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LIVE WEBCAST WITH WINDOWS MEDIA ENCODER

Windows Media Encoder 9 Legacy Windows-based encoder. This encoder is no longer supported or even available from Microsoft and is only shown here for legacy purposes. FREE for basic Windows-based live webcasts only on PCs. Supports audio-only webcasts as well as video webcasts. Users need to have Windows Media Player installed.

Breakdown of costs. Webcasting is free for the viewers, but if you are wishing to be the broadcaster of a live webcast, you will need to take into consideration the following:

• You must be a "FULL" Broadcasting Member (more info).
• You must have the "Live Webcasting" option enabled for your account (some fees apply):
  
  
  • Only $10 is added to your base monthly fee.
  • Only $2.00 for each audio-only webcast hour (additional usage fee), OR...
  • Only $5.00 per VIDEO webcast hour (additional usage fee).
    
    Our pricing is straightforward and does not scale up or down depending on the number of viewers. We've taken the mystery out of complicated webcasting costs, so you can easily predict your costs from month to month. Just remember, flat fee + usage fee!
  
  
• You must have a direct, high-speed connection to the Internet with a sufficiently fast upload speed.
  
  
  • At least 250kbps upload bandwidth for video webcasts.
  • At least 500kbps upload bandwidth for HIFI video webcasts.
  
  
• For video webcasters, a separate, dedicated computer used for only the webcast encoding with a "decent" graphics card is highly recommended.
  
  We also recommend using the Canopus ADVC300 to convert your analog audio/video signal to a single digital FIREWIRE signal that you can feed to your computer (a good laptop solution).

After you have met the above requirements, the following screen shots will take you step-by-step through the process of webcasting a live event on SermonAudio with the Windows Media Encoder!



Step 1: Make sure your account is Webcast-Enabled.

There's a quick and easy way to see if your account is webcast-enabled. Go to the Live Webcasts section to see if your church is listed as a webcaster. When your webcast is in progress, the appropriate button on your homepage will automatically change from the OFF AIR button to the ON AIR button.

Step 2: Start Windows Media Encoder.

Next, you will need to start the Windows Media Encoder program on your computer. This is a free tool from Microsoft but it is no longer supported or even available from Microsoft and is only shown here for legacy purposes. Once the program loads up, the first thing you should see is the following screen:

Step 3: Click the OK Button and then proceed to the next screen.

For this next step, ensure that the Audio option is SELECTED. The Video option must only be selected if you have VIDEO Live Webcasting enabled for your account. If not, then you will need to UNCHECK the Video option. Please observe the screen carefully below.

Step 4: Click the NEXT Button and then proceed to the next screen.

Be sure the first option is selected (Push to a Windows Media Server). This will allow you to initiate the live webcast to SermonAudio whenever you want and as often as you want. The site will automatically detect your webcast and appropriate activate the right buttons on-site! A truly complete and flexible solution!

Step 5: Setting the Publishing Point.

Click the NEXT Button and then proceed to the next screen. Here, you will need to fill in some details. As shown below, use radio.sa-media.com as the server name and then use your SermonAudio Member ID with "_upstream" appended to it for the "publishing point". For example, if your SermonAudio Member ID is "calvarybaptist", then the Publishing Point value would be:

calvarybaptist_upstream

Step 6: Setting the Bitrate — Important!

Click the NEXT Button and then proceed to the next screen. Here, you will be setting the bandwidth bitrate of the webcasting stream. What you select here will depend greatly on the kind of connection you have. Please review the details of this entire STEP carefully.

HIFI OPTION. Broadcasters that have the HIFI option enabled for their account can webcast at higher bitrates and upload archived media at higher bitrates. You must have this option enabled for your account in order to use the HIFI bitrates. To learn more, please click here..

• Audio-only webcasts. DO NOT exceed 19kbps bitrate (37kbps for HIFI)—Screen A below.
  Select only ONE bitrate from the list as shown.

• Video webcasts. DO NOT exceed 148kbps bitrate (340kbps for HIFI)—Screen B below.
  Video Webcasting is only suitable for churches with high-speed broadband connections.
  HIFI webcasters, please see Step #11 below..

  IMPORTANT!! It is imperative that your upload bandwidth speed is fast enough to ensure a smooth and successful webcast. Find out what your upload bandwidth speed is at your location.
  Your upload bandwidth speed must be at least 250kbps for standard live video webcasts (and at least 500kbps for HIFI video webcasts).

  When a visitor wishes to watch a video webcast, they can choose either a high-bandwidth or low-bandwidth (audio-only) stream depending on their connection speed.

Step 7: Archive the live webcast stream?

Click the NEXT Button and then proceed to the next screen. You do not need to change anything on this page. You may or may not want to archive this webcast using Windows Media Encoder.

If you are a live VIDEO webcaster, you can choose to save the live VIDEO webcast as a WMV (Windows Media Video) file which you can upload later as an archived video. The bitrate setting for live video webcasts should already match the bitrate setting required for archived videos.

Hint: If you need to, you can use the Windows Media File Editor (which is included with the Media Encoder installation) to quickly and easily TRIM your resulting WMV files without re-encoding.

Step 8: Click the NEXT Button and then proceed to the next screen.

At this point, you can optionally fill in the details of your live webcast. This information will NOT appear anywhere on the SermonAudio site but it WILL appear in the user's Windows Media Player. We recommend using a generic description so you don't have to fill in new details every time.

