Feed video via internet?

N

Natural Born Stringer

Well-known member
I got a question for stringers everywhere.

Do you ever send your video to the stations via the internet, rather than drop it off by hand? Seems to me that would be a whole lot easier than spending half the night shooting and the other half driving all over the city dubbing and dropping off tape. Just take it home and FTP to their server or even your own and then you can just tell them the URL to go get it if they want it.

If so, tell me how that works for you - I'm curious. Obviously you need broadband, no way dialup would work. But what file format do you send, and how big are the files? I have an idea I'm toying with.....more later. Right now I'm just researching this idea.
 
We sometimes do that here. Our bureaus use FTP and MPEG2 format daily. Also, when on a trip to another country, it's a lot cheaper than via satellite.

It works like this:

- cameraman / editor edits the piece on FCP, then exports it to one clip and converts it to MPEG2 (4 mbps or more) and sends via FTP to the server.

A program at the server moves the video file to local desktop preview system and to the video server where it's ready to play immediately.

I did test a high speed internet microwave link in my car for a while but the biggest problem was that it always needed a line of sight to the receive site. Not good.

Hope this helps.
 
Okay, NBS, you read my mind dude. So News Active...How does the station download the video? My station is still primarily tape-to-tape, but we have 2 Avids...so, would it be out of the question for this station?

And does the station have a specific FTP to use or...?

You think a tech-saavy youth like myself would understand this...oh well...
 
OK, thanks, that answers format... how about bit-rate? What's the recommended bit-rate for broadcast use? Once I know that I can figure out how much disk space this "idea" I had would require.

Thanks for any input!
 
The bitrate is 4Mbps or more. 4 Mbps is usually considered as a broadcast minimum for satellite uplinks and other feeds.

And Seagate, the server is at the station. They don't have to download anything. When I upload the edited material to a specific folder, the server will automatically take care of everything else. It will generate a small bitrate MPEG-1 preview clip for reporters (a proxy file) and move the actual material to ON AIR-folder. From there, it can be played during the show or edited more.

Any SFTP program can do the trick for us. A good MPEG encoder for Windows is TMPEGENC and for OS X both Compressor and Cleaner are perfect.
 
OK, enough mystery. Let me cut to the chase. By my calculations, even at 4MBPS, this can be done. The question now is SHOULD it be done....

Suppose I, being the lowly humble stringer I am, set up a website where you, the assignment editor of a local station, could peruse thru previews of the video I shot that evening and, if interested in one, download a broadcast quality copy for your morning newscast. It'd be about 8-10 minutes of raw video including a soundbite, same as I would hand you if I came in and had you dub down the footage by hand. On the 1st day of each month, 1 invoice is sent to your accounts payable department that itemizes each clip you downloaded, payment due net-30 from the invoice date. All of this happens automatically. You just click on "I agree" after reading the licensing agreement and then click the download link, then move it over to your NLE for editing. 1-2-3. I could even set it up so that when you log in you see what your balance is that month, so you won't go over your stringer budget, if you have one.

My questions are: COULD you do that? And if you could, WOULD you be open to doing that? If not, why not? Nevermind that these files are big (300+ Megs for 10 minutes of tape) and it will take one big honking pipe to host them - I got friends in all the right places for that. Just think of the idea and ask yourself "would I?" Let me know. I'm curious.....

Thanks!
 
NBS...

I've been selling news from my server since I started. I've never met my clients or been to their stations. All my work is sold via the Internet. It's pretty simple stuff. I shoot, edit via laptop and upload via wireless. Many times the stations play my clips exactly how I send them without further editing, so you'll need to be able to put a story in order. I'm a truely mobile 'backpack' stringer, all my gear is in my backpack, literally. I can go anywhere and work.

I can't believe you guys actually drive around and deliver tapes. Do you charge mileage? As News Active said: call your stations to see what they accept.

Billing: I email invoices at the point of sale.
 
Out here, just about everyone feeds thru fibre-optic lines...whether it be through PacTV ($35-$50 a pop, 24-7), an actucal station itself, or through your own, we send footage through phone lines all the time. One of the stringers in Orange County has had his own line for the last few years; some of us have used it from time to time; I'm thinking about going in on a new line with him and 2 others - the cost is about a grand a month...split 3 ways...not too painful...No problems with bit or frame rates here...all real time...
 
Originally posted by jbar:
NBS...

