Stream wedding live
 

I have a friend/client that asked me about streaming the ceremony for the brides grandpa because he can't travel. Did a bit of research and came up with a Canon DV camera plugged into a MAC with FW and streaming with the ustream client. Pay 99 bucks and get rid of the ads. Setup a private channel and password protect it. High speed internet needed at the place of the ceremony obviously.

The better solution might be a direct feed from computer to another and bypass ustream but I know nothing about that.

Feedback and experience appreciated.


David

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David Schmaus Photography - Dayton, Ohio
Wedding Photography | Wedding Video

Re: Stream wedding live
 

Two years ago at Christmas, my son in law was in Korea and my daughter and grand daughter were here. Christmas Eve we screwed around for a couple hours and finally got everything hooked up to use Windows Live Messenger. We used a Panny GS500 firewired into my laptop and he used a webcam on his end. Used a Rode Videomic on the Panny and got nice audio that way. We were hooked up and running from Christmas morning through the family coming over and afterward while he "played" with his daughter and her new toys. We were doing wireless to the cable modem and he was right on the Army's network. Everyone got a chance to talk with John and he got to "spend" Christmas with the family. There was a lag of a few seconds because of the distance involved. With Windows Live Messenger we were able to "full screen" "daddy" so my grand daughter could spend her Christmas with him here too.

Without John on his end and me spending time here and lots of emails/chat to get it all hooked up and coordinated, we never would have pulled it off. I want to say we tried a couple of the chat programs and finally settled on Windows, but don't remember the reason why.

If it were me, and it was my paying gig, I don't think I'd try screwing around doing as we did with John, and still try to shoot the rest of the wedding. I do think I would set up one cam with good zoom in the back, with an operator, and dedicate that and the shooter, strictly to doing the streaming.

Re: Stream wedding live
 

My company (for my day job, not weddings) has used ustream before for major event streaming, and everything has gone smoothly. Picture quality was good, and there weren't any lags/dropouts. I would recommend it.

Re: Stream wedding live
 

David, unless you need the ability to do live switching etc and assuming you've got a broadband or wi-fi connection handy I think the simplest method would be to set up a laptop with a webcam in an appropriate place in the church and use Skype video - 100% free all over the world. If you put a decent camera eg Logitech 9000 pro (about £40 in the UK) you'll have superb pictures. Basic but easy.

Re: Stream wedding live
 

I think a better solution than streaming live is to shoot the entire wedding, edit a SDE, then post it on vimeo or youtube. It takes about 2 hours to edit/upload and is not exactly live, but the results are far superior since you can mix different angles, cameras, and shots. The trick is to edit just the wedding portion, not the preparations or photo session.

Once I'm done editing/uploading, I text the bride or groom the link, which they forward to everyone. During the reception, you'll often see guests watching the wedding on their phones. The plus is that they can play it back over and over if they want.