First there were YouTube videos and podcasts made on webcams and camcorders, now there’s a growing network of video-podcasters streaming out near-professional HDTV quality live shows.
Some – like Leo Laporte and Diggnations’s Kevin and Alex – attract many thousands of viewers to their live network-style webcasts using portable productions systems such as Tricaster.
Yet while this technology has plumetted in price it’s still out of the reach of the new generation of low-budget producers – everyone from churches and community organisations to individual bloggers.
Now the American internet podcaster Cali Lewis has launched an appeal on her popular Geek Brief show.
She is calling for someone in the industry to come up with switching hardware aimed at this emerging market.
On her latest webcast Cali explained about technical problems they have encountered while streaming live using multiple cameras and admitted they had hit a “roadblock” in terms of finding a solution.
Having researched options such as Sony’s AnyCast (“too expensive”) and Datavideo SE-800 (cheaper but doesn’t “fit the mission”) Geek Brief is currently testing different software set-ups.
These include Mike Versteeg’s VidBlaster, which he is working so it can be used with streaming services like Ustream.TV.
But Cali said what was really needed was an “elegant solution that works for us and folks not able to drop $10,000 on a Tricaster”.
She added: “We are interested in streaming because it’s fun and difficult to do well. It’s especially hard to do well without spending some pretty big bucks.
“But there is a real opportunity for someone to build a hardware solution specifically for this emerging market.”
It would seem like a reasonable call and one that offers great opportunities for anyone able to offer a solution.
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