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MStew14

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 7, 2013
1
0
Santa Barbara
Hey guys, I work at a gym and I want to stream some of the classes I do onto our company website.

First off how would I be able to get the live feed to show up on my website?

Second, what kind of equipment would I need in terms of cameras and software?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
It's better to have one professionally shot video than a live stream.

Unless you plan on not showing the crowd, not many people want to see their workout being broadcasted everywhere.
 

glutenenvy

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2011
175
21
WA
It's going to be a bandwidth hog. I'm assuming a gym is not going to have oodles of bandwidth to work with so hosting the video directly is out. Sending data to a third party service to distribute your video may be possible but will still use up a lot of bandwidth on a single stream. I've seen several places that will do this for your audio but haven't looked for video.

Your best bet is to record and cut a movie. iMovie can do it on the cheap but is limited in extra features. You can then place your movie on a site like youtube or vimeo and then iframe it into your website.

A recent iPhone or iPod camera can record decent video and so can most of the cameras sitting at for sale at Costco including DSLR type cameras.

If you're going to shooting somebody talking, the issue is going to be background noise and directional sound pickup. Most cameras do poorly without a directional mic or external mic when it comes to recording sound. In an enclosed quiet room it will not be noticed much. In a crowded room you will notice it. When you do decide on a camera, one with a mic jack will come in handy. A wireless wearable mic will also come in handy.

It may be tempting to go with a $25 tripod. A tripod you can be happy with should cost 5 to 10 times that and more. A bad tripod can ruin your shot.
 

SrWebDeveloper

macrumors 68000
Dec 7, 2007
1,871
3
Alexandria, VA, USA
It's better to have one professionally shot video than a live stream.

Unless you plan on not showing the crowd, not many people want to see their workout being broadcasted everywhere.

Excellent points. I could not agree more, technically one can be sued unless waivers are signed. Not even a disclaimer that any member is "subject to video capture" in the gym contract will suffice.

Other users also hit on the issues of bandwidth if HD and pixelation from low end web cams as compression can't keep up with movement in the lens. I'd have clients sign a waiver, do a professional shoot with quality sound, convert to a HD format suitable for distribution and allow progressive streaming of a recorded video on your site using HTML5 VideoJS or similar framework for the client side player. Or simply upload the video, i.e. an MP4, to a custom YouTube channel for your gym (or any video hosting service) and embed their link in your site, let them handle the social networking and technicalities.
 
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