InDepth Photo Video learns to swim in the live stream

Come on in, the water is fine: How we learned to swim in the live stream

There comes a time when opportunities present themselves so often, you start to wonder if the universe is trying to tell you something.  Over the last year or two, we have had more and more inquiries about live streaming events.  Admittedly, live streaming has always been a territory IDPV has not truly explored or considered as an added service, simply because of it’s challenges.  As the inquiries increased in frequency, we found it harder and harder to say “No” to the challenge.

Now, when it comes to learning a new skill,

such as swimming for instance, one would take small steps before swimming a freestyle relay.  Before diving off the diving board, you dip your feet in the shallow end, learn to hold your breath, float on your back, tread water, kick your feet using the kick board, doggy paddle, breast stroke, freestyle, and eventually graduating to swimming laps on your own. When it came to our first live streaming job, we took a different approach by jumping into the deep end.

The first challenge: Live stream …

wirelessly for one hour in the middle of Washington, DC from the grounds of the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial.  If that doesn’t scream high dive into the deep end, I don’t know what does. We had already been working with the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Fund for the last few years, filming multiple events throughout the years.  They have become more than a client to us, and each year we try to help step up their game by stepping up ours.  When they approached us with the idea to stream a ceremony to their Facebook page, we couldn’t say no to family.

With the use of a Teredek ViduPro and a Verizon USB Hotspot,

our camera was on, nerves were in full swing, we were on our marks, and ready to dive in to the live streaming relay; all that was left was to hit “Go Live”.  During the next hour, along with the VVMF team, we closely monitored their Facebook page from the East Knoll at the corner of Constitution Ave and Henry Bacon Drive.  Holding our breath with each minute that passed, we hoped the wireless High Definition Video signal would stay strong, and the Internet viewers would not lose the video feed.  Fast forward one hour, the ceremony finished; we made a successful run and we could all breathe again. 

Swimming in these waters is still risky with wireless video, but with each swim we hope to become stronger swimmers. 

Stay tuned for our next story: Multistreaming for 11hrs straight. Challenge accepted.