One of my responsibilities at Google Ventures is to plan the growing number of workshops that we offer to our portfolio companies. In the last several months, we’ve offered workshops on a variety of topics, including SEO, AdWords, latency, technical recruiting and candidate sourcing, A/B testing, and business development. With each new workshop announcement earlier this year, I received several replies from portfolio company employees outside the Bay Area: “What about us?!” It was a fair complaint: as we ramped up the pace of Startup Lab workshops in Mountain View, the unfortunate reality was that they required you to physically be in the Startup Lab to participate.

Starting in March, we began using Google+ Hangouts to extend the audience beyond the Startup Lab, but quickly ran into our next hurdle: Hangouts support a maximum of 10 participants, and demand for our broadcasts almost immediately exceeded that number.

This week the Google+ team announced that Hangouts on Air allow for unlimited viewers, and are now available to everyone. However, Hangouts on Air require the broadcasts to be public, which ends up not supporting our use case at Google Ventures: our broadcasts are available to anyone at our portfolio companies, but generally not to the public. As a result, we had to look at a way to leverage the early success of using Hangouts to enable interaction between remote attendees and presenters, while also retaining control over who could see the live broadcast.

When I started digging in on the best way to extend live broadcasts of our Hangouts, I was surprised to find few sites documenting the best ways to accomplish what we wanted. Since many people expressed interest in what I ended up doing (not to mention the many Startup Lab occupants who put up with me testing things out at the Startup Lab in the last few weeks!), I figured it was worth a summary of what we’re now using in the current Startup Lab.

Hangouts remain our platform for presenters to speak to the remote attendees, present slides, and screenshare their browser when showing specific sites, tools, etc. Remote attendees are invited into the private Hangout a few minutes ahead of the workshop, and can ask questions at any point throughout. In the Startup Lab, we run the Hangout from a Mac Mini, which has a Logitech C910 HD webcam pointed at the presenter. We use a Blue Snowball USB mic to capture audio in the room, and have a set of powered speakers plugged into the Mac Mini’s headphone jack.

For the livestream, we’re using Ustream. I liked Ustream’s featureset – we have the ability to embed the stream on our site, remove our channel from Ustream’s site altogether, brand the video stream with our logo, password protect the stream so only authorized viewers can watch, and remove ads (we pay for some of these features). Running the Ustream production is a dedicated iMac – I went with a 27” 3.4 GHz quad core iMac so that I’d have the fastest machine possible handling the CPU load associated with live streaming.

Remote attendees had pointed out that they had trouble following along with workshops when questions were asked in person in the Startup Lab – so we added a second camera (the upgraded Logitech C920 HD webcam) mounted on a tripod that’s pointed at the audience. When someone in the audience starts talking, we can switch to that camera so remote viewers can see the person who’s speaking and hear their question (which also avoids us having to have the presenter repeat the question).

Controlling the livestream is Ustream Producer Pro, an app that lets you manage multiple “shots” in a livestream and select which is the active shot seen by the livestream viewers. (Note: Producer is a free app, but I paid for the ‘Pro’ version to get the ability to stream in HD.) In addition to the audience webcam, we need the Hangout to be one of our shots; to get that, I’m routing the Mac Mini’s audio and video out via the Mac Mini’s HDMI port into a Blackmagic Intensity Extreme Thunderbolt video capture box. That plugs into the iMac via Thunderbolt, where Producer Pro sees it as one of its video signals.

Running the actual livestream is pretty straightforward: log into Ustream via Producer Pro on the iMac, select the active shot (the Mac Mini) and sit back. When questions are asked in the audience, switch to the audience camera in Producer Pro so livestream viewers can see/hear them, then switch back to the presenter shot when the question’s done.


In the planning stages, I drew out a diagram that actually comes close to representing the final setup:



Couple final notes on the setup:

