top right: PowerBook
center: Sketchbook, 3B pencil, eraser
bottom left: cd spindle with CRT monitor cable to hold up my iSight webcam!

That was how my set up looked when I finally got my show, Sketchy Adventures, up and running on Ustream.tv!

I had problems with setting up my show (edit: the issues Ustream had are now fixed) and then getting video to work. For those of you experiencing the same issues, here is what I did:

Set up a quick show first then customize settings
Don’t bother with the customized option. Do the quick set up first then make your changes. Otherwise, Ustream will think the name of your show was already taken.

No video?
Just in case, I downloaded and installed the latest Adobe Flash player. I don’t think this was the culprit because when I started broadcasting, I right clicked on the Flash screen (where the video from your webcam should be seen), clicked on the webcam tab and chose “IIDC Firewire Video”. I am using an iSight with my Mac OS 10.3.9 PPC.

It was tricky getting the iSight at the right distance away from my sketchbook so my viewers could see what I was drawing. The challenge was also to give me enough room to draw! I needed to be able to draw, have my PowerBook in front of me so I could interact with the chatroom and have the iSight at the proper distance.

Boy, does my back hurt.

I am going to see if I can put the iSight on a tripod or try and see if I can use my old school video camera so I can zoom in.

I had an audience of 1 :) It was Rob Clark of theelusivefish.com who saw my post on Twitter and popped in for a quick looksee. For a while, I wasn’t able to type in the chatroom but Rob said he was able to hear me speak.

I also posted a note on Facebook announcing my test broadcast (I love the way that sounds!). Not bad for a Sunday morning when I really should have gone to Mass. My next show may be sometime during the week but if all goes well with Ustream’s speed issues, I will have a show Friday nights after my workout.

[tags]Ustream.tv, ustream, Sketchy Adventures[/tags]