We didn't get a stream running while I was in Urbana, but this is something UPTV wants to do.. and somethign we think every PEG stations should be doing. I know the moving to streaming is a touchy issue in the PEG community, but it is now possible to get watchable video into viewers homes without ripping up the streets.
I'm pretty happy with the Wowza server we've been using for streaming at Denver Open Media. I think this configuration is both cost effect and has a good balance in the quality to bandwidth and technology required by users.
While streaming configuration isn't really part of the Open Media System and stations can obviously integrate streams from any number of servers and embed any player, we are planning to develop Open Media related add-ons to the JW Player for voting, embedding video, display related video, transcripts, and other accessibility features.
Right now we're only using RTMP stream of the H.264 content for live streaming. At some point I'd like to start running all our videos through our Wowza so we can hyperlink to specific time in the video like...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIXLxDTREt8#t=1m15s
As long as you have access to some decent hardware and a DV converter (which can even be a camera with a tape problem), everything else can be set up at no cost. I've written a few AppleScripts to keep the QuickTime Broadcaster running smoothly that can be downloaded from http://om.civicpixel.com/sites/default/files/wowza_scripts_achive.zip
A free 10 user license of the Wowza server is available for Windows (including Vista), all variants of Linux, Unix, Solaris and Mac OSX running Java 1.5 from http://www.wowzamedia.com/pricing.html#pro10
Apple's QuickTime Broadcaster is also available for free from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/broadcaster/
Comments
ustream.tv or mogulus plus FLV-Scrubber
Has anyone any experience with http://ustream.tv or http://mogulus.com ?
I ran across this link for comparison http://www.webtvwire.com/mogulus-or-ustream-which-live-streaming-video-b...
And for seeking in VOD there is FLV-Scrubber: http://www.topfstedt.de/weblog/?page_id=208
I haven't yet played with these tools. But, they look promising as a free solution.
I have used both Mogulus and Webwire
Both work very well, but the ad-insertion technology tends to annoy me after a while, basically their TOS allows them to cut in to your stream as often as they like for ads. The challenge there is that unlike leased access TV, you don't actually know exactly when they are going to cut in. So you end up having to repeat content to make sure your viewers get to see all the bits.
If you have the bandwidth, I recommend rolling your own.