Live streaming events

[otherguy]

This year my team will be hosting our first district event. There are plenty of quality teams coming and it's looking to be a pretty deep field in the NE District. We want to make sure that this event is live streamed.

I seem to remember some old posts mentioning the need for a TV tuner to take in an analog video feed from the event staff. Then from there it can be live streamed through whatever web service you prefer. I think this was talk for an offseason event though. So I'm not sure if the same applies for in-season district events.

Is live streaming events something that FIRST usually takes care of? If not, what kinds of setups have teams found useful in the past (hardware/software)?

Any information would be helpful. Thanks!

[Nuttyman54]

The PNW district events will be using a Matrox Monarch HD hardware encoder to send the stream out (yes it's pricey). We haven't used it at an event yet, but we've spent a lot of time playing with it and are very happy with the results. All it needs is an HDMI feed in and an internet connection, and it gives you the RMTP server to input on the streaming website.

We originally tried streaming using software encoding, and found the results to be subpar and very laggy for anything of watchable quality (read: above 360p)

Check with the district organizers to see what their video feed output will be. At regionals, the video has all been handled by ShowReady events, but this is usually not the case at districts. You may need a video signal converter to get the proper format to the encoder.