A few days ago, I set up PCMech LIVE. This live video feed is being powered by Ustream.TV. For the last few days, I have been doing my research to try to find the best setup to have here in my office for broadcasting on Ustream. What I’m finding is that doing a professional broadcast on Ustream isn’t exactly cut-and-dry. Here is my story – as it stands now. Note that I am not yet done completing my setup.

What is Ustream?

For those not familiar with it, Ustream is a free service which allows you to use your webcam to capture you and broadcast it over the Internet. So, essentially, I can have a camera here in the office. When I fire up Ustream, you can see whatever the camera sees.

The Camera

Now, this is a work in progress. I am using a Mac Pro desktop as my primary computer. It has loads of horsepower so I thought I would run the feed using the Mac. I also really wanted to use CamTwist to modify the feed. It allows me to do things like have scrolling text, RSS feeds, even live screencast all over my webcam feed. It is a great little app and, unfortunately for Windows people, is only available for the Mac.

Windows users: the best option for you is WebCammax. They just upgraded the version of Webcammax not long ago. It isn’t bad and you can do most of what CamTwist can do. However, it certainly isn’t CamTwist.

The first problem I had was getting my webcams to work on the Mac Pro. I have two Microsoft webcams: the LifeCam VX-3000 and the Lifecam VX-6000. Both decent cams. However, they’re both from Microsoft. I’m using an Apple computer. Does it work? In short, no. The VX-6000 won’t work at all. The other one will work only when I install the open source webcam drivers Macam. But, even then the picture is absolutely terrible. So, anybody looking to use Microsoft webcams on the Mac – I think you’re pretty much out of luck.

So, I went down and purchased a Logitech Quickcam Communicate Deluxe. Works like a champ on the Mac.

I quickly realized, though, that the quality of the feed is, well, webcam quality. The Logitech camera doesn’t really handle lightness and darkness contrast well, and the feed has a blurry feel to it. This is not the fault of the Logitech cam. This is the fault of webcams in general. The engineering in a webcam just isn’t up to that of a standard camcorder. Which leads me into…

I’m searching for a decent camcorder that has webcam capability. Ideally, it would also have a mic input so that we can use it for general recording. Much to my chagrin, such a combination is hard to come by. Apparently, finding a cam with a mic input, a remote, and ability to DV stream over Firewire is rather difficult. I’m left pondering prosumer level cameras such as the Canon GL2. Great if I’m going to use it for other recording, but extreme overkill for a simple webcam feed.

As for the camera, this is where it sits right now.

The Audio

The Logitech Quickcam does have a mic on it, but it isn’t very good. Also, I want a good, general purpose microphone for recording that I need to do on the Mac. The Logitech just isn’t going to cut it. I already own an MXL condenser microphone and it is truly a great recording mic. I was having an issue with it on the Mac, though, and decided to pick up a Blue Snowball. I will be doing a full review on the Snowball later. In short, though, it is a great mic, but the support is crap and the volume is ultra low on it.

Back to the computer, though. I was running all of this off my primary work computer. I can’t exactly keep my speakers muted on this machine. So, this led to a horrible echo in the Ustream feed. The mic would pick up the speaker output, and we’d have this endless loop going on. I either needed to keep my speakers muted (not gonna happen) or I needed to move this off of my main machine.

Well, I have a Windows-powered Gateway PC as a spare, but I’d have to go back to WebCammax to run the feed from that box. Uuggghh. So, what did I do? Yeah, I bought another Mac. This one is a Mac Mini. I have not received it yet, but it should be a fun little box. And it will prove convenient to have another Mac around. I can run the feed off the Mini and let it rip 24/7. I already have a big LCD television here in the office which I can use as the monitor for the Mac Mini.

Where I’m Heading…

I wouldn’t have invested real money in this endeavor if all I had in mind was for you to watch me pick my nose at my desk. No, what I intend to do is actually hold live PCMech events on PCMech LIVE. I want people to be able to converse directly with me and we can have a two-way conversation. It will be a cross of talk radio and TV, but over the Internet. My aim is to be able to take calls on the air, as well as conduct interactive chats between you and PCMech staff.

It really is amazing to me how the Internet has actually empowered people to essentially run their own show out of a spare bedroom.