On April 10 Josephine Junot hosted a fantastic class on how to stream audio and video in Second Life. For your convenience, the notes from the class are below. Many thanks to Josephine for presenting such a valuable and exciting class!
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9:00-10:00 Video/audio streaming in SL class (Josephine Junot)
[9:20] Glitteractica Cookie: ok then!
[9:20] Glitteractica Cookie: let’s move on to the main event
[9:20] Canis Looming: I would like to ask has any one hear from Veriodd Fellow?
[9:20] Penguin Kuhn: yes, he couldn’t make it today, but is around
[9:21] Penguin Kuhn: ok, josephine!!!
[9:21] Glitteractica Cookie: Veri oddfellow is also bradford lewis, and yes i heard from him on facebook yesterday
[9:21] Penguin Kuhn: yay!!
[9:21] Canis Looming: good
[9:21] Glitteractica Cookie: Josephine Junot is teaching a class on Video/audio streaming
[9:21] Glitteractica Cookie: now!
[9:21] Dansei Tigerpaw: whew
[9:21] Glitteractica Cookie: give it up y’all!
[9:21] Buffy Beale: claps madly for Josephine
[9:21] Josephine Junot: Hi, all! 🙂
[9:21] Dansei Tigerpaw: clapping
[9:21] Louise Later: :))
[9:22] Bjorlyn Loon: Still text?
[9:22] any1 Gynoid: <— scurries to take notes! oy!
[9:22] Zed Canucci: woohoo
[9:22] Josephine Junot: Ok, I’ll just give an overview of live streaming via QuickTime Broadcaster into SL.
[9:23] Josephine Junot: I’ll go thru some basic guidelines for setting up a stream. You can tweak this as necessary. Then I’ll go over some options for host services.
[9:23] Glitteractica Cookie: this is so cool
[9:23] Josephine Junot: You can stream video and audio (or just video, or just audio) via QT Broadcaster.
[9:23] Josephine Junot: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/broadcaster/
[9:23] any1 Gynoid: is QT B a freebie?
[9:23] Josephine Junot: yes, you can download it at that URL for free
[9:24] Louise Later: neat1
[9:24] Glitteractica Cookie: i think that someone should take the chat log and make this into a blog entry to be archived on wiki, don’t y’all?
[9:24] Glitteractica Cookie: any takers?
[9:24] Glitteractica Cookie: or maybe josephine already has this written up
[9:24] any1 Gynoid: kk but only runs on mac
[9:24] Marty Snowpaw: Good idea
[9:24] DrG Zeiler: I will get it on wiki
[9:24] Zed Canucci: hmmm
[9:24] Josephine Junot: so QuickTime Broadcaster is free app, however using a hosted streaming service is not always free (there are a few options, and I’ll be going over them later)
[9:24] Zed Canucci: no pc version, eh?
[9:25] Josephine Junot: yes, it only runs on mac, however QuickTime is the only format that SL accepts for video streams.
[9:25] any1 Gynoid: i have PC options… I’ll send notecards to any1 who wants info
[9:25] Ethelred Weatherwax: Everyone should have a Mac
[9:25] Dansei Tigerpaw: I want one
[9:25] Josephine Junot: so if you want to stream video, it has to be encoded into a QuickTime format
[9:25] Zed Canucci: me too any1
[9:25] Waxakla Voom: Everyone!!
[9:25] jacmacaire Humby: .mov
[9:25] Josephine Junot: if you want to stream audio, you can also do it via shoutcast or icecast (pc options)
[9:26] Glitteractica Cookie: (thanks Dr. G!!!)
[9:26] Josephine Junot: so for now, QT Broadcaster is it for livestreaming video
[9:26] DrG Zeiler: Welcome
[9:27] Josephine Junot: So, once you’ve downloaded and installed QuickTime Broadcaster, hook up your camera to your computer via Firewire or USB (and if you have a separate sound source like a microphone or sound system, connect the line-in to your computer as well).
