Live Video Streaming: Tips and Tricks for the Best Results
If you want to hear about best practices in streaming live video, talk to Rob Roskin, senior manager for video operations and emerging technologies at MTV Networks. He works on up to 50 live events per year, and he's been with MTV for 15 years. He's learned a few things along the way.
"When testing cameras outside, do it at the time of day that the show actually happens. If you are testing cameras at two o'clock for a red carpet entrance...and the red carpet actually opens at five o'clock the next day, then testing at two does nothing. 'Cause while we all know the sun moves, sometimes we forget, and that great sunny spot where we were going to pick up everything is now shade," said Roskin in his one-man presentation at Streaming Media East.
During his 48-minute talk, Roskin spoke about camera selection, audio and video formats, and much more. You'll learn why MTV lowered its lowest bit rate video stream from 450kbps to 400kbps, and why the move paid off big.
MTV also has a higher top stream than many sites, offering a 3.5Mbps/720 stream for those with a lot of bandwidth.
"It looks beautiful. It looks better than most cable channels look. We've had people come to us and say, 'I'd rather watch this online,'" said Roskin. "If you have the bitrate and you can spend the money on it, a really good looking 720p will very much impress people."
For more tidbits that you'll absolutely use when planning your next live event, download Roskin's presentation and watch the full video below.
How-To: Technical Set-Up of Live Streaming Production
This session provides tips and tricks, best practices, and lessons learned regarding the technical set-up of live streaming production. Learn how to stream multiple formats from a single encoder, use social networking overlays, leverage adaptive bitrate streaming, and transition between live streams from multiple camera angles using multi-encoder synchronization. Come learn how to deliver interactive, high-quality experiences for your next live event.
Speaker: Rob Roskin, Senior Manager, Video Operations and Emerging Technologies, MTV Networks
Related Articles
Offering good humor and years of experience, an MTV exec guides Streaming Media West participants past the pitfalls of live video.
27 Jan 2012
Juggling 20 cameras, 10 feeds, and 150 renditions is a challenge. Luckily, MTV has experience.
16 Dec 2011
Watch this workshop from Streaming Media East to learn adaptive streaming for Flash, iOS, Android, and Silverlight.
10 Jun 2011
This master class from Streaming Media East goes into detail on the formats and specs needed to reach Apple mobile devices.
06 Jun 2011
The Wall Street Journal finds value in both the audience generated by live streaming and the processof putting together two daily online-only video newscasts
31 May 2011