Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Does anyone have any knowledge of the equipment Code Red Robotics (team 2771) uses for the Michigan webcasts? Our team, the Discobots, helps out with many of the Texas VEX and FRC tournament live streams. We are trying to improve the efficiency of our workflow. I have heard of a "Code Red Box" that is supposedly what is used for their webcasts. Anyone know the details? Any other ideas of a better webcast solution?

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

For the Hatboro-Horsham district event,we use a Tricaster. Many events cannot afford to do this since it is so expensive, but our school owns one. We are fortunate enough to have our school district have their tv production staff produce our stream. Our local community collage is the one to provide them some server space to broadcast off of. If you have any additional questions feel free to email me.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Tricaster is definitely the way to go. This allows you to save a video stream, on the tricaster, while also allowing you to output the stream to a streaming service (such as ustream, or your own personal server stream), and also on a big screen :) But like SpyDan said, it costs ~$5,000 for the educational licensed version, but is well worth it if you do a lot of live video production.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

My personal favorite part of using the TriCaster System is the PIP (Picture in Picture) like that can be seen in this video on youtube at the very beginning. As already mentioned above, it will run you about 5k to get, but is well worth it. Here is the link to the low end version. My Boy Scout troop has a film production division and we are looking into getting the TriCaster 455 fairly soon (it is about 20k), so if you do get it, I may be able to answer some of your questions about the TriCaster System.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

We've partnered with Code Red Robotics to provide some webcasts (Bayou Regional 2012, 2013 and Razorback Regional 2013). I haven't personally been involved in running the cast (drive team..) but we have one mentor on our team in charge it and a few students who know who to work it and rotate throughout regionals. I can put you in email contact with our mentor if you would like. It might, however, be more direct to ask Code Red at http://www.coderedrobotics.com/contact-us

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Another thing is to use livestream.com. I was just poking around and noticed they have their own production switchers they sell. I've used their procaster as well (free software based simple switcher) that works pretty well.
Although there are pros & cons to both, I think Livestream ends up being a bit better than ustream in that they offer procaster, ad-free viewing, and HD streaming with their free plan.
Basically until you start investing lots of $$, you can't do multi-camera views (unless you pull it directly from the feed that they use for the big screen)

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

A combination of AVerMedia capture cards and a license of XSplit gets you PIP, multicamera w/ transitions, etc for pretty cheap.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

MAR has purchased some video equipment that was used to mix the projected video at the Hatboro-Horsham District. We used this mixer and a camera similar to this one (it was a Sony PTZ camera) controlled by this . It is in the works for the 2014 competition to get another PTZ camera and mount it to the ceiling for an arial view....but who knows what will happen. I would have liked if they got a HD PTZ camera....but I think that would be out of the budget since they would also have to get a new mixer as well. Overall, I think everyone was impressed with the quality and performance of the equipment.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

In addition, we had a 3Play system hooked in so we could use the IsoCorder recording to save each camera's feed. We didn't have enough people to operate it, but we could possibly do slow motion replays using the 3Play; maybe next year.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Back in the day Battlecry did replays using a Tivo. Fact.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

While I love Livestream, the one thing that sucks is that there is no way for other sites (think TBA, TRA, and WFN) to embed the actual video. It ends up with a link that loads the Livestream in a new window. So consider getting the paid version, or even seeing if we can get Livestream to discount the price for FRC-related channels.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

To all those teams who would like an awesome streaming service, feel free to email Livestream to see if they would support us: partnerships@livestream.com. My guess is they would be delighted to support FIRST teams! Hey, it gets their product and name out there and viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. And if they hear from more than one person/team about helping out, I'm sure they would be more willing to do so. I'll email them when I'm free later this summer and put my good word in.

I am really quite suprised that such sites can not embed the livestream. A few sites I have worked with had no problem loading a livestream channel into the page.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Paid vs free. If the channel paid for Livestream pro/premium/whatever-they-call-it, then it will embed the video itself. But if it's a free channel (which most of the FRC events that used it were) it embeds a webpage with a button that loads the channel in a new window/tab.