Step 9: Finished! That was easy!

Click the NEXT Button and then proceed to the next screen. At this point you are almost ready to live webcast publicly. If the "Begin broadcasting when I click Finish" option is CHECKED, then after clicking the "Finish" button you will be ON-THE-AIR!

Notice for LIVE VIDEO webcasters! However, if you are a live VIDEO webcaster, we recommend that you UN-CHECK the "Begin broadcasting.." option (before clicking "Finish") and proceed below.

Step 10: Click the FINISH Button.

After a number of seconds, the following window will appear prompting you to enter your Member ID and Password (this is your SermonAudio Member ID and Password). This password-protection is to guard against anyone else webcasting under your account.

Please note that at this point you may receive a warning regarding stream announcement, you can disregard this notice and continue.

Please note..  It may take several seconds (up to 30 seconds or even one minute) for this last step to finish. Please be patient. It is initiating the live webcast with our server and will be running very shortly.



Step 11: Strongly recommended step for video encoding presets!

New! SermonAudio has provided the following PRESET Encoding Setting file (modified from the default encoder settings) that you can download and import into the Encoder for your convenience:

• sermonaudio150.prx - for standard live video webcasters (150kbps).
  

  Encoding Mode:	CBR
  Audio Codec:	Windows Media Audio 9.2
  Audio Format:	20kbps, 22khz, mono CBR
  Video Codec:	Windows Media Video 9
  Video Size:	320x240 (Widescreen: 430x240 or 480x270)
  Video Bitrate:	121kbps
  Frame Rate:	15fps
  Key Frame Int:	10 seconds
  Vid Smoothness:	60
  Total Bitrate:	148kbps (do not exceed this)

• sermonaudio340.prx - for HIFI live video webcasters (340kbps).
  

  Encoding Mode:	CBR
  Audio Codec:	Windows Media Audio 9.2
  Audio Format:	20kbps, 22khz, mono CBR
  Video Codec:	Windows Media Video 9
  Video Size:	480x360 (Widescreen: 480x270 or 640x360)
  Video Bitrate:	311kbps
  Frame Rate:	29.97fps
  Key Frame Int:	8 seconds
  Vid Smoothness:	70
  Total Bitrate:	340kbps (do not exceed this)

• Mobile Phones. Many cell phones today can stream live webcasts and we take that into consideration with our Kinoma mobile phone solution. Providing a satisfactory streaming experience for viewers over a slower cellular network is part of our bitrate policy.
  
  
• Portable Media Players. Portable players like Microsoft's Zune can natively play WMV video files. However, we have found that if the video size is not 320x240, it will take much longer to load these videos on to the device because it must first "convert" them to native size.
  
  
• SermonAudio Internet Radio. Although the Internet Radio is an audio-only device, it can also tune into live video webcasts from the site. However, the manufacturer has advised that only the Windows Media Audio 9.x audio codec be used (do not use the WMA Voice 9 codec).
  
  
• Dialup Users. There are still many who use dialup and for them, only the audio portion of the stream will be used. For this reason we recommend that the audio encoding settings are kept under 30kbps if possible for the most reliable streaming experience.

At this point, you can select OK to accept all the changes and then you can begin your webcast by clicking on the Start Encoding button as shown below!

Step 12: TIP for Improving the Quality of "Noisy Video"

This entire step is an optional tip to help improve the quality of "noisy video" for webcasters experiencing this problem. It is of course only applicable to VIDEO webcasters. The below screenshot shows how to make the necessary setting adjustment to help eliminate "noisy video".

Please note, this option is significantly CPU-intensive and is only advisable if your computer is fairly powerful with a higher-end graphics card (that supports hardware de-interlacing).

That's it! Congratulations!

If the webcast has successfully started, you should see a screen similar to the following broadcasting your audio in real-time LIVE! The site is designed to automatically detect when you are "ON-THE-AIR" and will make it clear to all who are on the site that a LIVE webcast is in progress.

When you are live webcasting, the button will automatically change from the OFF AIR button to the ON AIR button.

Please note it may take up to one minute for SermonAudio to actually detect that you are on-the-air. This simply means that the OFF AIR button may not change into the ON AIR for up to one minute.

TIP: You can "File/Save As" this Windows Encoder session settings for future webcasts so you do not have to go through the (above) steps every time you wish to start a webcast.

You can keep the live webcast on-the-air for as long or as short as you wish. SermonAudio will automatically keep track of the number of hours that are used in your live webcasts throughout the month and then add the total hourly usage charges for the month to your next billing cycle.

In order to STOP the live webcast, simply press the "STOP" button on the Windows Media Encoder and close the program entirely. Please be aware that it may be up to 5 minutes before SermonAudio is able to detect that you are completely off-the-air. Do not be alarmed at this. We have taken these delays into account when calculating the usage charge for billing.

Here are some last-minute important tips to keep in mind!

• It is very important that you follow Step #6 and #11 (above) precisely in regards to the bitrate setting. This needs to be correct or we will need to terminate the webcast while in progress.
• Be sure that you do not "tie-up" the bandwidth at your location by trying to watch the webcast over the same connection that the live webcast is currently broadcasting on.
• For video-webcasting, do not "disturb" the PC that is doing the video webcast.. not even so much as clicking on the web browser. In fact, it is best simply to completely leave it alone while the webcast is in progress. Video encoding is a CPU-intensive process which can result in the webcast failing if it doesn't have the computer's 100% attention.