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Streaming
Democracy!
Texas
governor, Rick Perry,
Uses Webcast to Address Press
by
Mark Hershey, Product Manager
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"Governor,"
the newspaper editor began, "Are there any road
projects planned in our part of the state?"
Hundreds
of miles away, the editor's question was received over
the Internet and printed. A moderator then read the
question to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who answered the
question. The editor, seated at his desk and watching
his computer monitor, was able to see and hear the response
via a live, interactive webcast, which was made possible
by technologies and services from Dallas-based ViewCast
Corporation. Newspaper editors from across the state
were able to ask questions of Perry and then see and
hear him personally respond during the interactive webcast
of the governor's statewide editorial board meeting
from last year's Texas Transportation Summit at the
Omni Mandalay Hotel in Irving, TX.
The
summit, hosted by the City of Irving, was the state's
most comprehensive transportation event and the largest
of its type in the country. Approximately 1,000 public
officials and state business leaders attended the three-day
event, which featured more than 100 speakers, including
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta. ViewCast
and the crew of Dallas Edit produced and delivered the
webcast using the content delivery services of Activate
Corporation. The webcast began with 10 minutes of prerecorded
video content, then switched to a one-hour live production
under the direction of Dallas Edit's Jon McManus.
Close
to 100 members of the Texas press invited to view the
webcast as remote participants, and eight of those journalists
submitted text-based questions during the governor's
appearance. A member of the governor's press staff received
and screened the webcast-originated questions, which
were interleaved with those from the local audience.
The editors pre-registered via a Web-based registration
program developed by ViewCast.
Participants
who logged in were directed to a password-protected
Web page that contained a video display window for the
streamed video portion of the conference, a text box
for the participant to enter a question for the governor,
and promotional graphics.
The
questions were sent to Kathy Walt, the governor's press
secretary, who handed the questions to the moderator.
Questions received and not answered during the meeting
or after the meeting concluded were forwarded to Walt
for post-webcast follow-up from the governor's office.
Prior
to the event, ViewCast made arrangements for access
to two ISDN circuits at the Omni for dial-up, multi-stream
video uplinks to Seattle-based Activate, ViewCast's
content delivery network partner. ViewCast also secured
one analog telephone line at the Omni for dial-up laptop
access to the Internet for receiving questions from
the remote participants.
A
pair of ViewCast
Niagara portable streaming encoders, each coupled
to one of the ISDN circuits via Cisco 804 ISDN routers,
were used to encode three simultaneous streams. The
first ISDN circuit supported 28K audio only and 56K
audio and video with video playback in a QCIF-sized
display window. The second ISDN line supported 100K
audio video with a CIF-sized display window.
The
live, three-camera production locked down one camera
to show the governor and moderator. The second camera
was mounted in the center of the room on a low tripod
and showed individuals from the local audience, while
a third, fixed camera shot the crowd. Shots were mixed
using a Videonics switcher and fed to the two Niagara
encoders.
"This
was a significant event -- the governor's first statewide
editorial board meeting and his first webcast, and we
were honored ViewCast was selected to provide the streaming
technology and live webcasting services to make it happen,"
said George Platt, ViewCast president and CEO. "Our
post-event follow-up indicated both editors and the
governor's office were extremely satisfied with the
results. Streaming media is a powerful communications
tool with limitless applications, and Gov. Perry and
the state's newspaper editors are to be commended for
taking advantage of this technology."
Click
here to view a streaming presentation on the NiagaraMAX,
ViewCast's portable streaming system.
Click
here to request additional information on the Niagara
Streaming Systems or have a salesperson contact you!
Mark
Hershey is a product manager for ViewCast Corporation.
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Using
your ViewCast Products
in an Editing Environment
How Osprey and
Niagara Systems
Leverage Editing Capabilities
of Popular Editing Packages
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Osprey®
Video and Niagara
Streaming Systems products can leverage the video
and audio editing capabilities found in popular editing
packages today, Adobe Premiere, Sonic Foundry Vegas Video,
and Ulead MediaStudio Pro. Given the extremely flexible
nature of Osprey cards you can select what codec best
applies to your capture session. In some cases, you may
desire to capture uncompressed video in an .AVI format
and in others you might apply a codec like Cinepak. In
either case Osprey and Niagara products are there supporting
you.
What
about my DV inputs?
