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It is what is inside…
The heart of the StreamZ technology is the Stream software. As far as the interface goes, this is quite possibly the easiest and best designed streaming application out there. Instead of wading through screen after screen of information, or digging through menu after menu to find the information or setting you need to change, Digital Rapids has placed everything in a simple tabbed interface. In order to make a change to a setting, you are probably three to four clicks away at most. [an error occurred while processing this directive]Depending on your system configuration, the StreamZ has the ability to encode in a variety of formats including Real, Windows Media, QuickTime, MPEG-1 and 2, Uncompressed and DivX to name a few. What’s more, depending on how fast a CPU you have and the amount of RAM in your system, you can encode your video to multiple formats at the same time. The basic StreamZ system has the ability to encode to Real and Windows simultaneously. You need to purchase the other codecs separately (Sorenson for example). For most users Real and Windows are the streaming formats that viewers are going to have the greatest access to, so these may be the only ones you will need. In my tests I was able to archive to both of these formats without a problem, but because the university doesn’t have a Windows streaming server (yet), I could only send out Real video for the live broadcasts.
To begin encoding or streaming, you first need to create your own profile, or select one from the list of pre-defined codec profiles. For example, if you want to stream in both Real and Windows Media, you would select and add these profiles to your list. With the encoding method selected, you then move to the Input Tab and select your video source.
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| Select from pre-defined profiles, or create your own to start the encoding/streaming process. |
If you need to further configure the Audio and Video settings, move into those tabs and make changes. The StreamZ has motion adaptive de-interlacing built in to remove unwanted artifacts from interlaced video and generates a progressive scan file. For a live stream this may not be as important, but if you are creating a file that your audience will need to pause (such as a streaming training video), it is very valuable. To reduce noise and unwanted artifacts even more, the StreamZ also employs 3D motion adaptive noise reduction. This real-time process combines information from several frames of video and examines it on a pixel-by-pixel basis to determine how much noise reduction needs to be made to the final frame. To be honest, I tried this but didn’t see too dramatic of an improvement as Digital Rapids suggests, but this is probably because I started out with good video to begin with. According to Digital Rapids, this process works better when you have video that is poorly shot or contrasty.
On the audio side, the StreamZ has seven bands of EQ processing and a dynamic compressor expander to make your audio sound really great even when compressed. The other audio controls (Volume and Bass/Treble) are what you would expect to find on other systems.
The settings for compression, image size, codec, etc. look and work the same way as other applications. For example, if you are streaming in Real, the options are the same as you would find in RealProducer.
Once you have your options set and your destination (hard drive archive or streaming server) set, all you need to do is press the start button and you are golden.
Instead of having to go through these steps each and every time, you can create your own unique profiles. When you create your own profile and save it for future use, it saves the file as an XML document. I was a little confused as to why the streaming profile would be saved in that format, but then after a little digging I found that you can trigger your streams remotely with java-based software installed on another system. This is so cool! Why? Because now you don’t have to have an IT guy or Web person taking up space in the control room just to start and stop a video stream. The Web/streaming guy can sit comfortably in his office/cubicle, trigger the beginning and end of a live stream and then instantly update the website without having to get out of his/her chair. Not only will your web/streaming people appreciate using this, so will the production team in the control room who now have more room to move about.
In fact there are a variety of ways you can trigger an encode or streaming process. A diagram for wiring your own GPI trigger is available and you can also create a timed even by using your Event Scheduler. Because the StreamZ can have frame accurate control of your deck, you could use the Event Scheduler to begin and end an MPEG-1 or 2 process in the middle of the night, just as long as you put the correct tape in the VTR.
In the case of streaming and archiving the newscasts and programs I mentioned at the beginning of the article, you can also incorporate tag elements into the file names to automatically append the date and time (among other things) to make archiving more convenient. For example, if I wanted to create an automatic file naming convention for the streamed newscasts (and their archive) I could create a profile named news58 and then use the profile name tag (%PN%) and the date tag (%D%) to generate a file named news58_3_27_03.rm.
Imagine how is it now is to stream and archive a live event. You set up the system and create profiles for your programs (with the proper tags), the web person sits in his/her cubicle and when the program begins s/he triggers the encode via the web, the file then streams live and is archived on the appropriate server (with the correct file name and date), the web person then ends the encode at the appropriate time and only needs to add a link to your website. In the case of encoding to MPEG 1 or 2, you could have those encodes going on at night and no one has to be around.
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