Making History One Webcast at a Time
Regardless of how many end users hit the stream, this webcast was prepared to scale into the millions across the U.S.
Syndication: Cross-Platform/Cross-Browser Compatibility
Windows Media embed and object tag behavior across platforms had become unpredictable following the patent lawsuit by Eolas; embed tag display and behavior stopped working as expected in Safari and Firefox browsers. This would have been a visible issue since many of the critical eyes on this event were broadcast professionals using the Mac OS.
Objecty was brought in to the project to ensure cross-browser compatibility and ease of implementation. Objecty is a freely available tool that ensures ubiquity and reduces player integration to a single line of code.
The last-minute challenge was to get the Objecty code package to recognize the ASX MIME type in order to associate the correct player with the file request.
Charles Wiltgen, the creator of the application, repackaged Objecty quickly and ran a thorough QA on the product; the updated version of Objecty was ready to be implemented 2 days after the initial feature request. It worked flawlessly across platforms when it was tested.
Execution: Webcast Delivery to a Discerning Audience
The concert, featuring a 106-piece orchestra, was literally squeezed into a moderate bandwidth webcast of just 325Kbps; the challenge was to deliver a full rich-audio experience while maintaining the quality of the video. The New York Times was one of many media outlets relying on this webcast to write the first reviews of the concert; according to Times journalist Anthony Tommasini, this was the first time he would rely on a webcast for this purpose.
Video Capture and Encoders
We brought in two encoders and set up shop in the Computer Switch room at Thirteen/WNET headquarters. The primary encoder was a custom XP OS encoder built in 2004 and modified to house 3GB of RAM and dual Osprey 230 video/audio capture cards with simulstream enabled. A secondary encoder, a Dell laptop capturing via FireWire, was brought in as a backup.
The original intention was to launch simulstream on the laptop for a complete mirrored solution; however, we had tested with an MVD 230, an external device that connects via the laptop’s PCMCIA slot with an externally housed Osprey 230. We quickly discovered that this version of the box could not support a video display more than 320 pixels wide.
Specifications were set to display the video in the media player at 432x320, and the video display area was kept divisible by 16. The original signal was 16:9 HD, which was split from the downlink, providing a 4:3 SD feed that was letterboxed.
The Thirteen/WNET broadcast engineers worked especially hard to meet the special needs of the Windows Media encoder and its thirst for higher levels on the audio and noise-free video signal.