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Roland says it designed the V-1200HD Multi-Format Video Switcher with everything churches need to produce professional live broadcasts and streaming.
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Extron's SMP 351 H.264 Streaming Media Processor is described as a flexible platform for high-quality production, streaming and recording—all in one box.
In recent years, advances in both the technology and business of streaming AV content have made it easier and more affordable for churches to extend their reaches past the four walls of a sanctuary. Whether you see your ministry as a burgeoning Internet church or you just want to make sermons available online, a new generation of hardware, software tools and Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) are ready to capture your message and get it where it needs to go. In this article, we'll take a look at a sampling of recent developments in streaming hardware that can help take your streaming ministry to the next level.
The Basics
The sophisticated encoders and decoders required to do streaming pack a good bit of technology and, if you are new to streaming (and sometimes even if you're not), dealing with the protocols and acronyms can be confusing, so let's take at a look some streaming basics. The easiest way to do this is to follow a streaming broadcast from its source. At the origin, most streaming broadcasts combine an audio stream compressed using an audio codec such as MP3, Vorbis or AAC, with a video stream compressed using a video codec such as H.264 or VP8. Once encoded, the streams are assembled in a container bitstream such as MP4, FLV, WebM, ASF or ISMA. Finally, the bitstream is delivered from a streaming server on one side of a network to a streaming client on the other using a transport protocol, such as MMS or RTP. The streaming client receiving a broadcast may interact with the streaming server using a control protocol, such as MMS or RTSP.
While much has been done to solidify these protocols and to make streaming more efficient, the critical and ubiquitous video protocol, H.264 has been in place since 2007 when Adobe incorporated it into Flash. That move changed the industry, making H.264 playback free for all the Flash-enabled computers and notebooks at the time. While there are other contenders on the horizon to support higher definition and faster streaming, like H.265 and V9, H.264 by far supports the most hardware and software encoding and decoding architectures available today. So, H.264 has been around for a while and that's not likely to change in the near future. What has changed dramatically in recent years is where you find encoders and decoders and what they can do for you.
Streaming Made Easy
Andrew Ng is Director of Marketing for Teradek, LLC. Teradek leverages experience in the broadcast and cinema industries to manufacture innovative wireless HD video encoders, decoders, and IP transmission systems. “Just three years ago, we were talking about the size and speed of encoders, about their quality and efficiency, but today it's about what suits the customers' needs the best.” With less of a difference in encoding power, notes Ng, user features and affordability have become more important. This is evident in Teradek's clever design of its VidiU low-cost, live streaming devices which all feature a simple and intuitive user interface for simple set-up via iOS devices, battery operation and a profile small enough to affix to a camera—one will even fit in your pocket!
Teradek's economical VidiU mini with a micro HDMI input can do high-quality streaming via Bluetooth, a WiFi access point or with a basic iPad's cellular connection. The standard VidiU, which is still very small, is equipped to handle HDMI and can stream solutions up to 1080p using H.264 compression and AAC audio at up to 5Mbps via Ethernet, WiFi or 3G/4G LTE. Embedded HDMI audio, headphone output,
and a mic/line input are supported. Their new offering, the VidiU Pro, offers additional features for high-definition live streaming with more of the quality and reliability expected in traditional HD broadcast environments. Also, the VidiU Pro allows the use of Teradek's subscription-based ShareLink technology that can increase both bandwidth and reliability of your broadcasts by bonding multiple Internet connections from different sources.
For Teradek, it's not just about hardware. They also have developed a full-featured, but very affordable Live:Air (pronounced “Live to Air”) video production suite for iOS that presents a host of real-time video editing tools and support for many of the popular live streaming services. Live:Air allows you to manipulate graphics, text overlays, and other visual effects, as well as transition pre-recorded video clips and multiple live video feeds into your streaming. Using Teradek's encoder you can import live video from your GoPro camera, camcorder, or DSLR which are automatically discovered and configured for you. You can also add live video from other iOS devices or begin streaming with nothing more than your iPad's built-in camera.
“We understand that many churches don't have the budget for the arsenal of traditional video broadcast tools,” says Ng, “so in many cases our new products represent a simplified way of getting professional, multi-camera video and a simple streaming connection. It really makes streaming open to just about anyone.” Ng also notes that his company's close relationships with CDNs, allows Teradek devices to have up-to-date presets making for a much smoother user experience. “We are at a point now where streaming is less of a mystery to people. It's taken a while to get here,” he says, but we're at a point in time where streaming is both affordable and easy to do with high quality.”
Adding Professional Features
With compression and decompression engines developed to the point where they are similar, manufacturers like Extron Electronics are adding value to their professional A/V equipment by cleverly integrating features that significantly improve both work flow and quality. “Having most of our technology developed in-house,” claims Joe da Silva, Extron's Director of Product Marketing, “makes us better integrators.” With a history of building products to meet professional A/V challenges, it's no surprise that Extron's SMP 351 H.264 Streaming Media Processor presents a flexible platform for high-quality production, streaming and recording—all in one box. Not only can the device stream and record to solid state disk simultaneously, but it can process two high-resolution sources from up to five available input signals with built-in, high-quality scaling features that can handle outputs of two resolutions simultaneously. da Silva offers, “This feature is useful for houses of worship that are live streaming, but who want a different resolution for distribution around a campus.” While the SMP 351 can produce MP4 media files that are compatible with virtually any media player, its real strength seems to be the combination of essential production features Extron has been able to put into one box.
