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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week
01/13/2010 Using the internet to broadcast
your social events for those friends and family far away ... I just got
married on Jan 1st, in a live internet broadcast.... The
internet has made the world a much smaller place and brought people together
on a scale no one could have imagined. Today with a personal computer, a
webcam, and access to the internet – anyone can share social events
with distant friends and family. I’ve
got friends and relations around the United States and in different parts of
the world, and I wanted to find a way of letting them view our wedding
ceremony. But after last year’s Winter – remembering that we were
buried in snow on Jan 1st – I wasn’t even sure if
people who lived here in town could make it. So I was
looking for the simplest free way to broadcast the wedding ceremony so that
anyone with a pc could see and hear it – no matter where they lived. I checked
out many options and websites, and I even consulted with Microsoft on the
simplest way to do this. The basics of what you need is a pc or a Mac, a webcam –
which you can buy for under $ 50, and a high speed internet connection. I used my
newest Dell PC with the Intel Dual core processor which I recently upgraded
to Windows 7, a Microsoft VX5000 webcam, and my Comcast dsl connection which
is supposed to be 12 megs. If you
have a windows pc, you probably have Windows live on it which enables you to
use a webcam and talk to and see people through your computer, but they have
to have windows live too.
Microsoft has a commercial package called Office Live meeting for
larger online meetings but it’s a pay service. I wanted
something totally cost free – and totally cross platform –
meaning a Mac or Unix or whatever could see it. So I
started checking out websites that let you broadcast your own events for
free, and I settled upon www.ustream.tv There’s
a lot of sites like this, but some of them had bad reviews regarding their
uses for porno, and Ustream had a clean reputation. At www.ustream.tv you just create a free account for
yourself, and they give you a channel you can use free for anything you want
to broadcast. You name your
channel, you can upload a picture of yourself if you want, and you give a
description of what you’re going to be broadcasting. Then when you click on their Broadcast
Now button, their program asks you if it’s ok if it takes over your webcam,
asks you if you’re ready to start broadcasting, and as Jackie Gleason
said ... “Away we go ....” For anyone in the world to see your
live broadcast, you just send them the web address of your channel http://www.ustream.tv/CHANNEL/WEBCAM500
And they
can even text you if they create a free account on www.ustream.tv This
worked wonderfully for us, with people in Hawaii, California, Oregon, Boston
and Europe commenting on the quality of the picture and the sound. So
remember for that upcoming social event you’ve got planned – no
one is too far away to join in the celebration. |
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For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2009 MTA Micro Technology
Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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