Posts tagged ustream
Written by Leave the Adverts at Home
You know the problem, you love watching Ustream, Justin.TV and the many others streaming sites out there but in order to provide a Free Service to all – they plasters the page with adverts and this can get distracting. You want a way to get rid of these and view the page as it was intended? then read on..
Ustream.TV – Complete Review
Ustream is a WEB 2.0 Site which allows anybody with a webcam and microphone to have a live video for others to watch and it does this this by means of you sending your Audio / Video to a central server and others connect to that server thus allowing a person with a normal home broadband connection to broadcast a show to many.
There has been a lot of changes at Ustream of late, so I will be using this post to review what it does, how it does it and the pro’s and con’s of the chosen path – this will allow you to see if it suits your needs.
Web Purge 2.0
I had some inspiration that I should go on a purge of all the web sites that I personally think I should stop using, I slept on it overnight to make sure it was not a flash in the pan idea that I would regret later and once my mind was made up, I went on a purge of all the site I had registered and used.
USTREAM TV
The first casualty was Ustream.TV – this was of no use to me and I had my fill so armed with this I made sure I deleted the Video’s I had recorded, removed the show and finally the user accounts, I Mirrored this on my IRC Client, no more shall I be on there for whatever reason, be it watching shows or broadcasting. READ MORE »
Just how do you get Vistors on Ustream?
Imagine the Scene – you fancy starting a new live video stream, you have it all planned out on what to show, how often to stream and so forth. You maybe spend time on a nice logo, making some recordings to give people who may come by something to watch which entails speaking to yourself (always fun) and so forth but the visitor count remains a big fat Zero no matter how long you have that stream on.
Compute Ability – A Tech Show on Ustream
I Looked through the Tech Shows on Ustream the other night and apart from the normal 10 or so which were showing nothing as normal (why??) – there was a new one I had not seen before called Compute-Ability, so I head on over there to check it out.
Flash Streaming vs FME on PC.
I just happen to have two streams open, one was using the standard flash based streaming method as they run a Mac (for CamTwist) and the other a PC and using Flash Media Encoder – the difference? Well see for yourself – almost like night and day.
You can get a complete guide for UStream here:
The State of Live Streaming today
Live Streaming – Has it advanced any?
The various web sites out there offering the ability to stream live about 6 months ago was new and fresh, had no advertising and easy to find various streams to whatever took your fancy. Basically anyone can set up a web cam and stream but it take bandwidth the cater for many people and this is where they come in, you in fact stream to one server, needing about 400kbps upload and the server relay’s this out to as many as thee bandwidth allows. Bandwidth / Servers are not Free or even cheap for that matter – so why did they offer such a thing (much in the same way YouTub offers Video’s in this sense).
Advertising
One Way to claw some of that money back is to put advertising across the pages and even the live stream as a means to get some income back in but this maybe only works if people are actually clicking on them. I have noticed all of the main players (Ustream, Stickam, BlogTV, Justin.TV) have adverts on there video now – the reason why the stream’s is people were embedding the Stream on there own pages and by-pasing the adverts (replacing them with there own in fact).
People get annoyed with the advertising
I have seen either by the forums or other means people make statements such as:
“I did not give them permission to put adverts over MY Stream”
or
“They should give me some of the revenue – it is me providing the content”
What people seem to have forgotten is that the service has to be paid for in some fashion, it is Free, if you want Advert Free Live Streaming – then you will have to either find something that is paid for or run your own (lot of upstream required).
Moderation
There is nothing more annoying to the vistor then coming to a room, having a chat and then getting kicked off or even banned for what is deemed for no reason. You have no real course of action to complain other then changing your IP and attempting to come back but personally you are fighting a loosing battle. Remember that as they get rid of people – that is one less person who is visting there stream and for every subject, there is many people streaming about it. One some streams, the only thing you loose from the above is the ability to type messages – many have there chat embeded in the stream or in the case of Justin.Tv for example – you can see the chat anyhow even if not logged in.
Tech Streams
I just want to give a special mention to the MANY tech Streams out there – while I give them credit for sitting there and giving free tech support (or at least trying to), you do get what you pay for and not all the advice given will be any good or for that matter be any better then Googling it. Remember also it is hard to type the exact problem – imagine trying to explain an icon on the task bar which comes up and goes quickly, easier to speak but most won’t have voice comms going.
