Video streaming services - how to?

[roymond]

Hi folks. As many of you know, my dad passed away a couple weeks ago. I truly appreciated the notes from folks, so thanks for the warmth. He lived an enormously awesome life for 93 years and we were with him at the end. Quite an experience.

So the memorial service is Saturday and I need to set up a video stream so my sister in Germany can watch. I've not done this other than video Skype, but it seems some of the streaming services you all have used work pretty well. Which one should I use? I'm cramming to stay afloat at an insanely busy time at work, while writing a eulogy and scanning old photos for a slide show, so forgive me if I haven't searched the archives or done the due diligence. Bottom line is I trust the advice here over what I'd get on Google, and I simply don't have the time to deal with it.

I'll have our (not new) MacBook (not pro) with it's camera, and wireless in the church (or my Sprint wireless card if that doesn't work). So it's not ideal but I figure we'll make the effort. Just has to broadcast, not do two-way. Also, if there are reasonably priced pay services that simple out-do the free ones, I'm interested.

Any recommendations are appreciated. Thanks a lot and I miss this place.
roy

[ken]

I believe Lunkhead and Fluffy used ustream to broadcast Songfight live the last few years.

http://www.ustream.tv/login-signup

Ken

[Lunkhead]

Yes, Ustream makes it very very easy. Sign up, create a "channel", and start broadcasting. You'll have to grant permission to access your Mac's camera and sound to their Flash broadcasting app, but otherwise it should just work. They even have iPhone and Android broadcasting apps in case you need a backup plan. Jonathan Mann showed it to me a couple years ago and we then used it for the last two Song Fight! Live shows.

[roymond]

Thanks, guys. I think I'm set.

[roymond]

Since we weren't broadcasting to more than one person, Skype was the solution, and it worked great. I also didn't realize that the ads on Ustream basically make it look like the worst of MySpace meets cheep porn sites (so a friend tells me). I imagine paying them $100 to remove all ads would be well worth it, when I need to broadcast to many people. Maybe I'm missing something, but that's how it appeared.

[Lunkhead]

I think the ads are a relatively recent thing. Prior to SF! Live last year I hadn't heard any viewers mention them but at SF! Live I think my Mom said she couldn't watch for long because of them. I forgot about that. It's too bad because it's so easy to set up and broadcast. I guess it's time to start a competitor?