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+--- Thread: Looking for a good source for a live video streaming company (/showthread.php?tid=60785)
Looking for a good source for a live video streaming company - pokari - 08-24-2008
We are looking to need live video streaming for about 4 hours a week for maybe 10-20 users. Does anybody know of good pricing and good companies out there. I checked around a little and they seem really outrageous in price.
Thanks,
pokari
Re: Looking for a good source for a live video streaming company - onthedownlow - 08-24-2008
Does it need to be interactive?
Have you considered the possibility of building your own streaming server and then giving out the network address when needed (or place a link on your website)? So essentially a 'free' alternative.
You can easily do this using a decent Windows box (RAM is not too important - 256MB-1GB+, but the higher CPU you can get, the better) and the free Windows Media Encoder. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx
Throw an (optional) capture card in there...add a camera...and you are set. You do not need a streaming (Windows) media server - users can connect directly to the IP address of the Encoder machine. The default connection is limited to 5 simultaneous connections, but you can go into the Registry and up it to 50 users max - very simple to do.
Depending on what you need and the enironment, you can even use a good laptop with a good web cam (2MP+ if you really want some good quality) for quick/easy use - of course you can always get a (USB/FW) capture card and use a 'regular' camera/camcorder too.