Ustream and Qik

I read two things recently about live video streaming websites Ustream and Qik that I thought were pretty interesting.  

Here's the first about Ustream.

Ustream just launced a service called Watershed for companies that want to upgrade from the free Ustream video player.  The service will range between $.25 to $1 per viewer hour, based on the number of viewers, and features will include the ability to add a logo, chat, polling, video chat, Twitter integration, analytics and more.  Sometimes I get frustrated by the current Ustream webcasts, so it will be interesting to see if many companies use this new service and make substantial improvements to their webcasts.

Here's the second about Qik.

A few days ago, someone on Qik live streamed a minute of his wife in the hospital while she was giving birth via c-section.  He did not show the actual surgery, just his wife's face, but the hospital had requested that he not record the birth.  Anyways, based on the article's reader comments, it looks like a lot of people have very strong opinions one way or another about whether or not this was appropriate.  We'll see how people's feelings about this change over the years, as I am sure that this will just become more common! 

Facebook & Cupcakes

I was so excited last night because late last night on facebook, I received an "update" from one of my "groups" (The Smithsonian Institution).  The update was about a live webcast today from 2-5 pm with an artist creating portraits of Obama and Lincoln out of cupcakes for President's Day.  I had not come across any mentions of that webcast before, so thank goodness for facebook!  It has been so much fun watching this webcast!  They are almost done completing the portrait, and it looks great!  It is made out of over 5,600 chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet cupcakes.  Tomorrow they are going to have coverage from the museum from 12-6:30 as well.  I'm not exactly sure what they will show, but at 5:00 they are going to let visitors eat the cupcakes!  I wish that I could go, but I'll be out of town.  Oh well.....

today's webcast - http://www.lyvegyde.com/events/1385

tomorrow's webcast - http://www.lyvegyde.com/events/1391

Twitter

I have really grown to love twitter over the past month.  I can't believe that I've only really been twittering for a month now and I already have almost 300 updates.  I originally signed up for twitter for personal use early last year, but I wasn't really sure what I would use it for.  To communicate with friends, I would just use email (or facebook now).  Anyways, it is perfect though for sending out real-time updates to notify followers when live webcasts are about to start.  I've also recently started using the search function more and it is pretty neat to find people who have enjoyed the webcasts that we have listed!  Anyways, basically, I think that twitter is great!

Super Bowl - So, Why No Webcast?

Well, I watched the Super Bowl yesterday, but it was very disappointing to me since there was no official live webcast!  The NFL did stream the NBC Sunday Night games for free throughout this season, so I was really disappointed that they didn't follow through with a webcast of the biggest game of the year!  The Sunday night games were produced really well, with multiple streams, statistics, and chats.  It would have been a really nice touch to have the same features for last night's game.  

Four main reasons I can think of for why the NFL should have streamed the Super Bowl are:

- Allow people who are not near a tv to watch the game (I guess this really means people at work!).

- Allow people who do not own a tv to watch the game.  From what I have been reading, more and more people are getting rid of their tvs and just using the internet to watch programs.

- Online coverage allows for those extra special features such as multiple camera angles.

- When there is no webcast, it is frustrating for viewers who assume that it will be available online.

Plus did I mention that it is 2009!!  :)

Coachella 2009

I am so excited, because the Coachella music festival in California (April 2009) announced their lineup, and my favorite band, The Cure, will be there!  Yeah!  Last year, the AT&T Blue Room had a live Coachella webcast, so I am hoping that they will do it again.  I'm a little bit concerned though, because a couple of months ago, AT&T reformatted their Blue Room, and honestly, I don't know that the content has been as good ever since.  Please AT&T, hear my cry - please webcast Coachella again!!

Another Oprah Webcast

Well, Oprah has another webcast tomorrow.  Just a couple of weeks ago, she had her week-long Best Life webcast series, so I am excited to see that she already has another webcast in the works.  The webcast is at 9:00 pm ET and features Dr. Christiane Northrup discussing hormone replacement therapy for women.  Users can use a form to submit questions for Dr. Northrup.    

I thought that the Best Life webcasts were very well produced and I was happy that they archived the webcasts very quickly the next day.  I was afraid that the servers would freeze up from the number of viewers, but I didn't have any problems watching the webcasts at all.  Also, it was nice that each individual person did not really have to register to watch the webcasts.  I registered before the webcast series began and I received links each day to watch the various webcasts.  I believe that the links were all the same, and the links worked without additional registration which was nice.

Inauguration Wrap-Up

Well, the inauguration was 2 days ago, but I'm still trying to recover from all of the excitement!  I still need to find some more archives of webcasts from some of the events in the evening.  I also need to keep up with all of the other webcasts that we have going on, so it has been a little bit busy around her.  

Thank you to everybody who linked to our site for inauguration events, and thank you to everyone who came to our site to find events.  I was so impressed with the number of visitors that we had (from 47 states and 48 countries!) and I hope that the webcasts worked well for everyone.  I know that there were lots of reports of news organizations' webcasts freezing up.  Speaking of reports, I was also so excited to actually be quoted in an article by The Industry Standard.  You can find it here!