Certain ViewCast products like the Osprey-500 series,
Osprey-540 and the Niagara systems based on those cards
offer the ability to stream audio and video inputs live
from a DV input. Our products are designed with the intent
of streaming audio and video in a live scenario and have
embraced techniques and methodologies supporting this
intent.
 Many
users using DV inputs often think of DV in a native format,
commonly a 25Mbps format composed of I-frames. DV has
evolved into a great editing format given the quality,
abundance of reference frames allowing frame accurate
editing, and the association with OHCI offering device
control.
The
key differentiation is that ViewCast products DO allow
for capture from a DV input but do not capture native
DV to the host computer. ViewCast products transcode the
captured DV source material in real-time from the compressed
native DV format to an uncompressed YUV format; this does
NOT prohibit editing though.
The
result is simply a different approach to editing from
DV inputs. Rather than providing the native DV format
your Osprey Video devices are providing the traditional
uncompressed to the host PC.
In
summary, what this means from an editing approach is that
if you are editing video captured from your ViewCast device's
DV input you operate under a YUV format rather than a
native DV format for capturing the source material.
For
information about the Osprey-540 and Osprey-500 family,
click here.
Check
out the Niagara Stream Systems that are currently on
sale now!
Return
to Table of Contents
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Osprey-220
and SimulStream Powers
Live Webcast at HP50K of Coronet 2002
Remote
New Zealand Ski Race Utilizes
Osprey Video Software & Hardware
By
Steve Gray
HP50K WebCast Manager
HP New Zealand
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Coronet
Peak, Queenstown is a ski/board haven but hardly the best
location for broadcasting large volumes of video/voice
data over the Internet. In fact, in order to accomplish
this feat, HP New Zealand has teamed up with a number
of local and international companies - all of whom have
donated their time, services and support to help the CureKids
charity.
The
remote location of the HP50K of Coronet ski race necessitates
the use of a wireless network infrastructure. SouthNet
- WiFi (www.southnet.co.nz), a local ISP based out of
Invercargill, has installed a number of Wireless Broadband
Internet access points in the South Island of New Zealand
and more recently a link to the top of Coronet Peak itself.
For our particular purpose, they also made available a
significant amount of bandwidth for the traffic required
and have installed extra equipment and services where
required.
To
generate multiple video streams, 2 identical high-spec
HP-Compaq Evo D500 PC's have been deployed, running Microsoft
Windows Professional 2000 and Windows Media Encoder. For
optimal performance, we have encoded single bit rate streams
- 2 different streams per PC, outputting 4 different streams
for a variety of modems, ISDN, ADSL, and Broadband (one
has also been prepared for IPAQ Pocket PC's).
 Each
PC has its own Osprey-220
video capture card and software from ViewCast (www.viewcast.com).
ViewCast have also provided their SimulStream
software that enables multiple encoding sessions from
the same PC. This way, we have created 2 separate 34kbps
and 84kbps streams on the PC1, while PC2 runs 150kbps
and 225kbps streams (exact rates may be altered on the
day of the race). This process allows us the flexibility
to always have multiple streams running effectively 100%
of the time, while still adjusting them if required. It
also allows us to keep processing power at an acceptable
level. The support crew based in America has been extremely
helpful to this effect.
 Positive
Pictures (TV Production Company based in Wellington) have
situated their mobile broadcast van next to the Meadow
Chairlift. They have installed 7 cameras on-site (fixed
and roaming) and will be capturing all footage of the
16-hour marathon event. Action TV, (from Queenstown) are
providing additional camera crew throughout the night.
The
WebCast-TV Production, led by Johnathon Rutherford and
Fergus Milner, will include live action, race updates,
pre-race footage, interviews and more, plus live commentary
from Steven Lee (captain of the Australian men's team
in 2000/2001). All footage will be put together on-site
and a live A/V feed brought straight into both Osprey
video capture cards. The footage will be prepared in such
a way as to minimize any extra work required by the Encoding
PC's. Fergus is also acting as the WebCast/Broadcast expert.
 All
encoded streams are sent off the mountain and picked up
by the Prime Streaming Provider, AWACS (www.awacs.co.nz
based in Wellington). Mike Sutton from AWACS has provided
excellent technical support to help generate the best
combination of streams provided given the bandwidth capabilities
possible. Mike has also generated a special area on the
www.awacs.co.nz/hp50k/
web site for this purpose, with multiple links for all
streams and additional links to the International Streaming
Provider, GIV/Akamai.
GIV
(based in Sydney) in conjunction with Akamai (www.akamai.com)
are providing the on-streaming capabilities for the event.
