Streaming Live Over EVDO

Michael · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:05 pm Post subject: Streaming Live Over EVDO

<b>QuickTime Live Streaming Over EVDO</b>

During the MacWorld keynote back in January 2006, where Steve Jobs introduced the new Intel MacBook Pro, we had a problem. Apple decided not to broadcast the event live and instead delayed it for viewing later in the day.

Being at the event, we were able to quickly put together a way to broadcast the event live (even though Apple wasn't, we did!).

Here is the hardware and softare that we used:

* PowerBook 15 inch
* EVDO Card
* iSight Camera
* QuickTime BroadCaster
* QuickTime Streaming Server

With the "normal" way of streaming, all remote users would log in directly to the computer doing the broadcasting. The problem with this, there wouldn't be enough bandwidth for EVDO to handle too many connectons - before it would be extremely slow and choppy for everyone.

<b>The Solution</b>

We installed QuickTime BroadCaster on our PowerBook and that broadcasted the stream to our QuickTime Streaming Server which was behind lots of bandwidth. So, there was ONE connection opened from our PowerBook to the QuickTime Streaming server and then the remote users would connect directly to the QuickTime Streaming Server. WIth this setup, it is scalable, you have multiple servers in multiple locations all handling the heavy load. It wouldn't matter if you had 2 people or 2000 people watching, it would wouldn't, affect performance between the computer with the camera and the streaming server. Here is a diagram of how it worked:

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horsessmellfunny · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:29 pm Post subject:

WOW! I'm impressed! I really do hope that you were using Sprint. Otherwise, if you were on Verizon or Cingular, you broke the TOS!! Surprised

lol

Michael · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:38 pm Post subject:

The terms of service are setup by each carrier to handle abusers. If I setup a web stream to broadcast 24/7, I would be an abuser and probably get cancelled. If I stream an event for an hour, I really am not abusing.
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EVDO :: EVDO News :: EVDO Antennas :: Buy Verizon :: Buy Sprint :: EVDO Amplifier

horsessmellfunny · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:43 pm Post subject:

hmm yea makes sense. That was part of the reason I switched to Sprint from Verizon. I move alot of data, and stream enough to cause a problem with Verizon.

Either way, that was pretty cool how you set that up. I am quite impressed!