Bye Bye U-stream ??????

[Amnon]

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/google-hangouts-on-air-broadcast-your.html

[erictimmer]

Is this a game changer? Hmmm....I would have to say....YES! Everybody, it's time to readjust your workflow ;-)

[andrewzarian]

this is going to really change the game. People no longer need a software switcher in order to do a show

[erictimmer]

So, has anyone tested to see if Vidblaster, Wirecast, or CamTwist type theme work with it? Can we get anything other than a webcam into it?

[Spencer Kobren]

this is going to really change the game. People no longer need a software switcher in order to do a show

It's a huge game changer!

[cseeman]

I wonder how the quality is.
I've used Google Hangouts (not On Air) and it's OK but I'd really want to see something better than a webcam.
Browser Flash Plugin technology tends not to be great quality in my experience but may that can be improved (or maybe they already are).
I can see it being good for certain talk show formats.
I don't think it replaces a switcher if you do a lot of compositing. I do hope one can feed a software switcher into it.

[andrewzarian]

I have used Vidblaster with Google Hangouts. Wirecast does not work due to the lack of VVD.

[Formulatech]

For me its a great start but I think it has a way to go before you can use it to do some of the stuff wirecast and others can do. Feature requests would be embed able player with public chat, options for double boxing and a option to have a technical director run the show without needing to be on camera.

[Donovan]

This is a post from a person that I have circled on G+ and he's warning about the Content ID that seems to be more aggressive in Hangouts on Air.


Important Warning Regarding Google+ Hangouts On Air (HOA) and Content ID Checking - It appears that HOA is doing aggressive scanning of audio feeds for even deep background presence of material that might trigger Content ID blocks. This has important implications.

For example, it is likely that any participant in an associated Hangout who purposely (or even in the background) happened to have targeted material playing that could trigger Content ID, may indeed trigger a Content ID hit -- this will apparently immediately terminate the entire HOA transmission.

This may be a particular risk when covering live events when all sorts of material may be present in the background. Note that HOAs immediately terminate in this case, there is no opportunity to "correct" the situation, and of course no way to plead fair use in this instance. It is not immediately clear to me if a Hangout participant who has been blocked (and so no longer on the HOA live stream) could still trigger a full HOA shutdown of the stream. In any case, anyone planning HOA broadcasts should be aware that Content ID is operating very aggressively in this context.

I'm not entirely sure where he got the information, but I thought I would share it nonetheless. Here's the full link to his post and the follow-up comments: https://plus.google.com/114753028665775786510/posts/MPEq46mX6u1

[erictimmer]

Okay, after messing around with it for a bit I can say it's good but not great. Like a lot of Google products I assume it will get better with time. It *can be a good way to have a group video conference type show, but the quality isn't the greatest and it needs some more controls. I guess it's another tool that we could use, not the end all be all.