[9:27] In Kenzo: Good charts of this here: http://land-answers.wiki.zoho.com/Streaming-Video-in-Second-Life.html
[9:27] Josephine Junot: and btw, I have these screenshots on my wiki as well, with instructions, at http://bit.ly/qtstream
[9:28] Josephine Junot: yes, thx In Kenzo
[9:29] Josephine Junot: and again, I want to emphasize that these are ‘guidelines’ – you can tweak the settings as you need to
[9:29] Josephine Junot: so for Video Settings:
[9:29] Josephine Junot: Video settings:
* check “Enable Video Stream” if using video
* Size: 320×240 or 240×180
* Compressor: Sorenson Video 3 or H.264
* Quality: High or Best
* fps: 15
* keyframe: every 150 frames
* Limit Data Rate to: 150 kbits/sec
[9:29] Josephine Junot: for Compressor, I’ve mainly beeing using H.264
[9:30] Josephine Junot: very nice quality
[9:30] Josephine Junot: though you can also use MP4
[9:30] Josephine Junot: or Sorenson Video 3
[9:30] Tech Coleslaw: (sorry gang, gotta go break up a fight in RL. Kids!)
[9:30] Josephine Junot: the latter, Sorenson Video 3, is for older systems (if you suspect your audience will be using some legacy browsers or whatnot)
[9:30] Josephine Junot: but otherwise, I’d go with H.264
[9:31] Josephine Junot: So choose the Source video from the dropdown box (DV Camera, iSight, whatever)
[9:31] Josephine Junot: then a standard size is 320×240
[9:31] Josephine Junot: you can go larger if you need to
[9:31] Josephine Junot: like 640×480
[9:32] Josephine Junot: but know that that will tax the streaming server a little more
[9:32] Josephine Junot: (as well as your audience’s – on the receiving side)
[9:32] Josephine Junot: for Quality, anywhere from Medium to Best is fine (again depending on what quality you want)
[9:33] Josephine Junot: for Frames per second
[9:33] Josephine Junot: I usually do either 15 or 30 fps
[9:33] Josephine Junot: 30 is closer to film
[9:34] In Kenzo: Josephine, do you want to mention microphones and how to adapt your setup for a large room, panel presentation or other space where the on-board mic with your video camera may not work out?
[9:34] Josephine Junot: I’d like to get thru the basic settings first
[9:34] Josephine Junot: but you are welcome to jump in with that 🙂
[9:35] Josephine Junot: so, for Frames per second, I usually do 15 fps but can bump this up to 30 for better quality
[9:35] Josephine Junot: Key frame is flexible. I’ve found that every 150 frames works well
[9:36] Josephine Junot: then Limit data rate:
[9:36] Josephine Junot: this can really vary alot. I’ve found that anything between 150-300 kbps usu works well
[9:37] Josephine Junot: Ok, this is the audio tab
[9:37] Josephine Junot: again, choose your source from the dropdown box (Line-in, or DV camera, etc)
[9:38] Josephine Junot: * check “Enable Audio Stream” if using audio
* un-check “Play-through speaker” (this is to prevent feedback. check it if you want to be sure you have an audio signal coming in.)
* Compressor: MPEG-4 Audio
* Rate: 44.100 kHz
* Size: 16 bit
* Use: Mono (or if the bandwidth is available – stereo)
[9:39] Josephine Junot: if you are using headphones on the computer you’re running QT Broadcaster on, then you can check “Play-through speaker” and you won’t have feedback
[9:39] Josephine Junot: Gain is volume, so you can adjust that as necessary
[9:40] Josephine Junot: I usu use MPEG-4 Audio for the Compressor and rate=44,100 kHz, though depending on the stability of your stream/network, you can bump that down to 22,050 kHz
[9:40] Josephine Junot: any questions so far?
[9:40] Buffy Beale: going good Jose
[9:40] Waxakla Voom: very cool!!!
[9:41] Josephine Junot: In Kenzo – do you want to jump in with types of audio for diff rooms?
[9:41] Smash Lane: Do you know if there any major difference between shoutcast and Icecast?
[9:41] Smash Lane: for audio streaming?
[9:42] Josephine Junot: I’m not so familiar with either shoutcast or icecast, sorry. I know ppl that use both and they seem to think either option works well
[9:42] In Kenzo: Just wanted to note that in some cases you want a detachable mic
[9:42] In Kenzo: You may not be able to get your video camera in the right zone for audio + video capture, and it helps to have another way to get the audio in if you’re working in a large room like a conference.
