Hey folks,

They just confirmed me a gig in a few weeks where I am going to need to broadcast live from a conference room to the internet. The biggest IT boss at the corporate facility picked USTREAM, You're On. Free LIVE VIDEO Streaming, Online Broadcasts. Create webcasts, video chat, stream videos on the Internet. Live streaming videos, TV shows (http://www.ustream.tv/) as the place to do it. My gig? Hook up my HMC-150 and do the job.

After reading the guidelines at UStream, here's where my research continues.

We are going to be using a laptop with either an ethernet or wireless connection. I know my HMC-150 plugs into a USB port but just to transfer my footage. I also have an HDMI out, but that doesn't connect to any computer at all. I know I can plug just a webcam, but out idea is to raise the bar a bit in terms of quality. It'll be a bunch of speakers through the morning and afternoon.

Any suggestion or experience on how to accomplish such task?!?!?!

Very much appreciate your input!!

Ben Tolosa

I looked in to this before and decided the simplest route was to find a laptop/desktop PC that has firewire ports, and then buy a used firewire capable video camera, like:

Low-budget: Canon HV20 / HV30 / HV40 camera

Higher-budget: Panasonic DVX-100 / DVX-100A / DVX-100B camera

A used DVX-100 can be found for as little as $1,000, while a used HV20 might go for as little as $300. The DVX-100 is pretty much a tape-based SD clone of your HMC-150, so it would not be a big deal to switch to it for video-streaming work.

Streaming HD ( 720 or 1080 ) video requires a very good broadband connection for users to watch your content, which is why I think SD ( 720x480 ) or lower resolution video makes a lot more sense.

This has been one of my hold offs to going to a HD tapeless camera, all of them (except for the new Panasonic HMC80) have no continous video output like firewire.

For those cameras that have HDMI outputs, there is a PCIexpress card available that will allow streaming into your computer from HDMI. It runs $100 but is only avilable as a desktop card.(Don't remember the name)

So unless you can get that card and a desktop, you'll need to do as the last poster said and get a camcorder with a firewire output to actuall stream with.

Jeff

Stream the AV from the Std Def port near the xlr sockets to a cheap AV- DV converter.

Works great. Enable in the menu.