Webware

I've really enjoyed seeing the lifecasting movement take off. I can't say I feel the need to visit these sites on a regular basis, but like a roller coaster built for children, they provide enjoyable moments mixed in with some less-than-incredible build-up. One of the newest entrants to the space is Mod My Life, which shares a lot in common with its other lifecasting brethren by mixing up live Webcam footage with user chat. The twist is that the person with the Webcam is an actor or comedian, and the audience gets to control what he or she is doing.

All the user-created actions are created and voted on by users, and they show up in an upcoming section that lets the group weed out the good ideas from the bad. The four most popular get dropped into a voting pool where users can vote on the item as many times as they like until the time runs out. The "Modstars," which are the people with the cameras strapped to their heads, then has to go do what people have told them to do.

To view old events, there's an archive section to watch short clips.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

While watching last night I was treated to several awkward moments of Modstar Jason Wilder Evans bothering people around the greater New York area before managing to somehow walk into what looked like an attempted robbery with a baseball bat. The robbery had just been broken up by the convenience store's security guard. We never really found out what happened, but the damage had been done, and I sat quietly in awe along with the rest of the viewers as Jason called the police and recounted what had happened with other witnesses.

The rest of the show wasn't nearly as gripping as that bit, but like the creators have told me, a lot of it depends on the Modstar, and other variables like location, time of day, and what ideas the community has got cooking. In many ways it's a lot like Justin.TV when they first started out. Far from what Justin Kan and company have expanded to now with their platform and live channel selection, Mod My Life is treading a slightly different path and trying to pack as much as they can into just an hour or less instead of going for daylong marathons. For that, I think viewers who are willing to base their watching around the "time slot" will be getting more bang for their buck (note: the site is free).

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Operator11 is a free service for people who want to broadcast live over the Internet using their Webcams. Following similar livecasting offerings out there, it gives people a fairly simple one-stop solution to hook up their Webcam and get a live video broadcast going. Users can also simply upload video clips from their computers to share with others. One of its more interesting features, however, is the capability to have multiple people drop in and out of a live broadcast, which is controlled using a live studio that runs right in your Web browser.

Like Mogulus [review], which offers a similar feature, Operator11 gives whoever is controlling the show the option to see everything that's going on in one screen, and swap back and forth between Webcams or other content on the fly. And like BlogTV, which I looked at last week, hosts can also invite their viewers to join the fray at any time--it's a very open system.

Operator11 users can record, embed, and share their shows with others. Channel owners get about 40 minutes per show before the system will stop recording, which is very generous. Other users can then watch the clip, comment on it, and rate it using a five-star system. Operator11 also keeps track of who the director was, along with others who participated. This information is also kept track of in user profiles.

There are quite a few of these video broadcasting sites now, and I'm absolutely convinced one of the best uses for them is for the next big content creator who's looking for an easy way to broadcast and syndicate live content. Likewise, even for large media companies such as CNET, free services like this offer a relatively simple way to deliver live event broadcasts (which we tried at Facebook's F8 platform launch using Veodia).

Operator11 is currently in public alpha, so expect a few occasional kinks if you give it a go. For a shot of the user interface, click the "read more" link below.

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BlogTV is a new livestreaming service that's been making a splash at the Supernova conference here in San Francisco. It's the latest in several live broadcasting services that have popped up, including uStream.TV, Veodia, Mogulus, and Stickam. Like some of its competitors, BlogTV is combining live video and chat in one window, along with a way to embed the entire module on your blog or Web site. It also lets content creators team up with two Webcams at once, a solution that opens up the service for co-hosts, live interviews, or multilocation coverage.

The BlogTV interface is made up of three panes, with live video, chat, and a related videos playlist. To see it in action, click the read more link at the end of this post.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

BlogTV isn't just limited to live streams, though; users can record bits of their live broadcast and publish them in an archive. Like YouTube and other video services, users can then comment and rate clips, as well as mark them as favorites. There's also the option to subscribe to an author's channel to keep tabs on future content or see when he or she is broadcasting live. Content is split up into nine different "channels," and users have the options to sort through live and archived clips for each.

BlogTV's embeddable player isn't quite up to snuff compared with some of the other livestreaming players I've seen. While it does show you how many people are watching a program, the integrated chat is a one-way experience. You can see what others are typing, but you can't type back or see who is in the chat room. To participate, you need to venture off-site to the broadcast's page. That being said, BlogTV's chat experience is really well-done. Channel owners can give certain users operations privileges (akin to IRC), kick users, and users can chat privately with one another. There's also all sorts of emoticons and quick options to share with or invite friends to the broadcast.

BlogTV is currently relegated to your computer, although the team behind it is working on a mobile version. I'm expecting something along the lines of Kyte.TV and Veodia, although if there's one thing we've found in testing these services, mobile Webcasting can get a little tricky.

