I made a stupid cellphone video that was actually a live stream tour on my Ustream channel of my messy office. Then I read a short story. Yaaaaay!
The stream was broken once when Paul called me (way to steal focus, Paul!), so there are two videos:
If you watched it (live or recorded, please tell me), I'm very interested in your feedback. I'm considering doing more of these in the future, from various locations and events, and it's useful and awesome to know what viewers like, don't like, and want to see more of.
Thanks for watching and thanks for your feedback!
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I watched your Ustream… I felt a little voyeuristic, like I was poking around in someone’s house. But it was still fun to watch, and I love the idea for back-stage type stuff! I’d suggest getting one of those little Gorilla tripods (or make one out of pipe cleaners) for doing stationary stuff like reading short stories. For walking around, if you just carry something a little heavier in addition to your phone, like a big book, the inertia will help reduce jitter. And burn calories.
Everything looked fine from my end, Wil.
A very good idea, although it may be worth getting someone else to aim and point the camera.
I particularly enjoyed the quarters.
Was pretty cool to actually be sitting here in London in the evening, watching you in LA during the day. AT THE SAME TIME. I now truly believe in time zones in a way that I didn’t before. It’s like Skyping my mum in Australia except that you’re Wil Wheaton as opposed to my mum.
Also, you have a lot of neat stuff.
Hey, Wil. I came in at the beginning of the broadcast (I caught the notification on G+ and after the Ustream ad it went straight to your velvet painting). Viewers were at more than 800, but not quite at 1k. I knew you were stress testing so when the viewers hit 1k, I closed the page and tried to reconnect — my browser threw me an error at that point, I’m honestly not sure if it was chrome or uStream, but a second try and I connected fine (although I had to watch another ad). Video cut out (uStream was showing “Off Air” immediately after you panned the cat food and litter box (I’m assuming that’s when Paul called — *checks the above videos* Yep, that was it), and it took two refreshes to get the video back. After that, viewers stuck around the 14-1500 mark and there were no video interruptions for the rest of the broadcast.
Sound and video were fine — I could see pretty much everything (the worst video was whiskeyface, but I *could* make it out) and when you were holding the camera to face yourself while reading, the wobble wasn’t bad at all. Sound was clear: not sure how the mic will do in a noisy environment, but it was perfectly clear for just your voice.
Watched it live, do it more was cool Wil.
I thought it was great. You are always going to have some movement when using cell phones. Looked good, sounded good. You are good to go!
It was fun! Next time you’re in Minneapolis we should talk. Well, unless you’re NOT interested in seeing a mimeographed original of the D&D rules from 1973 or so.
We want more!
Jolly good show, Wil. What software are you using? I noticed that some of the live streamers from Occupy could see comments from viewers of the stream, so not sure if that’s something you want or that could be provided by other programs. In any case, looked great, and would be interested to watch more!
I thought the live stream worked very well. Your office looks like it would be fun to hang out in.
I was among a privileged few watching Wil Wheaton cuss live from his house.
Sir, I approve.
I’m glad I checked twitter when I did because I can’t come to Largo tonight and was rueful about it.
I enjoyed seeing about your room and recognized a few things mentioned in various episodes of Radio Free Burrito (Which I insanely miss) would immensely enjoy further such outings.
Everything looked good. BTW, Anne had AWESOME name idea for your homebrew! #LitterboxLager!
I really enjoyed your stream! It was really nice getting an inside look at your life. I hope you do this again!
When I first connected, I saw your stream for a moment, then suddenly it cut to a Nintendo DS commercial, then after the commercial, it said something about stream has ended. After being confused for a bit, I hit the play button and there you were. So yeah it worked, although the UI is a bit flaky.
Totally loved this, glad I could see it! It sparked a great discussion on twitter where I was able to explain my dice collection to a non-RPGamer friend, and once again make my favourite point that it’s OK to be a gamer AND totally feminine 😉
Came in a few minutes into the broadcast, worked out very well, although you may want to consider getting a little tripod/holder for your phone for sequences where it would easier for you to have both hands free 🙂
I would like to echo what Troy said about the Gorilla pods. I worked on the Occupy MN livestream team and each one of us used a G-pod to help stabilize the camera.
Besides that, everything looked awesome. You asked about possible contributions to help fund this project, and I’d be more than willing to contribute (for better equipment, pro-ustream account, hosting, etc.)
Thanks for doing this sir, good luck tonight.
It was super fun! I loved it
I watched live, and liked it for exactly the reason you mentioned – streaming video takes you somewhere you couldn’t normally go. Plus, there’s an authenticity that connects with people on a more personal level than anything televised or scripted ever does.
It dropped for me right after you said ‘Cat Shit’ so I assumed that was the magic word of the day for ustream. But once it came back up no issues. I watched the number of viewers on the bottom hover around 1500 going up or down by 20 or so every few seconds.
It was super fun! I love backstage stories! Sound quality was excellent. It was neat to hear that story in your voice.
Thanks also for buying from Austin Home Brew & supporting the fire relief effort. This Texan salutes you.
I Liked it a lot! You should do more videos every once in awhile. I would love it if you started vlogging!
xx
I was watching it live and aside from the one break, it ran smoothly for me. Picture quality was as good as could be expected from a cell phone video stream. Sound was good as well. I would love to see more of this, I’m sure there are lots of entertaining things that happen around you at conventions, or live shows. And it gives people that are far away from these things a glimpse into things they can’t get to. Not only being a few states away, but even internationally. I would totally throw in some money to be able to take part in viewing things in the future!
That was fun. You DO have a lovely voice, so anytime you want to read me a story, just say so! (we can keep Anne and my husband in the dark!)
Live stuff backstage would be a great idea. Our time difference would prevent my enjoying it live, but I would check out the recorded event if you post it!
