The DOP Live Streaming is now on YouTube

When we started streaming from the Dyfi nest just as Ceulan was hatching back in 2012, the world was a very different place.

How it all started...

If you wanted to watch a video on the internet you most likely did so on a laptop, PC or a Mac; iPads and tablets were in their infancy as were smart phones really. Nowadays people engage with DOP in such a variety of ways and platforms, it became practically impossible to make a simple LS and Chat work for everybody on all systems, all platforms, all of the time.

We've always prided ourselves on being inclusive to all, however by 2018, and with the complexity of different IT systems out there, we were falling short. Cue the change over to YouTube.

Resolution

Some people with very low broadband speeds were getting a choppy picture or no picture at all with the old system. Youtube changes all of this. You can now select the resolution based directly on the internet or cellular speed you have.

By clicking the cog-wheel on the bottom right of the window, a selection of various resolutions will appear:

The numbers represent the amount of pixels up the vertical axis: 144 being the poorest quality (but requiring extremely low internet speeds like dial-up in the 1990s) all the way up to Full HD 1080P which requires around 3Mb/s for a steady stream (the average in the UK is around 25Mb/s).

Monty in 1080P Full HD

Audio

A few people were telling us that they were finding it difficult to hear the LS, especially on calm days.

We've calibrated the Youtube settings to increase the volume you can hear - you control the volume using the slider on the bottom left:

Moving to Youtube has also sorted the issue we had whereby the audio just used to drop out, a couple of times a day maybe. No more.

Chat

Our old Chat system was broken "beyond economical repair" as our IT guy told me.

We've now chosen to use YouTube's own Chat facility and it seems to be working well so far.

Please note: Everyone can view the Chat, but to participate you'll need to sign in. 

To sign in, you'll have to first create a Google account. Most people that don't already have an account have successfully created one, but some people have had problems. It's beyond the scope of this blog to try and explain the process here, largely due to the various phones/tablets/PCs people are using - there are slight variations to how all of them work.

Please don't take this the wrong way.... if you are having difficulties, ask a child or a young person! That's what I do.

One last thing about Chat. It seems to have a very robust algorithm that filters unwanted messages - which is good. However, it will also filter out some completely innocent comments that it doesn't 'understand'. Here's an example:

We have to press "Show" to make these comments visible, but most of the time we're not monitoring the Chat, so some will get lost in the ether, so please be aware of this. The filter doesn't like ALL CAPS either, so try and avoid these.

Finally on the Chat, it seems that only DOP can post URL's (links to web pages). There doesn't seem to be an option in the YouTube settings to change this, so apologies for the inconvenience - it's not something we can change at the moment. When you see DyfiOspreyProject posting on the Chat, it is usually one of the staff - Kim, Janine, Karis, Alwyn or myself.

Website

We've made sure that the LS is still available on the website in the usual place, so if you prefer to just watch it here, it's still there for you.

TV

Using some phones and tablets, you can now watch the LS directly on your TV at home by 'casting' the video from your device to a nearby TV. I'm already beyond my IT comfort zone - it's ask a young person again!

What Next?

Watching the DOP Live Streaming on Youtube in 1080P is amazing - the highest resolution (and bitrate) we've ever streamed at. However, we're still in trial mode, so please bear with us if the video drops out now and again.

By the middle of next week we should be more stable, having installed a professional sound card into our streaming PC and changed to a different encoder software. Until then, we will see the odd drop out unfortunately, maybe best to watch the LS just on YouTube until we stabilise things next week.

Once we're proper stable, we'll activate the DVR (Digital Video Recording) function. This means that you will be able to rewind back up to four hours in time just by moving the red slider under the window.

Finally, we'll be able to stream at even higher resolutions later in the season. The picture you're watching is filmed using an Ultra High Definition (4K) camera. Once we've got everything working as it should, we'll look into increasing the resolution higher still - all the way to 4K eventually; you'll need a download speed of around 15 Mb/s for this.

Thank you for your patience, we now have a clear, sharp picture with professional audio and Chat again. Steady as she goes, we're getting there. 

Hatching Tuesday onwards - you ready...?