Blog 2 – My First Stream!

This blog will cover my first experience setting up and boardcasting a live stream as part of the Video Streaming & Display Technology module at the University of Derby conducted by the legendary Ben Sams. Before we head into the exciting details associated with a live stream we need to understand the basic principles behind, in front and to the side of streaming.

A live stream in basic terms is the transmission and receiving of live video or even audio content over the internet (Thinkuknow.co.uk, 2018). The history of streaming doesn’t go back as far as you think with the earliest official record being 1995 where a New York Yankees game was boardcast live using RealNetwork by Microsoft which prompted the creation of RealPlayer streaming plugins. This being said there is an earlier notation of streaming in 1993 by Xerox PARC when engineers decided to try out some new boardcasting technology and by happy accident ended up boardcasting live over the internet (Mason, 2017).

An example of streaming services are Periscope, Facebook Live, UStream or a classic YouTube Live gaming stream of Call of Duty by SocialChaos79, whoever that might be! (Bell, 2017). The point being due to Richard Branston dishing out fibre and everyone else following suit as well as increasingly improved boardband speeds we can all actually receive and send a live video stream easily! This all being said a live video does not benefit from any kind of video editing after all it is of course live.

My first stream would be a simple upload to a private YouTube account using a website tool called YouTube Studio which is linked to a video player in this case VLC Player an open source platform. I was given a selection of video clips that were played and looped on VLC and then shared to YouTube Studio. A unique key was generated to lock the URL to my stream ensuring others could not send to my account. YouTube streaming address is the same address for everyone in the whole world so the generated streaming key is the only way to identify my stream from the masses. YouTube actually gives you some options to help best fit your stream and device. The first being ‘Simple’ designed for a mobile stream or webcam and ‘Customised’ for capturing content such as your desktop or from an external camera via capture card inside the computer. It details this as ‘best for gamers’ (Support.google.com, 2019). 

The image above is an example of YouTube and YouTube Studio all in one beautiful capture (Youtube.com, 2019).

Okay, so I encountered some problems, the stream took place at the University of Derby and unfortunately they have strict firewall both internally and externally which prevented some of us actually streaming as well as problems setting up a YouTube account due to instant streaming restricts (IE my account had to be verified). I think actually a lot of this could have been avoided with better time management and preparedness on my part. I think in the future I might even give streaming a go on my PS4… Maybe Lego Harry Potter? Watch this space! 

Reference

Bell, C. (2015). Live streaming: A brief history | Didit. [online] Didit. Available at: https://www.didit.com/live-streaming-a-brief-history/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2019].

Mason, A. (2017). The First Live Stream is 20 Years Old – Monitis Blog. [online] Monitis Blog. Available at: https://www.monitis.com/blog/the-first-live-stream-is-20-years-old/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2019].

Support.google.com. (2019). Introduction to live streaming – YouTube Help. [online] Available at: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2474026?hl=en-GB [Accessed 21 Oct. 2019].

Thinkuknow.co.uk. (2018). A short guide to live streaming. [online] Available at: https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/what-is-live-streaming/ [Accessed 21 Oct. 2019].

Youtube.com. (2019). YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKf6NF0OD5A [Accessed 30 Oct. 2019].