Suggestions for lower bandwidth receive sites to lessen buffering

Using the Church Webcasting System, YouTube, etc. Including cameras and mixers.
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rannthal
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Suggestions for lower bandwidth receive sites to lessen buffering

#1

Post by rannthal »

With the new player and receive sites that have lower bandwidth, there can be some problems with buffering which makes the stream very difficult to watch. After some inquires of how to deal with these low bandwidth sites, I've come up with some suggestions on what to do with the new player to make the stream watchable with very few buffers. The receive sites that I'm talking about are those that have bandwidth of 750k or less. Those receive sites that have above 750k, these suggestions really shouldn't apply, but can be implemented if desired to keep sites from buffering. Also these suggestions only apply to the new player, not the legacy or silverlight player.

First off, before I get to that a suggestion for everyone to save some bandwidth is to have the audio setting on the Teradek set to Low. With stake conferences, generally the low setting is fine and the audio comes out clear over the audio systems in the meetinghouses. Using the Low setting on the audio will allow more of the bandwidth to be available for Video.

Now on to my main suggestions for low bandwidth receive sites:
With the new player, there is a setting found if you take your mouse and hover over the lower right hand corner. In this corner you will find the mute icon, the go full screen icon, and an icon that is shaped like a gear. By clicking the "gear" icon, a selection box is displayed. If you click on the selection box, a list of bitrate settings will be displayed. One of these is "auto". "Auto" means that the player is set to adaptive streaming, so the stream bitrate fluctuates with the bitrate that the receive site is receiving.
The other selections are bitrates to set the stream to play to. If one of these is selected, the stream will play at that level and will not change, thus disabling the adaptive stream. If the receive site bitrate goes above this level, the stream will not change with it, it will stay at the level set. If the receive site bitrate drops below this level, the buffer kicks in and the player plays on the buffer until the bitrate comes back to the set level or above to refill the buffer or the buffer runs out, which effectively kills the stream.

Those receive sites that have higher then 750k, I would recommend that the "auto" be left selected as this will provide the best possible stream. If the bitrate at the receive site is constantly dropping below the 750k range, then I would suggest that the player is set to play at a certain bitrate that the receive site can handle. If they do this then the receive site should have a better experience and have less buffering. Below I’ll list some receive site bitrate ranges and the settings that the player seems to be able to play well with.

Also, as a reminder, this is with the audio on the Teradek set to low.

Receive site bitrate/Best setting to set the player to for the clearest picture
750k -------------------> 648k
750k – 530k ---------> 428k
530 – 310k ----------> 208k

If the receive site gets to be around 300k, then the player can play at the 208k level, but there are some buffering that may occur. The stream does not stop however, just the buffering icon pops up.
Also, if the receive site gets lower bandwidth then 300k, the player can be set to the 98k range. The video will not play, it just shows a stationary picture, but the audio will continue to play.

One more suggestion to go along with the settings, if desired, the lower settings on the player can be set with the higher bitrate. This lowers the chance that the player will buffer, but it also lowers the quality of the stream. So there is a give and take to consider in doing this.

I hope that these suggestions help. If there are any questions about this please let me know.
russellhltn
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Re: Suggestions for lower bandwidth receive sites to lessen buffering

#2

Post by russellhltn »

rannthal wrote:First off, before I get to that a suggestion for everyone to save some bandwidth is to have the audio setting on the Teradek set to Low. With stake conferences, generally the low setting is fine and the audio comes out clear over the audio systems in the meetinghouses.
Does that include the musical numbers? I just want to avoid the "music on hold while using a cell phone" sound.
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rannthal
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Re: Suggestions for lower bandwidth receive sites to lessen buffering

#3

Post by rannthal »

Yes is should include that also. There is a lower setting called mobile, so the low setting is above "cell phone" sound.
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sbradshaw
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Re: Suggestions for lower bandwidth receive sites to lessen buffering

#4

Post by sbradshaw »

russellhltn wrote:
rannthal wrote:First off, before I get to that a suggestion for everyone to save some bandwidth is to have the audio setting on the Teradek set to Low. With stake conferences, generally the low setting is fine and the audio comes out clear over the audio systems in the meetinghouses.
Does that include the musical numbers? I just want to avoid the "music on hold while using a cell phone" sound.
Hey, some of us call those customer service numbers with a long wait when it's the end of a pay period and we can't afford a streaming music service... ;)
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
craiggsmith
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Re: Suggestions for lower bandwidth receive sites to lessen buffering

#5

Post by craiggsmith »

Thanks very much. We have occasionally had freezes even with a 12 Mbps receive connection and wifi disabled when set on auto. Sometimes I've seen the speed fluctuate all over the place. I suppose it could be the receive computer although it was quite a robust machine.

A couple times it's said buffering but never came back and we had to restart the stream. When there is a need for buffering, I assume both video and audio buffer? I suppose there's no way to just freeze the video and let the audio continue and the video resume when there's sufficient bandwidth?
Craig
South Jordan, UT
craiggsmith
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Re: Suggestions for lower bandwidth receive sites to lessen buffering

#6

Post by craiggsmith »

sbradshaw wrote:Hey, some of us call those customer service numbers with a long wait when it's the end of a pay period and we can't afford a streaming music service... ;)
Ha ha. That music is usually so painful to listen to I wish they wouldn't do anything, or something very simple that doesn't require much bandwidth.
Craig
South Jordan, UT
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