[9:42] Smash Lane: heard that too, thanks
[9:42] Josephine Junot: right, so you can catch sound around the room, away from the camera
[9:42] Glitteractica Cookie: what is a low cost mic that you reco, in kenzo?
[9:43] In Kenzo: I’m using a simple Logitech USB mic for $50 but there are tons out there, if you are working with a video camera you know you may want to find a mic that plugs right into your camera. Much easier to handle sound that way.
[9:43] In Kenzo: Some video cameras allow you to detach the mic.
[9:44] Josephine Junot: I sometimes use a boundary mic (like the kind you might find on a conference table around phone conference, or on a stage) — let me see what kind it is…
[9:44] Josephine Junot is looking
[9:44] In Kenzo: Sound quality sinks many mixed reality events, along with lack of a wired connection. Don’t plan to use Wifi to stream your event!
[9:44] In Kenzo: Plug your laptop into a cable into a wall if you want the video + audio to be stable enough for your web audiences.
[9:44] Glitteractica Cookie: this is very helpful stuff!
[9:45] Josephine Junot: the boundary mic I use is an Audio-Technica AT8531
[9:45] Waxakla Voom: good point In Kenzo , makes sense
[9:45] In Kenzo: Awesome, thanks Josephine for walking us through the settings too, that’s often the most daunting task for someone new to this.
[9:45] Josephine Junot: you can get one of those for about $60-70
[9:46] Josephine Junot: ok any more questions about audio before we move on to network settings?
[9:46] Buffy Beale: no, still with u
[9:46] Josephine Junot: k
[9:47] Josephine Junot: for Network settings:
* Transmission: Automatic Unicast
* Host name:
[9:47] Josephine Junot: Host will depend on what streaming service you are using
[9:48] Josephine Junot: so in this example, I’m using a university’s streaming server and the host name is 128.238.56.13
[9:48] Louise Later: how do you find that out?
[9:48] Josephine Junot: if you’re using a service, say the Stream Guys, then it might look like Host Name: streamguys.com/…(some numbers following it)
[9:49] Josephine Junot: the streaming service will give that host name to you
[9:49] Smash Lane: usually they tell you the numbers when you rent a stream
[9:49] Josephine Junot: yes
[9:49] Louise Later: ty
[9:49] Josephine Junot: so now, about services…
[9:49] Josephine Junot: the cost will depend on the number of people you expect will be watching the stream and the bitrate
[9:49] Josephine Junot: the bitrate (the higher, the better the quality — anywhere btwn 150-300 kbps is usually the normal)
[9:50] any1 Gynoid: Comment on Streaming Services: i suggest everyone visit Jamie Otis’ store in SL… nice guy, and he’s got great help notecards… also answers questions… let me use his cards in my classes too…
[9:50] In Kenzo: So for video, a 2 hour event with 100 people watching your stream can cost $50 or higher…..while audio streaming is very low cost. Jamie Otis is great, yes!
[9:50] Josephine Junot: yes, exactly, thanks!
[9:51] Josephine Junot: so for example, I use the Stream Guys quite a bit http://www.streamguys.com/
[9:51] In Kenzo: Depends on number of people watching + the quality as bitrate……video can get expensive if you expect thousands to tune in online. There are monthly plans or one-time-use options out there.
[9:51] Josephine Junot: and if you look at their live streaming page http://www.streamguys.com/streamingservices/livestreaming.html you can see where you can input the intended audience number and bitrate and it calculates an approximation
[9:51] Glitteractica Cookie: do you recommend them over dreamcast
[9:52] Josephine Junot: and yes, the monthly and single event options are also sometimes better
[9:52] Josephine Junot: http://www.streamguys.com/streamingservices/singleeventstreaming.html (Single Event option)
[9:52] Waxakla Voom: Josephine can u use another server, like a school server (new school webspace)
[9:53] Josephine Junot: so there are many other services out there, and without trying to pimp the stream guys anymore, I must say that their customer service is excellent
[9:53] Josephine Junot: and that’s all I’ll say abt them 🙂
[9:53] any1 Gynoid: Juni and Medera are calling me away on Earth Week biz… cya everyone HUGGGZZZ!
