SPECIAL REPORT: SAMCFUG Flashcom Broadcast, November 21, 2002

 
Nov 21, 2002

By Doug White, SAMCFUG
with Michael and Judith Dinowitz, NYCFUG

In order to expand its membership (virtually), the San Antonio Macromedia and ColdFusion User Group conducted a broadcast of its November meeting through the Flash Communications Server. The topic of the meeting was a overview of Contribute, the new desktop application that was just announced by Macromedia. This was the second CFUG Flashcom broadcast conducted in the space of a month (see our writeup of the broadcast by NYCFUG). The cumulative knowledge of the two broadcasts provided a number of good ideas on how to best serve the viewers of Flashcom broadcasts with a quality experience. We hope that this article, together with the previous one, will help other CFUGs conduct their own Flashcom broadcasts successfully.

There were 28 people physically attending the meeting, with another 20 or so virtually. The attendees at the meeting were very positive about Flashcom as a technology and very enthusiastic. To break the ice, the CFUG managers had some of the participants introduce themselves to those watching over Flashcom. The introductions got everyone in a light-hearted mood, which really helped the atmosphere of the meeting in general.

There were some minor technical issues with the broadcast, which no one seemed too bothered by, and there was an unexpected high level of excitement about the product. Three of the more experienced Flash folks at SAMCFUG were interested enough to want to get other components working in order to provide more features for future meetings.

The Broadcast: Technical Issues

The equipment used for the presentation was a Dell Latitude 8000 Laptop, 1.8 GHz and 512 MB RAM with a maestro sound system, running Windows 2000 Server. The browser used was IE 6 with all the latest updates. The camera was a Logitech Quickcam Traveler connected via the USB port on the laptop ($69.95 at Circuit City). The connectivity was a T-3 connection to the Internet backbone, through the College's network. The microphone and speakers were the ones built into the laptop; external versions would have helped a lot.

One of the issues that we found was a problem with excess noise. The microphone was near the computer and all the sounds of the computer, such as hard drive clicks and the fan movement, could be heard. About 2/3 of the way through the meeting, one of the attendees found his wired microphone (a real cheapo at that) and we were able to extend the mike about 6 feet away from the speakers. That instantly stopped the excess noise problem.

An additional problem, solved by the external mike, was the issue of echo and feedback. This comes up when other people are broadcasting as well, and their speakers and microphone are close together. The sound from one microphone comes out of another person's speakers. Because that second person's microphone is close to his speakers, it picks up the sound and rebroadcasts it. The original person gets that sound out of his speakers, which then, again, goes into his microphone. Due to amplification, this circuit of sound gets louder and louder, and eventually turns into a piercing scream. There is a setting on the Flashcom client to mute some of this echo and avoid some of the feedback, but it is not 100% effective. Having the speakers and the microphone a distance apart avoids much of this problem.

The meeting facility was equipped with two outlets for CAT-5 cable connections, and the plan was to use one laptop for the Flashcom operation and the other for the Contribute Demo. However, the CFUG managers discovered that one of the Cat-5 outlets was dead, and they tried to do the Contribute presentation on the Dell laptop by opening a second instance of Internet Explorer. This worked great on their end for the physical audience. However, the audience on the Flashcom saw only a bright white screen (one person described it as "watching a TV in the window of an electronics store from across the street." At SAMCFUG's January meeting, they are planning to include a small network hub, which will allow more than one computer and camera to be hooked up. One can be panning the audience and the other can be dedicated to the speaker, who will have a lapel (wired) microphone.

Another technical glitch was the configuration of the camera, in that the auto white balance had not been turned on, thus giving very dark images, even though the room was well-lit. The camera is capable of producing a much better picture than was seen during the broadcast. The video and audio received from Michael Dinowitz and others that were logged in could not have been better, and the presentation suffered no reported choppiness, either with video or audio.

There are two things that people forget to do when they log on that can make all of the difference. The first is to choose their bandwidth setting in the Flashcom application. The default setting is modem, but DSL is probably the best option if you have the bandwidth.

The second thing people forget is to select the settings they're broadcasting with. When broadcasting, you should right click on the movie box, go to settings and the microphone icon. There you should check the option for reduced echo. This will not completely kill the echo, but it will greatly reduce it.

Suggestions that were heard at the meeting:

  • Run the SWF file through Flash player instead of through the browser, although those using Mozilla or Netscape reported better quality than those using Internet Explorer.
  • Make sure the camera software is optimized for video quality, including white balance.
  • Use a remote microphone (wired ones are much easier to find) to give as much distance as possible between the laptop's speakers and the presenter.
  • One person also asked if the images could be made larger. This is really dependant on the quality of the camera and the amount of data being sent. Previous presentations found that pictures started to pixilate as they got larger.
  • Make sure you have a good mount for the camera in order to hold it steady and allow panning.
  • Plan the meeting to allow for greater interaction between the people physically present at the meeting and those on the Flashcom. (In fact, we suggest making sure you have a well-defined agenda and a producer that is tasked with providing good video content.)

For the future, there needs to be more intuitive audio control by the broadcaster, and of course, many are asking "When will this be available for the Solaris/Unix/Linux platform?" This question is because most web servers in SAMCFUG's area (San Antonio, Texas) are not on Windows.

Flashcom, the Community Builder

Doug has already been asked to do another demo for the Distance Learning and English Department faculties of the Alamo Community College District, as well as the faculty of the University of Texas at San Antonio. The representatives of several potential commercial users seem to be reserving comment until they can see a little more.

But beyond the educational and business potential, Flashcom has shown itself to have many applications in the field of community building, and in the production and sharing of content over the Internet. There was a lively chat going on among the Flashcom audience during the presentation. At certain points, Michael and Judith had their children present. Now everyone wants to know how Michael and Judith managed to have such beautiful kids! This helped bring more of a community aspect out during a technical lecture, as people were able to see others (in this case the Dinowitz's) in their "normal" setting.

All of SAMCFUG wishes to express their gratitude to Jochem Van Dieten, Michael Dinowitz, Judith Dinowitz, and the many others who logged in and patiently sat through all the glitches and enjoyed the presentation. Both SAMCFUG and NYCFUG are doing additional Flashcom broadcasts in the next two months. NYCFUG will be broadcasting on December 10, 2002, and SAMCFUG will be broadcasting on January 16, 2003. Please visit our respective websites (http://www.samcfug.org and http://www.nycfug.org) for more information. We hope to see you again, on the Flashcom or at the meetings themselves!

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