This year my team hopes to do live broadcasting at the Boston and Connecticut Regional over Ustream, from there the broadcast can be picked up by our school to be distributed over our school’s TV system, the stream will also be available to family & friends and other teams. If you would like to look into doing this for your team, I have link schematics of the setup to do the broadcast. I will release the URL to everyone as the competitions near.
I’d love to hear more about your setup! I have some Pinacle hardware MP4 recorders if you want to create a hardcopy of your videos in addition to streaming them. Don’t forget - you can easily get the video feed that is put on the main screen at the Regional!
Here i’ll just post what all the specs are right here:
computer: AMD Phenom Quad custom build running on XP MCE
Uplink: a sponsored satellite or venue internet connection (still yet to be determined)
Digital Video Converter: Grass Valley ADVC-110 Advanced Digital Video Converter
Video Mixer: school loaned (not sure on specs)
audio mixer: Behringer Xenyx 802
tape deck: school loaned (not sure on specs)
cameras: one is a sony dcr-hc38, the rest are school loaned
microphones: yet to be determined could be a combination of a few
software: adobe flash media encoder w/ xml profile for Ustream (both are free)
The setup:
A host will sit at a table, much like on TV news, and tell about the event, our team, and records. Much like on the news, the host will say something like “now to (insert name) in the (pits or at the field)”, but instead of being live from the pits or field it is pre-recorded and played with a tape deck.
I would love to partner with the Blue Alliance for certain elements, send me an email at “patrick at yubgo dot com” if you are associated with them and could help us out in Boston
As for the uplink, we are looking into satellite trucks, but if a venue can provide an internet connection it would be great. I will be contacting the Boston and Connecticut Regional to see in this is possible as well as space needs for our equipment. Any tips?
From my research, satellite trucks are expensive, plus you have to rent space on the satellite. I have come across a program called livestation http://www.livestation.com
Yes you still need an internet connection. The upload bandwidth is what counts. I would say 512Kbps if streaming to a CDN for distribution, otherwise a much faster speed is needed.
I’ve been looking into P2P streaming of live content (each viewer also acts as a streaming server to others)
The equioment we use is:
2 Servers both Dual Xeon HT, 2GB RAM (1 web, 1 Streaming or as an encoder for a CDN)
Video Mixer (Newtek’s Tricaster)
Computer running DVRack to record the camera feed
Audio Mixer (Behringer UB2442FX)
Cameras (Canon XL-1s)
We have used a T-1, and a T-3 connection so far for internet
I have looked into similar setups before, but if the equipment isnt already owned, it gets very pricy to invest in such equipment. I plan on encoding right at the event then sending straight to Ustream do to their high quality
3.17 SITE RESTRICTIONS
Please read the following common site restrictions and adhere to them in order to promote an orderly, safe, pleasant and exciting competition. Please refer to Section 3.2
<snip>
• Do not arrange for Internet access or phone lines on the site or attempt to connect to the Internet.
I am aware of situations in the past where FIRST has granted specific teams access to the Internet for the specific purpose of streaming the competition; you should be in contact with your regional director and the competition director about this possibility. According to 3.17 above, doing this on your own is not permitted. Even with a Satellite truck.
I will be in contact with both regionals for this purpose, I heard from one of my mentors that FIRST has no problem with broadcasting as long as it is available to other teams for scouting purposes. I have also been in contact with Greg from the Blue Alliance.
And awesome job, by the way.
