By:  Mike Colburn (StreamMediaGuy)

You will want to have some idea as to how much bandwidth you will use during a live webcast, webinar, or video event.  This will help you estimate costs and plan capacity. There is a fairly simple formula to calculate this.  Keep in mind that this will be an estimate and depending on your encoder, codecs, and compression methods, this number could vary.  You can use the formula to figure out how large a file will be once you encode and save your video as well.

There are 3 things we must know.
1. Video Bit Rate – this is the bit rate that you encode you video at.  If you are encoding above 1000Kbps then convert the number to Kbps don’t use Mbps.  In other words.  1Mbps=1000Kbps   2.5Mbps=2500Kbps  etc.

2. Length of the video – This can be tricky.  You don’t want to calculate the actual length, you want to estimate the amount of time each person is likely to watch.  If you are calculating for On-Demand viewing, then YES, use the whole length of the video.  But for live streams, figure about 10-20% of the actual event per viewer.  Don’t kid yourself, no one is going to watch your 4 hour antique auction in it’s entirety.  They are going to watch 30 minutes tops.

In my experience, the only types of live broadcasts which get watched in their entirety are big name concerts and church services.  Otherwise, plan on 10-20% of the length of the stream per user.

3.  Lastly, how many people will watch the event?  You may have 2 Million visitors to your site each year, or a mailing list of 500,000 but consider this when planning.   What is the event?  When is it?  Is it a concert on a Saturday night (do you think your audience is home in front of their computer Saturday night or out doing what they do then?  Oprah Winfrey got 500,000 people to watch her book club online webinar.  She has a viewing audience of 50,000,000 dedicated viewers.  This content was ONLY going to be available on the web, not TV as well.  She has about as much pull in the media as anyone anywhere.  So if you think you’re going to get 1Million people to watch your stream, think again.  (unless you’re Oprah or maybe Barack Obama).

Here’s the formula.

Bit Rate X Time (in seconds)

———————————  = Y

………………..8

Take Y and divide that number by 1000.  This will give your number for 1 Viewer watching for that amount of time represented in MegaBytes (MB)

Now multiply that number by the number of viewers you’re expecting and that will be how much bandwidth you will use.

Remember:

• 1000MB=1GB
• 1000GB=1TB
• 1000TB=1PB
• Approximately 1TB=10Mbps
• I know 1MB is really 1024KB.  Most CDNs and ISPs will round 1 MB to 1000KB, it makes for better billing

Example: 750Kbps for 1 Hour watched by 1500 people

750 X 3600 =2700000 / 8 = 337500/1000 = 337.50 X 1500= 506250MB or 506GB

You can use this same formula to estimate how large a file will be once you encode it.  Just don’t multiply it at the end by the number of viewers.  Of course if want to estimate your Content Delivery Network (CDN) usage, then just take the file size and multiply it by the number of monthly views.  This will estimate how much you should commit to your provider.

I love Gary Vaynerchuck  and when I read this review about his latest webinar, it just re-energizes me to work harder.  If you don’t know Gary, he’s a guy from humble beginnings who has learned to use the Internet and all the social media, web 2.0 tools out there to market his businesses and himself.  You should get his book.

Please visit http://prashanthgopalan.posterous.com/webinar-with-gary-vaynerchuk, the source of this review.

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Webinar with Gary Vaynerchuk

Great news! This is going to be a bit of a long blog post, but I think it’s worth it.On Friday I attended a webinar hosted by none other than

social marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk. This guy’s a crazy phenomenon; he started off as a co-owner and Director of Operations at his dad’s wine retail business, Wine Library, and using the Internet (WineLibrary.com) he grew it from a $4 million business to a $60 million business in just 5 years. And this is all before the age of 30.So now what? He had everything, a multi-million dollar business underneath him and great business prospects. So he also started Wine Library TV, a daily Internet series of podcasts on the subject of wine. And because of that, he’s been featured in everything from Time and New York Times to features with Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon and Ellen.

And because of THAT, he’s now a social media champion, traveling around the country giving keynote speeches about using social media to optimize business activity.

But Friday was completely different. I’ve watched some of his gigs online, but Friday’s webinar turned into more of a Q&A with him. We could send in questions via Twitter and he’d do his best to answer them.

