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VX30 Live Video Streaming Tutorial

Overview

VX30 is a Java-based playerless streaming technology. It streams video off a Web server. A separate streaming server is NOT needed. Two programs are involved in streaming using the VX30 technology, VX30 Live and VX30 Broadcast Server. VX30 Live provides the streaming operating interface while VX30 Broadcast Server is a server-side program. VX30 Broadcast Server comes with two flavors. One is built into VX30 Live for local streaming, and the other a separate entity for installation on a Web server. The second version makes multiple accesses to a live streaming smooth.

If you don't have VX30 Live on your streaming computer, please download the trial version and install it now. It is Windows-based only for now.

Before you start streaming via VX30 Live, make sure VX30 Live is added to the Firewall exception. To do so, on a PC, go Start menu > Control Panel > Windows Firewall > Click the Exceptions tab > Check if VX30 Live is in the list. If not, Click Add Program, find it, and add it. Click OK.

Please follow the following steps to achieve an optimized streaming.

Connecting devices

You can use a Webcam on your computer to do live streaming. If you decide to use an external digital video camera, you need to connect the camera via a Firewire cable. Turn on the camera and switch it to the Camera mode. If you use an external camera, VX30 Live CANNOT pick up sound from the camera. A separate microphone needs to be connected to the computer. Turn the microphone on.
Launch VX30 Live. If this is your first time to use this program, you need to key in your registration key under Help. Otherwise, click File and choose Capture Device. In the Video pulldown menu, pick the camera you want to use, and pick the Audio device you want to use. Click OK. Live image should appear on the bottom portion of the panel. To save the CPU resource, minimize the the bottom image size by dragging the divider between the top and bottom panes.

Setting up Streaming

Click File and choose Settings. By default, Local Streaming is checked. That means, you can stream off your local computer. For HTTP Server port, type in a port number that is available. Usually, if you don't know which port is available, try 8080, 1234 or 10000. Click OK.
Under the Player tab, you can manipulate quite many variables regarding streaming, but all the settings are usually appropriate and do not require further modification.
Click the Details tab. By default, there are several bit rates. Theoretically, you can do multi-bit-rate streaming, but multi-bit-rate streaming taxes the CPU resources of the streaming computer. Therefore, it is suggested that you use only one to two bit rates. Following is a recommended streaming setting: Width: 320px; Height: 240px; Frame rate: 15fps (It is crucial that frame rate is not set too high, like 30fps, or the streaming will buffer and rebuffer frequently.); Bps video: 320; Bps audio: 32.
Check "Deinterlace source" to remove jaggy and striped frames on audience's computers when fast motion happens in front of the camera.
VX30 does not yet allow recording live streaming content. An alternative is that you can record it onto a tape in the camera. If you wish to do so, click the Properties Pop-up drop-down menu and choose the camera being used and press the red Recording button before you start live streaming. Then, click OK.
To starting streaming, press the green Play button on the bottom of the bottom pane. Your streaming is now live. The VX30 B-Cast (local streaming mode) window will pop up telling you the connection status.

Viewing Stream

For your audience to view your live streaming, you need to tell them the IP address of your computer and the port number. To find the IP address of your computer, go Start > Run > Type cmd and press the Enter key. > Type ipconfig and press the Enter key.
A user does not need to have any media player installed to view a VX30 streaming video. Simply launch any Web browser, key in the IP address together with the port number provided by the streaming media producer, hit Enter key and the streaming video is on. The URL looks something like 149.166.150.201:8080. By clicking the lower right corner of the streaming window, the viewer can make the streaming go to a separate browser. Further clicking the Maximize button on the browser can make the image full screen.