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Live Streaming Videos via Mobile: A Qik Guide

June 18th, 2009 | by ka edong |

Ateneo celebrated its 150th anniversary last Sunday, June 14. There was a whole-day program involving a motorcade passing through the Ateneo campuses in Manila, with programs in key campuses along the itinerary. Visit: http://150.ateneo.edu

Throughout the day, Ateneo had ten videographers covering the event through live mobile video streaming enabled by the Smart network using an online video service called QIK (www.qik.com) .

The interesting thing is that in the Ateneo Sesqui group on qik, videos from different handsets were being streamed in sequence, like a relay race. Thus, online visitors got to watch the celebration LIVE on their computers from the different viewpoints of each videographer.

Results:

• Ateneo Sesqui videos: http://www.qik.com/groups/5194
• Quezon City, Philippines
• Videos: 204
• Views: 4142 (as of June 17 afternoon)
• Total time filmed: 05:43:51

Live Streaming Videos via Mobile: A Qik Guide

Our friends at Ateneo, Ton Dolor and Mimi Agbay, led the team of videographers. They’re now experts in using qik and join the ranks of Ashton Kutcher who happens to be a big qik user.

Ton put together a guide so other groups can do similar video streaming for their event. Here goes from Ton…

Setting-up qik: A Guide for the Videographers

Below is a guide I made for the videographers.
You can freely share it with others and add to it so that others won’t have to write everything from scratch.

Step 1. Configure N82

Activate newly installed SMART SIM:
Profiles > Options > Activate

Set the date (otherwise you won’t be able to install Qik)
Clock > Options > Settings

Activate MMS/GPRS/3G service
text SET N82 to 211.
You will receive a confirmation message. Follow the instructions.

Avail of the SMART Promo

text INET DAY to 211 (P100 for 12 hours)
text INET DAY to 211 (P50 for 5 hours)

Step 2. Sign up for a Qik account

http://qik.com/sign_up

Step 3. Install Qik

Download Qik installer from http://qik.com/account/download_qik
Attach USB cable to phone and copy Qik installer to phone

Filename:  qik_s60_3rd__0_09_56

Go to Tools > File Mgr > select qik_s60_3rd__0_09_56
Select Options > Open
Install Qik? > Click Yes > Click Continue
Select Phone Memory

Once Qik is installed, fill up configuration menu as follows:

Login as: Existing user
Enter username: enter username
Enter password: enter your password

Click sign in
Select SmartInternet
Click stream

Step 4. Create a group within Qik to stream simultaneous feeds from several users.

Note: User should enable automatic sharing to be able to share live feed to the group:

Login to Qik
Click Edit Profile > Groups
Under Group Name select the name of the group
Click Automatically share to this Group

What worked:

1. Phone. N82 is a great phone for this type of coverage. Handled properly, some of the clips looked as if they were taken by a hand-held videocam. The audio is audible and quite clear.

2. Video length. Clips that were over a minute in length were generally more interesting.

3. Reporting. I found it more interesting when the videographer reported what was actually happening during the event. It also helped that were a lot of videographers which gave the event a very wide coverage, with different points of view and different styles of taking videos. The no holds-barred (no script) reporting/coverage also worked well. It was very natural, as if you were actually participating first-hand in the ongoing event.

4. Cost. The cost of streaming the event is almost free. Internet access is a bargain at P100 for 12 hours. The phones were provided for free thanks to SMART. The cost of video storage is likewise free c/o Qik.

Some suggestions:

1. Subject. Before hitting the stream button, focus on a nice subject first (not on the floor or ceiling). The first image captured by the camera becomes the icon/tile on the Qik site.

2. Profiles. Reporters should put titles on their video streams so that clips will not be classified as Untitled in the website.
Reporters should also update their profiles to reflect the country they are in otherwise their location on the site defaults to United States. It would have been nice if the videographers uploaded their pictures as well.

3. Battery life. Batteries ran out towards the latter part of the coverage so backup batteries and portable charges are needed in a day-long coverage.

4. Proper handling of the camera. Some of the clips made me dizzy. The image pixelates when the camera moves too fast.

5. Embed code. The embed code at the Qik website had limited functionality since it only showed what was going on live. It is better to have a link (or redirect) to the actual Qik page.

Thanks to Ton for permission to publish his guide in full.

So folks, what are you waiting for? Start qik-ing!

ka edong
the qik brown fox

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