Using Akamai's network of international streaming servers
allows users anywhere in the world to connect to the video
stream from a streaming server closest to them. GIV/Akamai
will also act as the backup streaming provider for contingency
purposes.
Additional
services & support have been provided by other members
of the HP50K Technical Team including, David Libert (Security),
Jason Grant (Networking) and Shaun Fuchs (WebSite Designer).
For
additional information on the HP50K WebCast, please contact:
Steve Gray
HP50K WebCast Manager
HP New Zealand
Email: [email protected]
Configuring
the Viewpoint VBX
to Support DID Service
Automatically Route Inbound Calls
Directly to Specified Client Endpoints!
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Release
2.5 and later versions of the ViewCast
Viewpoint VBX can be configured to automatically route
inbound ISDN H.320 calls directly to specific client endpoints,
rather than the usual practice of sending inbound video
calls to an attendant or ACD queue. This feature is known
as Direct Inward Dialing or DID service
DID
service must be specified as part of the ordering and provisioning
of the ISDN circuits. When properly provisioned, the entire
called party number (in North America the 10-digit area
code+phone number) is passed to the VBX via the ISDN interface
card whenever an inbound call is received.
Typically,
the desired block of inbound DID numbers are specified when
ISDN service is ordered. For this example, assume the ISDN
inbound DID service was ordered with a block of 100 numbers
starting with (972) 869-7000. Inbound calls to (972) 869-7000
through 7099 will ring in to the same group of ISDN circuits.
When
the VBX receives the call the last 2,3, or 4 digits of the
called number will be examined to see if a matching Video
ID exists in the VBX database. In this example the range
of DID numbers is 0 to 99, so the VBX need examine only
the last two digits. In larger installations where the number
of video endpoints exceeds 100 or even 1000, the VBX must
examine the last three, four, or even five digits to route
the call to the proper endpoint.
To
simplify future expansion, ViewCast recommends that the
VBX be configured with 4-digit Video IDs and configured
to match the last four digits when a DID call is received.
Configuring the VBX to support DID service
To
enable DID service, the "DID" value in a specific
field in the Windows Registry must be set to the number
of digits to use in matching the called phone number to
a VBX Video ID. This value starts from the right of the
string.
For
example, if the Video IDs are 4 digits in length the Registry
value should be 4. Setting the value to 0 turns DID service
off.
If
an inbound DID call is placed to (972) 869-7012, then the
VBX will look for a Video ID of 7012. If the Video ID is
found, the call will be routed directly to that station.
The
only exception to this rule is if the DID number has a 0
in the left positions. For example, if the DID number is
(972) 869-0012 and the DID value is set to 4, then the system
will look for Video ID 0012. If that Video ID is not found,
it will then look for a Video ID of 12.
If
a matching Video ID was not found for the called DID number
the call will go to the default Video ID designated in the
codec setup options.
To
set the DID value in the Windows Registry:
- Stop
the VBX service.
- Click
Start on the Windows launch bar, then ,Run, enter the
word REGEDIT in the text box, then click OK. This opens
the Windows Registry Editor. It
is VERY IMPORTANT to follow these instructions carefully
to avoid damaging the Registry. It is recommended that
you back up the Registry before beginning this edit process.
- Once
the registry editor is open, click Edit, Find, and enter
the string
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MultiMedia
Access\Viewpoint VBX Server\VWServer]
- If
this entry exists in the Registry, the Editor screen will
show one or more entries in the right pane of the Edit
window. Look for the string
"DID"=dword:0000000x
where
X will be “0” if DID service has not be enabled.
Right click on this value and change the entry to
00000004
if
4-digit checking is desired.
- If
this entry is not found, carefully check that the search
string was entered properly and try again. Note that if
the VBX service has not been started since it was first
installed this entry may not be present. Exit the Registry
Editor, start the VBX service, stop it, and repeat the
Registry search.
- Once
the edit has been made, exit Regedit and restart the VBX
service.
The
VBX diagnostics program can be used to see how the VBX handles
the DID value. To use the diagnostic, set it to capture
all messages from the vwapi.dll file and then look for all
lines that contain the following string:
CreateDIDNumber
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Copyright
© 2002, ViewCast Corporation. This information is accurate
at time of publishing and is subject to change without notice.
Product names mention herein are used for identification
purposes only and may be registered trademarks. All trademarks
are property of their respective holders.
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