For those who weren’t there, I’ve recorded some of the nuggets of wisdom that I think go beyond a transcript of the webinar (maybe its also because I couldn’t type fast enough to keep up with the pace of the conversation). Here are some of the interpretations of what I got from it all:

#1 -- Social media has become part of our lexicon. It’s changed the face of the media and has become an indispensable addendum to society.

#2 -- This is the single biggest culture change in our society. It’s mainly driven by word of mouth and has the potential to turn e-commerce websites with upto 70-80% conversion rates.

#3 -- Word of mouth and connectivity have been scaled to a level that has never been comprehensible to prior generations. Selling is different, selling is the new in, so it’s not a presentation.

#4 -- This is the age of love. Consumers need to love their brand, that’s the kind of relationship you need to build with them. You

like Hershey’s but you love your Mom right? Do you love Hershey’s more than your mom? No, but that’s what companies need to aim for. You need to get consumers to love your brand, not like it, love it, that’s the kind of personal connection you need to make with them. Use these technologies to make your customers love you.#5 -- Scale your caring. This is important, use customer service as your benchmark and core structure to your business,

that’s taking charge of opportunity.#6 -- Use

search.twitter.com everyday!#7 -- Talk to your customers. Use these technologies to build personal relationships with these people. Offer them help and advice before they even ask you. Give away your advice without looking to sell to them right off the bat. That’s what people don’t seem to be understanding. People, understand this for your own good.

#8 -- Get a real relationship.

#9 -- A picture speaks a thousand words. A video speaks a million.

#10 -- Today, it has nothing to do with what you’re selling, it has to do with the DNA of the person. It’s the mentality, not the product that you want to sell. Create content, don’t try to sell. Give them something to look at, and videos give you a platform to sell. If you have good intentions, use it to create content and the most unsexy thing can be given an edge.

#11 -- Don’t hire outside guys to manage your social media platforms. It you do, chances are they won’t know your product, and will not be as passionate about it as you or your customers will be. Understand what you’re selling and how to make it personable for the customer. Use someone from the inside for this role if you have to, if you can’t, hire a fan, at least they’ll understand what your customers will need.

#12 -- Don’t hire an outside guy, content has to be knowledgeable, not pretty or cute, it has to be witty, it has to be good.

#13 -- Go where the fish are, follow our customers, don’t expect them to come to you anymore, that time has passed. You can build a community anywhere now, but if you want big results, you go where the fish are.

#14 -- You can try opening a mall in a city with 8 malls already existing. But you might be more successful opening a mall in a city with one third of the foot traffic. Go where the fish are, but avoid places that are too congested.

#15 -- Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t lie.

#16 -- If you want to be private in these social spaces, guard what you say. They define public space, so there’s no way of safeguarding the privacy of what you put out there. Don’t believe in any privacy filters or anything, they can be hacked. Once something gets out there, it’s out there, and there’s no way you can do anything about it.

#17 -- Communism tried to guard communication and

that didn’t work out too well. Out there, communication is open and free, and so you can’t guard against it.#18 -- Any fan on Facebook becomes a person you can email, and they can respond to you. When they join your fanpage, their friends will know, it’s an ecosystem and its totally customizable.

#19 -- You simply have to know the landscape of your business.

#20 -- Information as value has collapsed. You can get it at your fingertips; hearing sensitivity (towards your customers) and innovation are the things that will drive things forward.

#21 -- Many people think social media is a tactic to improve their businesses. Like salt and pepper, they think it’s the steak -- customer service is the thing now, everything else is secondary. We are in the business of customer service now, everything else is secondary to that. Remember that.

#22 -- I work on the assumption that if your product is good, word of mouth is activated, but the moment someone says something negative about your product and someone else agrees, you’re screwed.

#23 -- These are examples of people not recognizing how to work it.

#24 -- Marketing and customer service are what you need to be successful now.

#25 -- Whatever you think you need to be successful are actually the barriers, the costs of entry. These are the starting points to being successful.

#26 -- Great content acts as its own filter. No-one can read everything, only the best things will be read, just as cream rises to the top of milk. The “cream” of the content will be read, and not much else, so all the junk will be pushed down below.

#27 -- If you argue that TV and conventional marketing media can measure conversions, it’s because you’re working with false presumptions. I’d argue that it’s easier to measure conversions in social media than through conventional media.

#28 -- I spent $7500 in marketing Wine Library through conventional means, and sent out one tweet on Twitter. I made 4 times more conversion through Twitter than through the other means.

