Live streaming video of OKC roads
If you haven’t already, check out NewsOK.com/live. It’s a pretty cool tech mashup.
Live video, live chat, live blog updates, two live Twitter feeds, live Flickr photo feed, updated traffic reports for OKC and Tulsa…
 David Jones |
 Tim Money |
Isn’t this what the Internet is supposed to provide? Instant information. On demand. Live.
So here’s what we’re doing:
David Jones and Tim Money are driving a silver Jeep Cherokee around the streets and interstates of Oklahoma City.
Honk if you see them.
We are using a Sony Vaio, a mini laptop.
 
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We’d like to experiment with a netbook, which are pretty cheap these days. This Vaio is running Windows XP, and we’re making it work. We’ve plugged a wireless card into the Vaio for mobile Internet access.
We have a Sony HVR camera (similar to this one) placed on the dashboard, using a Firewire connection to the netbook. We are using Adobe Flash for the actual encode before it goes to Mogulus, which is then embedded onto the template of newsok.com/live.
Very simple. But it’s working very well.
Yesterday morning, I met with Jones about this idea. We decided to go for it and see what level of quality we got. We’ve used the wireless cards in Norman during our live Campus Corner Pre Game Shows. The quality hasn’t been this good. But, we’re not using any audio on purpose to save bandwidth. We suspect this may be helping. Also, we are not running into thousands of people using their cell phones like at the game day situations.
So the live video has been successful. We had a steady audience of about 300 people on Monday watching the afternoon drive. Today’s crowd was been lighter as expected. Fewer people are actually in the office.
Then we embedded a smaller Mogulus player on the NewsOK home page. We’re around 500 viewers, lurkers, voyeurs this afternoon.
Jones is using his iPhone to Twitter updates of their location. We created the #OKice tag and are pulling that onto the page. Jones is also using bit.ly to shorten his geo location from his Tweets.
But it’s not just the video. It’s the whole mash up of technology. Right next to the video feed is an embedded live chat. We use CoverItLive. It’s free (there is a new premium version) and works well. We used it on game days, primaries, election nights and for the Thunder basketball games.
I kidded Mike Koehler about being our virtual Magic 8 Ball. He has been monitoring the chat room, feeding stories and information from the NIC and moderating the online discussion. But he’s also been asked for advice, which shows the power of the mash up to generate conversation. I asked him what I should consider for dinner.
If you scroll down, you’ll see the traffic map of OKC and Tulsa and more Twitter feeds. We also pulled in a Flickr feed for user submitted photos.
Yesterday this page was visited more than 5,000 times. We are promoting our live coverage page from the top of the home page of NewsOK.com.
Coverage of the car wreck
First and most importantly, my condolences to all family and friends connected with in the fatal accident that occurred overnight Friday.
Some behind the scenes info… We have equipped The Oklahoman’s reporters with cameras for breaking news situations, such as fires and such. Chris Landsberger did a great job of shooting video of his interview with the OKC police office at the scene. He also shot b-roll of the crash scene.
Robert Medley also interviewed Sgt. Paco Balderrama, OKC police PIO, back at the cop shop for more official comments.
The video, posted early Friday morning, has received an amazing amount of views. Click on the above embedded video for more information about the accident.
Live streaming video of inauguration
We are linking to various sources today for live streaming video of the inauguration ceremonies.
We linked to C-SPAN’s feed(s) from Mogulus and we are using AP’s feed. We used the C-SPAN feed until it started to cap out at around 20,000 viewers. AP seems to be holding up, plus it offers a cool interactive map of seven different camera views.
You can visit either newsok.com/live or newsok.com/inauguration for live video coverage, along with our previously shot videos about today’s ceremonies and yesterday’s MLK Day events.
Some live shots go better than others
So Sam Bradford made the big announcement. OU Coach Bob Stoops said it was much bigger than any signing day announcement, or something to that effect. Bradford is returning to play his junior season for the Sooners.
Tim Money shot the press conference for us. David Jones went with him to stream the presser live. Then Brad Belyeu pursued with the wireless Cricket card that we forgot. Tough to do live Internet video without, you know, the Internet.
We had the live stream up and running just as Bradford was speaking. The viewers instantly spiked from the 15 or so (probably all in the building) to 320 as online editors posted the live link on the NewsOK home page.
Jones snapped a few pics with his iPhone. Angi and I taped a quick update in the studio and used the photos for scene setters.
Murder suspect caught
A lot changed on this story. And quickly. From this morning when the story was the suspect was caught, to a few hours later when the affidavit was released and we suddenly had details. I taped a version of the caught suspect when I got to the office this morning, but never posted it because we had two sports shoots, a Sunday Conversation and an attempted editorial shoot. By then the details emerged and it was time to rewrite the script and post a new update.
Today I used the NewsOK updated version. The newsroom does a great job of updating NewsOK with the latest information. Mostly I try to use as much of their work as possible along with as many photos or video/b-roll as I can with our updates.
Behind the scenes: producing BCS videos after the game
Last night, Oklahoma lost to Florida 24-14 in the BCS National Title game in Miami. David Jones and Paige Dillard met me in the OPUBCO Studios about 10 pm to watch the final mintues. The Oklahoman’s Mike Sherman sports editor came down to the 7th floor from the 8th to tape three segments.
I had three videos pre-produced: graphics and script. Paige pulled photos from The Oklahoman’s staffers in Miami ready for our videos. Jones prepared the studio for the three shoots.
We knocked out the first video, a post game show that lasted about five minutes talking about the game.
Then we rearranged the sets and taped two segments – one about Sooner coach Bob Stoops and quarterback Sam Bradford.
We finished taping around 11:30 pm. We record and edit using Final Cut Pro. We encode the FCP .mov files into .flv files using Adobe Flash Encoder. Exporting and encoding is by far the lengthiest part of the production.
We left the office two hours later after posting the videos and editing NewsOK.com and NewsOK.tv to properly display the videos.
