Now that all the ground work was done it was time to plan the implementation. Considering that we would have people with both high and low speed internet connections watching, I decided to take live streaming to the next level and stream 2 qualities of video simultaneously. For those with a high speed internet connection we could provide live video and audio. And for those with slower connections, real-time audio but with a slide show for the images. Ideally, I would need to use 2 laptops and need two video and audio feeds and get two internet connections to take care of this. But that too would have been too easy! So would this be possible with just 1 laptop, a single feed from the mixer and a single internet connection?

The answer is yes! And it wasn’t too hard either. A little complicated but not hard. The solution I came up with needed a bunch of “virtual” video sources. The diagram above show the flow of the video and audio channels. The audio part was easy. The video is were things get complicated. Usually, the application using the webcam or any other video source locks it exclusively so that no other app can use it at the same time. I chose to use SplitCam to vitualize the video feed. This would allow more than one application to access the same video source.

So now, the real time audio and video feed could be broadcast via Flash Media Live Encoder to the LiveStream service.

Next step was to create a new video stream but with a delay in the images. This would make it look like a photo slide show. I used YawCam to split the video into images. The Image array wizard does a neat job of configuring the same all you need to do is pick the location to dump a copy of the images, the file naming convention and the interval between images. Then I used ManyCam to read the images dumped by YawCam and create a video source. Next logged in to Stickam and everything was a go!

While attempting the above make sure you disable all other video and audio sources. So if someone trips over a wire and unplugs the cable you won’t need to re-configure the software all over again. Also, I had some kind of random FM interference on the audio line when we went live. Might have been something to do with the new mixing equipment but it’s always a good idea to do a few dry runs before you can go live on the final equipment.

During the 3-days of live streaming, there were about 495 unique visitors and over 120 simultaneous viewers during one point in time. I’d say it was a miracle considering this was a last minute attempt!

A few weeks back, just a few days before the GCCR Conference started, Felix rang up and asked if we could Video Stream the event LIVE on the website! I was quite skeptical and said it would be better to just record it and upload the recording a few weeks later. However, I was curious and since this was something I never attempted before I thought why not research a bit and give it a go. Also, it was a long time since I did something challenging.

Two issues popped up immediately.

The first was to find a low-cost or better still free video streaming service. After going through a lot of sites, I came across Stickam.com. It’s got a lot of good reviews and no evident limitations for a free service. And better still, an easy process to start streaming. The tests I ran with my webcam looked good. A few days later I was also put in touch with Chito who had access to a premium LiveStream account used by the Fillipino community. This was a more advanced video streaming service and the video quality was much better. One benefit was that Adobe Flash Live Media Encoder could be used to stream the video directly. Yippee!

But the next issue, and probably the biggest challenge was to get an external video feed into the laptop. Although using the built-in webcam or an external usb cam would be easy, the best quality video would be a direct feed from the professional video & audio mixing equipment. Now most professional cameras will have either a RCA or HDMI output. And for web streaming, I didn’t see the need for HDMI so I stuck to RCA. This would mean investing in a RCA to USB video card. I figured this would set me back about KWD 60 to 80 cause a few years ago, that’s what they cost. But finding this adapter at the last minute was harder than expected since none of the large retailers had it in stock. So I headed down to good old Ibn Khaldoun Street in Hawally and after darting in and out of a dozen or more IT shops, I found one selling an EasyCAP RCA to USB adapter. And best of all… for about KWD 7.5/-. If you need to pick up one, the shop next to Blink stocks them.

The EasyCAP adapter is a very simple device and the software driver installation is straight forward. However, after an over night of fiddling around I couldn’t get the audio to capture through that card unless I used their recording / playback software. This meant that it simply would not work with any other web streaming software. So what next? The standard mic port on the laptop seemed like a good choice for audio. I picked up one of those audio adapter cables which have a single jack at one end (for the laptop) and two ports at the other for input from the mixer and all the hardware was now in place.

To stream video on the net, all I had to do was select the EasyCap driver as the video source, my standard mic port as the audio source and the whole world could watch the event live!

Well, it all started while we popped into City Center Salmiya for some quick shopping. We came across this “Kissing Booth” setup just for Christmas. Outside the booth, I noticed this Christmas tree decorated in little Hershey’s Kisses ornaments.

And then I thought, how great it would be to have a mistletoe made of these little kisses chocolates. So I “googled” a bit and found a new word …Kissletoe! It’s what you call a mistletoe made out of Hershey’s Kisses.

The crafts section on the Heyshey’s website actually tells you how to build one. I took the liberty of copying the same here…

Supplies:

• 2 3-inch Styrofoam balls
• Wired ribbon
• HERSHEY’S KISSES Chocolates

Instructions:

1. Using a pen or pencil, push through each ball to make a hole through the center of the ball (from end to end).
2. Feed the ribbon through the first ball and knot at the bottom.
3. Leave a couple of inches of ribbon above first ball and tie another knot, then feed the ribbon through the second ball setting it on second knot, leave several inches of ribbon again, and then tie a bow in the top.
4. Using hot glue, glue KISSES on each ball. When dry, you can hang your Kissletoe at the bow end.

And at the end of that you should end up with something like this…

… and a lot of kisses

I came across this great website for comparing camera features. Snapsort allows you to pick two camera models and compare them feature wise. It also shows you the clear winner between them.

I just love the simplicity of the site. But although its very informative, some user / editor reviews on the same page would be great. In addition there is no mention of approx prices. I guess this site is best used once you have gone around town and need to decided between 2-3 cameras of your liking.

Can anyone guess what I was trying to carve with my tea spoon?

I guess I just got bored of digging into this big tub of chocolate ice cream. I started carving steps and then dug a big well at the top! And all that with a tea spoon. This is interesting and hopefully I’ll do a better job with the next tub.

Yes the design on that globe is not perfect, but I’ve managed to balance it on a bridge of coins. The whole structure looks more like something with 4 legs carrying the world on its back.

This particular structure took a lot of precise measuring.

This angle shows that there is a small bridge between the towers and the longer span runs from one bridge to another.

This was my first attempt at coin stacking. Balancing those coins into a bridge structure is not an easy task. I’d say about 40 attempts before the damn thing stood still. Try it out using 10 and 20 fils coins.

Its easier using the bigger coins to construct the bridge. I got carried away and put two of them the second time around.

Looks familiar? Any guesses? And its all balanced on a one 100 fils coin at the bottom.

Tried making a curved pyramid too, again balanced the whole thing on a single 100 fils coin.

Check out this video and watch it all the way to the end. Its amazing when the structure is lit up. Looks like the Hamra Tower towards the end.

I’m going to need a lot more coins to construct something this big.