Not our normal show! From the Studio to the Car and Back!
Written by Paul Richards on February 11, 2018
Episode 26, of StreamGeeks Live is not a normal episode! This show will feature a mobile broadcast that will bridge the live stream back and forth from our normal multi-camera studio setup to a totally mobile broadcast from a car using the cloud. While we are still live streaming the show to both YouTube and Facebook, we are using a cloud-based service called Easy Live to transition between multiple RTMP streams.
Now before we get into the technical explanations, let’s talk about some real-world applications. The first application the StreamGeeks will soon be bringing to life is a live broadcast from a car dealership. Imagine our studio setup was inside a car dealership allowing a car salesman to a presentation about the latest car in his showroom floor. In the midst of this live presentation, the car salesman would be able to get into the car and go for a test drive while still maintaining a single broadcast stream to YouTube and/or Facebook.
As many of our viewers know, our live streaming studio is built to provide a multiple camera switching experiences for viewers using a video production software called vMix. This software will stream to EasyLive in the cloud using an RTMP stream just like we would to a normal social media CDN (Content Delivery Network). Our second live RTMP stream will come from a mobile camera connected to a LiveU Solo. The LiveU Solos uses multiple 4G cellular hotspots and bonds the signals together to maintain a high-quality RTMP stream from our HDMI video output from our camcorder.
Now let’s talk about another popular example use case, the remote reporter. Using just a LiveU Solo, we could stream directly to YouTube or Facebook Live to deliver timely information from almost anywhere with a cellular signal. But what if we want to tie that stream into a larger show like we commonly see on television. Using EasyLive in the cloud we can manage multiple RTMP ingest streams and switch between the home base studio and remote reporters around the world.
There are so many interesting new use cases for live streaming when you combine cloud-based video production and mobile hotspot broadcasting, but let’s mention two more interesting use cases the StreamGeeks plan to bring to light in the coming months. Obviously, live sports and the ability to bring sporting events into a larger school or professional broadcast studio. So many times sporting events are outdoors with no access to ethernet or wired internet access. So bridging the gap between a produced video production studio and mobile broadcasts for sports will be very interesting.
Another use case is tourism and live events. With the LiveU Solo we are able to set up broadcasting stream from moving vehicles such as a golf cart. Now, this video feed can be brought into a larger broadcast in the cloud using EasyLive and your already established studio based streaming software. The opportunities for extending the reach of your live video production have never been easier to take advantage of.