Discussion: NAOC 2012 live video streaming test tomorrow (Sat June 30)

We're going to preform a test of live video streaming from the NAOC 2012 event headquarters at PEEC on Saturday June 30 (tomorrow) at about 12 noon EDT. A test from an office in Philadelphia yesterday worked very well, so we will attempt the same using the network connection at the actual meet site. This is where the NAOC Day 3 events will take place, so if successful we should have the live video available there, and with some luck at the Day 1 and 2 arenas as well. That remains to be seen....baby steps :)

So if you are online tomorrow at about 12:00 US EDT please tune in at the link below and give us some feedback on the quality of the connection. We'd like to achieve something realistic in terms of users connected simultaneously.

NAOC 2012 live streaming video link

The broadcast might not be all that thrilling - just Hugh and I fiddling around with the video and audio and tuning the encoder. We'll take reasonable requests :) Post comments here or in the Livestream chatroom on the streaming page (click on the "NAOC-2012" in the upper left corner of the feed to get there).

We're especially interested in hearing about audio and vid quality, dropouts etc or any other problems you encounter over the course of the broadcast. Push the buttons and turn the knobs - this is a test to work the bugs out. We'll probably do a number of iterations using wifi, wired ether and possibly 3G/4G. Will let you know which is which as we proceed. We'll be running the tests for an hour or two at the most.

Thanks!!!

Puppet show please.

I can imagine a request for more cowbell :)

We are live! Anyone out there?

Howz it look?

Just got there. Give me a sec

I see eddie but he's not moving. Sound is cutting in and out

now I can hear you guys

Use the chat feature on the page.

carl c'mon over to the chat on the livestream page

Ok guys, we're signing off a bit early. It all seems to work pretty well. Going outside to work on a few other details. Thanks for all the comments. Joe, you really do ROCK!

For anyone who missed the excitement ---

Welcome to the 'naoc2012' room.
Hughmac4_1: And my clone is here too!
eddie: Helloooo! :)
Sandy: Watching from Germany.
eddie: ok, cool!
eddie: More action in a sec here...
eddie: you're watcning hugh working on the desktop
eddie: Exciting!
Hughmac4_1: Eddie at work
PG: Also watching from Germany.
PG: Eddie, short as you are, we're missing your head.
Hughmac4_1: Heh
PG: Joe B say you look like Don Imus.
Hughmac4_1: Then our sound is appropriate PG
eddie: Don who?:)
Hughmac4_1: very German
eddie: hows the map look?
PG: It's there, needs to be blown up more.
PG: nice, except now it's only about 1/4 of the picture.
PG: looks good!
eddie: cool
PG: what's the yellow dot moving around?
eddie: hugh's cursor
PG: Can you guys do commentary, or just music?
eddie: we're stuck with a single monitor at the moment
eddie: Playing with mics now.
PG: Yeah, getting a bunch of static.
eddie: Plan is to have two monitors so we can do the setup and then move into the vid stream.
PG: Back to music....
Joe: route to 4 peter?
PG: straight along the top, drop into second reentrant, NNW , attack from below, easy
Joe: left around looks better to me
Joe: attack from below
PG: Lost my map!
Joe: you are off the map
eddie: Sorry....playing around with moves
PG: You still got a map? I'm all black.
Joe: still here, along with eddie, two screens
eddie: off for a sec.... back in a min
Joe: all black now
eddie: trying to turn off the yellow cursor dot
Hughmac4_1: Yep, fiddling with the mouse
Joe: snafu?
PG: now we're back, give us the leg 3-4 again.
Joe: tx
PG: What, are you afraid of climbing a couple of lines at the start? Wimp.
Joe: yep, but the stream could be slow
Hughmac4_1: Fiddle fiddle
PG: Maybe for you?
PG: You're up to 7 viewers!
Joe: the last reentrant before the control is in the way, go low, stay low
PG: Right, but to get to the main stream junction, straight is still better.
Joe: even
PG: Hey, Joe, maybe they ought to hire us to give commentary. Better than what they're doing!
Joe: agreed
eddie: Can you actually hear us?
PG: Up to 8 viewers. See, we're pulling them in.
PG: Just heard some voices.
Joe: yes
Joe: eddie, say joe you rock
PG: Yes
Hughmac4_1: Oh my
PG: Yes, but say Joe sucks just to be sure.
Joe: thansk
Craig: I can hear you fine
PG: Awesome
Joe: evalin is sitting next to me and her opinion of you has not changed
eddie: and her opinion is???
Joe: not changed
PG: No music
eddie: here comes the techno! Tiesto!!
PG: Tapio says hello, also Rick and Linda
PG: On, not techno!
Joe: got any neil diamond?
eddie: I need to get some buckethead for peter
PG: What's buckethead? (Neil D is OK)
Joe: talking over the music
rd: turn the music down to half would be better
PG: music is gone :-)
PG: music is back :-(
PG: Voices are clear now.
Joe: give us another leg to look at
PG: Yeah, give Joe a chance to even the score.
eddie: back in a sec - changing a param
PG: This is when you are supposed to run the ads.
Joe: you guys on lunch break already?
PG: Jeff and Judy also say hello
Hughmac4: :)
Hughmac4: Yes, we'll have Tecnu ads for sure (*scratch* *scratch*)
evalin: i dont like techno
eddie: Wha? You're not your sister's sister!
PG: Hey, it's dinner time, any new stuff coming or shall we split?
PG: You are competing with the European T&F champs on Eurosport.
Hughmac4: That's about it PG, thanks for the help!
eddie: Nothing new - we're stuck in an office
PG: Ok, any time, I'll send my bill....
Hughmac4: Thanks everyone for participating, very very useful.
Hughmac4: Feel free to comment on AP
Hughmac4: We're going to get out in that 100degree heat and check on antenna and camera placement locations