“With over 500 engineers worldwide,” says da Silva, “we have a lot of engineering expertise that enables us to add features to what would have been a basic encoder as recently as a year or two ago. In turn, that allows our customers to do a lot more with less.” da Silva points to another recent addition to the Extron product line, the SMD 202, a compact, high performance media player and live stream decoder which can present a locally connectedA/Vsignal, decode a live streaming source, or play back media files from internal memory, SD card, local USB, or network storage. The SMD 202 supports a wide range of media file container formats and streaming protocols, as well as encoded media while its advanced signal processing, scaling, and aspect ratio management supply high quality signals to A/V displays. According to da Silva, “You can see that it's not just a decoder. It's also a scaler, audio processor, media player, and content manager, all-in-one. Where before you bought the decoder and other hardware to do various jobs, now it's all in one box. It's more economical, easy to install and manage and much more versatile.”
Designing and integrating with all in-house resources not only increases the quality of Extron products, but also translates to better support. “We have a very strategic approach to quality engineering, as well as meeting market needs,” offers da Silva. “Having all the expertise in-house and owning the technology means better support for our customers.”
All-in-one Packages
“Today, churches are looking for the most efficient ways to get content on line to increase their reach,” observes Rob Read, Marketing Communications Manager at Roland Professional
A/V. “Making recording and streaming easy is what is happening right now.” Roland's VR-50HD multi-format A/V mixer is designed to do just that. It's a complete portable HD studio designed for one-person operation of audio and video with a well-thought-out array of faders, buttons, and a touchscreen. In one box, you have an on-board audio mixer, video switcher, and USB audio/video streaming device. According to Read, it easily replaces five or six pieces of outboard equipment and is easily portable, but was also built with connectivity in mind. “We designed our USB output to be class compliant. There is no need to install drivers for Mac or PC,” notes Read. “That makes it easy to connect to any computer and, therefore, distribution networks.”
Taking integration and streaming to a professional level is Roland's recently announced, V-1200HD Multi-Format Video Switcher with a built-in audio mixer. According to Read, “the unit will not only translate a variety of computer signals into extremely good video quality, but also has a 4:2:2 processor to handle broadcasting events, four key layers and a built-in 16-channel audio mixer." Roland's new 2 M/E switcher combines features of both a broadcast production switcher and a location presentation switcher. The V-1200 supports 10x3G SDI and 4xHDMI inputs and 6x3G-SDI and 2xHDMI outputs. The quality scalers on HDMI inputs 3 and 4 and HDMI outputs support SD, HD and VESA resolutions. The unit can be used with the V-1200 HDR control surface that has a T-bar and dual displays or Roland's free, downloadable Remote Control Software (RCS). The V-1200 can be expanded with XI-Series video and audio cards, but the base configuration has all churches need to produce professional live broadcasts and streaming.
Reaching Your Audience
The need to make it easy to stream has not been lost on the many video distribution platforms. Where you once had to cobble together a system and wrestle with protocols to deliver your message, today, you can reliably distribute any H.264- or H.265-encoded video converted in the cloud to almost any playback device anywhere in the world with a system that sets up in minutes. Popular services like the Wowza Streaming Cloud service from Wowza Media systems have partnered with hardware providers to make set-up more of a simple set of menu choices by a volunteer and less a planned effort by an IT expert. According to Chris Knowlton, vice president and streaming industry evangelist at Wowza Media Systems, “Streaming services and events can take religious organizations to the next level and since the Wowza Streaming Cloud service seamlessly connects with most hardware providers, getting up and running is pretty quick.” Especially useful for churches is a fully hands-off, built-in scheduling feature in Wowza's software allowing a person to configure a live channel one time and have it automatically stream (from an encoder or network camera to a website) for a fixed period of time every week.
Doing More with Less
From a pocket-sized encoder from Teradek to a highly-integrated encoder and media player from Extron to a professional production switcher/mixer from Roland, a common theme among these industry leaders was that they saw their streaming customers (at all levels) were “doing more with less” as a direct result of how much functionality new products had to offer. It is evidence that today's streaming landscape is less about engineering breakthroughs and more about integrated features and connectivity. The new, highly-integrated products were looked at—and many more like them—have shifted the questions about streaming from “How do we do it?” to “Can we improve our work flow; achieve greater portability and ease of operation; and realize higher value in our A/V investment?”
Certainly, standards and hardware for streaming will continue to evolve towards higher definition and faster speeds, but, for now, church technology leaders who are looking to start streaming or take their streaming productions to the next level can benefit greatly from the high level of integration seen in the current field of streaming products, as well as an environment in which distribution methods are plentiful.
