Hi peeps it’s been a minute since I’ve written this column, “Tech Tuesday” The Birdsong Review (like the new title??).  Anyway…This week I review Ustream’s new standalone broadcasting program, Ustream Producer.

Ustream.tv allows you to broadcast LIVE video on the internet. “Ustream Producer” is available for Mac and PC, but here’s the deal; Flash Media Encoder (FME by Adobe) has been around for PC for quite some time. So, this is the first time one has been able to broadcast to Ustream using HQ Flash 9 H.264 video. Pardon mon Francais, but Ustream looked like total shit when you used a mac for broadcasting before this. The only program out there that could broadcast to ustream in HQ was Wirecast by Telestream, which cost around $500. So, it should come as no surprise that Telestream is the same company behind “Ustream Producer”. The cool thing is that you can now get it basically for free.

Ustream producer comes in two versions: free and premium ($200). Check out the chart for the deets on what’s different.

Wirecast is a pretty great program, and this version of “Ustream Producer” seems stable enough. The free version will only allow you to use one live camera. If you have a setup where you’ll be using a analog video switcher then a canopus or deck to output firewire into you’re comp, then you’re in luck. If you’ didnt check out the chart yet, the main dif here is: lack of titles, SD bitrate only, single cam (one source).

Here are some pics of the program.

Here is a LIVE (pre-rec) VJ set with Panman and Freakcast.

Test #1

If you’re an internet broadcaster and you use macs (for FCP), and havn’t shelled out $500 bucks for wirecast yet, this is GREAT for you. If you have shelled out the ca$h rest easy; wirecast is still a great program. You can broadcast to places other than ustream with wirecast, use titles, plus many many other features.

“Ustream Producer” offers a high quality solution for broadcasting without using a CPU power hungry browser and flash app; it’s far more efficient with it’s use of system resources. If you have high end GPU, you can use it to enhance video compression as well.

As you saw from the pix above, the app allows you to transition from one shot to another using: cut, smooth, and cross-dissolve. These are pretty much the only transitions you should ever use BTW, and you should rarely use anything ither than cut anyway. As I said before, if you use a analog video switcher, and output a mixed signal you can absolutely use multiple cams with the free version.

Overall Rating: pretty cool.

I’ll leave you with this video of some kid making his own show using ustream producer. Kids are hustlers these days.

Click here to download USTREAM Producer.

John Birdsong is a video Producer Director Editor with Panman Productions and lives in Hipsterville, BKLYN with his Girlfriend Morgan-Jo and their cat Fanny.