Skype and a live video feed

[Illuminazione]

Hi all,

Sorry if this has already been answered somewhere else and I haven't found it!

I'll be heading over to a wedding in Scotland in late July, and have been assigned the (wonderful? :neutral task of attempting to get a live feed of the wedding back to Australia to the relatives who can't make it over.

I was thinking a simple Skype connection back (taking my Macbook Pro over with me), using a local internet connection or USB modem. How would I go about getting an external camera to feed into Skype? I was thinking of trying to arrange a simple handheld camera feeding via firewire/USB into my Mac.

How would anyone else go about this?

I'm open to any suggestions that are out there

Thanks!

 

[cpf]

You could also use a service like ustream, which would be more reliable than a Skype video call. As for connecting a camera: any camera with a FireWire or USB connection should work with your Mac, you'll just have to select it as the video input device in Skype/whatever's settings.

Getting decent Internet might be tough, I'd hedge my bets and buy a PAYG USB 3G modem once in Scotland just in case the location has dialup or something.

 

[avkid]

A USB camera should work just fine.
I would definitely put it on a tripod though, as the low resolution of most web cams is made worse by movement of the camera.

 

[TheDonkey]

I don't think a 3G modem would be able to pull enough bandwidth to work. Personally, I'd get a 1000 foot long spool of CAT5 and knock on neighbors doors. (Ethernet signals only work reliably upto around 300 feet though)

 

[ruinexplorer]

With the time difference between Scottland and Australia, why not just record and then upload the video? You would get better quality than with a web-cam.