I thought I would write a few words on live streaming shows, how it effects me (and most European people) and time zones. I was thinking back when I used to spend most of my time on Ustream as the site of choice to catch the latest person streaming a show from there web-cam and even stay up late so I could feature on these very shows, armed with IRC Client of choice and be part of a community of Tech minded people from all over the world, mostly USA based though. Of course time changes everything and some things have to fall by the way side, this is my update if you like on how it interacts with my life now.
Ustream
I noticed a full shift from people wanting to stream on Ustream to now wanting to go via Justin.TV Instead. Using only the web based side of Ustream has its own share of issues – the main one been the chat does NOT scroll on its own and this makes talking hard, the solution is to use an IRC Client instead to chat with as Ustream at least support a fairly normal IRC Server. The other aspect at least for me is that if I click back on the browser (Firefox) – nothing happens, this is because the list is filled with the current page – a bug for sure. As a Broadcaster – you have to use there recording interface to Record the show and if you started say a ‘Tech’ Show – you will be swamped by the number of people in that section broadcasting nothing much, your viewer count will be low, Guaranteed.
Justin.TV
So why is every has people jumped ship to this medium? One of the reasons is the ‘Tech’ Section is quite small with current live broadcasters but once more people start to broadcast “re-runs” – Expect this section to be the same as Ustream. There is some good shows for Tech but they are not actually listed in the Tech section at all, very strange but as they only allow you one choice, this is what happens. The chat on the page flows with the chatter unlike UStream but it is very hard to control the spammers and trolls, to this end a lot have chosen to ditch this form of chat and instead run there own IRC Server.
Time Zones
I am based in the UK and this means that EST (New York and so forth) is -5 hours behind me, a show starting at 8PM over there means I would have to stay up till 1AM and given a show might last a couple of hours, I would not get to bed until 3am. As we move across the USA Landscape, the time difference only gets worse. The west coast is -8 hours behind me – even if they started the show at 6pm, this is still 2am though most of them like to start a show at 8pm.
Why should it matter about these so called ‘Time Zones’ at all though? Well I personally do not know of any decent, frequent UK based Live show that I can visit on a regular basis and as I work Mon-Fri, any of this “Staying up late” is just not an option. What if I started my own show? well the same happens, all the USA people are either asleep or at work, so same problem really – a show with no audience.
The way forward from here
Let me list some shows I used to watch and how now that list is very small indeed:
The Tech Buzz – They have 3 shows a week, Tuesday is both Late (10pm UK Time) and all about Apple. Thu/Fri is more fitting at 6pm my time but they run there own IRC Server which to this day I refuse to ever join. I am banned from the Justin.TV page, so I get none of the chat. Of late this is starting to grow a bit boring and the adverts seem to be increasing (I HATE Adverts period) – I have a feeling I will soon drop this show from my lists.
The Tech In All Things – Fletch has a great show and I used to enjoy watching this guy but he works and I work, he is -8 hours away, the bottom line is neither the two shall meet. He broadcasts on Ustream and I suggest if you are in his time zone – go check him out.
Compute-Ability – They broadcast a show every Saturday 8:30PM EST (though of late these Saturday Shows have failed and moved to Sunday), I have lost track of the last time I seen this show live!
The Computer Store – Based on the East Coast USA, this is not so much a tech channel but more of a fun place to be. Shot inside the computer shop with the owner named Anthony, this also fits in with my time zone nicely. I spend most of my time on this channel these days.
Ron Knights – Has a show 8pm EST Friday and 3pm EST Saturday and for a while I watched this guy but the interest only lasted so long and now I am happy to let this show slip (if he still broadcasts that is).
Slow start - my own show
I have started to broadcast randomly at first with gaming while playing music via iTunes, I Tweet out when I am live though I am sure Games and my music will not be of interest to most. I want to produce a tech based show but as of yet, not got there – Sorry.
Your Views
I would like to hear from the other side of the fence, are you happy with the shows out at the moment? Do you feel Ustream has gone more commercial and is Justin.TV the answer? Would you like to see more shows and do you think the buzz of streaming yourself on a web cam has in fact worn off?