I was the one that implemented it in TBA. Unless I missed something, there's no way to get around it. The channels I used to test the functionality were local news stations, and it loaded the video right on the site. But once Dallas' regional (I believe) rolled around, it ended up with a message about the event being live and having to "Click Here" to actually play the event.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Another way to get a live stream is just ask your local community collage if they will give you some server space, if you have your own equipment. If you don't, they may even be able to lend you some. I have found that people are very willing to give FRC teams, even non profits in general, things if they just ask for it.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Very odd, one service I was a beta tester for (The now closed synchtube.com) had no issue embedding a Livestream stream of any type. We tested this extensively with free and verified channels with 1000+ users.

After that site closed the owner linked me to this as an alternative. I have been meaning to play with it since it's opensource, but looking at the test site they have, it handles livestream the same way.
Both sites are/were built off Javascript and Node.js, hopefully they can be some help.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

So, I think what I would like to see from a Stream would be for just the wide angle live shot showing full field of the match while the match is live. Use the announcer commentary to help cover what is going on. Once the match is complete, it typically takes a couple of minutes to ensure the score is ready during which you could replay the whole match showing some detail shots and having a second announcer commenting on the specifics shown on the screen. This would act like an instant replay but for the whole match. From a cadence perspective, it would be 4:30 to 4:40 of robot action per match cycle. For a 6 minute turn, this would give a little over 1 minute for score and intros. For a 7 minute cycle, you would have a little over 2 minutes.

One of my pet peeves of the streams are where the screen does not match the announcing. It would be like hearing about a touchdown being scored with the screen focusing on watching the quarterback after the pass is thrown.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

How long ago did you work with Livestream? Now that you mention it, I think you used to be able to embed any stream. The change might have happened when they switched to the "New Livestream" platform. I know for a fact that there's no way to embed free channels now. It may have been possible in the past, but I've tried many ways to do it now and it's just not possible.

EDIT: Look at the $333/month plan. https://new.livestream.com/plans#plan_comparison_table

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Oh, I assumed we were talking about the 'old' livestream streams. Last time I checked you couldn't embed the 'new' channels.
I honestly forgot about the 'new' livestream since no one I know uses it. Especially with the fact that livestream still lets you make and use 'old' accounts.

As an example I just made a new 'old' livestream channel and ran it through the site I linked. So I guess it boils down to, as long as the guys streaming know to use an 'old' account, it shouldn't be an issue.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Ah, interesting. I was under the assumption that they had phased out the old channels, since every Livestream I've come across in the past year (including the two or three FRC events this season) were the new ones.

Guess that's something to tell the stream admins to be aware of. While I do like the new platform in general, it sucks that they put such a basic feature behind a paywall.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Good ideas. I like the idea of the tricaster except for the price. We have been using a similar setup to the capturecard/xsplit setup mentioned earlier. I will continue to look into the Code Red box out of curiosity. Any other ideas?

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

I don't know what your budget is, but this is only $500 and is probably the cheapest professional solution available.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

I sent a nice note into FRC Support and they said sent it onto the Marketing Dept. I figure if they spend as much money with Show Ready to produce the events with the look and feel they require, they might as well put a little more into the broadcasting of all events to ensure that it meets their quality standards since the video will be around long after the events occur. I also encouraged them to reach out to the community of people who have done this to get additional feedback as well. Here's to hoping that they do!

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

FIRST HQ listened!

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

In my opinion - best way to go is just using a camera plugged into a computer streaming to twitch. Twitch is by far the best service in my opinion, however, if you need multiple camera angles, ect. use XSplit

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Multiple camera angles normally lower the quality of a stream. They're very rarely done right, and normally prevent you from seeing the action. Full Field view makes for a much better experience most of the time. :]

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

I did several Michigan district events and the state competition with vMix. IMO, it is a very cost effective option. http://vmixhd.com.
I ran it on a simple tower PC with a 1Gb video card and an AverMedia PCI capture card (c127) and a Go Pro Hero 4. The field display was captured with a Epiphan vga2usb adapter.

