Delivery
Los Angeles is the only HOB venue with hard-wired encoders and T-1 connectivity. Streams flow from the L.A. club's LAN through a Cisco 7200 router to HOB's corporate T-3. From there, various distribution models are employed. Live-live or simulated-live broadband pay-per-view concerts, and fee-based video downloads, are streamed using Microsoft's DRM technology in conjunction with a custom e-commerce application developed by HOB and e-Media. (Pay-per-view streams and video downloads are only available in the Windows Media format.) For audio downloads, Rioport stores the actual audio files, and works with HOB to issue the free licenses. (HOB itself handles the front end — Web pages, collaborative filtering, and so on.) Akamai distributes HOB's streams — either live-live, simulated-live, or on-demand — through its distributed network of edge servers.
Events at other venues may present a different set of challenges and options. If the webcast doesn't have to be live-live, a courier flies the DigiBeta master back to L.A., where it is encoded and sent via FTP to Akamai for streaming. For live-live webcasts from a remote venue, HOB's first choice is to drop in sufficient bandwidth - usually bonded ISDN lines — to handle the heavy streaming traffic. ISDN allows for a direct connection to Akamai without facing potential congestion on the Internet. In addition, Wild notes, "It takes the phone company less time to put in six ISDN lines than to drop in a whole T-1. It's all packets anyway."
In such cases, HOB ships its "road encoder" package — a 600-lb rack that houses six encoders, distribution amplifiers, and a rack-mounted keyboard-monitor-mouse rig. Total hard drive capacity on the road encoder package is 600GB.
If, for any reason, it's not practical to get bandwidth into the venue, HOB resorts to the satellite option. While it's possible to encode on-site and use the satellite to transport encoded data streams, HOB prefers to transmit raw video via satellite to Akamai, which then encodes the video on the downlink side before distribution.
People
HOB prefers to originate programming from the L.A. club because of its proximity to corporate headquarters; the availability of seasoned staff and crew; and ready access to reliable vendors in Hollywood. In addition to the standard multi-camera production crew, a typical webcast from the L.A. club requires the services of one streaming engineer to manage the encoders. Two streaming engineers accompany the road package to remote locations, due to the size of the equipment and to handle any unforeseen difficulties.
One of the most difficult challenges is presented on the live capture site itself. A multi-camera shoot — with crew, lights and other equipment — can easily threaten the intimate atmosphere that HOB strives to achieve in its clubs. McFarlane notes, "We don't want to turn on the lights and have everyone say, ‘Oh my god, this is like a studio… it has no vibe, no feeling.'" And the egos of many people with conflicting interests — lighting designers, band management, artists, and so on — have to be soothed. McFarlane observes, "There are definitely a lot of politics involved in actually getting the product out and keeping everyone happy."
page 1 2 3 4