#29 -- I’m not defending social media. In my opinion, social media has already won out, it’s upto people who resist to justify why radio and TV and print are still relevant.

#30 -- There are people who still think TV is evil. Such people will continue to exist. I\m not saying that TV and radio are failures, I’m just saying that if you’re creative and don’t tell people to come online and keep the conversation going, “you’re an assclown”. It’s like not offering dessert at a restaurant.

#31 -- Social media is like marathon while TV is like a sprint. It takes patience! Ad managers like to throw money at TV because it’s more quick. Well, in the race between the tortoise and the hare, “you can take the hare and shove it up your ass”.

#32 -- Always use Twitter as a customer service platform as well as a platform to deliver press releases.

#33 -- Record videos on Facebook, and then use these videos as responses on blogs and forums in order to generate attention.

#34 -- Explore new ideas…what if I did this or that? Metrics are easy, you can hire companies that offer social media metrics these days.

#35 -- Here’s good advice -- if you have a physical location, you don’t care whether you made a customer anywhere. You don’t have to make a customer in your home. You can make a customer anywhere, and they’re still customers.

#36 -- Make a real committment -- 90% of what people are trying to tackle social media are only half pregnant. You have to do both onsite and offsite events, and inject them into the DNA of the company. Price and product selection are not key, customer engagement is key. As top management, you have to make this your credo: “engage and care”.

#37 -- Unify branding, link it back to your home presence, be transparent, be active, listen and don’t start selling from the opening bell.

#38 -- Empower your employees to carry your message and make it your own. Look at Zappos!

Zappos is basically a customer service company that happens to sell shoes! Twitter and Facebook are not secondary, they are the meat of your business, everything else is secondary.

#39 -- Social media is an extension of our existence. We’re all walking around connected to the Internet; offline and online are converging slowly, almost becoming indistinguishable.#40 -- Every time a bad thing is said about you, it’s great! It’s an opportunity to say you’re sorry, and make things better!

#41 -- Show who you are in this. Don’t let it go, engage and be caring. Social media is nothing but the internet being iterated. Social media is giving us the tools that we do as human beings. We are social beings, we need to interact, we want to interact, and so these tools are allowing us to do so.

#42 -- People who follow you are customers in some way. They can give you money, and help you via word of mouth, making your idea work!

#43 -- Social media “is all about the big picture, stuff, legacy, customer service, patience, that’s why it’s so comfortable to me, that’s why analytical people are struggling.”
Hope I managed to convey a sense of the information we were streaming in the webinar. If you really want more information, you should check out Gary’ book -- Crush It! Why Now is the time to Cash in on Your Passion.

I’ll be getting myself a copy of it next week, so keep eye out for a review of it on this blog sometime in the near future.

Till then, cheers!

P.S. Here’s a video of Gary delivering a keynote at the 2008 Web 2.0 Expo in New York.

Review: Digital Rapids TouchStream

by Tim Siglin
January 2, 2010

This article first appeared in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Streaming Media magazine. Click here for your free subscription.

When I first saw the Digital Rapids TouchStream prototype at the National Association of Broadcasters’ show in Las Vegas in April, I was attracted by the Apple-like minimalist look; even in its powered-off state, a blue ring glowed in the bottom right corner of a solid black screen.

When Mike Nann, director of marketing and communications at Digital Rapids, touched the blue ring, the machine responded by ringing the entire bezeled screen in a blue glow as it began the boot-up process (Figure 1). Right then, I knew I wanted to test-drive one of these units.

Figure 1. A 7″ diagonal screen and a single blue button are the only elements of the TouchStream’s touch-sensitive front face.

Shiny, bright object interest aside, the Digital Rapids TouchStream takes into account many of the production issues that a portable encoding solution has to contend with. It’s also one of only two truly self-contained machines I’ve used over the years. Even the other, Sonic Foundry, Inc.’s Mediasite Recorder, needed a keyboard and mouse. This one, though, needs nothing to start encoding except a few finger motions on its resistive-capacitance touchscreen (Figure 2). This is not your father’s portable encoding system.

Figure 2. While an external keyboard is helpful for accessing archive files, the onscreen keyboard handles the majority of tasks, such as naming files or folders.

Let’s start this review with a bit of background for those of you thinking about portable encoders. For as long as there have been encoding systems, there has been a desire to take encoding into the field in as compact a format as possible. This, perhaps, explains the rise of software-based encoding systems, which required nothing more than a laptop to encode and serve streams. These were followed by synchronized presentation systems such as Accordent and Mediasite, which required hardware to capture the video and audio stream in addition to the synchronized VGA capture of webpages or PowerPoint slide decks.

