Case Study: Mobile, iOS-based, Live-Switched Streaming

Power

When you are truly mobile, power is a big issue. When you can’t just plug in a big AC adapter and run multiple USB outputs to every one of your devices, and you’re running on internal batteries, you see how fast these streaming video apps really can suck down the battery. Another issue is the fact that I was outdoors, and in order to see a shot, I needed the screen brightness up fairly high. I would turn it down in between live sessions, but higher screen brightness is another big user of power.

I brought some V-Lock lithium ion batteries that I had adapted to provide multiple 2.4amp USB power supplies. After three live hits, I took a half hour to juice up the iOS devices so I’d have enough power to keep going through the day. The Samsung I was using as a hotspot normally lasts more than a day because it has a very big battery, but even with the screen dimmed down, acting as a hotspot did use a lot of battery power by the end of the day. The old iPhone 4 was just playing music and it didn't really use up much power at all.

I had one 12v-to-USB adapter with three outputs. Next time I’ll double up and use two of these adapters so I can power more things, and also have a backup if one of the 12v adapters goes kaput in the field. It’s always good to have backups for anything you can have backups for.

I could have carried the extra power around with me, and I brought a backpack to do that, but I was able to leave that, and other backup pieces, at the main event tent. Everything else was carried around the event for the hours we were there. I haven't yet found a big USB battery pack with a half-dozen high-amperage USB outputs, but when I do, I think that will prove a good addition to my kit.

Conclusion

In the video that accompanies this article, I show parts of two of the live streams we “broadcast” from the event. One shows the interview of the artist where you can see the three cameras being used and the choppy video from the one that was further away. In the second sample video, you can see some of the effects I was able to achieve on the iPad while standing right there. It really does deliver a polished viewing experience.

I’m not just cutting between two cameras. I’m able to do picture-in-picture effects, as well as transitions in and out of the PIP effects. I can do lower-third titles, a logo “bug” for the host of the event and a bug for my production company, as well as a bumper graphic that I used to transition in and out of each live interview. The fact that today’s streaming producers can accomplish all of this on a tablet is amazing.

The software streams at 720p because that’s what Facebook accepts. It also records that same 720p stream. In the time since this event took place, I've heard that Facebook may be upgrading its API to allow for 1080 streaming from appliances and apps. This is all changing so fast that even the workflow that was standard a few weeks ago may well be different tomorrow. The sample streams and the on-location demo video are all 720p because I used my Switcher Studio setup to record the video of me showing you the setup.

I hope this look at an actual use case of a completely mobile, multi-camera, live-switched, streaming setup has proven useful to you. I have some tweaks and improvements I plan on implementing to step up the quality of my production and to make everything more robust. I’ll be doing another similar production between this writing and the publication of this article, but I’ll be swapping out some of the pieces and customizing it to the current shoot, as all mobile streaming producers inevitably do.