I've embedded a sample BlogTV livecasting module after the jump. Since I don't want to bore you with a CNET office cam (not to say me typing isn't exhilarating), I'm embedding a live broadcast of the Supernova conference from Nir Ofir, one of the founders of BlogTV.

On our weekly Real Deal podcast today, Tom and I discussed lifecasting (e.g., Justin.tv) and the live streaming tools ordinary people (as opposed to 24/7 exhibitionists) can use to broadcast their own cams in real time: uStream, Stickam, ComVu (review), and Veodia (review).

Here's the show:

Our discussion wouldn't be complete without a live demo of streaming, so Tom and I both streamed ourselves during the taping, using uStream. We had some problems (most related to the ancient laptop I used to record the show, I think), but I grabbed a recording of the stream.

We used uStream, by the way, because of all the live-streaming products I've tested, it's the only one with a good chat function. However, at the moment, the chat function uses IRC ports, which are blocked by many firewalls. A uStream co-founder told me that within a few weeks a new chat technology will roll out on the service, which will route around this problem.

Kyte.tv's (review) chat function actually comes close to uStream's, but it doesn't offer the real-time video, just timed snapshots.

If you want to join the ongoing discussion, come on over to the Real Deal forums .

Real Deal subscription links:
• For RSS readers: http://www.cnet.com/i/pod/realdeal.xml
• iTunes: Subscribe

Apparently, I did sign up for this.

I got to take a sneak peak at a new video broadcasting service that opened its doors to a select few this morning. Mogulus is a live video broadcasting service the likes of uStream.tv, but with a twist: Multiple people can work on live video feeds at the same time. Each user can create their own branded channel, and fill it up with video content either from their hard drives or pulled in from YouTube. Each contributor can also command the broadcast using their Web cam, complete with customizable over-the-shoulder graphic overlays and a scrolling CNN-style news ticker. The result is a live blogging experience that's visually stimulating to the viewer, and completely customizable for the amateur content producer.

Mogulus is giving its producers two ways to share content--either embedding the live feed, or linking to their own custom URL. All public channels go into a listing for live feeds a la Kyte.tv, so casual users looking to tune into things that are live or interesting will be able to browse through and find something they like.

Managing broadcasts in Mogulus is handled completely inside of a Flash-based application. Content is clumped together in small management units called "storyboards," which can be inserted into any broadcast almost like video playlists. Producers queue up content, mix and match the order of video clips, and can break in at any time to broadcast live from their Web cam. Power users have a lot to play with, as it actually feels like a professional video-editing app with a ton of options for tweaking and fine-tuning.

Mogulus plans to roll out its service with two models, one free and one paid. The free version requires inserting a short advertisement for every 10 minutes of broadcasting, while the pro version lets producers go ad-free in exchange for paying a fee for every gigabyte of bandwidth transferred. My hunch is that many casual users will be OK with the advertisement model, with what Mogulus is tentatively planning to keep at around 10 seconds per ad.

More on Mogulus as it leaves private beta. Until then you can sign up and check out an explanatory video here. More screenshots of the interface after the jump.

This is Mogulus' live broadcasting mode, in which you can cue up clips, add graphics, and see who is watching your show.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

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It seems like the current Web 2.0 boomtown (figuratively speaking) is in broadcast tools that allow you to bring your self-programmability a few steps above the YouTube + 20-dollar webcam norm. We've seen Kyte.tv recently, which allows you to create your own live vlogging stream--a phenomenon that certainly got a boost from the popularity of Justin.tv. I recently heard about another emerging player in the business, Veodia, which appears to be catering to a slightly more highbrow breed of video blogger.

Veodia promises that it'll allow you to create professional-quality video in "one click," eliminating the process of capturing, encoding, uploading, streaming, and the like. As a result, you can broadcast it live or opt to serve it up on-demand. You can instantly create an RSS feed to syndicate to a podcast download service like iTunes. You're also allowed to retain control and ownership rights to the videos you create--and the company assures it won't downgrade the quality as many "consumer" video-sharing sites do.

Right now, it's in a limited beta and appears to be free of charge, though something like this (in the manner of Adobe Lightroom) will almost certainly become pricey once it's in its full version.

Additionally, Veodia is primarily banking on use by professional clients, as evidenced by its recently-announced involvement with the developer network for online conferencing service WebEx's WebEx Connect platform. But when I spoke briefly with company representatives, they stressed that Veodia is also relevant to "professional" bloggers and video podcasters. (Which means it's a little too high-end for your cat videos.)

The beta version of Veodia is still limited: you can only have 100 simultaneous viewers, for example, and there are bandwidth and storage caps. Broadcasters need to be running Internet Explorer on Windows XP, though apparently Mac and Vista compatibility is in the works. This MacBook user, as a result, is shut out. Any video bloggers out there want to take the beta for a spin? I'd be curious to know what the actual process is like.