Re: MetaBUG Streaming

On Mar 17, 2007, at 7:52 AM, J.C. Roberts wrote:

> Hello Ross and the MetaBUG list,
>
> http://metabug.org/news/video-streaming-update/
>
> As noted in the link above, Jason has been working on getting
> streaming
> together for MetaBUG. Brad has been working on getting VLC on OpenBSD
> to us the liveMedia libraries from Live555 for RTSP (Flying Raichu)
> support. So far, so good. I've also cc'd Ross Finlayson of Lieve555
> because I figured he'd would want to know about MetaBUG, particularly
> the streaming side of things. He's the person responsible for
> Live555/liveMedia and might be interested in the trickle down network
> effect of a bunch of folks starting to use his software to view (if
> not
> broadcast) user group presentations. -just a hunch.

We're also looking for FOSS ways of transmitting, if anyone has any
ideas. I mentioned yesterday how I'll be using QuickTime Broadcaster
with my Mac for capturing, streaming, and archiving the feed. Other
BUGs may not have this capability (and indeed, PhxBUG does not), so
we're looking for a free (as in software) standard that we can
document and distribute to our members.

> Jason, other than saying you've got streaming working on a well
> connected system, you were unusually sparse on details. Without the
> hows and whats, there's no way for people to look into the possibility
> of helping to share the load (and costs). In other words, mirroring of
> archived presentations and/or live feeds.
>
> Is this something worth investigating or did one of you win that big
> $350 million dollar MegaLotto? ;-)
>
> The claimed operating costs of the user supported Internet radio
> station
> SOMA-FM (somafm.com) in San Francisco, CA USA is $15,000 per month,
> and
> they only offer 11 channels of audio, no video. Sure, you may have a
> smaller audience than popular music but it might give you an idea of
> the direction your expenses are heading.

These are valid concerns and have been considered. However, until we
start our madness we won't know how well it takes off and how hard it
will hit anyone's pocket. Our webserver is hosted by merdely and
will serve up the archives. My webserver is hosted in Cali and is
running DSS with free bandwidth. The provider has said to "notify us
when it reaches 30Mbps". Until then, the primary worry will be the
CPU overhead. My tests of H.264/AAC (320x240) show an average of
~110Kbps per client. Assuming we have 50 clients for the first
presentation (a generous estimation IMHO), we'll only hit around
5-6Mbps. If we can sustain a frequent flow of presentations and
viewers, we might be able to find sponsorship for additional
bandwidth (Yahoo? Google?).

On the other hand, we're probably only going to be streaming (if
we're wildly successful) at a rate of one per week. This is hardly
going to reach the sustained throughput of an Internet radio
station. I just want to make sure our provider is ok with the peaks.

--
Jason Dixon
DixonGroup Consulting
http://www.dixongroup.net
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