I've been selling news from my server since I started. I've never met my clients or been to their stations. All my work is sold via the Internet. It's pretty simple stuff. I shoot, edit via laptop and upload via wireless. Many times the stations play my clips exactly how I send them without further editing, so you'll need to be able to put a story in order. I'm a truely mobile 'backpack' stringer, all my gear is in my backpack, literally. I can go anywhere and work.
Click to expand...
Ah ha... That's what I'm talking about! That's exactly what I want to start doing. I noticed you said you edit as well, no one has any problem airing the exact same sequences as their competition? I don't know how well that would fly out here. The stations I've sold to in the past seemed to prefer I give them the raw video so they can cut it themselves. But if I want to start hosting them online, I guess I'd better edit them myself so I can keep the clips small and save bandwidth usage.... Not a big problem, it's relatively easy, and still much faster than driving around from station to station.

Originally posted by jbar:
I can't believe you guys actually drive around and deliver tapes. Do you charge mileage? As News Active said: call your stations to see what they accept.

Billing: I email invoices at the point of sale.
Click to expand...
Sigh... believe it. They do things so ass-backwards out here! I think the biggest problem is that the most prolific guys out here right now see stringing as a fun little hobby rather than a business, so they don't care about driving all over the city - they like the geek factor of being able to say "I can go over to channel 3 anytime I want and sit in the edit bay, yuk,yuk,yuk". They like to brag about how they drive to each station, plunk their fat butts into an empty bay and dub 20+ minutes of MiniDV footage onto a Beta tape, so that the station can edit it tape to tape. I just listen and nod my head while I feign being impressed. Little do they know that I think it's stupid! I've had to do that too, and I hated it. It would take me sometimes several hours of drive, arrive, wait, "Hi, how are ya doin', what bay can I use, where do you keep the blank tapes at, blah, blah, blah, thanks, bye", then repeat for the next station until I'm dragging my tired butt thru my front door at 7AM! No offense to the bored deskies but I don't wanna make small talk, I wanna make MONEY. I can't make money sitting in an edit bay dubbing down 8-10 minutes of tape times 4 or 5 stations. That costs me money in gas and stories missed. I want to get it to the point where they and I don't even have to pick up the PHONE. I don't wanna talk to anyone, I just wanna shoot, edit, upload and sell! Bang, bam, boom, thanks, see ya, I'm off shooting the next story. The stations simply get a courtesy email when a new story goes up, containing a link to a preview - it would all be automatic (That's the beauty of programming computers as a day job, kids. I know how to do all that fancy shtuff. :D )

Oh and charge mileage? HA! That's a good one. If I did that I'd never sell anything, the stations are too spoiled by the handycam hobbyists who think nothing of driving 200+ miles a night and paying for that 100% out of their own pocket. It's sad. I wanna do this so I can put these guys out of their self inflicted misery.

Now that I see others are doing this, I think it's time to get things moving in this direction. Right now, if I had to put something out there, I'd assume they would expect MPEG-2, 720x480 @ 30 FPS so they can bring it right into their AVID or FCP system. Does that sound about right? What format/size/fps do you upload to your website?

Thanks for the info everyone. Much appreciated!
(Edited cause I'm still half-asleep :D )

[ June 09, 2005, 11:27 AM: Message edited by: Natural Born Stringer ]
 
At ENG FTP we accept MPEG-2 video file uploads to our FTP server and from there we decode the file and uplink it to a broadcast satellite. Our material has been used by ESPN, Fox Sports, and several large market TV news stations. One breaking news clips was even used in a stations promo commerical.

Why do we go to all of the trouble of uplinking video when a station can get the same video by FTP? Two reasons. Many stringers are tired of trying to get the station to figure out how to use the uploaded MPEG file and sending it to them in a way they know is just easier. The other reason is time. Sometimes the video needs to get turned around in a short time to 15 or 20 takers and their server bandwidth can not support that many concurrent downloads.

We believe in this technology and if we can support you guys in any way please drop us a line. Trust me when I say its easy to do once you have the setting and workflow.

Bruce Wilkinson
ENG FTP
www.engftp.com
 
Feeding directly to a station's server using a laptop and aircard is new for me. I have only experimented with it and it worked great! I edited video into a one minute clip with (I think 10 second SOT) and sent it via internet. It looked fine at the station according to the overnight producer.

I used Ulead's Media Studio Pro (NOT video studio pro!) and created an MPEG 2 clip at 720X480 at 29.9 frames. I did cheat by making it mono. A tiny bit smaller file and I only provide mono when I deliver in person with few exceptions.

