Thanks for the Webcasts!

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Chris Marra

(as 230 and 177 have done [Wildstang has broadcast engineers on their team.])

We do have a broadcast engineer on the team however the webcasts are handled by me (and as Raul's mechanical team regularly points out, I'm just a dumb software guy ).

Doing the on-site webcast work isn't difficult but it does help if you're familiar with some simple networking and A/V concepts. I've helped a few people run webcasts of off-season competitions through our server with nothing more than a few PM's exchanged here on CD. All I take with me is a laptop, a $50 CompUSA USB capture device, and a selection of RCA cables and connectors. As I'm usually tied up with my team, I only check in on it now and then to make sure things look OK (which is where feedback from viewers on CD is important).

The biggest problem, as Chris mentioned, is having a server with enough bandwidth to redistribute the stream. During the Midwest regional we were pushing 80Mbits/sec throughput on our server. Definitely not something you're going to be able to do from a cable modem or DSL line!