Allow me to take you on a fast tour of how to install and use UStream streaming video service to get your worship service, Bible study, youth meeting, whatever you want people to see, out on the net live.
Ustream is a platform that provides live interactive video for everyone. Anyone with a camera and an Internet connection can use Ustream to broadcast to a global audience.
In other words, you can stream video live across the Internet.
UStream uses flash technology to convert your video or webcam feed into a flash video stream witch can be viewed on the end users computer live. In addition to streaming live UStream offers the ability to record your shows to there network for later delivery.
CHAT
If streaming video wasn't enough, they have also come up with a cool implementation of a java based IRC client that allows you to have a live chat room that goes along with your feed.
Time to broadcast.
First head over to http://ustream.com and create an account. Once you have your account set up its time to set up a new show. Press the Create Standard Show button found on the right side of the webpage. Fill in all the information. Be creative or make it simple, it’s completely up to you. The options at the bottom of the creation page need to be selected or turned off.
- Channel Chatbox This will create a chatbox on your UStream page for this show. I see this as a possible way to hold online Bible study classes. Set up your cam in front of you and start teaching. People can share in the chat room questions or observations.
- Password Protection: Pretty self-explanatory. You can create a show that is only accessible by those who have the password. Could be used for staff meetings, special events, or closed group studies.
- Is this a recurring show? This allows you to set your show up as recurring or not. I have not seen the complete benefit for listing your show this way as it seems not to make a difference. Perhaps as your viewer base grows it may help UStream to pull your show out as a spotlight show.
Once you are done click on My Shows. Make sure your camera is hooked to your computer and working. I am using a Canon Digital minicam with Firewire. As soon as I plug the camera into my windows box XP gives me an option as to what to do with it. This is a good sign. It means your camera is being seen by your OS. Tell it to do nothing and continue on to the UStream site.
Now is the time to press the GO LIVE button. A new window will pop open revealing the broadcast settings window. The first thing it will ask is if you should allow the flash app to control your camera. Click on Allow to give the flash application that UStream has created permission to use the video feed.
Now you are looking at the main broadcast window. There are 3 main sections on this interface. The left shows you what the computer is seeing. You can turn on the video preview to watch the camera or turn it off and use your cameras built in view finder. The middle section has the feed window. You can view what the world on the net is seeing. I have heard that if you leave the preview off you can save frames per second. The third section is the area where the buttons that tell the app what to do is. At the bottom of this section is the Advanced Settings button.
Lets go ahead and get our settings changed to work for your situation.
- Press the Advanced Settings button.
- First select your Video Settings. Choose your camera feed here.
- Next set your Quality and Frames per Second. A lot of this depends on your net speed. If you have a fat pipe going out then go ahead and start by using best quality and FPS. Watch the feed and see if your connection can keep up. If you need to you can dumb it down later.
- Check your Audio settings.
A new feature just added this week was the ability to save or remember your settings. Go ahead and click on that button then apply settings.
Now you are ready to broadcast.
To start broadcasting press the Start Broadcast button. You are streaming live. While you are streaming you may press the Start Record button and UStream will record your show to there hard drives as the show goes on. After the show is over you can call that show from the shows page or use the embed code to place on your website or blog. You also have the option to download the movie in the flash format.
Now simply point people to your UStream show URL or use the code they give you for embedding the show on your site.
SUMMERY
Ustream is not breaking ground on streaming video quality but I have to say for the price I love it. A small church like mine can shoot its service or bible study across the world live with just a computer, net connection, and a video camera. Of course you could go larger. If your church or ministry has a multi camera shoot in place simply patch your end/mixed video stream into the flash app and you are being streamed.
There are a few apps to play with that help expand what you can do on a budget, such as picture in picture and multiple video sources that I will play with and write up another time. For now simply give it a try and see what you can do with it.
Here is a saved video from our first service.
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