0

We have been given a request to provide a live feed of our monthly meetings on our website. Our web site uses PHP on Linux (LAMP). I am thinking of getting an IP or USB camera in the meeting room and somehow relay the video to the website. The video also needs to be saved for archiving.

I had originally gotten a USB camera and used Google Hangouts with Youtube to create an event and it broadcasts live and when finishes saves the file in YouTube for later public viewing. They now want this to be done all inhouse with preferably Open Source software. I was thinking of using VLC, but as I understand it, you need a VLC plugin to view a stream on the website.

Can you guys provide some recommendations on how to go about this?

2 Answers 2

1

I have recently gone through something similar, and so have done a lot of research on what is out there.

There are a few things you will need:

  1. A camera
  2. A software or hardware encoder
  3. A software or hardware capture device
  4. A decent internet connection (upload rate must be greater than your stream rate)
  5. An online service, or your own server

There are also some major considerations, such as the internet connection speed of your audience, the types of devices the target audience will be watching on, and of course, your budget.

Assuming the worst case scenario, no budget at all, you are limited to free services such as Livestream, Justin.tv, YouTube, and Vimeo. There are some cons to each service, but for free they really are very good. Some of thee cons are streaming at non-HD resolution; the displaying of advertisements before, during, or after your broadcast; no video analytics; and/or, no video archiving after the live event has finished. So you will have to research what best suits your needs.

Livestream.com does not have ads, does not have archiving, but it does have easy-to-use software and service. So it would be my choice to stream for free. You can only stream SD quality with a free account, but here is a very simple solution that will get you streaming in no time:

  1. Sign up for Livestream.com's free service
  2. Install their Procaster software
  3. Install a free capture software such as Open Broadcast
  4. Test your webcam with OBS, then connect it through to Livestream using this tutorial

After you have completed the live event, you have 30 days before the event is deleted on Livestream's free account, so I would suggest downloading it for archival purposes as soon as you're done.

If you want to throw some money at it, ustream.tv, livestream.com, and justin.tv all offer entry-level plans that include archive space and better options.

0

you can check https://wiki.videolan.org/Simple_Stream_VLC_to_Website/ for a possible solution.

If the requirement is to have something similar to youtube (in terms of serving flash player, keeping recordings etc. you can look into mediagoblin and the other floating around media sites sources.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .