At the May NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas, we worked with White Pine Software to do daily broadcasts from the show floor, using White Pine's CUSeeMe Pro videoconferencing software.
Day 1
Day 2, part 1
Day 2, part 2
Day 3
More details
White Pine rigged up a three-station videoconferencing setup. We had a client running in Fusion Editor Adam Gaffin's office in Framingham, Mass., talking to two clients at White Pine's booth at the show via a White Pine MeetingPoint server.
During most show hours, the camera in Framingham and one of the cameras at the show were on, letting us stream a "floorcam" across the 'Net.
Over our T-1 connection in Framingham (and a 10M bit/ sec show net), the CU-SeeMe video was very clear - staffers kept popping into Gaffin's office to stare at people walking across the show floor in front of the White Pine camera, 2,000 miles away.
Once a day, we used the system to do live broadcasts. Online Reporter Sandra Gittlen showed up with some Network World columnists and others to discuss what was hot (or not) at the show.
And here's where we ran into major problems. The streaming component currently only works with Microsoft's Windows Media Player - more specifically with the latest version of it.
Maybe we've been spoiled by RealNetworks, whose various incarnations of RealPlayer have always installed themselves flawlessly, but we were quite surprised at all the problems our staffers had getting the latest Windows Media Player to work.
The player wouldn't work at all with Netscape Communicator 4.X. One reporter could get video but could never get the sound to work (White Pine says this may be due to our firewall). Only one person here reported being able to watch the streaming broadcasts.
We can't wait for the RealVideo version that White Pine is promising.
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