HOWTO setup a webcast

Tämän artikkelin tarkoituksena on selvittää, miten sinä voit lähettää ohjelmaasi Internetissä. Jotta siitä olisi apua myös vieraskielisille ystävillemme, se on kirjoitettu englanniksi. Jos jokin jäi vaivaamaan, niin kysy .)

The purpose of this article, is to explain everything one needs to know when you want to broadcast your programs over the Internet. If reading this still leaves some questions unanswered, feel free to ask . The article is of course based on our own experiences, so it could also be titled "How we did it".

1. You need something to show

You might think this is obvious, but it's actually the most important part. Our webcasts are not technically superior in any way. Compared to a TV program, one might even say that the quality of a webcast is lousy. But this is not what people see when watching our programs, at least not judging from the feedback we get. Those that have personal relationships with the Helsinki Adventist church tell us how wonderful it was to "visit" again or how good it was to hear a sermon in Finnish since they are now living abroad. Others will just tell us the program is interesting, or that the music is fantastic.

So, rule one is: When you have something interesting to share with us, everything else is will come easy. If you don't have anything, you can just stop reading right here.

2. You need a video camera

It's not really important what type of camera you have, since this is not going onto tape. If you already have a camera, start with that one and see if it works.

However, if you need to buy a camera, see if you can afford a modern digital camera (digital8, miniDV, DV, DVCAM...) because their picture is really better than those old VHS cameras. (If you're going to use an older camera, some extra spotlights might be a good idea.)

(Of course, if you're also going to use the camera for something else, then it might matter to you what kind of tapes it uses. But for webcasting it really doesn't.)

You can get a cheap miniDV camera for less than $1000 (7000FIM) and a Digital8 for even less.

3. You need sound equipment

Yes, the camera has a microphone, but we are NOT going to use that. You might be surprised to know, that sound is more important than video ! This is especially true in webcasting. Since the video is heavily compressed and might temporarily even stop, the sound is actually what holds the video together. And more importantly, the sound is going to be compressed also, so we really cannot afford to have any noise or echo in it.

In our case, we take the sound directly from the curch's PA system. Something that you should consider is that you want to broadcast ALL of the sounds that are part of the program. For instance, applause or singing coming from the congregation doesn't go through the PA in the church. So we also have a separate microphone that picks up these sounds for us.

Finally, if you have more than one microphone, you will need a mixer, since a typical computer only has one input for sound. In our case we have two audio sources (PA and our own mic), so we can use the left and right channels of a vcr or tape recorder as a "mixer".

It's difficult to give any price estimates on this point.

4. You need a (fairly modern) computer

This computer we call the encoder

The computer should have a soundcard with a mic-in and/or line-in. This has been standard for years.

The computer should have video in . This is not standard. You need to have an add-on card that does this and it will cost you about $250-$100 (1500-600 FIM). We have been very happy with our Matrox G400 TV .

The computer needs to have a way to connect to the Internet. We'll discuss this separately.

A computer + Video in + Network card or equivalent

5. You need a fast Internet connection

Well, if you want to make live broadcasts that is. In fact we have noticed that people like to watch the archived broadcasts when it best suits them and only occasionally we have people watching the live stream. If you don't care about live broadcasts, a modem connection is enough.

But if you want to make live broadcasts, you need more than a modem. Not much, but it's good to have a connection that is one step faster than your target audience's. So if you are encoding your videos for people with 56kbps modems, you need to have double ISDN yourself. And if you target double ISDN users (we have found this a good compromise with bandwidth and quality) you need at least ADSL or cable.

We broadcast streams for double ISDN and 56kbps modems and have a network connection of 2 mbit/s.

This will cost you, but it's very difficult to say how much.

6. You need a server (another computer)

From this point on there are different options. You can rent space from some service provider (this is the costly solution, I'm telling you). Or you can setup your own server somewhere (and this is the lot-of-work solution). If you are an adventist church, we suggest you try sharing a server with your conference or division or just some neighboring churches. Or ask us for some help to get you started!

And yes, even if you could, never use the same computer as encoder and server.

In our case we have that 2 mbit/s connection, so we have our own server sitting in the basement. We feel that this has been a very good solution, it gives us full control over everything that happens and also gives the opportunity to experiment with new things. And if you want to do live broadcasts, you'll need the constant connection anyway.

Costs either: A lot of money /month
or: another computer (and constant access to the Internet if you didn't already get that at point 5)

7. Software

For the encoding computer, Windows 98 is a good choice for operating system. For the server, take our advice and use Linux - it will save you a lot of trouble.

You can get free versions of the following software from the RealNetworks website .

• RealProducer - for the encoder
• RealServer - for the server

The free versions are limited in some functionality, for instance, the server will only accept 25 simultaneous connections. We have never had any problems with this limit, since usually people watch the programs from the archive at different times of the day.

RealNetworks also has some excellent manuals on this subject .

Costs nothing, except if you get a really big audience, and in that case you'll be just happy to pay :-)

8. You are ready to webcast!

• Connect the camera to the encoder-computers video-in.
• Connect the microphone/audio source to the soundcards line in.
• Start RealProducer.
• Encode to a file and then copy the file to the server.
• Or give RealProducer the address to the server to make a live broadcast.
• If the server is running and configured, it should work
• Send us some email, we'll promise to watch your video.