Damn I missed the fun!

Wah! I forgot! Out in the neighbrhood veiwing storm damage and whining about lack of power instead.

Found out about this a bit late - but on the other hand the European Track & Field Champs + first stage of Tour de France would have been tough competition to beat in terms of viewers anyway.

I haven't been home since that storm went through last night. Looked pretty bad on the radar. Hope the cat is ok :(

Sorry to cut the broadcast short, but we were in the way in the PEEC office and had some other things to do before departure. I think the test went well and it looks like we will be able to offer a live feed of Baltering from the arena on Day 3 at PEEC. Day 1 and 2 are still questionable at the remote arenas, but we narrowed the uncertainty down a bit with the recon today. The streaming is surprisingly easy. Switching from live vid to maps and RG, and controlling the audio mix worked fairly well (in Hugh's capable hands, not mine). Need a better walkaround mic than the one I had. The one on the camera worked ok.

Sounds great - this should keep the family that´s left in Sweden happy!

We are streaming live from the long arena now.
www.naoc2012.org/video

Give us some feedback on how the quality is.

I saw a dude who had a huge beard for a few seconds. And then nothing.

Like platinum, like platinum, like platinum...

I can hear you.

Missed it - was out at 25-manna...
How did it turn out - will the Swedish family be happy?

...or maybe you are doing it right now? I´ll check again. No life the first time I went there.

Miles of cables!

Video just froze, right after you said you'd plug the microphone in.

Wow, I saw some real people. Nice work guys!

Is this meant to be live only or will it also be recorded?

You're back.

Sinister laughing!

Looks - or rather sounds - like it´s turning into some hip-hop freak show...

We smoked the inverter, so its back to peec to charge.

Yes, the streaming from the arena worked very well! The audio was funny for a while due to the most excellent feedback and 2s delay. When we turned the speaker off on our end the audio was fine. Also just using the webcam on the mac wasn't ideal. Will have separate audio feeds and a dedicated HD vid cam at the event. The fits and starts you saw were due to some interesting interplay between the grounds of the radio power supplies and an inverter we hooked up via jumper cables partway through. When the grounds were separate, the internet link dropped. As soon as we'd disconnect the laptop power supply from the inverter the link would come back up. So we connected both supplies direct through the inverter and this solved the problem....for about 2 mins, at which point the inverter buzzed and let off a big puff of white smoke :) At that point everything was back on DC and the link was fine again, but Ed's laptop battery was running on fumes so we shut it down.

Actually had the link set up and tested by 2PM, so we ran off to look at another potential day 1 repeater site before returning for the formal test. Speed tests through the whole link look very good.

This link out to the Day 2 arena involves 3 hops and is about 5km long in total. The longest throw is 4km. Here are some photos:

- repeater mast, 12m tall
- business end of repeater
- business end of Ed's truck
- Arena end of the link, 6m mast tied to a tree

You guys are my heroes!

