Improved Streaming at our Campus

I'm really exited about 2009 challenges. Today we are launching our new version of our Internet Campus, with an improved flash video streaming provider. To choose our provider we tried with different providers, until we found the best relation between price/quality/realiability. Now we are using H.264 Compression and a video frame size of 640 x 360, streaming at 492Kbps, that will allow us to reach even slow connections, allowing the viewer to have a pleasent and smooth experience.

We also included on this update the Microsoft SilverLight player, that works good on Windows/Mac Enviroments. Good news about it, is works fine in Internet Explorer and Safari, bad news is, doesn't work with firefox/Chrome. We also included Web 2.0 links to our Twitter, Facebook, Our Community, Myspace and Blog.

On the core we also included resources for kids' parents that allow them to print some materials and lessons to share with their kids.

Regarding our viral players, we keep on U-Stream.tv because even it has ads now, you can see our internet campus in your I-phone. At the moment, we are giving up on our Mogulus feed, after experienced their "PRO" version. While they were Beta, everything was great, and at NAB 2008 they annouced the Pro version starting on a suggested price of 29.95 a month plus bandwidth, and guess what... on December 08, they launched their package for starters at $ 350 a month including 25Gb of bandwidht plust $ 1.5 the extra Gb... We had a 600Gb monthly demand so do the math... With our current provider we get 1Tb (1000 GB) for $ 450, plus windows media and Quick Time on april 2009. Technology is always challenging and you have to be on the edgeline seeking, researching and fighting in order to get the best possible deal.

One Church where you are from your Iphone

Good news for the Iphone users: Mobile Video is on its way. U-Stream, is developing a new application for the Iphone. The application will let users watch any Ustream channel, live, directly from their iPhone. And not only that, users will also see and be able to participate in the live chat around the video as well, so now you'll be able to experience "One Church Where you are" live from your Iphone!

I found at TechCrunch an article about it and it includes the info required to get the Beta version of the application. You can get it from the article or just follow this instructions:

Instructions to get the beta Application:

1) Plug the iPhone into your computer

2) Wait for the iPhone info to appear in iTunes

3) click on the words “Serial Number” to cause it to change to “Identifier”

4) double-click the identifier number (the long string of characters) and then press cmd-C (Mac) or ctrl-C (Windows) to copy it

5) email that identifier to iphone@ustream.tv so we can build a custom version for that phone using the iPhone SDK

6) Wait for the response :)

Last week podcast...

Flamingo Road Church Internet Campus is publishing a Podcast every Week, and they invited me to participate on My First Recorded Podcast!!!! Want to listen to it? You'll have fun!

Hosts: Brian Vasil , Stacie Gonzalez and Miguel UmanzorGuest: Arturo De La Mora, Research and Development Pastor at Flamingo Road Church.

The basics...

What do you need to launch an Internet Campus for a Church?

This is the often question waiting for an equipment list, wires and other stuff, but... First thing you'll need is to think out of the box, further the walls of a regular building. The lead pastor has to be on board... The internet Campus has to be according to the purpose and vision of the Ministry. The lead pastor is who receives the vision from God, and any dependant ministry has to be fully aligned to that vision, and this, of course, includes an Internet Campus. Prayer and planning are key elements for a healthy start. When Troy Gramling had the vision to take Flamingo Road Church to the Internet, he knew what he wanted, so all we needed it was to fulfill the vision, based on the available technology.

Once we have that on the scenario, now we have to talk about the global concept. What is an Internet Campus? It is not just streaming video over the internet; the concept goes further than that. It has to be interactive and capable to work on both ways: A) To deliver the video, audio, text and graphics to the user and B) To receive the responses from the audience to provide a personalized response that allow the audience to experience community interacting with the pastor and with other church members. It is really to take all the advantages that Web 2.0 offers to creat a Social Network for a church, outside the church.

This are, from my perspective, the basic gears to start rolling your project.