Video Streaming for a church organization.

[ctlw83]

Hey All,

I was just wondering what the best way to go about streaming the Mass for a church organization would be? I thought Ustream.tv at first but, then realized that there are ads. For the purposes of this organization, there cannot be any kind of advertisements as it is a non-profit and we don't want inappropriate ads that are against Church teachings or morals popping up.

Basically we are looking to stream the Mass live from a professional studio setup, while recording it so we can later upload it to YouTube or some other on-line video service. We would like to do this, again without ads.

What would be the best way to go about this that is both ad and cost free? If not cost free, as cheap/low budget as possible.

Would it be possible to use VLC to stream to some kind of a flash web video client while recording the show?

Thank you in advance for your help, it is greatly appreciated.

[lowellriggsiam]

I used to use my pc as a web server using apache.

[JohnnyMalaria]

You can do this from a PC using Windows Media Encoder which is free. It will also create an archive of the video. The rub is that only 10 people can connect at one time. If you need more then you have to get the server version.

[ctlw83]

The question I have is, how would you run that in a browser? Form what I can tell, that will only work with windows media player installed on the client's PC. What if they have a Mac, or Linux and don't have Windows Media Player?

Does Justin.TV also run ads within the flash player window?

I am confident that they do have a Windows server environment of some kind to use. However, I am not 100% sure of where the server is and what else it does.

Is there any way to stream and backup using VLC and some sort of flash-based player?

[JohnnyMalaria]

The question I have is, how would you run that in a browser? Form what I can tell, that will only work with windows media player installed on the client's PC. What if they have a Mac, or Linux and don't have Windows Media Player?

You can do a similar thing with Real Media Encoder and Adobe Flash Media Encoder. I don't know about the client limits for the freebie versions, though.

[edDV]

Is the requirement that the stream must be live?

How many viewers?

What is the computer sophistication of the viewer?

You need a project specification.

[ctlw83]

The overall goal is to stream the daily Mass, which is about an hour long, onto the website for the organization and be able to record it as well.

This will hopefully make the content available to a younger audience, rather than just the 60+ TV audience.

I don't know what the initial viewership will be.

[poisondeathray]

Most free sites will have ads; that's how they pay for bandwidth

Look for upgraded accounts which have a small fee which may allow for greater control over ads and other features

Check out vimeo plus is about $60 a year and allows for other features ; I think blip.tv has some paid features as well.

All these are offline; so you would record & edit, then upload at a later time. These are not live streaming. Live streaming rtsp bandwidth is very expensive compared to "progressive download" which is what most sites use (like youtube, facebook etc..)

If you want complete control, you need to have your own website.

[edDV]

As said "live" streaming is extremely complex.

If you use one of the suggested host sites, you can link to the playback file from your home page.

[ctlw83]

I actually saw that Justin.Tv has an ad-free live streaming and archive system for $9.99 per month, however, they are cheaper if you buy per year at around $80...I think.

[vuemaster]

if you want to broadcast a LIVE Mass or other service/event at a church and broadcast it directly to a viewing page on the churches website, VUELIVE is an option. www.vuelivenow.com Their technology allows anyone to broadcast using a simple dvd camera (or up to a video switcher), a laptop, and a broadband connection to any webpage. Users simply go to the VUELIVE Broadcaster login page, enter their login/password and are brought to a broadcasting page where they can adjust frame rate, quality, and bandwidth usage for optimal viewing.