[9:53] Glitteractica Cookie: ok, great!
[9:53] Josephine Junot: but yes, you can use a school’s server too
[9:53] Josephine Junot: you can also affiliate yourself with a university and use their quicktime streaming server
[9:54] Josephine Junot: that would be the cheaper option 🙂
[9:54] Waxakla Voom: or any other server, like if i have a space with 1and1 for example
[9:54] Josephine Junot: right, you just have to make sure they have a quicktime streaming server (they don’t always have one)
[9:54] Josephine Junot: or you can also set up your own quicktime streaming server: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/streamingserver/
[9:55] Josephine Junot: (or you can help the university/school you’re working with to set one up – it’s basically an installation of Mac OS X Server
[9:55] Josephine Junot: np 🙂
[9:56] Josephine Junot: whatever machine you choose to run Mac OS X Server, should be a dedicated one
[9:56] Josephine Junot: so once you have the streaming service and host name
[9:56] Josephine Junot: just put the host name in there, username, password
[9:57] Josephine Junot: click “Record to disk” if you want to save the stream
[9:57] Josephine Junot: and then click Broadcast
[9:57] Josephine Junot: and that’s it!
[9:57] Josephine Junot: you can set where you want the recorded stream to be saved under Preferences
[9:58] Josephine Junot: in the menu: QuickTime Broadcaster > Preferences
[9:58] Josephine Junot: and choose the file path
[9:58] Josephine Junot: also check “Hint for Streaming Server”
[9:58] Josephine Junot: which optimizes it for streaming
[9:59] Josephine Junot: when it starts broadcasting, it’ll show “Broadcasting” with a little red dot
[9:59] Josephine Junot: the address of the stream will show below that
[9:59] Josephine Junot: in “rtsp” format
[9:59] Josephine Junot: for “real time streaming protocol”
[9:59] Josephine Junot: rtsp://128.238.56.13/kcny.sdp – in this example
[10:00] Josephine Junot: oops almost forgot: in “File:” you want to enter the filename – just the name of the stream, in this case “kcny”
[10:00] Josephine Junot: then in SL, under About Land > Media, set the stream URL
[10:01] Josephine Junot: you must have ownership or appropriate group rights in order to set this
[10:01] Josephine Junot: ownership of the parcel, I mean (or appropriate group rts)
[10:02] Josephine Junot: Troubleshooting: if you stop broadcasting, wait at least 10 seconds before starting to broadcast again. If you don’t, you may get an error. (It has something to do with the server needing a few seconds to reset the filename).
[10:02] Josephine Junot: Ok, that’s pretty much it for a basic overview
[10:02] Josephine Junot: and I know we’re out of time too
[10:02] Waxakla Voom: AWESOME!!!
[10:02] Waxakla Voom: thanks
[10:02] Glitteractica Cookie: You are ok, we started late
[10:03] Josephine Junot: yw!
[10:03] Niama Meyersohn: thanks so much for so much info!
[10:03] Glitteractica Cookie: do you have more content to share?
[10:03] Dansei Tigerpaw: outstanding….thank you Josephine
[10:03] Josephine Junot: I’m pretty much done
[10:03] Smash Lane: Awesome, ty
[10:03] Glitteractica Cookie: ok, any questions from the audience
[10:03] Farm Gartenberg: wonderful
[10:03] Josephine Junot: thanks, all!
[10:03] Ethelred Weatherwax: This was a great presentation
[10:03] Ethelred Weatherwax: Thank you
[10:03] Farm Gartenberg: I have had problems streaming from and viewing the stream at the same time on one computer with a dsl line. Moved the computer to a cable connection and both tasks worked – for a while. Using a mac mini.
[10:03] Glitteractica Cookie: and thanks again to Dr. G who offered very generously to post this info on the wiki!
[10:03] Josephine Junot: and again this is all on a wiki: http://bit.ly/qtstream
[10:04] Buffy Beale: Whew Jose had no idea it was so complicated and have a new appreciation for it
[10:04] Glitteractica Cookie: ok, then it’s easy for us to reference it
[10:04] Murray Haefnir: Do you know any free servers for Windows environment?