For $350 vMix allows 1000 HD inputs meaning all types of media, not just cameras. DVDs, various movie file formats, audio, etc. It was very easy to have all of the various FIRST videos, event sponsor slides, etc. queued ahead of time for quick live switching.

vMix allows for up to 3 stream outputs, although this season FiM just used one (Twitch). It also allows recording to disk. If you visit the FIRST in Michigan You Tube page, the videos uploaded from vMix are Southfield, Woodhaven, Centerline, Bedford, and States. Note, earlier in the season we placed the Go Pro about 10 ft from the field. Later we placed it back 25-30ft for a better wide view with no "fisheye" effect.

For streaming providers, I've used both You Tube and Twitch. You Tube is very picky about music. The events I did in 2014 were flagged for the music in the kickoff video which I know was ok...Twitch is content blocked in most school systems. You can stream out, but some people may not be able to watch. Both were fine for quality. You need to be conservative on streaming. I think I was at 1.5Mb running 720p.

Hope this helps some people!

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

This is really exciting! I've always wondered why a simple livestream kit wasn't included with the fields. When compared to the cost of the rest of the field, an extra box with a laptop, a couple cameras and one of these things couldn't be all that bad. That isn't to say it wouldn't be costly, but the benefits could vastly outweigh the costs.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

I really wish FiM would stream to YouTube as well... As you said, Twitch is blocked in most school systems. If I'm watching at home, I prefer Twitch, I think it the best livestream platform, but it's blocked at my school. Usually I just Proxy in, but that SEVERELY degrades the quality that I can get... FiM should just stream to YouTube as well.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Doesn't YouTube take down any stream their contentID system flags as containing copyrighted audio? Correct me if I'm wrong. YouTube is a great streaming platform, but the risk of being cut off because the mic picks up the background music would be a showstopper for me.

(This is a useful thread for us as we prepare our off season event)

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

If you're capable of streaming to three different websites, like some platforms allows, I'd stream to the following:

1. Twitch
2. Youtube
3. Livestream

This gives you a nice range of websites that can act as back-ups in the case of a stream being taken down or the website being blocked by school wi-fi.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

MAR streams live to YouTube and, to my knowledge, has never gotten a live stream taken down (event music is not broadcast over the stream). Kevin (Deetman on CD), who is in charge of the stream, would be the most reliable person to get more info from on the current MAR stream setup.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

MAR has been streaming to YouTube for 2 seasons now. With our setup, we have never had a stream taken down during the event. I am aware of one instance in which we got a "warning" during a live event that temporarily blocked the stream, but was quickly remedied as the Mic was turned off. See https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3367684?hl=en for a good description of the Live Stream Content ID repercussions. We sometimes see after the event has completed that the content ID system has found a song in the background that it didn't detect live. Most of the time, this just results in automatic ads and blocking in some countries of the event recording, but we are able to upload the individual matches afterwards anyway.

Our set up is simple. Game sounds and Mics go to our DJ's audio mixer, which then sends us back a clean feed of just the game sounds and mics for the live stream. When the MCs and game announcers are not talking, make sure that they turn their Mics off. Open mics are the only reason background music ever seems to get detected, not to mention they can pick up unwanted private conversations around the field.

More details on the MAR streaming system can be found in this whitepaper: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/3160

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

For the district and off-season event we host in Midland, MI, we built a custom streaming rig that can run up to 8 cameras at once in HD resolutions up to 4K. The setup looks something like this:

• 1x Custom-Built Windows PC with a BlackMagicDesign DeckLink Mini Recorder card installed.
• 3x PC Monitors (1 for showing all the camera feeds, the other 2 for the computer to show the stream and the switching software)
• 1x BlackMagicDesign ATEM Production Studio 4K Video Switcher
• 4x HD-SDI Mini-Cams
• 1x VGA to HD-SDI Converter box (for receiving field overlay)
• 1000ft of HD-SDI cable, cut and spliced to various lengths
• Open Broadcaster Software (Streams to YouTube, Twitch, and others, and is free)

We use the system to handle ALL of the video needs for our events, including running the projector and sponsor slides. We're also in the process of integrating a sound system into the rig with 4 wireless mics, a mixer, and a set of 4 1000w speakers so we don't have to rent those anymore, though obviously not every venue will need this.

