The ten minute guide to setting up your own video feed
Here are the steps needed to add a live video feed (with audio) to your own web pages.
1. Connect a video device to your computer. The video device can be a web cam, a camcorder connected by firewire, or any video device recognized by windows XP. In my video feed above, I have connected an Intel Pro Video PC Camera Web Cam (which I purchased on eBay for $5.00) to my lap top computer via USB.
2. Connect an audio input source to your computer. If you want to include audio in your live stream, you need to have an audio input source connected to your computer. This is usually a microphone. If you are capturing video via a firewire connected camcorder, the audio captured by the camcorder will be delivered via firewire, and that can be used as your audio source. On my video feed, I use the on board microphone on my lap top computer as the audio source.
3. Sign up at Camstreams. Camstreams is a service that will host your live video stream (with audio) for free. Sign up is free, and they provide (for free) the software you need to enable your video feed. Your video feed can be set to appear on the Camstreams site, as well as on any web page on any site on the internet. To sign up, go to
http://www.Camstreams.com/add.asp.
4. Download and install the Camstreams encoder software. The Camstream encoder software is what pushes your live video stream with audio from your computer to the web. After you install the Camstream encoder software, do the following:
* Start the Camstream encoder software (by clicking on Camstreams Encoder Icon on your desktop).
* Click 'options', and select your video input and audio input devices.
Then click 'OK' and 'Live' to go live.
5. View your video stream. When you sign up with Camstream, they will give you a link that you can use to view your video broadcast on their site. My link is
http://bridgewater.Camstreams.com/
When you set your Camstream encoder software to 'live' mode, you will want to view your video so you can see what it looks like on the web. Note - there is a 13 second delay between live video and the web video.
6. Add the video stream to your own web pages. When you log into your account at Camstream, you will see an option labeled 'show html embed code'.
If you click that link, Camstream will show you the html needed to include your web stream to any web page. Copy that code and add it any web page on your site.
That's the entire process!
Limitations
Currently, by default, Camstreams will limit your video feed to about 15 viewers at a time. If you expect to have more than 15 people viewing the stream at the same time, you can request Camstream up the limit.