Plan To Stream Video? A Simple Webcam Image Won’t Cut It Anymore, Now There’s Webcammax!

I have been planning on starting a video stream on TheSleepGeek for quite some time but it takes planning and decent equipment. First I decided to use our family DV camera for the video source because it has good optics (Canon Optura 10) compared to most webcams. Next I plan to get a Samson C01U or C03U which has become the podcasting standard it seems for good quality audio and easy usability. Both those models are USB which will make them easy to connect and configure.

The problem after doing all this that is that the image that I am sending to my community is very generic. I don’t think for a second that my mug can hold viewership on the stream alone and so with ideas that I am admittedly stealing from Chris Pirillo and Leo Laporte, I need someway of adding other content to the video stream.

This is where Webcammax comes in! With all of the preparation and setup that I have already mentioned, I still would have an incomplete package in my eyes. Webcammax is allowing me to add features to stream that otherwise would be impossible. I am quite aware that there are products for OSX that people have raved about, but I don’t have an OSX system to dedicate to running the stream. With Webcammax I can manipulate exactly what I need to on the video stream so that I can enhance the viewers experience, all from my Windows machine.

from www.webcammax.com

The installation is as simple as it should be as far as I am concerned… Next, Next, Next – Finish :) Love those!

After that I opened the program (keep in mind I am running a demo version) and immediately I was greeted with a view of myself through the camera. The image is quite clear and in comparison to the preview window on the camera itself, I can’t complain.

Let’s get to the specifics of what I wanted to do and how Webcammax made it pretty easy to accomplish.

1. Add a topic to the top of the stream – This was done by creating a new text effect, modifying the text to the font, size and colour I like then saving it.
2. Add a black background to the topic that is the entire width of the image - After placing the topic from step one I noticed that the black background behind it was only the width of the text. I found that I could make an effect from an image so after creating a black bar in Paint (just make a black bar the width of the incoming source, for me this was 320 pixels) I did that and re sized it to fit close to the topic. The grouping order is as it is listed, so if something is over what you want to see, move it down the list.
3. Add the address of the live stream page to the bottom of the stream – This is important to me because I would like to record my better tips and tricks and upload them to Youtube or another similar site. This was as simple as step 1, just create a new text effect and move it to the desired location.
4. Add a live capture of a chat window – This is where things are slightly more complicated, but it works well. I have a copy of XChat open and logged into my chat all the time on that computer so I can monitor activity as it happens (actually when it starts to happen :)). I now used one of the PinP (picture in picture) sources to do a screen capture. I edited that to take a certain size capture and placed it over the area of XChat that I wanted people to see. After that I was able to move the image itself in the preview window to where I wanted it in the stream.
5. (not done but I have seen how to do it on a Youtube video) Add a scrolling image for sponsor logos – This is very easy. You can create a new effect, include your images and set a time to display each one. Then place it where you like on the screen.

I am very pleased with the product thus far and I am excited about it’s versatility. I have made a stream that is very similar to that of live.pirillo.com, which I know is very clean and works but the flexibility of Webcammax is good enough that I know I can make something original in the future.

It is also important to not that this is not the only way tho use Webcammax. It also has many effects and features built in that would make it useful for playful webcam chat over the most popular instant messengers, or for a professional internet video conference.

There is only one caveat which is to make sure you have a fairly powerful system with a lot of RAM to run Webcammax. Every effect and source seems to tax the processor and too much can bring your computer to a halt. Verify their system requirements before jumping in blindly.