Lately, though, the focus has shifted to higher quality portable streaming audio and video capture stations that are all-inclusive. Examples of these include ViewCast Corp.’s GoStream SURF—which does require a separate keyboard, video monitor, and mouse (KVM)—and the TouchStream.

When I asked Digital Rapids why it chose to create a fully KVM-free touchscreen solution that relies on Windows XP Embedded, I was told it’s part of the Digital Rapids approach to filling market voids.

“Our systems span the critical points in today’s complex media workflows,” Nann says. “Our existing interface was praised by our traditional market customers as being comprehensive and thorough, but we thought it might be a bit daunting to the nominal user.”

“A portion of the TouchStream challenge was to make this an easy to use interface, so we showed it to potential customers in markets that we couldn’t address with our initial products,” Nann says, citing corporate and education as two examples. “Yet we also didn’t want to lose the comprehensive tweaking power that set our products apart. So the goal was flexibility and ease of use, simultaneously. The touch interface and refined user interface gives us ease of use, while [it was] the ability to drive down through the interface to the under-the-hood settings that allowed fine-tuning parameters.”

Even beyond the new markets, though, Digital Rapids had clients who were taking the Digital Rapids installed units (rack-mounted units that were typically about 6″ or 3RU high) out of the studio or editing suite and in to field productions.

“One of the things we kept hearing from was that customers wanted to go into the field,” Nann says. “We could have built a very robust integrated computer and screen, but the noise factor would make it hard to also use in an interior production environment. We thought this might be a good time to look at the challenge to create a field system that was small enough for the field, but also quieter than most previous systems.”

Back to the physical box itself: The front panel sports only the 7″ diagonal 840×480 widescreen touchscreen and the blue-ring touch button. This is used to start up or shut down the machine similar to the way that the iPhone’s single button offers multiple functions; however, the blue-ring button also allows the user to force the machine to restart should a problem occur.

Figure 3. The TouchStream is powered by Windows XP Embedded, but it reveals only brief glimpses of the actual operating system.

Upon startup, after passing the Windows XP Embedded screen (Figure 3) and the traditional Windows desktop (in micro size since the touchscreen sports an embedded high-resolution computer display), the primary TouchStream interface appears.

In the software versions I tested, the prerelease and the initial release, the screen displays a series of six function buttons as well as the input video image and volume unit (VU) meters for audio monitoring (Figure 4).

Figure 4. TouchStream’s on-screen buttons include Start/Stop and Setup as well as Fade In and Fade Out for graphic overlays (”bugs”).

In the newer 1.1 release, which I was able to view via a WebEx session, the number of available buttons can be decreased down to just a single start/stop button if desired, and the audio monitoring now has four separate VU meters, one for each stereo pair.

All of the TouchStream’s inputs are on the back of the unit (Figure 5). The version I tested used an analog capture card that contained two video inputs (composite and s-video) and four audio inputs (a built-in unbalanced 2-channel RCA and a dongle-based balanced 2-channel XLR input). An SD-SDI version has a multipin connector with an adapter that has two SD-SDI inputs, and an HD-SDI-equipped version with a single input as well as a loop and two outputs also exists. This BNC-heavy second option is capable of a single HD-SDI or SD-SDI input (SMPTE-292M and SMPTE-259M, respectively).

Figure 5. TouchStream has no connectors on the front, housing all audio, video, USB, and Ethernet ports on the rear of the device.

Input resolution, as well as video and audio settings, are chosen after choosing the base project selection. This is the reverse of the way that the traditional ViewCast Osprey card would do it.

Digital Rapids has rethought the selections in terms of inclusive project shortcuts. This allows two projects to be set up exactly the same, with the same format and bitrate but with different audio and video inputs. This way, only a single choice on the touchscreen could yield a change to a number of settings, including the inputs, allowing for rapid reconfiguration in the field.

The other benefit to this model is the ability to launch multiple formats at one time: Starting with projects (say, for instance, a Windows Media 9 project) and then accessing the codecs subsection allows one to add a Flash codec.

For those concerned about the CPU utilization when stacking multiple codecs together, a MIPS graph would be an ideal scenario calculator prior to attempting to stream multiple codecs and bitrates. The TouchStream doesn’t yet have a MIPS graph, but it does have a robust number of real-time statistics including buffer usage, dropped frames, and overall CPU utilization.

