Hi,
I recently posted a message to the list:
"Has anyone - any UK university or college - delivered a live stream of
a public lecture/event via the web? I'd be interested to know who's done
this and what technologies were used. We're about to do our first, using
Flash/FMS."
In response, I received quite a few replies and thought it would be
useful to share a brief summary with the list - see below. Also, an
update regarding our first live webcast.
The event - a conversation between George Soros and Howard Davies (LSE's
Director) - was webcast live via two websites simultaneously - the LSE
website (http://www.lse.ac.uk/) and The Washington Note
(http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/). We (Web Services) use a third party
rich media hosting supplier to host/stream our rich media. We used their
software (flash based) to capture and upload the stream to their servers
(FMS). The AV feed came from the Apreso-based lecture recording system
our colleagues (AV and CLT) have installed in our main lecture halls. As
we had no benchmark for demand, we decided to play safe by setting the
maximum capacity to 10,000 simultaneous connections. This is very high.
We were streaming to two websites (one in the UK and one in the US) and
had to ensure that we had excess capacity to cope with connections from
staff, students, and alumni (tens of thousands were emailed) as well as
the non-LSE external audience. Furthermore, we had to ensure no one
missed out (ie no blank screens due to lack of available connections) as
this was a requirement. With live lectures/discussions, we're expecting
the majority to stay connected for the duration rather than dip in and
out.
To deliver to the required maximum capacity, we setup an edge-origin
architecture using FMS. We had two origins so split the AV feed and
uploaded two streams simultaneously - one to each origin. Each origin
then propagated the feed to a number of edges and then to clients. We
were asked if we could do this on Wednesday 15 May, considered it on
Thursday 16 May, committed to it on Friday 17 May, and delivered it on
Wednesday 22 May. It worked well (bar over-exposure) and needless to say
we were well within the capacity. If interested, the recording is
available on the LSE website currently - see
http://www.lse.ac.uk/LSElive
This first run was by no means a walk in the park so happy to
share/discuss if helpful. Thanks to all those who sent advice -
appreciated.
Best wishes,
Stephen...
Summary
What's happening elsewhere:
* Bath Spa - QuickTime Streaming Server/Darwin.
* Warwick - Wowza Media Server.
* York - Flash/FMS; Apreso.
* Headscape - ustream.tv: currently investigating Flash/FMS.
* Birmingham City University - WiredRed's e-POP system
* UCL - Real: currently migrating to Flash/FMS.
* LSE - Flash/FMS.
Some references:
* http://live.yahoo.com/
* http://www.wowzamedia.com/
* http://www.groovygecko.com/
* http://www.ustream.tv/
* http://www.mogulus.com/
* http://www.wiredred.com/
Top tip:
* When streaming live, make sure there is sufficient upload bandwidth,
especially outside university networks!
Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/secretariat/legal/disclaimer.htm
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