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Finchley TV goes on air |
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The Dream and Ustream |
How it works
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Has your club ever had an evening that you wanted to share with others
- maybe members of the club who could not come or anyone else who might be
interested? At Finchley, we have been wondering about this and our interest
quickened when Arthur Bates wrote to Film & Video Maker magazine
on the same subject. His dream was:
First, we looked at using Skype but this only allows one-to-one video communication not multiple viewing. Unfortunately, commercial video conference facilities are expensive but now there is an alternative called Ustream. This enables you to broadcast sound and video live on the web free. You create your own video channel on the Ustream site and then you can send pictures to it from your webcam so they can be watched in real time. Even better, they offer free software called Ustream Producer which offers transmission of:
Moreover, you can cut/dissolve between them.
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This sounded to be just what we wanted so we set out to see how it worked
in practice. At our club premises, we are fortunate to have access to Wi-fi
and a decent laptop and so we had all we needed.
On Friday 19th November we tried FinchleyTV via Ustream for the first time, narrow-casting to a pre-selected band of viewers to watch and assess. Technically the set up routine was as follows:
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The First Transmission
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Next Steps |
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On the night, rather than rely on the on-board mike we put a rifle mike
on a stand and pointed it at our guests. This worked fine as we had two speakers
who moved about as they talked - I monitored the sound on headphones from
the camera and from the laptop to check captured and incoming quality.
At the appointed time, we logged on, put up our test-card, and cut the sound - remember your viewers can hear every word including you swearing at the kit for not working properly. Our guest speakers started their talk about being a drama producers and directors for the BBC - and very interesting it was. We turned on the sound and dissolved to the picture and seconds later we saw that we were indeed broadcasting to the internet and even better shown that we had 4 viewers - everyone we had asked.
On returning home I was very gratified to receive emails saying how much the broadcast had been enjoyed. Over in the USA Ned Cordery was getting just as good a result as Dave in Bath. However we did have a problem when our guests wanted to show some video - I pointed the camera at the projected image on our big screen but I could tell and our viewers confirmed that sound or vision were not very good. The following morning Arthur in Morayshire got in touch - ironically, he was getting a poorer picture than Ned in the USA - probably because his internet speed was lower - that was the defining factor not distance. |
I hope there are others who would like to join in this experiment. Although
most evenings are not suitable (do you really want to watch our annual
competition?) we do have some interesting guest speakers each year so I am
looking for volunteers to view the next FinchleyTV broadcast. If you
are interested, please contact me at
Finchley.Film.Makers@googlemail.com
Meanwhile we are wondering how this could be developed. There are various issues to consider
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Interaction and experimentFrom a club point of view, this idea has tremendous possibilities - our county members, other clubs or individuals would be able to share our evenings live on Friday. Alternatively, any programme (a pre-recorded evening or anything else) could be streamed on any suitable evening for interested groups or people anywhere in the world; no more sending out DVDs. With the prospect of a wider audience, more speakers might be interested. Software companies could set up demonstrations for multiple viewing. The IAC might be interested in setting up talks and demonstrations as a service to clubs. If both clubs had these facilities then interclub competitions between any clubs would be possible - irrespective of where they were and anyone could watch. However, Ustream is a one-way service and we think the scope of this service could be enhanced considerably by interactivity. We need some way that the viewers could ask questions which can be relayed in real time to the presenting club. Using a (mobile) phone would work (sort-of) but would be cumbersome and intrusive. Possible computer based solutions such as instant messenger services, Twitter or email look possible on paper but have yet to be tested. We plan to broadcast more evenings in 2011 and are looking for interested clubs/individuals who can watch any of these broadcasts and provide feedback. We are also looking for technically adept club members who can join me/Finchley in developing the idea and getting the standard of broadcasting to high levels. I hope you are as excited as I am about this. Please get in touch with me to stake your interest. - Peter Kidman (Finchley.Film.Makers@googlemail.com) |