Once a project is chosen, the user is then presented with another set of buttons, one of which is the Output button. Output displays the unit’s output choices of an archive recording as well as one or two broadcasting options (Figure 6).

Figure 6. During setup, a project can be simultaneously archived and streamed. Archives can be stored internally or on an external hard drive.

For Flash streaming, for instance, the user is presented with three choices: Archive, Broadcast FMS, and Broadcast Push. These can be enabled (default) or disabled at will, so the TouchStream can be used strictly as a recorder or as a stand-alone Flash streaming “server,” or it can be integrated into a Flash Media Server environment.

For the Archive setting, the touch interface allows for browsing a drive (the C: drive on the prototype and the D: or media drive on the v1.0 machine) and selecting a folder. A new folder, a file name, or a predefined sequence for the name (e.g., combinations of project name and encoding start time) can also be chosen or manually entered via the on-screen keyboard. However, Digital Rapids recommends that an external hard drive be attached for storing archive files; it provides two USB 2.0 and two FireWire ports on the back of the device to connect external hard drives, some of which can also be bus-powered (powered by the TouchStream itself rather than requiring an external power supply).

Enabling the correct choices on the Output screen is critical, as the default enabling of a streaming option without the appropriate server—or even a network connection, for which there is no warning during setup if the Ethernet is disconnected—may render a cryptic “critical error” at the time of encoding. The TouchStream would do well to provide some sort of early warning system for network or configuration errors similar to what is available on a few other encoding boxes.

Once the appropriate archive and stream choices have been made and the details have been entered for particular servers, the user can choose input settings: Here the choices are between 4:3 and 16:9, composite or s-video, and unbalanced or balanced audio. The test unit presented these in a series of choices, and a small video window in the upper right portion of the screen corresponded to the aspect ratio, showing what the content would look like on the larger encoding screen. Currently, the TouchStream does not have the ability to shift between the input view (video signals being received on the composite or s-video connectors) and a postencode view (“confidence monitoring” of the actual stream), but Digital Rapids says this is high on the list of changes to make.

Two other settings are available to the user—video settings and audio settings.

Video settings allow for basic picture control, a bit of noise reduction, and cropping of the video image. An additional video setting is the graphic overlay, which can be loaded into the machine and placed on the screen. While most studio locations already have a “bug” inserter to overlay a logo in the lower right corner of the video window, most field portable encoding units do not. This graphic overlay, which eliminates the need for another piece of field hardware, is a welcome addition on the TouchStream.

Audio settings are fairly rudimentary, with overall levels and bass/treble tweaking. A nine- or 12-band software equalizer would be a welcome addition for field projects where 60hz hum or HVAC rumble can often be an issue and would eliminate the need for another piece of field hardware.

Once these settings are selected, the trigger should also be set. A trigger is the “arming” of the start/stop button that will be presented on the main screen, the scheduling of a start time, or the scheduling of a duration of time to encode once the encoding begins. Settings on the trigger page will correspond to the availability of certain options on the main encoding page.

Choosing Done switches the interface back to the main screen, which presents the Start button along with buttons for the graphic overlay (Fade In, Fade Out) and the video and audio settings buttons for rapid tweaks during an encoding session. A final button, labeled Info, allows the user to see the encoder state and details on the IP address and streaming ports, as well as the hardware utilization monitoring noted above.

For those streaming technicians concerned about user mishaps such as accidentally choosing the wrong input or overriding an input setting, TouchStream provides a series of lock-out options. In v1.1 of the software, a technician can enter the security dialog area under Settings and choose to restrict or allow everything from triggers to input types, black levels, and even the start/stop button.

If start/stop is restricted, the unit will start encoding automatically on a reboot. This allows for a “persistent streaming” that Digital Rapids calls its “no click streaming” feature. In essence, after the power switch is pressed and the unit boots up, it immediately begins streaming at the predefined project settings. This is helpful for scheduled events or other instances where the unit might also need to be set to autolaunch when powered up. With the settings of Windows XP Embedded, the unit can also be set to restart immediately upon shutting down, providing a consistent “always on” streaming loop.

Should there be a need to disable autostreaming, the unit first needs to be unlocked through a security code via the on-screen keyboard, and then manual streaming should be re-enabled in the security settings.

