Hands on Guide to Webcasting

1. Hands on Guide to Webcasting Streaming Media East

2. The Goal • Live at noon • Audience participation • yes, that means you

3. What We Have To Do • Planning • programming • production • network infrastructure • web presence • Execution • a/v production • authoring • encoding • Testing • everything – twice.

4. Rough Schedule • Initial discussion (10 mins) • Planning (1 hour) • basics (who/what/where/why) • Execution (1 hour) • a/v production setup • a/v testing • encoding setup • encoding testing

5. Why Webcasts are Tricky • They’re live • No second chance • Additional hardware requirements • Additional personnel requirements • They test the limits of your streaming infrastructure • Bandwidth • Server architecture (web & streaming) • They’re expensive and therefore can be hard to justify

6. Are you ready?

7. First: Make the Business Case • Who • is the audience? • What • are we webcasting? • Where • is the location suitable • When • is there enough time to do it right? • Why • is this the best way to address the need?

8. We need a crew. • Executive Producer • Audio engineer • Videographer (camera op) • Encoding engineer • Host • Guest(s)

9. Planning • Location • Size, power, access, union fees • Signal Acquisition • On site connectivity, satellite • Equipment • Usually best to work with a partner • Crew • May come with equipment • Presentation • Talent, Pre/post show, technical difficulties • Network Infrastructure • host, bandwidth usage, encoding specs

10. Setup • Production area • Stage • Audio • Video • Encoding

11. Audio Setup • Avoid ground hum • Placement or extra equipment • Ambient mics • Absolutely for musical events • Tape down loose cables • Use compression • Test!

12. Setting Up A Gain Structure • Make sure each piece of equipment operates in its optimal range • Start with first piece of equipment and work through the signal chain • set the input and output gain for each • Peaks at -3dB for analog, -10dB for digital

13. Audio Production Tips • Compression “evens out” audio levels • Protects your equipment from “spikes” in level • Attenuating loud sections enables overall signal gain • “Fattens” audio • Hardware compressor is essential for webcasts

14. Compression Illustrated

15. Video Setup • Tripods (heavy duty) • Risers if available • Lights • 3-point? • Flat wash? • White balancing (shading) • Test!

16. How Video Codecs Work • Intra-frame compression • Just like a .jpg or .png file • Inter-frame compression • Differences between frames are encoded • Key frames • Entire frame is encoded • Uses a lot of bandwidth • Difference frames • Only differences are encoded • Use relatively little bandwidth on low motion content

17. Video Production Tips • Avoid unnecessary motion/changes • Use a tripod, use a tripod, use a tripod • Avoid moving objects in the background • Avoid special effects • Simple edits are best • Keep the number of cuts to a minimum • Framing • Smaller screen, so frame tighter

18. Video Production Tips • G-I-G-O • Use good video engineering practice • If you don’t know, hire someone • Good equipment, proper technique • If you don’t own it, rent it • Lighting is essential • Nearly impossible to correct using software • Low-light = no light

19. Video Processing Techniques • VGA vs. Television displays • VGA screens are far more detailed • Traditional video tends to look dark & washed out • Adjust Brightness • Add gain to match screen to a TV monitor • Be careful if you’re going back out to the broadcast world! • Adjust Contrast • Adding a small amount is good; be careful though • Too much contrast adds grain (bad for codecs) • Color • Increasing saturation a bit can be helpful

20. Encoding Setup • Bit rate • Resolution • Capture card? • Encoding software? • Local Archive? • Push vs. pull encoding • Redundancy is key • Ideally redundant connectivity • Extra equipment • Multiple stream solutions

21. Authoring • Link to webcast page from home page • Always offer a metafile link • If embedding, keep it simple • Test!

22. Authoring • Problem: browsers don’t stream • Browsers don’t understand RTSP or MMS protocols • Browsers download entire file • Solution: metafiles • Small file delivered via HTTP • Contains information about streaming file 1 Web Server 2 4 3 Streaming Server 5

23. Authoring - Metafiles • QuickTime .qtl files • RealSystem .ram files • Windows Media .asx files <?xml version="1.0“ ?> <?quicktime type="application/x-quicktime-media-link“ ?> <embed src=“rtsp://your.qtserver.com/YourStream.mov" /> rtsp://your.realserver.com/YourStream.rm <asx version="3.0"> <entry> <ref href="mms://your.wmserver.com/YourStream.wmv" /> </entry> </asx>

24. Distribution Techniques • Redundancy is key • Robust load balancing required • Use multicast where appropriate • Usually best to work with a partner • TEST!

25. Distribution Methods • Unicast/multicast to servers • Unicast/multicast to local clients

26. Countdown • Test the audio • Test the video • Test the encoder(s) • Test the link(s) • Go live at least 10 minutes before event begins, preferably 30 minutes

27. Liftoff?

28. Q & A Thank You Steve Mack smack@luxmedia.com