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I’ve been thinking about starting a live show for a while now. My main motivation has been watching The Free For All, The Bald Truth, and The Tim Diilan Show, and some shows on Twit. I have the concept, but I’m not sure how it get started.
Should I just get a Ustream.tv account and get started or do I need to first put up my website or blog? And how would I take calls? I guess I can do it through skype right?
I would suggest you start slow. Get a Ustream account and start broadcasting to get the hang of it. It takes time and a lot of work to develop a good show, and to grow your audience. Twitter and Facebook are a must when it comes to promoting.
Also being a member of the IAIB doesn't hurt either :)
Agreed. Justin.tv is also a good place to start out imo. When I was broadcasting on multiple sites, I would always get the most viewers from Justin.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewzarian
Yeah I can agree with Jake. Justin.tv has the most drive by viewers. If you have the bandwidth, I would suggest going to more than one site like Justin.tv and Ustream.tv. I hope the best to you doing live shows is something very fun to do. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by JakeKettle
For some strange Reason JTV stopped displaying us in the directory of broadcasters. No idea why
Thanks, I'm going to have to start putting my set up together and get started.
Make sure you totally understand the concept of mix-minus.
Can you give me a little insight?:)Quote:
Originally Posted by mcphillips
The extreme basics of mix-minus is basically making sure that your output to a device contains everything but the input from that same device. Otherwise you get the echo reverb that will overwhelm the ears, speakers and everything else... Without it, it would be a neverending loop of the same audio played on top of each other to infinity (or until something broke).Quote:
Originally Posted by LucaB
Mix minus comes into play a lot when working with phone callers into your board. It allows the phone caller to hear everything coming from the board except his own voice being played back to him (which would start the loop). To test this theory, get into someone's car who has a hands free device. Then call that person with your cell phone while they use their hands free.... your phone will pick up the audio from the car and begin the wretched sounds of everything looping on top of each other...(not recommended to actually try, but you get the point).
Great stuff Brad..Thanks for taking the time to provide your insight to our users!Quote:
Originally Posted by BradShoemaker
Agree with Spencer that was great stuff
LucaB, there are a number of things to consider.
Services like JustinTV, UstreamTV, Livestream each have their strengths. When you're starting out you may need to consider your show's technical needs when evaluating which free service to use.
Each handles social media and even chat a bit differently.
Livestream also has its free Procaster and additional functions in its Studio.
Ustream has its Producer and has a paid path to more features. It also has some additional online features.
Livesream allows mobile sources through Qik whereas Ustream and Just have mobile streaming apps (New Livestream will have a mobile streaming app but it's a paid only service so far).
All allow to use your own streaming software as well but free Livestream limits upload speed to 500kbps when not using Procaster.
You also want to consider your social media strategy for building your audience. Look at what they provide. Consider what you can develop on your own through Twitter, Facebook and your own website of course. Don't let the website be an obstacle though because you can start with Facebook. Facebook even has plugins for some services so people can view the streams there.
Both your format and tech needs may impact your decision as well. Are you going to have Skype guests or callers? Are you going to have more than one camera in studio? Do you also want to show stuff on your desktop whether webpages or other things? What is your ISP bandwidth capacity and have test to see if there are packet loss or other service issues that need to be addressed. If you use multiple services how are you going to handle centralizing chat?
Just a few things to consider as part of picking which channel you head to to start.
I'm going through this learning process right now. Doing a show is the best way to quickly learn. My basic setup worked fine when I did a show where everyone was in the same place, but once I skyped my co-host in things started to get tricky. Doing the show taught me more in one hour than all the reading I did combined.
Some basic things I learned quickly:
My upstream bandwidth was not enough when a person was calling in via skype.
I need a better process for monitoring my sound level as everything sounded right in my headphones, but only by co-host could be heard on the stream.
Vidblaster can max out my AMD Phenom CPUs without much effort.
Ustream will not save my show unless I click the record button.
But now I have worked though some of those and am on to learning things like graphic overlays and embedding video on my website.
WOW cseeman...What a fantastic contribution to the community! It’s people like you who are willing to take the time to share their extensive knowledge of internet broadcasting who will really help to evolve this field. Great job, I’m really impressed. @ Micky Keck...Great tips!
Micky, the CPU usage with VidBlaster is one of my concerns about it.
I do some mobile streaming from laptops. Sometimes I go to a location whether its a performance event at a club or a talk at a local college. While I have a Quad Core i7, I've had to use a Core2Duo in the past.
With the Core2Duo I've been able to:
Use a Sony EX1 or Canon Vixia camera with a Matrox MXO2 (downscaling to Standard deff in hardware) to Express card.
I can use a DV camera on firewire.
Use a webcam as a host camera. (webcam points to me, the host, behind the computer and the other video cams points to the subject).
Stream at 640x480 or 640x360 at 500kbps.
With an Quad Core i7 I can throw a bit more at it.
I do this with Wirecast.
VidBlaster has some nifty features for desktop use but often enough I use a laptop and still want something that looks like a switched, composited stream. Also Wirecast can handle multiple audio sources (each camera's audio separately) so I don't need to bring a mixer.
Granted Wirecast has a higher starting price and if you need to go live with a trial version, VidBlaster's watermark isn't too intrusive.
I'm bringing this up because streaming from a laptop is a consideration for some shows especially if you need easy location setup.
very well said cseeman.
I was thinking of doing a video podcast as well. But, I feel that I am self-conscious about my looks.
I would say do what feels comfortable at first, but as you continue, push yourself outside the comfort zone a little bit and try it out. Whether it is showing off your artwork to the public for the first time, trying something new technically, or stepping out in front of people (on the mic, stage or on video) at some point everyone who is an artist, performer or entertainer has had to go out of their comfort zone to take that next step.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jadori
If you try it and feel you will never get comfortable with it, then stick to what works for you.
I definiity will give it a shot sometime! Thanks BradShoemaker you are my hero!
This is why the IAIB is awesome! tons of great info here!
You know it seems a lot of people are always asking about mix-minus, Maybe I should do a video for the IAIB on the basics of it and how to set it up, what happens when you do it wrong and when you do it right. I know you can look up other videos on mix-minus but sometimes they make it seem harder then it needs to be hehe.
JaseRossi that's a great idea!
Actually, I was going to give up on my blog and podcast until IAIB started following me on Twitter and IAIB helped me to regain my faith in podcasting and do it!
thats great to hear Jardori! It can be frustrating at times but hard work will go a long way
Do it! I would, but I don't have a suitable video setup.Quote:
Originally Posted by JaseRossi
Not exactly a short video but this show touches on Mix Minus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McLPxZUU2bA
I watched this episode live. It's hard to believe it's been over a year. Jase is talking about doing a demonstration. That could be helpful.
EDIT: Erik sort of does a demo at 0:40:30. (Ignore his discussion of mic level and line level.)