Love the photos :)

We now have access into arena 1. We are going to do another live broadcast test in a few minutes.

hellooo - live from the day 1 arena at NAOC!!

Hear and see you just fine.

Can we talk back to you? If so, how?

looks pretty good from here - 80kb DSL

I love you guys!!!

Ok, as you probably realized, we packed everything up. Tried one more configuration there at the end as a test. All looks good - everything went very smoothly this weekend. Better than we could have hoped. We now have links established to both remote arenas, so barring some technical failure on race weekend we should have live video, live results, and some form of wifi in all three arenas. Under 2 weeks to go!

A few photos from today.
- day 1 repeater site in NJ. 35 foot mast.
- business end of day 1 repeater. Notice antennas facing 90 degrees apart, one towards PEEC, one towards the arena.
- antenna in the day 1 arena, facing the repeater, which is 6km away on the other side of the Delaware river.

Amazing !

!

Wow!

Is the NJ repeater on public land?

Looking good!!
Family back home should be happy :)

@GuyO--Since the Delaware Water Gap Recreation Area covers many square kilometers along the river from the Gap well north of any NAOC venue, I think that is safe to say.

But, why are you asking? I can assure you it's not on your property.

It is indeed on DWGRA property, on the Walpack ridge. There is a marked hiking trailhead near the site. Some nice terrain on that side of the river too. Maybe we'll see some maps over there someday.

The bridge across the Delaware at Dingman's Ferry is kindof cool. Its an iron truss bridge with wooden decking, down low close to the water. If you're looking for a more scenic route to NAOC from the NYC area you can take back roads across NJ to this bridge. Dingman's Campground, where the non-PEEC competitor parking will be, is near the PA side of this bridge. Be sure to leave adequate time for the scenic route. Bridge toll is $1 in both directions. There are some height restrictions (11 ft) so if you have a large RV.... We crossed it many, many times this weekend, with some really long pipes strapped to the roof :)

Excellent and impressive! O Geek Haven. Another hi-point in tech has been set. All 900 MHz it looks like. Love it.

Eric Weyman (a lot) and me (some) have scouted the land on the eastern shore. After I recover from NAOC a bit, I might make a foray out there again, to find the next big thing. Thus far, the O-paradise has remained hidden.

I will say, however, I think the eastern shore would make a very pleasant major rogaine venue...

Regarding that bridge (straight from Wikipedia): "The Dingman's Ferry Bridge is the last privately owned toll bridge on the Delaware River and one of the last few in the United States. It is owned and operated by the Dingmans Choice and Delaware Bridge Company."

Private toll bridges intrigue me. Apparently, they can be held by an MLP.

Its half 900, and half 2.4GHz. The short link from the PEEC buildings to the mast on a hill above is 2.4, then its 900 MHz from there across the river using a combo of a dual polarization panel antenna and an external yagi. At the repeater, the 900 radio is connected directly to a 2.4GHz radio with built-in antenna. That signal goes back across the river and is received in the arena on a *really* nice sector antenna that can seemingly sniff the tiniest whiff of signals. Both the day1 and day2 links are set up with three hops like this, but in opposite directions from PEEC. Ed is the MAN!! He's got some fancy switchgear and routing set up on both ends to give us control of the bandwidth going in and out of the arenas.

You guys are the MEN. I think we need to designate you both high-value individuals and demand special NSA privileges.

Got it eddie, thanks. Have to read up on sector antennas. Smart strategy to jump the river to get cleaner lines. I'll watch. Indeed - ED the MAN!

The sector is one of these: http://dl.ubnt.com/AirMax2GSectors.pdf
It has a 90degree beam width, but only 9degrees elevation beamheight. Its intended for putting up in a group of 3 or 4 on a tower to segment coverage to a large area instead of using an omni.

With the 16dbi gain, and the large beamwidth, if you get it aligned for elevation well, its easy to pick up the remote end.

And sometimes when you have it face down on the ground :)

Ed posted a recording of the live stream we were sending out from the day 1 arena on Sunday. This is just from the webcam on his laptop. Quality should be better with the HD cam and encoder next weekend. Also we're not so interesting to watch :) Balter should spice this up considerably. Some views of the hardware at the end.

You do realize, I hope, in addition to invoking the beast in the long, you guys have set into motion the first confirmed extraterrestrial encounter of the third kind next Friday? The ships are on their way.

Balter will have his hands full, that's for sure!