Given the good news that arrived yesterday regarding CLOUT’s lawsuit to enforce state constitutional spending limitations on the legislature, it looks like we are finally getting closer to the day when elected officials in Austin — most deliciously Fred Hill — are going to have to put their fat lying butts in a chair and offer depositions.
We’d love to stream the whole thing live on the Internet and quickly upload everything to a site like YouTube for later viewing– all in the interest of open government, of course.
Doing so, however, poses some technical challenges that are a little bit daunting for our merry band of blog warriors.
So we thought we’d open up the situation to all of you, our readers, in the hopes that one or more of you might know how to pull off a project of this sort (or know someone who does).
We asked one friend of LST, and here are their thoughts about what would be involved.
1) Quality video camera, audio equipment and lighting. This is mostly likely already taken care of since there would be a videotaped session in the first place.
LST Note: That may be taken care of, but we don’t want to have to rely on someone else’s camera and audio equipment, if we can avoid it.
2) Getting the video from the camera to a place on the Internet (ie: server) where it can be broadcast. This requires a computer on-site to compress the video/audio as it exits the camera. This also requires a speedy Internet connection to get the video from the PC to a server on the Internet in a timely manner.
LST Note: Help!
3) Server to stream the video. You need a server capable of sending the stream to all the people who request it. You need an appropriate amount of bandwidth to sustain all those requests. When talking about video streaming, you need to have some idea of how many people will be watching the stream because this helps determine how much bandwidth
you’ll need.
LST Note: Truthfully, we doubt more than 100 people would want to watch any of this live. Perhaps 20 reporters. Maybe 80 readers. It’s going to be a lot like watching C-SPAN. The audience will be greater for the “best of” clips that are edited down later.
The live streaming thing is mostly about the psychological torture of the politicians, knowing that every dissembling lie they tell is being beamed around the world instantaneously.
Heh.
4) After the live show is over, you will most likely want to have a person edit the depositions down to the best clips and then make those available on the Internet. This is the same as taking a 1000 page text deposition and posting only the highlights to a blog or similar.
LST Note: Help!
If we had the answers, we wouldn’t be posting this.
This is “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” time, and we need all of you to “blog swarm” this issue to actually get it resolved.
Ideas? Offers of assistance?
Leave a comment or contact us privately at lsteditors AT gmail DOT com.
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There are a number of applications that you can get to record off of a web cam to both record and live feed, Philips has a really nice 1.2 mp web cam with 90 frames a second
Matt hopefully not too dumb of a question, but can you offer it live? Would they not be able to refuse to answer any question? And would this action give them the opportunity to seek a delay pending a judges ruling on live streaming?
Verizon wireless card that fits in the PCMCIA slot of your laptop. You can run video directly into your computer from a relatively new video camera via a USB cable and using a video capture software program. Set the capture format to MPEG … the standard for viewing non-streaming video on the Internet because it produces less quality (but good enough) video and a drastically smaller file size than AVI. If you periodically take a break in filming, you can save each session and then upload each segment’s video MPEG file to your streaming expert and s/he can then take the file and set it up for streaming (obviously, not realtime as the events occur, but good enough). The other option rather than streaming is to post directly to YouTube … but they limit file sizes to 10 MB.
The whole idea is delicious. Good luck!!!
Ain’t got a clue…. Need a T Shirt?
Matt, your tech request is above my paygrade, but I am sure these guys can help you out. They have a new and interesting online magazine here:
Blogger & Podcaster Magazine
http://mag1.olivesoftware.com/ActiveMagazine/welcome/BLG/Bloggers-06-2007.asp
Here also are two link-rich posts by Instapundit’s Dr. Glenn Reynolds, law prof and podcast pioneer:
http://instapundit.com/archives2/001516.php
http://instapundit.com/archives2/000562.php
If anyone wants to read Texpat’s links and take charge of making this happen, we’re looking for volunteers
Guaranteed on-air praise-by-name from Edd Hendee. High probability of steak playing a role.
Someone needs to ask Rick about having someone other than the parties and their attorneys in the conference room during the depositions. Both sides and their attorneys must agree. I could see how the government wouldn’t want this happening. But I’m sure Edd and his team have thought this through. Just anglin’ for a few crumbs from Edd’s table at TOT!
Who says someone else has to be there?
The thing is going to get videotaped no matter what…. our goal is to assist CLOUT’s attorneys as they seek to divert the video feed not only to tape (to be recorded) but live on the Net as well.
David if it turns out impossible to get both video and audio couldn’t you feed the audio real time through the KSEV web site just like a radio show while the usual show would continue on the radio airwaves only? They already have all the required equipment to do it that way. You may get less resistance to an audio only feed. I do not believe you can force them to it without more court hearings and a judges order.
#10 David couldn’t they petition to have them sealed?
David, I assumed that you wanted to use your own equipment from what Matt said:
If you want to utilize the videographer’s equipment, then you would have no problem. If you wanted to use your own equipment and videographer, he would have to remain there because he would have stop filming when they go off the record, break for lunch or restroom, etc.
Have you discussed any of this with Edd’s attorney’s videographer?
First step is to figure out the technical side (and costs) or streaming and/or just editing footage later and uploading (YouTube has restrictions on file size, for one thing).
If we think that’s doable, then we look into whether the CLOUT attorney’s video camera is easy to work with, or whether we provide one of our own and ask them to use it.
And there’s the question of what other equipment is needed in the room to live stream.
Ultimately, it’s going on YouTube or some such place; we’d just like to be able to do it “live” and “immediately” if possible.
I think you may encounter more problems than it is worth to attempt live feed. If you don’t have access to your equipment during deposition, what would happen if you had a malfunction ? I think you record A/V and then edit and condense to post a podcast nightly or the next morning.
It seems to me the only safe and sane way to do it. As someone who has suffered through some painfully long, boring, drawnout and sometimes bumbling depositions, a live feed could be terminally dull. That’s my take on it.
David
I think Dude has some experience with this type of production. If not, he is sharp enough to figure it out.
RE: My Post #7
Also, Reynolds @ Instapundit offers his podcasts in the following formats. He records them in a studio he set up in the corner of his basement in Knoxville.
Flash Media Player @ Pajamas Media
Windows Media Download
Lo-Fi Dialup play @ Pajamas Media
ITunes Podcast - Free Subscrition
David / Matt
Here is a free 23-page pdf. file of a beginners guide for podcasting. Look to the upper right corner.
http://podcastingscout.com/category/podcast-equipment
I know technical is important, but be sure you check the legal end first. Aren’t there some sort of disclosure procedures? Does Edd’s attorney know what you are contemplating? Is he cool with it? If so, then go straight to technical.
You really need a digital camcorder of some sort, preferably a higher-quality one, an uplink to the internet that you can stream at 300 KB or more for decent quality video, 150 KB or so for lesser quality, a PC or server that can accommodate an IEEE 1394 connection with a lot of hard disk space (preferably SCSI), and the software to handle the streaming - you’ll have to set up with your ISP and a streaming provider like Akami.
I’ve never tried to pull it off, and I don’t have a lot of equipment to offer, unfortunately…
Yeah, I can see the State filing a motion to prevent any live feed. Not that I can think of a convincing argument against this kind of thing, but I can sure see it as an excuse to file another motion! But, hey, maybe the attorneys have already worked it out. It’s not like the video won’t be out there in a few days anyway.