[10:04] Josephine Junot: oh one more thing: try to stream to a hooked up connection (rather than wifi) – it’s more stable
[10:04] Glitteractica Cookie: Dr. G, you can just link to that from our wiki
[10:04] Smash Lane: is it possible to simulcast in sl with a video stream?
[10:04] Josephine Junot: what do you mean by simulcast?
[10:05] Josephine Junot: like video out of SL and video into SL as well?
[10:05] Josephine Junot: (yes)
[10:05] Smash Lane: lets say i wanted to film this meeting, an show it on a screen somewhere else on the sim
[10:05] Josephine Junot: oh, yes
[10:05] Smash Lane: that i couldn’t figure out how to do
[10:05] Josephine Junot: then you do video output from your computer and into QT Broadcaster
[10:06] Waxakla Voom: bye everyone have to run
[10:06] Waxakla Voom: see you
[10:06] Josephine Junot: you might need an analog to digital converter (ADVC converter)
[10:06] Smash Lane: input the video into the stream?
[10:06] In Kenzo: http://land-answers.wiki.zoho.com/Streaming-Video-in-Second-Life.html
[10:07] Buffy Beale: Josephine would it be best to have an alt set up just to video or can you carry on as normal with filming?
[10:07] Farm Gartenberg: no direct screen capture?
[10:07] Josephine Junot: the way I’ve done it before is to use 2 computers, one running SL and grabbing the video out from it, and running the video into another computer running qt broadcaster, via an ADVC converter
[10:07] Smash Lane: thanks Josephine an InK
[10:07] Buffy Beale: k ty
[10:08] Glitteractica Cookie: any more questions
[10:08] Josephine Junot: yeah, the URL that In Kenzo just posted goes into detail: http://land-answers.wiki.zoho.com/Streaming-Video-in-Second-Life.html
[10:09] Glitteractica Cookie: any more?
[10:09] Farm Gartenberg: so there is not direct screen capture?
[10:09] Murray Haefnir: are there any sources for windows based servers?
[10:09] In Kenzo: that URL has direct screen capture options
[10:09] Farm Gartenberg: ty
[10:09] In Kenzo: I haven’t done it myself but have seen others do it this way
[10:09] Josephine Junot: not sure about windows based servers
[10:09] Murray Haefnir: thank you
[10:10] Murray Haefnir: that was very informative Josephine
[10:10] Murray Haefnir: thank you
[10:10] Josephine Junot: my pleasure! thanks, all!
[10:10] Buffy Beale: yes nicely presented Josephine thanks!
[10:10] Murray Haefnir: need to get back to the office
[10:10] Louise Later: Thank you so much! Great step by step.
[10:10] Glitteractica Cookie: OK, thanks to all of you for all your hard work
[10:10] Glitteractica Cookie: let’s keep the momentum going
[10:11] Glitteractica Cookie: natch, all notes will be posted to the wiki and Google group by saitek
[10:11] Glitteractica Cookie: our faithful volunteer
[10:11] Buffy Beale: yayy Saitek!
[10:11] Zed Canucci: yes…thanks….
[10:11] Glitteractica Cookie: and if you have any questions, please post them to our google group
[10:11] Buffy Beale: Can the screenshots be included?
[10:11] Glitteractica Cookie: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life
[10:11] Oronoque Westland: thanks Josephine and everyone else for sharing
[10:12] Glitteractica Cookie: i am just going to drop chat log on saitek
[10:12] Louise Later: including the screenshots would be so helpful
[10:12] Josephine Junot: the screenshots are on the wiki link also http://bit.ly/qtstream
[10:12] Glitteractica Cookie: Josephine would you email screen shots to Megan or post them somewhere
[10:12] Louise Later: great
[10:12] Glitteractica Cookie: ok, perfect
[10:12] Glitteractica Cookie: perfect
[10:12] Buffy Beale: purrrrfect
[10:13] Glitteractica Cookie: 🙂
[10:13] Glitteractica Cookie: OK, see you all next time!
[10:13] Louise Later: gtg. Take care, all!
Written by: Beth J. Bates