Broadcast Yourself Live On The Web: Best Tools To Create Your Own Live Web TV - A Mini-Guide

Here it goes again... I think I am dying already and managing several websites are too much for a sole web designer/developer like me, but I've got no choice. I was given the task of embedding live video broadcasts for one of my website projects. A quite challenging task for me, I thought. As I look for articles on how to do it, I found myself looking at the implementations using a streaming video server, but my boss doesn't want to put up a server. *Sighs... *

As I look into the google search results, I stumble upon this link: Live Broadcasting Solutions Guide A very helpful article that I wanna share. ^_^

Here are some solutions on how to broadcast live videos embedded on website using 3rd party websites:

1. Live Broadcasting Solutions

If you are looking to broadcast live to the world using your web-cam, there are now a number of options available to you. Furthermore, several services offer you the opportunity to enhance your direct-to-camera performance with the inclusion of extra features, such as the ability to add and mash-up a variety of different media, or manage a group of participants in a live video discussion.

UStream - http://www.ustream.tv/

UStream does one thing and does it really well. If you are looking for a solution to broadcast live from your camera, by way of your computer, UStream makes it very easy to get started. Providing you with an embeddable video player and a TV-guide style listing of forthcoming events, UStream allows you to create truly live videos that can be inserted into any website or blog. Once your live show has finished, your videos are archived and can be watched back at any time.

Suited to: Situations where broadcasting live is of peak importance, from up-to-the-minute (on-location) news reports, to reality-TV-style lifecasting in the style of Justin.TV

Not suitable for: Situations where you want to edit your live feed on the fly, or insert other media into your stream, such as a musical soundtrack, or pre-recorded video clips.

Operator11 - http://operator11.com/

Operator11 gives you what is essentially a mini-TV-studio right in your browser. Broadcasts are created either from pre-recorded video clips, or in the Operator11 studio, whereby you can mix your own web-cam video, that of any other person watching your broadcast, adverts and pre-recorded video clips. With a simple drag-and-drop interface, you choose which feeds will be displayed in the live player at any one time, just as an editor might do for a live TV show. The result can be a fantastic combination of live conversation and pre-recorded video clips. It's a real shame you can't embed the live video player into your website, though.

Suited to: Live shows with more than one participant, such as talk and discussion shows. Also an excellent tool for conducting and recording interviews, allowing you to cut between the two (or more) speakers with ease.

Not suitable for: Those that want to broadcast their show live from their own website. Solo video-bloggers with no interest in involving the audience.

Stickam - http://www.stickam.com/

Stickam has been around for quite some time now, and was reviewed in full on these very pages a year ago. Stickam makes it very easy to create both video chat sessions and live broadcasts straight from your web-cam, with the addition of being able to upload photos and audio / music files to include in your broadcasting line-up. With an easy to navigate embeddable media player, an active (if teenager-biased) community and promotion of forthcoming shows on the Stickam website, this makes for a well-rounded live broadcasting solution.

Suited to: Creating live broadcasts that can be embedded into any website or blog, or watched from the Stickam website with the addition of text and video chat.

Not suitable for: Those afraid to seem 'past their prime'. The Stickam website and community is almost entirely comprised of teenagers, and the service can feel a little too teenaged for the tastes of some. Nevertheless, there is nothing to stop you breaking the mold.

Youcams - http://www.youcams.com/

YouCams focus is firmly on video chat, and the service is primarily advertised as a 'Webcam chat widget', allowing you to embed video chat capabilities, along with text-chat functionality, right into your own website. This is a great solution for those looking to broadcast from their own website, and perhaps to a smaller group rather than to the world at large. Furthermore, you can watch YouTube videos together with other chat participants, seeing their reactions in realtime.

Suited to: YouCams could be used in a number of ways, from small seminars, marketing presentations and discussions through to focus groups, video-feedback sessions or just plain old video chat.

Not suitable for: YouCams is ill-suited to broadcasting to a larger audience, and also lacks the creative control that other services offer, making sessions much more of a group effort than a programmed, individually-led broadcast.

Scheduled and On-Demand Broadcasting Solutions

If you are looking to broadcast live to the world using your web-cam, there are now a number of options available to you. Furthermore, several services offer you the opportunity to enhance your direct-to-camera performance with the inclusion of extra features, such as the ability to add and mash-up a variety of different media, or manage a group of participants in a live video discussion.

Kyte – http://www.kyte.tv

Kyte offers a very easy way to create scheduled programming by combining your video footage, images, music files and even live image-feeds from your camera-phone. Using a really easy-to-get-along-with drag-and-drop interface, you simply drag different media and formatting features onto your screen to create a media-rich show. You can then share the show at a scheduled time from the Kyte website, where live text chat is integrated. Kyte features extensive customization features, so that you can really transform the look and branding of the media player to suit your tastes. It also allows you to produce shows for other users' channels, or invite them to contribute to your channel. The inclusion of in-show polling adds interactivity to the viewing experience.

Suitable for: Anyone looking to put together their existing media files into a great-looking, branded-and-customized media player, to create scheduled Internet TV shows.

Not suitable for: Those looking to broadcast live, as in 'right here, right now'. Kyte will allow you to upload photo-streams from your mobile, but if you want to broadcast your video show as it is recorded live, this isn't currently supported.

Splashcast – http://www.splashcastmedia.com/

In some ways similar to Kyte, Splashcast is focused on allowing you to easily aggregate your existing media into shows and channels. However, in addition to its extensive capabilities in this department - including the ability to import and incorporate YouTube video into your show - Splashcast has a further list of great features. With the ability to add a soundtrack to your show, to record voice narration, create still image slideshows as well as video, and to record your web-cam right from the interface, Splashcast has a very rich feature-set. What it won't do is allow you to broadcast live in any way shape or form, but this is perhaps made up for by the inclusion of RSS feeds that instantly update any player embedded out on the web each time you add new content to your channel.

Suitable for: Splashcast is an excellent way to combine your media into playlists, with our without video and audio commentary, and is therefore also very well suited to the delivery of all types of web presentation.

Not suitable for: If you are looking to broadcast either live or to a schedule, Splashcast is not for you, as the Splashcast player is on-demand only.