Video Streaming Software

[Dan Gruner]

I have a requirment to stream a video and audio source over the 'net to several users. I have setup BroadCam video streaming software to do this and so far on some simple tests it seems to hold up ok. Has anybody used this software and/or can they recommend other routes to go down?

 

Happy Xmas to all,

 

Dan

[peternewman]

I've not used BroadCam, but I have played with VLC, Darwin Streaming Server (which we ran on Linux, it needs Quicktime Encoder running on a Mac to generate a stream) and finally ustream.tv with Adobe's Flash Media Encoder (I found their entirely Flash based encoder too unreliable). Of course there are also things like Skype/Messenger etc. I guess it depends how usable/professional it needs to be, the total number of users, what quality you need etc. The ustream one for example nicely removes you from any bandwidth limits, you only have to have one outbound pipe to their server.

[jamed2017]

Ive used blogtv.com before, which is ironicaly designed for bloggers but it can be embedded in webpages and it does allow you to sellect input sources.

Its not very proffesional but it does the job. Again it depends on quality & how proffesional you need it to be.

[jbaileypro]

I can recommend Camtwist on the Mac, it has a really friendly developer who personally placed the full screen functionality in. It does work really well and can then be used with many types of software and online flash streaming sites. This is because the output is just the same as another USB webcam.

 

The other which can be an upgrade from this is Boinx TV, I haven't used this for live streaming though, but this has things such as live green screen. I primaraly use this with an output device to other systems such as live projection and broadcast.

[sleepytom]

It really depends what the purpose is, how many "several" is, and what you mean by 'net (internet? LAN? WAN?).

 

If your happy to use a commercial service such as ustream.tv and deal with the fact it has adverts in it then that is probably the simplest.

 

If you want full control and have a dedicated webserver with root access then Darwin / QTSS is pretty easy to setup and free. You can broadcast into it with sorrenson broadcaster, quicktime broadcaster or even Vic/RAT if you want to be fully FOSS. Or there is flash media sever and its opensource equivalent Red5. These options are more powerful and flexible than commercial services but require a decent level of admin skills and they can be considerably more expensive than the lowend commercial systems.

 

If your lucky and everyone is one a multicast enabled network then VLC will do a very good job without needing insane amounts of bandwidth.

 

I've used all of the above tools at one time or another with variable degrees of success, they are all quite different and suited to different purposes / situations. Without knowing what your actually trying to do it's impossible to guess which might be best for your needs.

[Dan Gruner]

Thank you all for your help - oh and a very Happy New Year!

 

Watershed - the paid for ustream service will be suitable for my requirements and I have setup a testbed working system at my premises.

 

However, having done a test of the venues rather poor ADSL connection the other day, the maximum upload speed is only around 360Kbs! In people's experience, is this a usable bandwidth to stream a single piple of reasonable quality video and mono audio? When I say "reasonable" I mean smooth playback in a 4" by 3" window say. I will have full use of this limited bandwidth (nothing else will be on the connection) and there is the possibility of access to another ADSL connection and merging them together to increase the upload bandwidth (something I do here at home successfully).

 

Dan

[Sully]

However, having done a test of the venues rather poor ADSL connection the other day, the maximum upload speed is only around 360Kbs! In people's experience, is this a usable bandwidth to stream a single piple of reasonable quality video and mono audio? When I say "reasonable" I mean smooth playback in a 4" by 3" window say. I will have full use of this limited bandwidth (nothing else will be on the connection) and there is the possibility of access to another ADSL connection and merging them together to increase the upload bandwidth (something I do here at home successfully).

 

Putting my work hat on for a moment 360Kb/s is too little, it might just about be possible to do it but you'd have so little headroom to spare I can see random dropouts during the stream being the order of the day. Aggregating connections for streaming content is fraught with it's own difficulties related to out of order packets and the like, if you're limited on doing it on an ADSL stream I'd want a line with a bit more juice.

 

David.