bri0910-video

9:10PM

Internet Video Technology

Three Cameras and a Robot

words by Louis Brill
photo by Synapse

Come on... just lemme.... take your picture!

Video coverage of this evening's activities is more than just aiming a camera and capturing some cool event. The video was set up by Graham Technology Solutions, with a 3-camera live shoot and a robot camera -- it's being conducted just like a live TV show . . . . only this time it's a live netcast, something we're going to get more used to doing, and watching, as this year continues.

Director Gene Thomas is working with producer Michael Gosney and a state-of-the art video setup from San Francisco's Magnetic Image to mix a 6-hour live program. Interviews are also being transmitted on a second video channel. A third video channel is carrrying the evening's "blendo" projections.

How this video gets to the internet is a whole different story, though, as GTS founder John Graham explains. Once edited, the images are sent to the web as a streaming audio and video signal which was directed immediately to the Netscape Browser and displayed without the use of any required plug-ins which is a radical departure from everything else that been done.

With real audio, you have to download to their client server, configure it and go on from there. With our product, the GTS Sight & Sound Server," Graham noted, "if you have Netscape which has Java (3.0 or better) everything works instantly without the user having to configure, download, or even install the standard plug-in routine.

"Our process is similar to a web server, but instead of streaming out pages of HTML, you ask for streams of audio or video through the same URL mechanism. We exist as a module on the side of the web server and feed our audio and video signals into the browser from there. As for our video presence, there were 3 separate feeds (or streams) including 2 camera mixes and a robot feed that we had control over from the Bridge's command station.

"Our web page presence arrived as two signals. First there is the HTML signal from www.be-in.com, and then there is the video and audio stream that comes across from our audio/video proxy, www.graham.com. The browser takes both signals and mixes them together. From there, the HTML loads very rapidly, then the video stream starts, and there you have it -- a web page with about 20 minute old video feeds, about as close to real time as we can get on the net."