TORREVIEJA.com - Interactive website of the city of Torrevieja, in Alicante, Spain.: Your Own Internet TV Show

Your Own Internet TV Show
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Redacción  on 05 May, 2008 10:38:00
 
Of course, an Internet TV show can also be much more elaborate. It's possible to
set up a professional studio with several cameras and lighting sources. Anyone
who is interested in this level of live video requires a backup staff and a
dedicated streaming server to deliver the video broadcast.
For the rest of us, producing a live Internet TV show can be done with a
minimum of extra equipment. If the broadcast consists of one person talking to
the camera (video blog style), a webcam with a built-in microphone is ideal.
For interview-style shows, you may wish to have a cameraman operating a
camcorder so that the video can pan from one person to the other.
Most camcorders or webcams can be connected to the computer through the USB 2.0
port. Older camcorders may require a FireWire port – check to see the
requirements of your particular model.
With the video camera attached to the computer, you need a way to create a
video stream that can be sent out 'live' over the Internet. Several software
packages can do this, but the obvious choice for most people using a Windows
computer is the Windows Media Encoder – a free download from Microsoft.
One of the encoding options in Windows Media Encoder is 'Broadcast a Live
Event'. Select this option and then make the required settings. Options include
whether the video stream will be 'pulled' or 'pushed' from the encoder. 'Pull'
means that the video will be delivered directly from your computer, whereas
'push' means that the video stream will first be 'pushed' to a remote video
streamer for delivery. For simple home broadcasts you will most likely use the
'pull' option.
You must also specify your IP address and port number. The IP address is the
unique location on the Internet of your computer, and is a number such as
64.233.167.104. Many people with a DSL Internet connection have a 'dynamic'
address which changes each time they connect to the Internet. In order to for
people to view your Internet broadcast they must know your current IP address
and enter it into their browser like this: http://64.233.167.104:3100.
The number after the colon is the 'port' number. You can arbitrarily assign any
free port number, or if you are using Windows Media Encoder, the software can
automatically find a free port for you.
The next step is to choose an encoding method. Encoding live video requires a
lot of processing power, so unless you have an extremely powerful computer you
will probably have to settle for a low to medium quality setting on the
encoder. The settings for video and for audio are independent, so if you feel
that the audio portion of your broadcast is more important than the video you
can increase the audio quality or vice-versa.