Livestreaming in 360°

It begins (crudely, but hey)

#periscope360 test! https://t.co/pDYJ0z42K9

— Ivan Lajara (@ivanlajara) December 31, 2016

DFM chat on live news video

Journalists, Digital First Media peeps, anyone who wants to are going to be taking part on our Twitter chat Wednesday at noon, Eastern Time, to talk about all things journalism.

ugh

Today we are talking about live video! What are the best platforms to use that are easy to use and help maximize audience? What tools do you need for desktop and mobile? What are the potential risks and rewards of such endeavors? Say hi in a live video platform of your choice!


If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Sit with mayor. Ask about cats.

The Freeman sat with Kingston Mayor Shayne Gallo on Thursday for a very productive Community Media Lab event in which your questions were relayed to the mayor live during the interview.

Having reached the end of the interview, I decided to squeeze one in and ask about cats. See for yourself.


  

After the stream was over, the mayor said I should call him next time I write about things like this.
"You know how it is," I said.
"No, I don't," he said.

Well, this is how it works:

Meme based on Frustrated Journalist Cat

I can now include that exchange into my belt of "Ivan Lajara shouldn't be allowed to talk to politicians."
The first installment, thus, would have to be when last year I had a conversation with County Executive Mike Hein that involved 'Double Rainbow' quotes.

So intense!

Livestreaming when everything goes wrong

The image above is actual criticism we received during the livestream community media lab event which featured Healthalliance leaders.

@dailyfreeman your ustream setup is bad, and you should feel bad.

— Alex Panaoijoiwjorij (@gammysupset) May 16, 2012

We did, indeed, suffered a smorgasbord of difficulties.


I was using the Freeman's wireless connection, which is fairly strong. Testing went well. Everything was perfect.
Wrong.
For whatever reason, the connection kept going in and out once the livestream started, which I noticed on a different device, so I knew it wasn't the computer. This happened early enough during the livestream, so I switched to a wireless carrier. This most surely would solve the problem, I thought.
Wrong.
The connection went from one bar to none, then two bars, then none. So the stream kept going in and out. I had a phone with a second carrier, but I was using CoveritLive to monitor comments and THAT connection failed as well.

No problem, then. Let's hardwire.
I grabbed an ethernet cord and plugged the computer (this had to be done as the forum continued, since it was being recorded anyway, or so I thought). The reason I didn't hardwire in the first place was that the connection is in the other side of the room and I didn't want to have a long cable going all over the place, since I'm not a fan of people falling down. And I wanted to set the camera on the other side.

But since there was no choice, I got the cable and plugged it in.

Connection problem solved. Wrong.

After about 20 minutes, I lost the connection to the livestream again. I checked the third-party service on a different device, and a third one. This time I was at their mercy.

Facing this problem, the only thing to do was to completely set up the livestream with a different service, and even though it would have taken about 10 minutes to set up and embed it all, I stuck it out with Ustream because the connection came back.

Ten minutes later, I lost the connection again. So I started setting up a separate livestream service while trying to get the connection back, which I did. I was 5 minutes until the schedule end of the event, however, so I didn't bother.

LESSONS:

1. Hardwire. Always. I never thought a wireless connection and two carriers all would fail me. They did.
2. Expect the unexpected. Have a plan B setup, at the ready. A good test doesn't mean things will always be fine. Develop contingency measures and have them ready. .If Ustream fails, have Livestream ready to go (or the other way around). This would take you too long to set up (long by web standards, anyway), so have your embeds and browsers on standby. I've been testing G+ Hangouts on Air and that's also possibility. Quality is better and there are no running ads, so I'm moving in that direction. Here's a test screenshot from today:

Credit where credit's due. Meme generated by Melissa Weiss.

@ivanlajara @gammysupset I would have preferred a mention as the creative talent behind that meme, but whatever.

— Melissa Weiss (@melissaeweiss) May 16, 2012

How to do a livestream and live-tweeting event at the same time

Here's the cheat sheet on livetweeting and livestreaming at the same time, in case you want to know how and why we are doing this at the Freeman. .



THE SET UP
For live tweeting:
* Make a CoveritLive event, add your Twitter account or that of the person doing live tweeting. New to CoveritLive? Here's a whole bunch of tutorials to get you started.

Why would I want to live tweet if there is going to be live video?

Because live-tweeting the event can serve as your notes, it helps members of your community with context (and those who jump in late), and helps you mark time stamps in the video, which makes it easier to search for direct quotes once you're done livestreaming.

How in the world do you expect me to live-tweet and live-stream at the same time?

Livestreaming is as easy as hitting a button.

Seriously?

Seriously. Here's the button in Ustream.

So you have to do hit that button (and the 'record' one next to it) at the beginning of the event and at the end. All the time in between is for note taking, interviews, etc. But the event will determine if it can be done easily or not. Don't try to do everything if it's difficult and/or cumbersome.

For livestream:
* Place a Ustream or Livestream container online (the embed code), with the CoverItLive container on top or at the bottom, hours before the event. Have it featured prominently online. Push it on social media and in print the day of the event.

Wait a sec! How do you livestream?

Like this. Go to www.ustream.tv/, create an account (or use your Facebook one), from the dashboard, hit create a show, name it, hit 'Go Live' on top right and click on the Start Broadcast and Start Record buttons. That's it. You can get fancy if you want and add logos, pre-roll, hook up your social media and all that. But for a quick start, that's pretty much it.




