Linux Outlaws Live
Last night, Dan and I did a little experiment. We attempted to stream the recording of Episode 78 live on ustream.tv — “attempted” is the right word, because I discovered that both the webcams I tried with my Eee PC would invariably cut out after a few minutes. We managed to stream the audio feed of the whole show though, I guess that’s something. Because this was highly experimental, we only announced it in our IRC channel (#linuxoutlaws on irc.freenode.net) and on the Linux Outlaws group on identi.ca. In the end we got about 34 viewers, which isn’t bad considering we didn’t advertise it at all before going on the air.
Streaming the making of the show live is something I wanted to do for quite some time and we had many requests from listeners to do it. I will try to get the webcam issues sorted out for the next recording session (probably on Monday) and we’ll take it from there. If people keep saying they like this sort of thing, I am definitely happy to keep doing it. As long as it doesn’t detract from the audio podcast version of the show at all — and in contrast to Leo Laporte, I really mean this. Anyway, please feel free to tell us what you think of this idea in the comments or the forums. We appreciate your feedback a lot and always take it into account. Right now, we will only stream video from my end I think, but you can of course hear Dan’s audio over the stream. Maybe you guys & gals can persuade him to stick his mug up on camera one day as well… 
Oh, and one last thing: We will be calling this little venture Linux Outlaws Live (or LOL for short). That acronym is way to tempting not to use it. 
Update: I have set up a preliminary page at /live where you can watch the stream when it goes on the air. We will announce air times in our identi.ca group since we don’t have a specific schedule for recording yet.
February 20th, 2009 at 20:20
Yeah it was a lot of fun, we have to be careful it doesn’t affect the quality of the audio podcast as you said and also that people who can’t listen live don’t feel left out, other than that it’s cool
Don’t expect any video from my end at the moment sorry, I’d need to re-mortgage the house just to afford the make up and with the economic situation as it is I can’t get the credit 
February 20th, 2009 at 20:47
Sounds like a lot of fun, I’ll definitely come along for the next one. Shame you’re not taking part as well Dan but I can understand, I’m not that brave to want my face shown live all over the internet either!
February 20th, 2009 at 21:51
I sense a great opportunity here for you Dan. In two words “Lucha libre”. It’s even got that libre word in there we all know and love. Here’s an explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucha_libre
It’s not the wrestling part I’m talking about. It’s the mask!
I love you guys by the way. I had given up on Linux pod casts. Then I discovered your show. Thanks for all the hard work you put into it. See ya next time.
February 20th, 2009 at 22:55
It was brilliant to listen in live – and get some idea of how much of the show is “one take”, and how much is editing!
You guys are pros – I couldn’t believe how polished it sounded live.
Re: video of Dan. You could always try the Jeremy Clarkson trick from “Top Gear Police Cars” and smear a little vaseline on the webcam lens – for a soft-focus effect
February 20th, 2009 at 22:55
Wow… Thanks, dude… I think. Really depends on what kind of love we are talking about here…
February 20th, 2009 at 23:34
@Alex: I can’t believe you found that professional. Thank you! Other people commented we destroyed their illusion of perfectionism. Go figure.
But I guess you are right, it mostly is one take with a lot of ahhhs and uhhhms cut out.
February 21st, 2009 at 00:19
@fab Put most people in front of a mic and they turn in to blithering bumbling idiots barely able to form a sentence – at least in my experience.
What I guess I was getting at was that you do it in one take – there seemed to be very little “going back and fixing that” to get it perfect, because the first shot was good enough…
February 21st, 2009 at 00:53
Yeah, we also have no problem with the show having a few rough edges. It’s all part of the concept (if you can call it that).
February 22nd, 2009 at 21:17
@Richard I’m familiar with Luchadors yeah, I have friends who are obsessed with Santo and Blue Demon B-movies. Don’t think I’ll be going with a wrestling mask though thanks, it would be hard to talk properly in one. Nice idea though, Darth Vader helmet maybe?
@alex Thanks very much for the kind comments, we do tend to keep rough edges and we play up the fact that we don’t know what we’re doing but secretly I think we kinda do, not to sound conceited, just saying
I meet other podcasters who spend 4 hours recording a 40min show and sound surprised when I say we spend about 90mins on an 80min show, it’s always possible they have much higher quality standards than us but I think we do ok. Everyone has different ways of working.
May 25th, 2010 at 10:17
[...] went to LugRadio Live and Linux Tag, moved to a dedicated server, failed several times, started to stream the recordings live, opened the Outlaw Archives, got into the Top 5 on Podcast Alley, had people cover our show’s [...]