyone who does not need to stream to thousands of people? Is there a cost effective tool for the small guys?

We want to find out! On Wednesday, November 5th 2008, (today) at 7PM GMT-5. We will be using the Open Source Red 5 Streaming Server to broadcast a Division II women’s basketball game. We want to see what our modest dedicated server can handle while running Red 5

The Server

• AMD Semperon 3000+
• 1GB RAM
• 100Mbit Connection
• 7200RPM 80GB Raid 1 HD
• Located in Dalas Texas

Red 5

• Open Source (Free)
• Java Based

NNovia QC HD

Overview

For every hour of tape you use you have to spend an equal hour to capture it, sometimes more if you log your tapes. This can make the time between shooting and editing a long gap. Enter portable capture devices. These are not new but only in recent years have they started to shrink down to the size where you can easily carry them with you, be able to capture more than an hour of footage, and have a battery life long enough to fill the hard drive.

The next biggest issue that the big name portable capture devices get faulted with is the FAT32 File size limitation (and its inability to format to NTFS or other file systems). When filming short takes most people never even realized the issue as short takes fit into the 4 GiB file size limit. When longer takes were shot most capture devices will divide the file up into 4 GiB files. This requires you have to join a longer shot in your video editor or in some cases, via a command line in Windows. Others, when filming in HDV, sometimes experienced a drop of about 4 frames when a new file was made which is pretty much unacceptable.

NNovia QC HD and Canon XH-A1 with Small Camera Mount

This has held me off from purchasing this type of device until I found a product from a California based company named nNovia. Their product offered the ability to format either FAT32 or NTFS (the latter removing file size limitations) and its power input was varied enough to allow your standard camera batteries to power the device.

Using the QC HD

I setup my QC HD to run without sync to the camera. This means that I have to manually start the record on the QC HD, but when I stop the tape to switch at the end of 1 hour the QC will keep recording. You are able to set a number of formats for recording in DV mode. One thing to make note of is that the drive can either record DV or HDV. If you set it up to film in HDV and want to record some DV you have to reformat the drive which deletes all your current material.

For my first test I filmed a lacrosse game. This consisted of filming for four 15 minute quarters. There is a two minute break between the first and second quarter, as well as the third and fourth with a ten minute break between halves. Usually I film each half on a tape. I recorded to Tape for a backup and shot in SD 4:3 60i. I filmed each half which actually runs for about 20 to 30 minutes depending on the ammount of stops in play. I record it all because we have commentators talking during the game. Making use of the stop function between quarters the result is 4 videos in bin01 totaling one hour and 34 minutes. Each file weighed in around 5 GiB (take that FAT32!)

NNovia QC HD and Canon XH-A1 with Small Camera Mount Side View

Before pulling the content from the drive you need to prepare the files. nNovia says this is for added safty. Because it writes the files directly to the hard drive without formating less data is lost in the event of a power failure. After you are done filming the device applies the formatting, which takes about 3 minutes for the whole game. When I got home I put the QC HD into Hard drive mode and was met by Windows Vista 64 Bit Ultimate asking me if I wanted to repair the drive. I allowed it to do a scan which returned no errors. It does this eavery time I plug it in, and I am not sure why but there are no errors. The second issue I had was that it was slow, about 500 kbit/s slow when transfering. A third party firewire repacement driver fixed this issue. It turns out some people have this issue with all firewire drives, but with the new driver installed I average about 37 MiB a second and had all of the game off of the drive in about 11 minutes. With Windows Vista SP1 I was able to read the files at the same speed but was able to use the default driver without issue. (It still did want to scan the drive but returns no errors. ) From start to finish it took about ~15 including formating A lot faster than two hours via tape capture. I was able to import the AVI files into Premiere CS3 for editing without any problems. I have also successfully tested it in HDV mode with the .M2T files. Another useful feature are the Bins; You have 99 bins to put files into and each bin can have 99 clips in it. I use a new bin for each game as I often have to film two games back to back. I have also shot a short film using it and I used a new bin for each scene.

The Customer Experience

I called nNovia directly to make sure about the NTFS support and the devices ability to capture long takes without breaking up the file. I spoke to a Mr. Soper who was able to tell me about the device and its abilities and limitations. He suggested the QC HD 120 instead of the original product I was inquiring about as it still did everything I needed, but saved me about $300. It is not often that a salesman does this. Once I decided that I wanted to buy he was happy to provide a list of vendors in my home state that carried their products. A bonus that I got for calling the company however is that I was able to use their new pricing which included bundle savings from their new catalog which none of their dealers were using yet.

NNovia QC HD and Canon XH-A1 with Small Camera Mount on Tripod

The next step was figuring out how to power this thing. I use a Canon XH-A1. The tripod mount that I wanted to use however is sold with a Sony Battery mount. I was willing to buy a long life sony battery to use with the device but Mr. Soper commented that they had received a lot of interest in a small camera mount that could use the Canon Batteries. He offered to ship me a canon mount as soon as they came in. They are easily switchable by removing 2 screws.

As luck would have it they had a canon battery plate in the office and they made the switch on the spot before shipping out my package. This is what I call top customer service.

Quick Facts

• Drive can only record HDV or DV. Requires format to switch modes
• Drive requires “quick format” once filming is done to be readable.
• Can select FAT32 OR NTFS after filming

Supported Formats in DV:

• .MOV Quicktime
• .AVI Microsoft
• .AVI Canopus
• .MXF OP1A

Supported Formats in HDV:

• .M2T

I have been asked about clear coating my printable DVDs for a while now. I never tried it and simply said, Please, don’t get your DVDs wet. It is not a good idea. But even when printable DVDs were not wet they could smear from simply being handled. I finally tried some Taiyo Yuden Water Sheild DVDs and they work great. They can be had for about $0.70 a DVD which is not too bad. The video shows a DVD that is about an hour old being put under running cold water and does not smear even when patted and rubbed with a paper towl. Very little ink came of at all on the paper towl and it did not smear on the DVD. It is worth noting that when held at certain angles you can see “strips” of clear coat unlike the usual matte finish. When casually looking the disk is nice and shiny and professional looking.

Pros:

• Locks in the Ink, even when wet
• Shiny finish
• No dry smudges

Cons:

• Cost 2x of other DVD-R media (~70 cents US per DVD)
• Only in CD-R and DVD-R Media
• Certain viewing angles reveal the clear coat strips down the media surface

Download me

I am testing out using h.264 files inside of the FLV Player for beter quality. You need the latest flash player to see this video. What does this mean for the viewers? It should mean a few things.

Benifits

• Better quality at the same bitrate or the same quality as before but a lower bitrate
• One file on server for “streaming” and for user download

This is a huge feature for the content provider because now you can just have one version of your video/vidcast that the viewers can watch near instantly online AND save to their computer for later play back which was not as easy with the FLV files.

Pitfalls

• Requires latest flash player
• Requires slightly more bandwidth to provide “streaming”

During the transition time of people updating to the latest version of flash you always have to worry about using the latest and greatest as it might eliminate some viewers who do not have auto update on or do not want it. Adobe has provided a solution tfor this situation. It is possible for a flash player to check the version that the user has and if it is not capable of playing back the h. 264 file it can fall back to a traditional FLV. So with this you can continue to encode in both FLV and h264 format until you see enough viewers using the h264 version. Also with the ability to use scripts to allow random access of properly encoded files the need for a true streaming server is becoming smaller every day. There are still features that a true streaming server provide but the gap between the streaming server and a regular web server is becoming smaller and smaller each day.