Thanks Wil!
That was fun. I think you need more comic books.
That’s an excellent idea. You could even take a Gorillapod to the concerts and mount it on a mic stand or something and constantly record without having to touch it. Nice!
I liked the video, as mentioned on the twit already. this was a fun little bit into your life, and it’s was particularly awesome to see what you loved…so much so that i started following kevin smith just to mention the painting.
backstage antics are lots of fun. if i had the cash when you start this, i’d subscribe.
I think the whole jiggly motion made it real. I could foresee needing to keep it stationary only if talking for long periods of time. Score: 4 out of 5 messy offices (in a good way)!
Liked the stream, but you definitely need the tripod/strategic book placement for longer to-camera bits. The tour was fun but I got no work done, the reading was good as I just switched windows and listened whilst I worked – could happily listen to more.
As for payment options, you’re probably safest going on a pay-what-you-like model, but be clear with targets/goals instead of having a black hole in to which people deposit cash.
Cheers for the entertainment. Matt
absolutley loved it. Its was a nice insight behind the scenes and i really think you should do more!
I enjoyed the show in the parts i could watch, i had quite a few connection issues. My mobile carriers network(GMT here), is always bad at this time of night, will have a look at the videos you have posted to get a clearer idea 🙂 I like the idea you have regular live broadcasting… quite amazing that was all done from a fone.
I often try to think of myself as a not geeky, then started making “I want that” faces over all your stuff. Thanks! Now I’m going to end up poor with a million dice!
That aside, I think it was really neat to see behind the profile. It kind of creaked the door open into a world I wouldn’t usually get to experience, think it would work at back stage places but it’s best to not let it become overused cos then it’s like “oh look another live stream”.
Thanks very much for showing me around though.
Great idea to do the stream wil, really fun to know a little more of your regular life. BTW stacks of comics and rpg`s #FTW
The idea of back stage/con`s streams is too fing awesome.
That was a blast Wil. One moment I was sitting outside a Panda Express reading your tweet, the next home and logging into ustream. And there you were! Very cool what can be done with a cellphone cam, eh? 🙂 I enjoyed your story, and yeah, a tripod or something is a great suggestion. In a pinch you can stick the upright phone in a coffee mug (empty, of course, unless you dislike your phone.) Thanks again!
The shakiness was a little rough; agree with Troy Newton on the addition of a stabilization method.
Overall, deployment of this technology is relevant to my interests, and I would love to see you share the details of your final tweaked hardware & software tools deployed to support doing this outside your home.
Very exciting to see the True Dungeon shoutout! Hope to see you there again soon, oh Dragonslayer.
As for constructive feedback, it adds an extra dimension to your stories when you can actually see you reading them. Perhaps a new way to do Memories of the Futurecast Pt2? A bit shaky picture at times, but surprisingly clear. The audio was quite good as well.
I thought it was awesome and i’m sure whoever at work responsible for monitoring my laptop thought the same! Do it more, I can find two dollars.
I watched it live and thought it was a lot of fun. I think it would be amazing to see whats happening backstage (but I’m a theatre tech so I live backstage) and what it’s like to be on the other side of our fangirling/boying at events and cons and stuff. I agree with Troy and think if you’re going to just set up your phone somewhere and talk into it then a tripod or stand of some sort would be really helpful but I though just walking around it was pretty good despite all camera phones quality issues. Good work! Keep doing it!
Oh! And cause you mentioned it in the video I don’t think asking for some money would be such a bad thing to support costs. Even setting up a donation thing could help but $2-$5 sounds good for live streaming events and stuff.
It was a fun little video. As far as stress testing it, there were a couple points when the viewer count started to get higher that it cut out for me. It took a couple refreshes to come back on, but then the end was fine again. The quality was a bit better than I would have expected out of a cell phone. Hope this helps ya.
Backstage stories are totally worth $5 to defray costs! I know there’s an app out there right now that helps stabilize cell cameras for video. Just a thought, rather than setting up pod, etc…
All in all, fantastic first go! Loved it! Did not suck at all!
Hey Wil,
I watched live on my iphone, and it took a few tries to connect again after your phone call interuption, and it cut off a bit before the end (after 2 dollars), but obviously that could be just my network.
Loved seeing it and getting a mini tour! I think it would be awesome for backstage stuff as well. I always get a kick out of the stupid cell phone videos, so this would be a nice addition to that. I’d be willing to toss in a few bucks to make it happen!
Fun stuff! Thanks. =D
-Syndelin
Really fun to watch from work. It looked great and I got buffered (maybe?) once and then lost the connection (when you got called).
Hello. I watched live from Norwich, United Kingdom and really enjoyed it. It’s now 10:15pm here, so it was like having you read a bedtime story. It’s a lovely way to break the fourth wall and bring people together. Thank you! Loved it.
Watched while sitting here at work. Very cool! I’d totally tune in! I suggested on the UStream page that you should consider doing this on a regular basis as an “upgrade” to RFB. As Troy Newton said, the Gorillapod idea is great, and you could even do vlogcasts while in traffic (setting up before moving, obviously). 🙂
Saw it live, went well except for the call. higher quality would be better.
That very entertaining and a lot of fun!
As to stabilization, the story would have been improved by a fixed mount — the tour was more “real” without 🙂
I think that as viewers of such things like this we hardly expect perfection. We know the connection might drop or the sound might get spotty or the picture might not be perfect. That’s just how these things go. In fact, I think we all enjoy the spontaneity of it all. Getting a peek of a place we can’t physically be is always fun.
As expected, you did a fine job of taking us on a tour of your office and making what is probably boring stuff to you, fun and interesting for us.
Like Amosborne mentioned, the sound quality may be questionable in noisier environments, but everything else was great!