As the unit is based on Windows XP, reboot times will range from 10 to 30 seconds. The unit also responded well to pulling the electrical connection midstream and then plugging it back in, one of the typical tests I perform; the Windows operating system often doesn’t handle this as well as a Linux or RTOS-based encoder, but the TouchStream worked after repeated power failure tests.

Digital Rapids recommends leaving the start/stop button visible, even if it is not active, for two reasons: The first is so that scheduled encoding can be verified, although the company has also added a small green Wi-Fi bar symbol in the bottom right corner that pulses to show a stream or local encode is occurring in v1.1. Second, and perhaps more importantly, if a graphic overlay has been chosen prior to restricting video settings, the Fade In and Fade Out buttons can still be operated, allowing for the insertion of a bug at select user-defined times during the stream, although the graphic can’t be changed.

Given this ability to lock out certain buttons and functions, it would be helpful to tie particular interface scenarios to projects. As of v1.1, though, there is only one level of security restriction, meaning that the lock-out settings will need to be changed each time.

After all of the setup and preparation, streaming is very straightforward. We tested manual and scheduled streams without incident. Using the duration setting on our test machine, we occasionally ran into an issue where the screen would freeze part way through an encode; letting the encoding time pass the duration we’d set, though, and forcing the machine to reboot showed us that it had actually been recording when we checked the archive files.

Once streaming is completed—or even before—the configuration settings can be emailed by clicking a single button (once email settings have been entered). TouchStream accommodates those who find that they need to start over via the Reset Configuration option, which resets all audio, video, input, and trigger options to their default settings.

A final aspect of the TouchStream that we looked at was the issue of airflow around a portable unit; many units compensate by having a large fan (which the TouchStream also has) and running it full bore anytime the unit is turned on. The TouchStream seems to solve the airflow issue through the joint use of intelligent fan management coupled with an interesting piece of workflow enhancement, the front bezel.

The screen on the TouchStream can tilt up approximately 30 degrees, which is helpful for varying lighting conditions or angles of view. Beyond just allowing ease of viewing, though, the TouchStream employs the extra space around the tilted screen to enhance the unit’s front-to-back airflow. The unit has a solid top shell and solid sides, so airflow over the exterior portions of the unit is only critical at the bottom of the TouchStream, which has ribbed plastic to enhance airflow.

“The motivation for the tilting screen is more than just for user convenience,” Nann says. “It actually helps increase airflow when the unit is in the field.”

In other words, it pays to tilt the screen up if you’re standing above the field encoder. As an added benefit, in better-ventilated locations, two of these units can be used side-by-side in a 3RU space if the feet are removed, so the TouchStream can also act as an in-house encoder. TouchStream also includes an RS-422/RS-232 DB-9 connector and the appropriate GPI trigger protocols for even deeper integration into a studio environment.

“While we aimed to be competitive with other devices, maintaining encoding quality against a full-featured rack-mounted product was a high priority,” says Nann, adding that he expected this portable device to be used in some installed locations where space constraints were critical.

If touching a screen repeatedly is not your idea of field production, Digital Rapids did include the KVM triumvirate with USB and PS-2 connections for the keyboard and mouse as well as a VGA connector for an external monitor. The unit’s backplane also includes a series of audio outputs for surround sound as well as headphone monitoring, although the 1/8″ (3.5mm) microphone jack is not configured to use for streaming.

The other reason to use the KVM option is access to the archive files if you choose to use the internal drive to store archives. With a keyboard and mouse hooked up, using Alt-F4 to exit the application—or the Win-D combination to toggle to the desktop—allows the user to access files on the machine and copy them to an external drive.

“For file access, most users are either using remote desktop to pull the files onto external storage or over a network,” Nann says.

From a broadcast format standpoint, using the HD-SDI card, Digital Rapids says the TouchStream will support video resolutions of 1080i, 1080p, and 720p in HD formats, as well as the 480i (NTSC) and 576i (PAL) formats for standard-definition “HD” signals. Frame rates for the various settings range from 60 and 59.94 fps at the upper end, down through 24 and 23.976 (pull-down) fps, as well as the 24, 25, and 30 drop frame and nondrop frame specifications. Since our test unit had analog-only inputs, we could not test these claims, nor could we test the format conversion features that are found on most Digital Rapids encoders, in which conversion from any input format to any output format (HD to SD, SD to HD, HD to HD) makes field input configurations a much easier proposition.

