From: "Aaron Bishop" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Question about webcasting
You're talking about a connection from a remote site from the encoding
computer to the server computer, right? As in, NOT the connection from the
server to all the viewers?
If it's the latter, and you're expecting anything above the most token
audience, then a T3 is definitely the way to go...full preferably (instead
of fractional). Yup - it's hideously expensive but that's reality in
streaming video.
If, as I suspect, it's just the former, ISDN...even dual-ISDN, will not cut
it. The most you'll get is only 128kbps which is not enough to support the
"good video" level of 220kbps of a single-rate...never mind SureStream.
Although generally speaking ISDN is pretty stable, a nice plus.
You only need 80kbps??? That sounds WAY too low...that's not enough for
good video at single-rate, you'd need at least twice that for
SureStreaming. I mean, let's be honest - streaming video on a 28.8 modem
is largely a waste of time. The video quality sucks, the video framerate
sucks and the sound sucks - what's the point? Generally speaking, viewing
streaming video is still largely the domain of those blessed with high
bandwidth (DSL, cable, T1, etc)...I'd rather give those viewers good
quality rather than leave them shafted with sub-quality video trying to
cater to an audience I can never reach.
Okay, okay - I'm off my soapbox. Back to the issue at hand.
DSL is the probably best solution...not ADSL...but there are the two major
catches: first is that it's not available everywhere, and second: I
wouldn't get from a provider that just started offering it...the technology
is still very new and a lot of "johnnie-come-latelies" haven't really
gotten it down reliably yet.
Barring that, a cablemodem would probably do fine, although getting one at
a remote site can be tough and also a heavily-used cablemodem network make
choke on you at random times if too many people get online.
You might want to look into alternative means of getting a video signal
back to home base and have the encoder computer there. For example, radio
and TV stations have been using microwave technology to get high-quality
signals back to the studio from remotes and also as STL's
(Studio-to-Transmitter-Link) for years. Unfortunately I don't know much
more about microwave beyond what I just told you...but any good radio/video
engineering house (they're out there...do a web search) can tell you.
Aaron Bishop
CW Audio Engineer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: "Yvan Gagnon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Question about webcasting
Could someone here recommend the best, most stable and cost effective type
of internet connection to use when doing live realvideo webcasts? I've
already got the hardware solution figured out, but I'm still not sure about
what kind of internet connection to use. Someone suggested to me that dual
ISDN would be a lot more stable, but if I wanted to do SureStream, I'd be
limited to doing only 28k & 56k streams, which is considerably less than my
company's expectations. ADSL is another option, but my experiences with it
have proved it to be somewhat unreliable, not to mention the fact that it's
not available everywhere. Aside from having a fractional or full T1 line
installed at the location of the webcast, are there any other possible
solutions, like newer technologies that I might not be aware of? Ideally,
we'd like to be able to handle an 80kbps stream. I'd be grateful for any
assistance you guys could offer.
thanks!
-- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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