A Cautionary Tale for the Livestreamer
There once was a communications technologist named Mayumi. Mayumi really liked her job producing video events at a major university. One day, a high-profile guest came to campus, and the high-profile department sponsoring the high-profile guest decided to livestream a video event, to both the Book of Faces and the Tube of Yous. Mayumi had done simultaneous live streams before, so she got to work, building and testing stream pages like she’d always done. A few days before the big event was going to happen, Mayumi tested the connections to both the Book of Faces and the Tube of Yous. All went well, as Mayumi expected it to, and everyone involved went on merrily.
The day of the event arrived, and Mayumi got ready to start streaming to both the Book of Faces and the Tube of Yous. But when she pressed the big Start button on her magical encoder…the Tube of Yous didn’t start! All of the settings were right, and the Book of Faces was going strong. But the Tube was not reacting as it should have done!
Mayumi recalled the Golden Rule of Technology: When in doubt, restart. So, she restarted her magical encoder machine. She started her connections again, using the same information as before. But wait! Now, neither the Book of Faces nor the Tube of Yous was starting properly! Oh noes!
There was only one thing left to do. Mayumi rebooted again, and rebuilt from scratch BOTH the connections for the Book of Faces and the Tube of Yous, discarding the event credentials from before. She pressed the Start button on the magical encoder, and…they worked! Mayumi monitored both working connections through the end of the event, and they stayed live and sending, with no more troubles. But what had happened to those other connections?
Here’s what Mayumi learned:
- A Book of Faces stream event can be created up to seven days in advance. You can test-stream to this event without going live as many times as you want. Once you go live, though, that stream’s unique identity cannot be duplicated. Which means, if you stop the stream (like with a machine reboot), you need to create a completely new event, with completely new credentials.
- A Tube of Yous stream event can be created a long time in advance. But if you test-stream to that particular event page, the Tube of Yous will expect you to go live shortly thereafter (within a couple of hours); it will look for the EXACT SAME data stream for the live event, that you used for your test event. The error may not apply if you ARE using the exact same data stream, from the exact same output hardware, but just in case, test your Tube of Yous live stream event with a separate test event, especially if you’re testing a few days out.
Now that you’ve read Mayumi’s story, you won’t have to panic when you run into either of these issues. You’ll know what to do! And, as the famous saying goes, knowing is half the battle.
Oh no. 😱 Most of this tech lingo is a foreign language to me, but I can absolutely empathize with the frustration and pain such a set-back would cause. But like the pro you are, you handled it, and all was well that ended well. That’s so cool you know how to do all that.
This jmm thanks her lucky stars that she doesn’t deal with such things in her world. She is thankful, however, that should the need arise, there are Mayumis to come to the rescue!
Good to know! Thank you!
Thanks, Bill! I hope everyone can learn from my mistake, without having to make that mistake themselves. It made my heart race for a good 15 minutes!
I don’t blame you for being in a position where you don’t have to deal with stuff like this, JM. It’s fun, exciting, rewarding work…which means that it must, of course, come with its own risks. I just happened to be on the beating end of the stick this time around. Next time, I’ll know better!
Thanks for reading!
Thanks, Carrie! The day was really saved mostly by two colleagues, one who sent the new necessary creds for the FB link, and the other who was able to speed-process the full ProRes file after the fact but in plenty of time for it to go archive-live before nightfall. I am glad to know what I did wrong, though, if only so I don’t make that mistake in the future. Every day is a learning experience!
The day we stop learning is the day we die. 😁
Hello again – long time no speak!
I’m so glad my job doesn’t involve anything like this. Glad you sorted it out on the day 🙂
Hi, Sally-Jayne! I hope you are well. 🙂
Well, I only sort-of sorted this issue on the day. No one came away angry, though, which is what counts in this business. 🙂
Thank you for stopping by!
I shall stop by more often now I’ve found (quite by accident) where you’ve moved your posts to!