Resource Corner
Video Streaming: The Next Best Thing to Being There
by Jennifer Ragan-Fore, ISTE General Membership Director
Let’s face it: schools and nonprofits are always looking for ways to make professional development dollars go further. As the Dow plummets, travel expenses increase, and budgets shrink, increasingly organizations are devising creative methods of supporting learning goals and sharing content in a manner both cost-effective, and still rich and meaningful. Many schools and organizations are turning to video broadcasts to share special events, lectures, and multimedia projects with students, employees, and the general public who may not be able to attend an annual meeting or make a site visit.
This past year, as ISTE was preparing for NECC, we considered ways to make the conference engaging not only for those participating live in San Antonio, but also for the many members of the ISTE family who were unable to attend. ISTE has been making key conference sessions, interviews, and podcasts available online for years, but we wanted to experiment with something new that would capture not only the content, but also the live conference atmosphere. After all, the value of a conference lies not only in the sessions, but also in the rich observations, peer-to-peer networking, and hallway conversations. Sometimes simply hanging around the convention center and chatting can be as valuable as attending a breakout session.
 A strategy we employed to bring together one of our member communities involved live broadcasting into Second Life using Veodia, an intuitively simple video broadcasting tool that can be used as a live streaming platform, video archive, or integrated Second Life add-on. Members were able to log into Second Life, locate their friends "in world," and then tune in together for live broadcasts from San Antonio. During our opening reception, for example, virtual conference goers hit the pixilated dance floor to dance to the music of One Horse Shy, the real-life Americana band playing live in San Antonio. During our closing keynote, they relaxed with colleagues in our comfy virtual auditorium, watching a video of conference highlights and our live keynote presentation, and discussing the session in real time. While nothing can replace the full conference experience, of course, opportunities like these make it a little more possible to connect with meaningful networks and content, even when travel isn't an option.
We used Veodia with great success during NECC, and again later in the summer during the Second Life Community Convention, but we considered a wide range of alternatives before settling on this particular vendor. If you’re considering dipping your toe into the video broadcasting pond for your school or organization, here are a few factors to consider:
-
Live vs. archived : The second important decision, and perhaps simplest to navigate, is whether you want the capability to host live broadcasts, or simply to post filmed content afterwards. An inability to host live events will take some vendors out of the running from the get-go.
-
Number of concurrent viewers: Most providers will charge on a sliding scale, increasing fees with the number of users accessing your stream at a single time. So be prepared to handle the traffic surrounding popular content. You might need to set a concurrent access limit in the hundreds, for example, if you plan to open your content as in a conference or webinar, or only in the dozens if access will be granted via an archive or newsletter. If you’re just creating content that will sit on your web site until someone happens by, on the other hand, you might be able to get away with a relatively low number of concurrent users. But consider: If your demand skyrockets, how will your provider handle the demand? This is an important question to ask—will your provider automatically ratchet up your users and charge you an overage fee? Or will they put up a message that the service is unavailable? Will they contact you for instructions?
-
Space: How much storage space will you have to host your video clips? Will this increase over time with older content moving to archiving servers, or are space limitations absolute? Depending on how often and in what size you will be publishing content, the cost to you may vary widely.
-
Monthly transfer quotas: How much bandwidth is included in your package? Will it be sufficient for your audience? This may take some experimentation until you understand how many users will take advantage of your content in a given month, but, like the number of concurrent users supported, this can greatly increase your overall costs if you’re not careful. It can also result in the dreaded "Exceeded transfer quota" message to users if you run over and don’t have a system worked out with your provider ahead of time.
-
Platform compatibility: An important consideration is whether the software or user interface work with your particular platform, and the platform that others in your org use. While most providers work with a variety of platforms, it’s a good idea to actually test drive the service before signing any contracts, as some products will integrate with an existing platform more seamlessly than will others.
-
Special equipment: Is any additional equipment required to do what you need to do? Many vendors we considered required a special QuickTime server to produce a Second Life-compatible stream. Your particular needs may not be as complex, but it always pays to try it out a few times to make sure everything works as anticipated, without hidden hardware or support costs.
These were just some of the factors we considered as we experimented with video broadcasting over the past few months. Share your favorite tips and ideas via the new ISTE Member Ning by joining the discussion at http://iste-members.ning.com/ .
|