Where are they all heading?
Quite simply I see many of the Live Streams and people as a passing phase and many will move onto something else at some point. I am only speaking about myself in this respect as the things I used to do 1 year ago for example, I do not do now and I find it hard to see someone a year from now still streaming 24/7 unless they have nothing better to do. I see ISP’s bringing in more Capping of data and the streaming sites charging or limiting the time.
Comparing Streaming Hosts
USTREAM.TV
Ustream has a font page where they have featured, most viewed and Popular and this lists a handful of streams you can watch. If your stream has been accepted into the right section (Tech, People etc) then this is another way people can find out about you. If you are outside these realms, there is little chance people can find you. The Chat server is an IRC sever hosted by Ustream but with one email to support, they can swap you to others. There is also an option to stream via Flash Media Encoder for better quality.
The Built in Chat allow for basic Admin duties but you won’t see who is joining and so forth. There is many programs which allows you to watch stream away from the web page such as StreamDesk for example. I find it easier to visit the site, use the POPUP window of just the video and join the stream via an IRC Client. Ustream offers both good and bad ideas and not easy to find the type of stream you are looking for.
Justin.TV is very similar but is ubale to allow people to use an IRC Client – they do have a server but unless your name is on a White List – you will never get in. This means all of the chat is focused on the web client they present. They do have groups and a means for people who stream to place there video in the right area – such as Tech for example. For moderation – they have SLOW Mode (a 10 minute time out from typing) and a Ban – which is all managed on your account. I found the stream very choppy either streaming myself or watching. Due to lack of IRC options – I am not in favour of this site.
BlogTV is another one I came across – On inspection I noticed it had the streams broken down into Country such as USA, Russia and UK for example – this allows me t personally find something in my own time zone instead of having to wade through all the USA Channels (which are on-line but asleep). Within this there is also Types such as Tech, LifeTV and various others – so finding the right type of show should be easy and if you hosted a show, an easy way for people to find you. I have no idea if it has a IRC Server, I personally coud not find the info on how to connect. On the subject of the Video – watching shows and people talk but I cannot see there moth move – this means it is a very low FPS and not able to capture the lips moving.
This is pretty new and not as many shows stream, people can add there picture into the bottom which is either good or bad – depending on what you want to do. The chat can be managed so that for example the chat is disabled when you are not broadcasting – this would stop spammers for sure. The quality of the picture is good but it is not suited to mass chatting – more of a MSN type program really. Chat is on the screen once again and easy enough to manage though I always prefer an IRC Client to manage these things.
Thoughts and Conclusions
You could set up a stream using any of the one’s above and there is probably more out there that I have not even mentioned. My View is that ustream seemed more professional BUT you could run a show for 5 days solid and not have one visitor as nobody would even know you were streaming. The other sites are good in the idea they present BUT without a proper IRC Server for Chat – I feel this lets them down. It is possible though for one more option:
1. Test them all out and work out which gives best quality.
2. Embed the Video Only on your own Web Site – which you promote to all.
3. Set up your own choice of IRC Server and use a Java Program for chat if required.
4. Diable all Chat on the Video site and put a link for them to register.
Feel free to try them out – watch a few streams and see how it goes, they all have there Pro’s & Con’s.
Live Streaming – 24/7 or as required.
If you pop along to let us say – Ustream at any time of the day or night, there will be something to watch but I have just taken a look at Lunch time (UK Time) Today and although there is a good 40 or so “Promoted” – none of them are actually featuring people but rather a shot of a house pointing at some computers normally.
Let us Pick the top crop and see what we can see:
Big Tent Construction Cam – Black Screen (probably at night).
Quest Community Chursh – Adverts
Chris Pirillo – His room in darkness with some flashing lights.
Space VidCast – Old footage video
The moral here is that a LOT of people are both from the USA and stream even when not there – that means most Americans are in Bed asleep while the British (or other countries around the world) get to watch an empty dark room, so what is the point? Speaking from my own thoughts, I would rather have a list of streams that are Live with people there right now and the ability to look through them. The way it is looking now, there could well be an interesting Stream from the UK that is Live and wondering why people are not there while another stream with nothing but the room been streamed is getting all the visitors.
