Producing Live Web Events

What does the implementation or production of a live Web event look like? If we place live production on a cost scale, we see a wide range of possibilities: everything from inexpensive Webcams to full-scale broadcast-quality productions. The live event Contoso will produce falls somewhere in the middle of this cost range. Contoso’s production planning will strive to keep costs as low as possible. However, they will pattern the approach to production of a live event after what on-air broadcasters have been doing for many years.

Contoso Movies Online will use a broadcast production model because end users have preconceived ideas of what the quality of a video production should be like from having watched television for over 50 years. Contoso wants to provide an appropriate level of technical and production quality, because end users will judge their site based on the experience they have with the live video. If the experience is good, there is a greater likelihood that the end user will perceive the Contoso site as being a useful and engaging portal for movies and information. The Contoso producers will also be using the same type of equipment, like video cameras and audio mixers, and they will want the event to look and feel like a broadcast.

The video and audio signals that will be encoded are standard signals used throughout the world. For example, Contoso can rebroadcast (with permission, of course) the signal from a television station, or obtain rights to stream a signal from a satellite or microwave link. If they decide to produce their own event, Contoso can do the same things a broadcaster would do—for example, rent broadcast equipment, satellite time, and hire freelance technicians and artists. The entire production infrastructure can be identical to that of doing a broadcast up to the point of encoding the signal to a Windows Media stream.

There are many similarities between broadcast and live streaming media production. However, there are also a number of differences that can help keep costs down and add value to the event, for example:

• No time constraints. Broadcast programming is traditionally limited by time constraints. This limit comes from other factors limiting the size and scope of the broadcast medium, such as the cost of running a station or network, and government regulations. Time is translated directly to money, making broadcast time expensive. Most programming is, therefore, limited to a tight and inflexible time block, with breaks for commercials and other format restrictions.

  Webcasting, on the other hand, has no such time restrictions. For example, you do not have to try to squeeze a three-hour event that starts at 6:42 pm into a one-hour block that starts at exactly 7:00 pm. The Internet and streaming media as media do not create time barriers.

• Cost barriers. Not only do cost barriers restrict broadcast time, they restrict many other facets of broadcasting, such as who can be a broadcaster and what one can broadcast. FCC licenses are very difficult to come by, and once you have one you need an expensive transmitter and all of the technical infrastructure. On the other hand, one can become a Webcaster with an inexpensive computer, a video camera, and a connection to the Internet. There are Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that provide live streaming services for a monthly fee. Without the technical and cost barriers, the Contoso Movies Online site can produce quality live events that are easily within their budget.

• No content barriers. Again without regulations from entities such as the FCC and organizations, and without the cost barriers, an Internet broadcaster has more freedom to create many different types of content for many different types of audiences. For years, Web site owners have taken advantage of this freedom in the text and images they create. You can extend the advantage to streaming media and take viewers to places they have never imagined and are not possible with traditional broadcasting.

• No presentation barriers. Broadcast television imposes many restrictions on the presentation of content that do not apply to streaming media. Broadcast television is carried with an analog signal that reproduces an image of a set size and quality. Streaming media, on the other hand, is a digital stream that has the potential of carrying, reproducing, creating, or doing anything that a computer is capable of.

  Currently, a stream of data formatted into Windows Media packets carries audio and video. The audio and video can be streamed at a number of different bit rates with different codecs, frame sizes, frame aspect ratios, and audio quality levels. You can then embed one or more video frames in a Web page and script the page so the stream displays static images.

When planning how to use Windows Media, you can take advantage of the systems and lessons learned in broadcasting, while leveraging the features and freedoms available only to the Internet broadcaster.