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Gear / Technical Help => Post-Processing, Computer / Streaming / Internet Devices & Related Activity => Topic started by: taper420 on March 14, 2011, 02:42:26 PM
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We all know it's possible to stream audio and video to the various streaming sites with a smart phone, but the result always leaves something to be desired. There are certainly ways to improve the quality, such as the use of outboard audio gear before passing it into the phone to be encoded and streamed. But there is no way at this time to do this with any amount of reliability or quality.
So lets discuss what actually needs to happen before something like this is a reality.
Analog (hardware) solution: (Some?) iphones have analog audio input. I'm not sure if it's line level or mic level, but even if you can manage to get a clean signal into the device, you are still relying on whatever ADC they stuffed in there. As far as the androids the best you're gonna get is a mono mic level input. In this case you would have to attune from your preamp and rely on the horrible preamp within the phone, as well as whatever cheap ADC the phone is using. The phone would also then bare the load of encoding and streaming, and hopefully with all that going on, it doesn't just crash. All said and done, it doesn't seem like the analog route is the best way to reach a solution, and any such solution is going to be putting extra strain on the phone to handle everything all at once.
Digital (software) solution: The android phones, while using a micro-usb connection, are still able to act as a usb host. This is probably for the purpose of connecting external storage devices for transferring files. So it would seem the only thing we need to connect a usb audio device with a digital input, would be the proper drivers and software in the phone. But this need address not only the management of the usb device, but the routing of audio data into an encoder, and integration with streaming software… either by acting as a selectable audio input on the device, or by building custom streaming software that could use the signal. Quite a mountain to conquer for such a niche market. The device would also need to be powered by something other than the USB port, or it would have to be plugged into an (external battery) powered hub prior to connecting to the phone.
The turnkey/hardware solution:
These are just starting to appear on the market, but I expect we will start seeing many more in the future. I posted a thread (http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=143737.0) about a new video camera that can stream directly to livestream with only a mobile hotspot needed in between. And there are other other portable encoders that that work on wifi, and accept audio/video signals.
What other types of solutions have you contemplated, and what kind of streaming hardware have you run across?
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What other types of solutions have you contemplated, and what kind of streaming hardware have you run across?
You said professional so what about broadcast grade? Right now on the news there are reporters in Japan broadcasting their report, live, in cities that have been destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami. For the most part, it is decent quality and I'm pretty certain its not being done on an ipad/iphone.
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Could that USB output from preamp to Android be capable of supporting more than one stereo pair of 24/48 channels? Thinking at least four, preferably six?
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It would be really clever to have a chip that had logic output as well as inputs, then the tablet app could issue commands to change analog gain on the device. That could allow for a six-channel tinybox-sized device.
Exactly what I'm dreaming.
Thanks for the details.