BEFORE THE EVENT

Press conferences are the easiest things to plan for and can be very newsy, so interest would be high. We did one earlier this month without notice and it got tons of hits.

Arrive at least 30 minutes in advance and test livestream, CoveritLive and tweets 10 minutes before events (something like, “hey guys, I’m about to blahbhahbghbalhdlkfjaqryuiahsdf” “how’s the sound” etc.)



WHAT YOU NEED:

A laptop with a web cam and an Internet card if out of the office. (Netbook works but I don’t recommended because they’re too cumbersome for most).

Duct tape to place web camera on convenient places and to prevent people from tripping on your cables if you find a plug. Look at the photo at right. There's a camera on top of a box. The other one (plan B, which we didn't need) is taped to a laptop.

(In the photo at right, we were taking live questions from the community, which were being displayed on the screen on the wall. This required another person.)

So, yes, you can have a sidekick in the newsroom or at the scene watching/tweeting/writing early web story and moderating comments. Tasks can be split depending on digital proficiency.

Using these tips, we've livestreamed three events last week. And two of them happened at the same time. It should be noted that the reporters did the livestreams themselves, with me just watching and /or moderating comments. I was only physically present for one of the livestreams.

Irrelevant, awesome livestream highlights

From the Kingston Budget unveiling: 'The only person who wants change is a baby with a wet diaper'

"Deadline is NOW!"

The Freeman sessions are here

"The Freeman Sessions with Stella May" will launch on Aug. 9 with a live streaming event sponsored by Stella May Productions and the Freeman, with a Kingston Cares benefit featuring Rebecca Martin and Larry Grenadier. Event details are on the poster above.

The event will be streamed live and will be available for viewing at http://www.dailyfreeman.com. More details about this undertaking will be revealed soon.

The event will also feature a telethon-type livestream with local representative and candidates manning the phones. But you don't have to wait to donate to Kingston Cares.

DO IT NOW!

President Obama Speaks on Libya

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

How to cover events live and have users participate while news happens

If you are a regular Freeman user, you might have noticed that we've been venturing in new, um, ventures this year.

We're finally getting the hang of livestreaming important events, such as the Mayor's Message; a city council meeting, the state comptroller's press conference and the state of the County address, and assorted highlights after the fact.

We've encountered some successes as we learn and we're expanding upon this, with live tweets and user comments. We're also working out some kinks, like figuring out how to get my awful face out of the thumbnail in the livestreams.

Ugh!

We've found that the most successful way to do this it to livestream an event, while a reporter files live tweets from the field while, at the same time, users can comment and ask questions, such as "why is the camera on the floor?" (That was a real question from the state of the County address).

Those who miss the live events have a chance to revisit the videos later and post their comments and questions then.

We're also starting what we hope will be a regular feature in our pages site: Livestreaming with the Mayor.

On Wednesday at 11 a.m., we'll sit down with city of Kingston Mayor James Sottile in a live interview that will be broadcast to the public. What's neat, aside from the live part of it, is that you'll get to ask the questions.

Seriously, try it. Send us your questions, in a comment in this post, or in a tweet or in a Facebook message and we'll ask the mayor, who said is eager to answer your queries. Better yet, come by DailyFreeman.com on Wednesday at 11 a.m. and ask your question live. We're giving more weight to people who use their real names, but if you feel uncomfortable asking your question identifying yourself, that's fine too.

Also, we've been regularly posting your photos and insights into happenings in the Hudson Valley, be it snow storms, gas episodes, award shows and whatever you want and need to know. As users have become producers of content, our 'competitors' are not the traditional media. IT'S YOU!

That's why we're trying to provide you with a better and much, much more engaging Freeman. And that's why we've partnered with SeeClickFix and have a growing roster of area bloggers to provide you with what you want and need.

Yes, we have ways to go. And we know this tenfold. But we can't do this alone, so I'm asking you to share your thoughts with us and tell us what can we do to improve upon this. And believe me, we know that we're not giving you all you want and need. That's our challenge. We're trying to do our best with what we have, and we will focus resources into what's needed.

I can only give you this: The best part is yet to come.

JRC Chat at noon

As it is now becoming tradition, members of the Journal Register Company Idealab (yours included) and anyone interested are going to be holding our weekly Twitter/CoverItLive chat at noon.

Today will be talking about the AOL/HuffingtonPost deal, since it potentially can or may affect and/or influence smaller news organizations. We'll also be brainstorming some ideas for super reporting - meaning how to accomplish covering an event in a variety of platforms if there's only one of you.


 
The feed is also posted below.

As always, don't forget to bring your links. 

How to make Quick Response codes work for your publication

Starting Tuesday and through November, you'll see this at the bottom of the front page in the print edition of the Daily Freeman:

It's a QR (Quick Response) code. It will run with the following explanation.

"Scan this QR (Quick Response) code to 'Like' the Freeman on Facebook. You will need special software on your camera-equipped smartphone to decode the image. Search for ‘QR code’ in your phone’s app store"

You'll need a smartphone, and it could be any of these:

This is part of the Journal Register Company's Idealab, something that I'm not explaining again.

Anyway, if you are too lazy to search for 'QR code' in your phone's app store, here are some, based on a quick search and categorized by device. I'm only listing free apps: