YouCastr Video Platform - The Easiest Way to Sell Video Online
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February 2, 2010
Posted by:
Colin Ulen 
 

How to Integrate YouCastr with TriCaster for Live Streaming

The TriCaster series of products from NewTek are great production tools that can help professional and amateur video producers immensely.  These devices bring slick video production capabilities to the masses with multi-camera switching, graphical overlays, and HD quality video recording all in the size of a small backpack. While these features are great for recording and producing your valuable video content, they don't distribute it to your audience all over the country or around the world. YouCastr offers a very simple process to set-up and integrate TriCaster's amazing video production with YouCastr's rock solid video streaming and on demand monetization platform. No messing with flash profiles, XML, or vaguely worded instructions. Just a simple copy and paste.

Getting started with a sample walkthrough
Let me walk you through the process of streaming TriCaster on YouCastr to show you how simple it really is. First, here is what you need to have to ensure this process is as smooth as possible:

Once you have satisfied these requirements, broadcasting your content live and selling your video online is as easy as following these steps:
  1. Log into your YouCastr broadcasting account and go to your dashboard. (Create a free account if you don't already have one by going to www.youcastr.com)
  2. Schedule a live video broadcast for right now by clicking on 'New Video' in the top right corner. Set your own prices for live/on-demand, downloads, and DVDs
  3. On the next page, click the big green button that says "Begin Live Broadcast"
  4. Under the third option (entitled "Broadcast via 3rd Party App"), you should see an Address and Stream Name. Copy the Address.
  5. Open your Tricaster unit and go to the "Record Stream" tab
  6. For the "Stream Type" choose a push Flash option using H264. We recommend starting at 15fps with the highest resolution and around 500kbps bitrate. Please see below for a discussion of optimal settings. 
  7. For the "Location" paste the Address you copied from YouCastr (the only paste you will need to do!)
  8. For the "Stream ID" type the word "stream" in all lowercase.
  9. Ignore the "Username" and "Password" fields
  10. Begin recording the live stream in Tricaster

Determine out your bandwidth limitations
As you may expect, you can't broadcast HD quality from a dial-up connection.  This isn't YouCastr putting a damper on your idea, but the laws of the Internet at play. In this four-part variable equation, we have to balance bandwidth, framerate, resolution and bitrate to determine the optimal broadcast settings. The biggest constraint, by far, will be your bandwidth. To check your bandwidth, go to http://www.speedtest.net. This will give you an idea of the kind of bitrate your connection can support. Do not set the bitrate of your broadcast right up at the limit of your connection--there should be a good amount of extra bandwidth left for other processes on your computer. If you are are up against the bitrate you will notice that your video signal is choppy and/or pixellated.

Optimize the framerate - stick with 15 fps
After bandwidth, your biggest concern is going to be framerate. The more frames you try to push through your Internet Service Provider (ISP) at once, the more bandwidth will be eaten up and the worse it will look. This is because syncing real-life time with the video playback for the audience requires frames to be 'dropped'. So the more frames (and the higher each frame's resolution) the worse your picture quality will be. Counter-intuitive, right? We recommend not going above 15fps for just this reason. 

Set resolution and bitrate for sharpness
Finally we come to resolution and bitrate. Assuming you stay below your bandwidth maximum capabilities and you are broadcasting at a decent 15fps, then bitrate is going to be your king of clarity.   The higher you can make this number, the better looking your broadcast will be. Generally anything above 500 kbps is great for high quality video. In regards to resolution, Flash players aren't the best at scaling (blowing-up or shrinking) video content. In other words, even if you had the best quality 320x240 video, trying to play that video in a player the size of 640x480 would make the video appear very pixellated and blurry. This is a limitation in how Flash works and not specific to YouCastr. So we recommend using an appropriately sized video player (which we allow you and your audience to customize) for your content by making the player the same size as the source content. Again, we recommend you use the highest resolution size available to you. Also, if you have the option to de-interlace your video, we highly recommend it

Recommended default settings
While the process for finding out what optimal settings you should use for your Tricaster Stream Type would take up a whole post of it's own, the place to start is push 15fps H.264 Flash stream with the highest available resolution and bitrate. Unfortunately, given the wide range of possible Internet connection speeds between different venues or even at the same venue on different days, it is tough to come up with a single set of stream settings to cover every situation. Much like wearing sneakers to the Opera or loafers on a basketball court, by knowing what your available bandwidth is you can have a better idea of what settings will be more appropriate than others. However, to really know you have to test the settings live and YouCastr makes that easy to do. 

Testing different configurations
First, just follow the 10 simple steps above to get up and running with 'default' settings. Then, using another computer, log into YouCastr to view what the stream looks like to your audience. If you are seeing pauses or dropped frames or pixellation, then you need to scale your broadcast settings down a bit.  The first setting you should turn down is your bitrate. Choose something that is one step lower than what you have right now. To turn your settings down, stop the TriCaster stream, change the Stream Type dropdown box to the setting you want and then start the TriCaster stream again. There is no need to do any action on the YouCastr site, the stream will automatically readjust to the new settings. If you are happy with the quality then you are ready to broadcast live, otherwise continue to stop and change settings until you find something you do like. 

Please Note: If you do change the "Stream Type" during a live broadcast, our system will NOT be able to archive the file for on demand viewing after the event is over. While this isn't a concern for test broadcasts, be sure not to change settings during real broadcasts as this action can't be undone and the archive cannot be salvaged. Also, keep in mind that there is a delay of a few seconds in live broadcasts, so changes won't show up immediately.

Play Ball!
The uses of TriCaster are endless, but paired with YouCastr and our ability to broadcast from Ethernet, WiFi, and 3G, the solution is unstoppable. It's like having a mobile video production unit that you can carry, ready at a moments notice to broadcast anything you want, from multiple angles, to the far corners of the globe and to everywhere your audience is. Enjoy your new-found freedom and please get in touch with us if you have any questions or comments. We love to know more about how our customers are using the system.

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Filed under  //   howto   video production  
Posted by Colin Ulen 

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