DIY Web "Television" Station?

randomkind asks: "Media production can be quite a bit of fun. I think it would be extremely cool to run a television station, or at least a series of television-like shows. Luckily, the web offers an alternative vehicle for publication than the standard media-mogul run cable television providers. That is why I'm looking in to creating a website that would, in essence, be a completely free television station online, with pre-recording (and sometimes live) streaming video feeds and a regular programming schedule. Think of it either as the visual analog of an internet radio station, or a very glorified webcam. My question is: Where to start? What kind of digital recording equipment is suggested? What kind of editing and effects software is needed? What kind of content delivery method is suggested (ie Real, or some other streaming video plugin)? Any special hardware requirements? Is there anything else that I ought to know about creating and running something of this sort?"

"I am looking for decent quality, but cheap solutions. I have a few thousand dollars to invest, and will have more over time, but my friends and I are solely backing this project with cash from our pockets. I've got a decent amount of working space for a production studio reserved, and enough manpower to provide, at least initially, a few hours of braodcasting a day. I've got an overflowing abundance of ideas, and lots of enthusiasm. So, where do I go from here?"

Comments

Democratization of production/distribution

[ealar dlanvuli]

Hmm, now we'll have the TV industry wake up to the same threat the music industry is facing now. Not that the concept is not obvious (after all, at a low level everything is just a stream of 0s and 1s), but this must be a red flag in their face.

Much as we needed the recording industry over the past 50 years to press those damn CDs/Records and distribute them, we're currently relying on the TV studios and networks to make/distribute their products. Also witness the current TV climate: much as the recording industry creates their own hypes and ignores non-conventional artists, the TV (and movie) industry is falling victim of their own success. Their desire to standardize everything and make it 'safe' for (their) ideal targe audience (families with kids, etc) results in a product which excells in conformity and blandness.

Given this, advances in technology which make it possible to distribute (and eventually produce) decent quality TV programs at low costs, will lead to the proliferation of 'independant' studios. With their monopoly on creation/distribution of movies vanishing in internet time, the TV studios will eventually face the same tide the music industry is facing now: We don't really like them, we don't really need them anymore; let's move to a medium we can control and just ignore the studios. Looking at the sad state of the (currently +- 30) TV stations I get via cable, this may just be good ... if nothing else, this means that as an independant producer you will be able to distribute your films to anyone who's on the internet. Wether anyone will care to watch your stuff is of course an entirely different matter.

apprentice first, for a year

[ghostlibrary]

First, go to your local cable access and do a show on there. This will:

* get you familiar with producing a TV show
* give you useful contacts in terms of staff and crew that you'll need for your venture
* give you 'street cred' in launching your web venture-- or at least teach you the lingo so you can work with folks who produce things.

Only after that would I suggest you launch your web thing. That way, you make all your mistakes while learning.

Yeah, I know a station owner/executive technically doesn't have to know anything about actually producing a show... but you will need contacts with that experience to produce your actual content, and this is a good way to hook into it.

Good luck!

Use video when appropriate

[kabanossen]

I think you should combine video footage with some data formats, flash for example, to present diagrams, maps, tables and anything else that is related to the story you're showing. Use each format for what it's good at. Video is good for showing people and nature and stuff, not diagrams. It's soo irritating to watch news over the web where the publisher has just converted their TV show to Real format without converting graphics and text into native web formats.
You could also link your shows to each other just like links on a web page, that's fairly rare and unexplored. You'll probably need to experiment a bit but I'm sure you'll learn a lot in the process.

You should absolutely not do this

[gnovos]

This is a completely new kind of a venture that you are attempting, so it is imperative that you don't enter into it with any preconcieved notions of how it is supposed to work. I strongly believe that one of the reasons why we don't have any real webcasted TV now is that the major TV companies try to just do the same ole same ole and end up with a feed that's too bulky, or too uncreative to really work in the new medium. Forget going and seeing how it's "really" done until you have figured out a system for yourself, THEN go and see if there are any pieces you can improve with conventional techniques.