Pros:

• Full HD support up to 4K
• Effectively (for our venue) no cable length limits due to using HD-SDI instead of HDMI
• Cheap, high quality cameras work great for fixed views and can be easily mounted to the field perimeter.
• Pulls scoreboard overlay (and sound effects) from the FMS computer
• Outputs in HD-SDI or HDMI at up to 4K resolution
• ATEM Switcher has 4 HDMI and 4 HD-SDI inputs to allow for compatibility with a variety of cameras
• ATEM Switcher can receive audio from XLR, RCA, HD-SDI, and HDMI sources.
• Switcher interfaces virtually (no physical control panel) though a program that can be run from any computer networked with the ATEM Switcher.

Cons:

• All video inputs MUST be the exact same format (size and framerate)
  • Converters can be used to get around this but are expensive (~$300ea)
• OBS has a bit of a learning curve (not too bad though)

Results:

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyg...cMilKBg/videos

We built this system after hosting our first district competition and deciding that since we wanted to keep hosting events for the foreseeable future, we would also want out own video system suited to our needs.

On the note of you're original question regarding the Code Red box, someone may correct me on this, but my understanding is that most events (at least in Michigan) haven't used the Code Red box for a few years now. FiM has started to move towards a different streaming setup using a GoPro, a basic streaming adapter (~$100), and a cheap computer to control it via USB. The main advantage is that the streamed videos are uploaded immediately after each match, the downside is that there is no audio, other camera angles, or score overlay 99% of the time (Some events that use it take the extra steps to include these, though not often).

EDIT: Apparently the MAR streaming system that Deetman linked to is almost identical to ours. Aside from the different cameras and a few other minor things. Go figure? Great minds think alike I guess. =P

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

i dont know if this would help anyone or not, but i did make a thread a little bit ago on a company called Skreens and their to be named device, which just converts a whole bunch of HDMI streams into one cord.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

You Tube works well - I have streams posted from 2014 to my own page. They were only flagged for copyrighted songs which prevent making money from ads for the poster. We pretty much eliminated that this year by using sidechain compression (ducking). This also helps with being able to hear the announcer over the music. In Michigan, the district events standardized on Twitch for the live feed and You Tube for the recording/archiving.

I've never had a live stream stopped by You Tube.

I'd really love to use a Wowza server and skip all the different providers. It's not too expensive itself - it's the hosting server and bandwidth...

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Care to elaborate? I'm not much of an audio guy but anything to make that makes the live streams sound better, is something I'm interested in.

Re: Event Live Stream Ideas
 

Heh... YT chopped the audio off, even if it was just part of the song :P
I was thinking MOKC pulled in audio directly from the sound board from the MC's mic, getting rid of the copyrighted audio. You could have your own royalty free tracks playing in the background or nothing at all. KC got banned from Twitch I think it was for streaming copyrighted music on Friday, so they had no audio all day on Saturday which wasn't very good.

Sidechain Compression/Ducking Details
 

Ducking/Sidechain Compression
I use one of these I picked up used for $45:
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/MDX1600.aspx

I use the Aux bus on a mixer, inputting all the mics and then outputting into the sidechain input of channel one on the mdx1600. I connect the DJ laptop output into the channel 1 and 2 inputs, then connect the outputs to a stereo input on the mixer.

The compression effect will quiet the music when the mics are used. I use a very quick attack and release time and adjust the compression ratio to what sounds good (quieting but not choppy).

There is one trick to using the MDX1600. I put a dummy 1/4 plug into the channel 2 sidechain input. I couldn't get very much (if any) compression without it.

I've also done this in software, but it's a bit involved. It requires VST plugins,a host application (sequencing software), and a way to route sound in Windows.
You also have to get the Aux Bus into the computer as well as getting the music out. In other words, the hardware compressor is easier :)

Google these:
energyXT ($50 simple sequencing software)
ReaPlugs (free suite of VST Plugins)
VBCable (sound routing)