Streaming Media TV: Field Tech 911 and the Case of the 400-foot Cable

Dear Nico,

I was assured by my client that the location we were streaming from had a dedicated 10Mbps connection to the internet. But when I showed up to the venue, the connection was about 400 feet from my encoder. My encoder detected the connection but once we started streaming there was a lot of packet loss. What went wrong?

A. Mukasa



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Here are some simple formulas to numbers to remember:

1 meter = 3.2808399 feet

Ethernet Type	Cable	Min length between nodes	Max Segment length	Max overall length
10Base2	Thinnet	0.5	185	925
10Base5	Thicknet	2.5	500	2500
10BaseF	Fiber		2000
10BaseT	UTP	2.5	100

There are several devices available, one of which every field tech should have available to them for situations like this. Distance can become an issue quickly, especially at large venues in open spaces—they are not cheap, but well worth the investment if you value the success of your webcast. Google or Bing "Ethernet to fiber media converters".

These handy gadgets can increase distance to ranges of 50 to 90 miles. There are many brands out there and they vary in price; you should be able to get something affordable if you do a little research on your own. Due diligence is required; you will need to get your own fiber cables and be sure to test everything before you rely on these tools to produce a live webcast.