The theory of eight minutes

For now I'd like present you with a few ground rules on broadcasting and on filming in general. Most of these notes come from our own team here at Yaika!, who have determined with they're extensive testing the best setup for broadcasting a live show. This way you don't have to experiment with various configurations, instead you can take our professional opinion and go with that.

Following the next 8 tips will greatly increase your show's success rate so I strongly encourage you to do that. Okay, here goes:

1. Always check out the location thoroughly before filming.

2. Make sure that the venue has a working Internet connection and that it's something faster than dial-up. It's preferrable to have 100-400 kB/s upload speed per camera (that includes audio and video). You can check your connection speed here. Even a 3G connection will do!

3. Have an available electrical outlet nearby or if you're planning to work using batteries, make sure they're fully loaded. Check your computers power setting, too. It would be a shame if your laptop would go to sleep or shut down its harddrives during broadcasting.

4. If you're planning on filming with multiple cameras then makes sure all the computers running the cameras are correctly connected the the internet. The best solution would be if you had your own WiFi or ordinary router. That way you can plug in directly to the venue's network. Be sure to have some extra bandwidth available as it might become slow when everybody's downloading your show.

5. When you're unable to connect multiple cameras with one computer, do the following: start a channel with one of the computers and then call in with all the others. This way the users can see all of your feeds.

6. When using an audio source other than the cameras' own microphones (e.g. the venue's PA), make sure you have the correct cables to connect to the source. You should also check the length of said cables. The next part is very important - makes sure the signal coming from the PA has no static in it and is loud enough, otherwise all the listeners will hear is "khhkhhhkhhkhhhzzzkhzz", which I can assure you, isn't very pleasant. The best solution would be to use a preamplifier between the PA and the computer. This allows you to tinker with the sound until it's exactly the way you want it. You might notice that there's a constant "zzzzz" in the background of your audio signal. That might be the static coming from the electrical wires connected to the computer. Try running it on batteries or move the cables. We had this problem with a Dell laptop!

7. Before actually broadcasting you should recheck all the cables and air a short test show in order to see if everything is working as it should be.

8. Our CEO Valentin calls this the theory of eight minutes or why does that the bread always fall face first to the ground. Believe or not, it actually takes eight minutes to makes sure that everything is in order while airing a show. It's the first eight minutes when you have this tingly feeling inside that something is going to go horribly wrong. This of course applies to only the people behind the scenes. If you're in front of the camera, you've got a whole other set of problems :)

You can read other technical information from our soon opening technical blog.