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.

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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.

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.