Chris Hamady

This year our school began to stream school events live over the internet. We chose to use http://www.bitgravity.com as their streaming platform is incredibly easy to implement and use, provides exceptional video quality, and it scales extremely well to large numbers of viewers.

The only problem that we were facing was due to the fact that BitGravity is an Adobe Flash-based encoding/delivery platform, we can't stream live to Apple mobile devices like the iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone. This is what we did to solve that issue. First up, the press release:

PRESS RELEASE

"Central Catholic High School is excited to announce that on Wednesday, May 19th at 7:00 PM, this year's commencement event will be streamed live over the internet in two exciting formats. In addition to using our BitGravity content distribution network that provides unbelievable video quality and clarity to our computer audience, we will also be streaming via the Stickam network to Apple iPhones, iPod Touches, and even the new Apple iPad!

If you are interested in watching CCHS's commencement via the internet, computer owners can access the stream right from our homepage at:

www.centralcatholic.org.

Apple iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users can download the free Stickam application from:

http://tinyurl.com/cchs2010

Once you install the Stickam application on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, simply search for centralcatholic on the Stickam viewer app and you will be able to stream our video feed live to any of those mobile devices.

We are very excited to be able to provide multiple commencement streams ensuring that we continue to be, One Connected Community.

Thank you and we hope that you enjoy this important event."

END RELEASE

So now that we had a solution, let's look at what we had to do technically to make that happen. Stickam's platform is free and only requires that you create an account with them in order to stream live. Both BitGravity and Stickam require that a FireWire DV stream be sent to a computer that encodes the stream and uploads it to their content distribution platform. Our problem was that our DataVideo SE-800 video switcher only has one FireWire (DV) output port that we already connect to a MacBook that encodes for BitGravity. The SE-800 also has analog A/V outputs (RCA composite ports).

We purchased a Canopus ADVC-55 Analog to Digital Media Converter. This device takes S-video or composite video in and outputs DV over a FireWire interface. Our plan is to send the SE-800s DV out to the BitGravity encoder MacBook and send the SE-800s analog A/V outputs to the ADVC-55 which will then send DV to a second MacBook encoding and delivering the video stream to http://stickam.com/centralcatholic

So far our tests have been very positive. I'll be uploading some screenshots here comparing each stream as soon as possible. A production workflow is available in PDF format HERE. (For those of you interested, this workflow was created using free mind-mapping software called MindNode for Macintosh.)

Lastly, I even tested the Stickam app for iPhone this past weekend and used it to broadcast live video of my daughter running in her championship track meet. Her grandparents watched the stream live and were amazed that I was only using a cell phone to send them the feed.

So check out the Stickam app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. If your school is currently using a Flash-based video encoder for your commencement, this app may give you the capabilities that you need to reach even more of your alumni.

CH