I can say, though, that this is the most intriguing portable encoding unit I’ve used. It worked equally well in an integrated environment as in its intended field use, and the touches (pardon the pun) that it had for field production show the level of detail in which Digital Rapids understands the production workflow.

I look forward to seeing how Digital Rapids further enhances the TouchStream’s hardware and user interface. One way that the company has already discussed is a remote interface tool. Digital Rapids already has a history of creating remote interfaces: Its StreamRemote tool for the StreamZ and StreamZHD systems is a Java-based web interface that mimics the physical box’s front panel.

“Our philosophy [is] that a remote interface should be identical (to the maximum extent possible) to the local interface,” Nann says. “StreamRemote is from our StreamZ and StreamZHD systems—a remote interface that looked and felt exactly like the application did on the local system. We’ve had for quite a few years, but the TouchStream interface isn’t patterned after anything—it was a ground-up original design—so its remote interface is being developed to be virtually identical to the local UI on the TouchStream appliance.”

Jeff Kopang, Vice President of Marketing for ViewCast, provides a quick overview of the Niagara 2120 streaming media appliance.

If you are considering renting the Viewcast Niagara 2120 for your next webcast, web conference, live event, or pod cast, please watch this video for more information

Do you want to increase your website sales, web-traffic, or start your own online TV talk show? Would you like to broadcast your newsletter articles or videos over the Internet to others? Has this seemed impractical because video loads too slow, takes to much web space or just seems to hard to understand. We’ll welcome to the NEW world of instant loading, user friendly web video.

You may have noticed that a large number of websites are now featuring videos, everything from music videos, to online training. News is a popular use for presenting website video. You’ve probably heard a lot about RSS (Really Simple Syndication), a format designed for sharing web content like news headlines. RSS will be covered in a future article.

Did you know?

That there are so many new advancements in online video and audio in the last year, almost anyone can have their own online radio or TV talk show, radio or television station without high fees, advanced technical knowledge, and no FCC (Federal Communications Commission) intervention or regulation. Just build a website, install your audio and/or video files, advertise, and you’re in business. You can even broadcast your audio and video files through RSS feeds (we’ll explain in a moment) to websites worldwide and Joint Venture (JV) with other website owners to include your video on their websites.

Why would you want to put video and audio on your website?

There are many reasons. We are now in the 21st Century and 2009 is said to be the year of online video. Video is a premier sales tool. You’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is a video with audio worth? A LOT! More than ever, people today are in a hurry and easily distracted, and even sensitively attuned to watching television many hours a day. TV is losing some of its ground to web-surfing.

Give the people what they want, video. Entertain, inform and educate them the way they are already trained for. Now it’s easier than ever to do this. Here, we are focusing on adding video / audio to your website for various purposes such as, marketing, training, V-Blogging, video sharing and etc. New technology has made it easy to add fast loading (called Streaming) video content to your website.

Until recently, between slow dial-up Internet connections and older technology, adding video wasn’t practical for general website usage. But since over 60% of individuals online now have broadband access, and the new streaming technology, audio and video files can now be viewed online with little or no buffering. Buffering means to make the video viewable to your computer (the simple explanation). Therefore, video is now a feature that can be efficiently used online. There are still size and quality limitations to consider, but the industry is making progress in this arena almost daily.

The other problem hindering website video use was its complicated installation process. It’s been very difficult for the average individual to add video files to their websites. Windows Player simplified this process but still had limitations. It played a few formats, but not the streaming .swf (Flash) files and you had to know how to install their player on your website to play the video. You needed to know html webpage code or have a program like Microsoft’s FrontPage to install the player and video on a webpage.

Now there are a few new solutions that make it easy for the average person to install video on a website without needing too much computer or webpage knowledge. If a person knows how to cut and paste a simple code into a webpage, they can ad existing video files to their site. The tutorials even teach how to do this for the absolute beginner.

The latest software is an integration of several individual modules assembled as one user friendly software package that permits anyone to convert most of the existing video formats into fast loading, high quality, and streaming website videos. This software even enables you to customize your video player, video size, and quality. There is no player or software for your website visitor to download since the player is built into your webpage and loads almost instantly.

There are many software programs available that claim it’s easy to install video on your website. Most don’t work as promised. One good suite is Camtasia, but it is complex to use and cost several hundred dollars. A good user friendly, beginners’ level, feature-rich software should cost less than $100.