My wife and I just finished cleaning up from our daughter’s first birthday party and Grandma is rocking the tired little center of attention to sleep without the hint of a struggle tonight. We had a houseful today for a typical toddler’s early Saturday afternoon birthday party (squeezed between a consensus of nap times) with about 7 youngsters under the age of two as well as a couple cousins and neighbors slightly older. The living room and kitchen were filled to capacity with family and friends buzzing about milestones and how much the other kids have grown since the last time they had seen them.
It was a very special day for our young daughter, and ourselves, as well as my parents who drove 8 hours to stay for the weekend and celebrate the first birthday of their first grandchild. But today had that feeling of ’something extra’ because steps were taken to stream the party live over the Internet so that family and friends who could not attend in person would be able to experience the magical moments as they happened live rather than through a photograph or recorded video.
Anyone with a camera can broadcast to the world
There are a number of things that need to be addressed (or at least considered) on your side of the stream before beginning:
Speed of your Internet connection
Quality of hardware
The environment
Online streaming service
Notifications and access
We’ll tackle them one at a time…
1. Internet connection
This one is pretty straightforward. The faster your connection, more specifically your upload speed, the higher the quality of video and audio can be maintained. 300-400 bps (bits (of data) per second) upload speed is the minimum to obtain the best results. If you have a cable Internet connection you should be just fine. DSL pretty much averages out around 250 bps upload which will still allow for a watchable stream. Most streaming services allow you to tweak the video and audio quality settings to obtain the best final result. If your upload speed is < 128 then forget streaming, it will look like a still capture every 2~30 seconds. There are many places online to test your bandwidth speed to see if it’s worth going beyond this first step for live streaming on the web. My favorite right now is Speedtest.net.
A note if using a wireless connection: the number of devices sharing bandwidth on the network will affect your upload speed. So if you have any devices that can be turned off during your streaming event (i.e. Tivo, mobile phone, another computer) it would be beneficial to do so.
2. Quality of hardware
This boils down to deciding whether to use a computer with an internal webcam built-in or to use an external, normally USB powered, camera and microphone. If using a laptop, most brands and models purchased within the past 2 years have options for integrated webcams. If you are shopping for a new laptop and live streaming is a consideration for use, save yourself some grief and just get it. The sting of any extra cost will quickly fade after the excitement of doing your first live stream or video chat with a family member. Especially after hearing them say, “I can’t thank you enough” over and over again.
Keeping everything internal will also make it easier to move your streaming setup around if you have to switch ends of the room, or move to another room like we did today for opening gifts. I have used Apple products since 1996 and their built-in iSight camera works very well, but for this latest event for my daughter’s birthday I had a fairly new Acer Aspire One 9″ netbook with a built-in webcam and microphone. The smaller footprint was desirable to fit on a fireplace mantle and it performed quite well for our purpose.
A note if using a laptop: if operating on battery power, make sure it is fully charged before the event. Nothing will bring down a crowd watching your stream like a sudden black screen when the battery dies. Then there’s the interruption to the event to get things back in order, as well as trying to answer the phone from those who are calling to let you know there is a problem.
3. The environment
The most important thing to be aware of is lighting. Sometimes it is impossible to control this factor, but whenever possible avoid having the main subject sit in front of a brightly lit window bec/ this will cause a hotspot on the lens and keep their face in dark shadow for the duration of the stream. Light should come from behind the camera and not the subject. Whenever possible, turn on a group of lights that will evenly light their face. This short video from the (AFI) American Film Institute on Howcast shows you the basics of three-point lighting.
If using the built-in microphone, try to keep people from standing or sitting too close because any sound they make will overpower the subject of the stream. Even if they think they are whispering low enough not to be heard, it can get picked up and all people will hear is their commentary that they obviously didn’t want anyone else to hear.
Also try to keep a clear path from the camera’s viewpoint to the main focus of whatever you are trying to showcase. There is nothing less exciting than watching a pair of backs blocking your little angel taking her first steps in front of everyone, except those watching the stream.
And lastly regarding environment, be aware of the stream. As in our case today, gifts had been mailed prior to the party and when we knew we were opening the present of someone watching the stream, we would turn, smile and wave holding up their gift and said thank-you the same way as if they had been in the room. You don’t have to treat every second as if you were a play-by-play sports commentator, people can enjoy simply being spectators, but sometimes it is important to make those watching feel like they are part of the group.
4. Online streaming service
There are two basic methods of broadcasting a live stream of your event:
Downloading software that was created specifically for this purpose (many times this type of software can be found online for free but you will have to embed the stream in a website, either your own domain or through a separately hosted site) and this may require more than a beginner’s familiarity with web terminology and capability
Utilizing an online service that is free, requires no downloads and can create a stream as quickly as you can log into your account and click the “Broadcast Live” button.
There are surprisingly only a handful of online services that can reliably broadcast a live stream to the world and they are: Ustream.tv, Stickam, justin.tv, blogtv.com, and livevideo.com. For the purposes of this article, we will be focusing on the easiest route to accomplish our goal and use one of the 2 free online services that stand out as industry leaders, Ustream and Stickam.
The comparison of both services could easily warrant an article on its own, but if you’re curious to compare on your own just create a free account with both and look through the FAQ, services descriptions and interface layouts to see which feels like a better fit for your individual tastes.
I used Ustream, but both services meet the basic needs anyone would need in order to stream live a family event:
no cost to participate
an internet connection and browser with recent version of Adobe Flash Player installed
fast, easy access to launch a new stream
streams audio and video
chat capability with viewers
public and private access to stream
stream to hundreds, even thousands of simultaneous viewers
Once you click the button to broadcast live, either will ask permission for the flash player to access your web cam. If you have multiple input sources, the one you want to use is available to select through a drop down menu after right-clicking the flash player.
And that’s it!
You can monitor your stream as your viewers would see it, increase the view to fullscreen for better monitoring of composition from a distance, or adjust video and audio settings within the interface to tweak the quality and performance of your stream. But I have found that the default settings are normally more than adequate for providing a stream, especially if your bandwidth upload speed is in the 300-400 bps range or higher.
5. Notifications and Access
One last item to consider is letting your event guests know that they are participating in a live stream to the Internet. Some people may not be comfortable with this, especially for a stream that is open to the public and anyone can view - sometimes you will come across people who may find your stream through a simple search via the online service you are using and if they are being rude in the chat box you are able to block their further participation with a single click of the mouse.
Setting up a private stream may require notifying family and friends ahead of time on how to find your stream online, and then use the password you would have given them to access the stream. Likewise to broadcasting, the download speed of their Internet connection will also affect the quality of their viewing experience. Simply put, this experience at either end is really not for the old school dial-up days of AOL discs you received in the mail.
Once a stream starts, it is possible to announce your stream via email, and even Twitter nowadays - but nothing beats a simple phone call ahead of time so you can hear the tone in their voice when they ask, “You’re gonna do what to who online?”
There may be a fair amount of preparation time to get everything in order before the event starts, but once you go through the motions for the first one, the second event you decide to stream live for your family and friends will be only a few clicks away.
Have fun and enjoy!
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