Examples of the different ways we have Live Streamed in School

A couple of weeks back I wrote a post about the different ways you can stream a live assembly or performance within School - You can read it here.

After trying numerous different methods I thought I would share how we have found each one.


The first one we used was using the app  webcamera to use the iPad as a webcam for my laptop. The iPad sends the video through the wifi to the laptop which then streams it on the internet.

We used a google hangout to broadcast the assembly and chose the YouTube add on which allows the hangout to be streamed live to YouTube and then it is automatically saved as a video.

Here is a link to the video:

As you can tell the quality isn't great. The fact that the iPad has to send the video to the laptop to then send it over the WiFi to the hangout clearly affects the quality. 

The next chance I had was to again use the Google Hangout broadcasting option to stream our first Advent assembly. The reason was to share it with a number of schools which we are working with to learn about Christmas around the world - read more here.
This time I used the webcam attached to my laptop meaning that the camera was static but cut out the heavy use of the WiFi - I think you can agree that the quality is better however you are restricted to the movement of the camera and it isn't very easy to move around.


Finally we decided to use of the streaming websites. The two main ones are Ustream and LiveStream, at first we wanted to try these before using the Google Hangout however our school network blocked this connection and so we had to wait for our local technician to help. Eventually we were able to use these which both have iPad apps meaning you can stream directly from the iPad. 
We ended up using Ustream, the reason being that LiveStream's free account only lets other members watch your videos meaning parents would have to sign up for an account just to view our videos. Ustream allows anyone to watch, the only restriction to their free account is that video is temporarily interrupted by an advert every 20minutes or so, however the quality of stream is much better and the video is stored on your channel until the 10gb of storage is full. HERE IS THE LINK TO OUR USTREAM CHANNEL

Also Ustream allows you to embed the videos in your own school blog like so:


Live streaming by Ustream

In future, I think Ustream seems the best and easiest way to stream and broadcast assemblies and performances in our School. The only potential barrier will be obviously the school's network allowing Ustream to be used. 




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