If you are trying to make a sale, you can edit and make a windows media file that is tiny, real fast to send. It is only good quality on the computer screen but they can see what you have.

For stringers, I think the key is to have a very good relationship with the producer who trusts you. The people who I sell to know that I have exactly what I say I have and that I know how to edit a story. They even trust me for the sound bite. Trust is very important!
 
ENG FTP said:
We believe in this technology and if we can support you guys in any way please drop us a line. Trust me when I say its easy to do once you have the setting and workflow.

Bruce Wilkinson
ENG FTP
www.engftp.com
Click to expand...

Like I said on the Freelance board: It sure would be nice if someone who could get and decode MPEG2 files, and then could uplink them, would start a syndication service for freelancers... hint, hint, again.
 
I FTP all the time to the Weather Channel, 3 minutes of video takes 30 minutes to send. My DSL connection speed is 12.0 Mbps. Now if I had to send 5 to 10 minutes of video to stations....I could drive there and back again.
I really wish there was an easier way. but I do like to FTP rather than drive in my stuff, 30 minutes vs 40+ miles to one station.
But if they need the video NOW, than I drive it in, just so its there in time to make the "breaking news". Wish I could afford a T-1 line
 
I was also thinking of going to a satellite high speed internet connection, with a portable dish, just point it south and send video right from my laptop. Does anyone have this high speed internet, like DirectV or someother company, how much is it, and how fast is it.
 
put-me-on-tv said:
I FTP all the time to the Weather Channel, 3 minutes of video takes 30 minutes to send. My DSL connection speed is 12.0 Mbps. Now if I had to send 5 to 10 minutes of video to stations....I could drive there and back again.
I really wish there was an easier way. but I do like to FTP rather than drive in my stuff, 30 minutes vs 40+ miles to one station.
But if they need the video NOW, than I drive it in, just so its there in time to make the "breaking news". Wish I could afford a T-1 line
Click to expand...

Your download speed of 12 mbps means nothing...it's the upload speed to your ftp account that counts. DSL, if you're lucky, might give you 50-400kbps, that's why it takes so long to upload to weather channel. When you're selling video over the Internet you need a fast UPLOAD speed to the server. Your client, however, will want a fast download speed if they're grabbing video from your private ftp account.


"ENG FTPS said: sometimes the video needs to get turned around in a short time to 15 or 20 takers and their server bandwidth can not support that many concurrent downloads."..........

Unless you're using ten year old technology and the crappiest hosting company/server/connection in the world, hundreds of people should be able to grab a 50 meg file simultaneously without a problem. If not, find another hosting company. Bandwidth and hosting is cheap and available everywhere.
 
I used FTP to send back packages from China a couple of years ago. The quality was great, the only downside was it would take about 3-4 hours to send about 2 minutes worth of video because of the slow so-called "high speed internet" at our hotels there. And they were high end hotels.
 
I've been testing the new Windows Media 9 format. They offer a free plugin for Premiere 6.5 on the MS Windows site.

This format rocks. I can convert my DV material right off the timeline down to a file size that is less than 1/5th the original size in just minutes. Very hard to tell it's not the original DV clip.

The exported file could then be sent must faster (or more material sent in the same time). Premiere 6.5 will open WM9 and work with the clips on the same timeline as DV.

Is anyone using WM9 for sending A/V?
 
Lets bump this topic a bit.
I have been working on installing a video server of my own for exactly this use. My primary station is 40 miles from me and the next one is 75 miles. I can save a ton if I can get this working. I have a high speed connection and Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 for NLE. I export in MPG 2 but the station cant seem to open my video to preview it or download it. Any ideas?
 
Stormgod said:
I export in MPG 2 but the station cant seem to open my video to preview it or download it. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

They need to have some type of MPEG2 player installed. Windows used to include one, but not anymore. I'm not sure if there are any freebie MPEG2 decoders but any PC that comes with a DVD drive will, by necessity, have some type of MPEG2 decoder for playing DVDs.

I showed our local CBS affiliate where to download free Quicktime codecs from Avid's website. Once they installed them to their Avid Newscutter system, they were able to use my material in Quicktime format.

cm
 
Ok thnaks, however, I have a dvd player and alot of codecs installed and I cant get it to play either! The file was about 50 megs, which was only a minute of video. I will keep experimenting and eventually will find a solution. May have to rent space on a commercial server or something.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top