Streaming Media - December 2008/January 2009 - (Page 67)

begin with numbers and should be lower case”) and reminds users to download the PowerPoint slide trigger plug-in so they can create a text file with timing information to upload to the site. Up to this point, I had somewhat ignored the system requirements, which noted, a bit cryptically, that the system’s browser requirements were “Internet Explorer 5 or greater for PC or Firefox version 8 or above for Apple Mac or PC.” Firefox on both the Mac and PC is only at version 3, and I had been using Safari on a Mac with no problems up to this point. But when I tried to upload my content, I hit a brick wall. A screen popped up stating that my username and password were incorrect. I shifted over to the on-demand wizard, but I experienced the same error when I again tried to upload the content. I also had difficulty playing back in Safari. My advice is to stick with Firefox version 3 if you are using a Mac and wish to use either the dashboard or play back content created by Datpresenter. Once I opened the program in Firefox, I was able to proceed, choosing a name for the presentation (and adding additional metadata if I wanted to) and then easily uploading a speaker image, PDF, and PPT. Each of these additions must be uploaded individually, even though they are all available on the same upload screen (as Figure 1 (near right). The metadata panel of the Datpresenter wizard After these uploads are complete, the third step in the wizard is to name the stream and the company and then choose whether the live stream will be shown using RealMedia, Windows Media, or both. This part is particularly clever when it comes to automating details that the average user would be daunted by, as it provides a prepopulated username/password and mount point, combines it with the user’s entry for the stream name and the company name, and then creates a WME file for Windows Media or a RPJF Real Project file for Real. I recommend you heed the suggestion regarding stream names. They should consist of Event Name, Speaker Name, and Date (DDMMYY), in that order, and contain spaces or extension names (the wizard provides the .rm or .wmv extensions as part of the project file). The final step in the wizard is to download the project files (WME, RPJF, or both) for use on the encoding system. Note that Datpresenter doesn’t host the live streaming file. It only hosts the overlay, PowerPoint, and PDF documents. This answers a frequently asked question regarding a large number of viewers trying to simultaneously watch a live stream. “The number of people able to view a live event is controlled by the bandwidth allocation of the video Figure 2 (far right). Even though all file types are shown on the same screen in the wizard, after you click Select Media, you need to upload each file individually. shown in Figure 2), so it may take quite a bit of time if you have a large PDF or PPT. We didn’t test whether there was a timeout that would occur if someone remained on this screen too long, but that is a possibility when uploading multiple large files. Hopefully, a future version will allow a Gmail-like approach, where all files can be chosen and uploaded in the background while other files are chosen and then uploaded in bulk. This page for content upload in the on-demand wizard is also the only location where the PowerPoint timing text file can be uploaded, so it’s best to complete the timing prior to beginning the wizard, especially since one warning notes that “there is no option to go back to previous steps of the wizard; if you make a mistake or need to upload a different document then you will have to start again from the beginning.” There is an option in the advanced administration, but it’s a bit easier to have everything in place prior to beginning the wizard. server, set by the internet service provider who provides your streaming service,” according to Datmedia. “In some instances it may be necessary to reconfigure the video streaming network for very large audiences.” Once the project files are downloaded, they can be loaded onto the appropriate local live encoder being used to encode the live video stream for the presentation. A note on the projects file page also gives good advice to those doing the encoding, pointing out that the wizard cannot predict the camera type being used or “whether you would like to archive your media on your computer’s local hard drive.” The live wizard checklist also has one final reminder for enterprise users of Datpresenter: Remember to open your firewall ports to allow live streaming media, a suggestion that sounds like it comes from tech support experience. For the on-demand wizard, the only difference is that Datpresenter has the ability to upload video files in four WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.COM 67 http://WWW.STREAMINGMEDIA.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Streaming Media - December 2008/January 2009

Streaming Media - December 2008/January 2009 Table of Contents User-Generated Politics Netflix Needs a Business Model Technology and Business Trends by the Numbers Improving Video Color Quality What Makes for Compelling Video? Game On: Bringing the NHL to IPTV Give! The New Era of Corporate Communications New Video Frontiers: Taking It Beyond the PC The HD Showdown: Codec Vendors Battle It Out for Supreme Quality The Ultimate Guide to Creating Online Video Content That Works, Part 2 Planning for Webcasting Success: Considerations for Deploying an Enterprise Video Communications Platform All Mobile Devices Are Not the Same Datmedia Datpresenter LSI Tarari Encoder Accelerator LCPX-6140 Gomez Active Streaming XF Transcoding for Global Reach Executive Visions 2009 The Revolution Is Being Televised

Streaming Media - December 2008/January 2009

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