• In the Startup Lab I wanted to hear audio from the Hangout directly from the Mac Mini instead of through the livestream. There’s a couple second delay from live to the livestream, and the interaction on the Hangout would start to feel very awkward if the presenter took several seconds of waiting before they heard the question asked in the Hangout. When I plugged the speakers into the Mac Mini, the Mac routed audio to the speakers (and not the HDMI signal). To get audio to both the speakers and the HDMI signal (so that the Hangout audio would be included in the livestream), I created an “aggregate device” in the Mac Mini’s Audio Devices (Utilities | Audio MIDI Setup | + | Create Aggregate Device), and in the Hangout set the audio output to the aggregate device.
• It’s much simpler if presenters use the Mac Mini for the Hangout, but there are times when what they’re presenting is only available on their laptop. For those cases, I got an HDMI switcher and a display port to HDMI cable. When needed, I can plug them into the HDMI switcher, and the signal on the iMac via the Blackmagic Intensity capture device will be their laptop instead of the Mac Mini.
• Facilitating questions from the livestream remains a work in progress. We’ll be incorporating Google Moderator to collect questions and let the audience vote on which questions they’re most interested in. We will likely be embedding the Moderator questions directly on the livestream page on our site, but are still evaluating the easiest way to do this that’s also visible to folks in the Hangout so we avoid forking conversations.
• This setup does result in two video feeds: the Hangout and the Ustream broadcast of the Hangout. I’m going to keep an eye on things to figure out whether this becomes too confusing; if so, we may shift to having all attendees watch the livestream, and have presenters in the Hangout.

In the course of building this setup, I reached out to a number of folks for guidance. Big thanks to the TWiT crew (Leo Laporte, Denise Howell, Alex Lindsay) and the Ustream guys (Brad Hunstable, Alden Fertig, Andy Francis) for answering every question I threw at them, and of course the Hangouts team for building such a great product.

The Obama/Biden signs have finally arrived!   You can pick them up tomorrow (Wednesday) evening between 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm or Saturday morning between 9:00 am and 11:00 am at Campaign Headquarters - 548 S. Route 59, in Naperville. (The mall located at the southeast corner of Route 59 and Aurora Avenue. Call 630-579-6696 if you need directions.)   To cover our cost (we had to buy these signs), and to help us continue to recruit and support local Democratic candidates in future elections, we are asking you to please contribute $10, $20, $30 (or more) to the Naperville Township Democratic Organization. You can bring checks tomorrow or Saturday made out to the "Naperville Township Democratic Organization." If you cannot afford to make a contribution at this time, we understand. Times are tough due in large measure to Republican misrule. (If you can afford to "pick up the slack" for someone who can't afford a contribution, please do... We are Democrats, not Republicans, after all!)   Please try to pick up the Obama signs during the above-listed times. If we run out, we will make another order, but time is getting short....   Thank you all for your patience!   Tom     Thomas J. Wronski
Naperville Township Democratic Organization
1181 Banyon Court
Naperville, IL 60540
tel 630-857-3196
e-mail tom@napervilledemocrats.com     A copy of our report is (or will be) available at the office of the County Clerk, Wheaton, Illinois, and from the Illinois State Board of Elections, Springfield, Illinois.

Fellow Democrats:   The winner of the Operation Friends and Neighbors contest is Maria Shields of Naperville. On Friday night, Maria sent an e-mail to her personal list of other moms in the neighborhood where she lives. In five short sentences, she told them about Dianne McGuire and asked them to take a yard sign - and BINGO -eleven people said "yes." (The signs are being delivered as we speak.) Maria and her husband will enjoy a free dinner for two at Front Street Cantina. Congratulations Maria and thank you!!!!   The Obama/Biden signs are scheduled to arrive TOMORROW afternoon. As soon as they get here, I will send out an e-mail.   Are you available on Sunday, from 10:45 am to 2:00 pm? If so, please call me to participate in a SECRET MISSION!!!!   Thank you all.....   Tom     Thomas J. Wronski
Naperville Township Democratic Organization 1181 Banyon Court Naperville, IL 60540
tel 630-857-3196
e-mail tom@napervilledemocrats.org  

Dear [fname]-   There are two events coming up at the end of this week, and I expect you'll want to attend both of them.   Thursday night, Steve Tiwald will join us at our July Community Forum to to tell us about the Green Earth Institute and its mission.  Details here.   And Friday night NTDO Chair Tom Wronksi and his wife, Colleen, are throwing a farewell cocktail party at their Naperville home to wish long-time friend and contributor Hiram Wurf and his family well as they depart for greener (or at least colder!) pastures in Madison, Wisconsin.  Tom throws a terrific party, and you'll definitely want to attend to give Hiram a warm send-off.  Details below (and on the web, here). Here's the note Tom sent out a few days back about Friday's party (okay, actually, I added the picture, but the rest was Tom's): Please join my wife Colleen and I on Friday, July 25, at 7:30 pm as we host a cocktail party at our home to honor long-time Democratic Party activist Hiram Wurf, who is moving away from the Naperville area. Hiram is one of the most dedicated people I have ever met. He has been a tireless worker for social justice, who has helped make this community a better place to live for all of its residents. We will miss Hiram and his wonderful family very, very much.   This is a free event, not a fundraiser. Cocktails and appetizers will be served. If possible, please plan to attend and toast Hiram. We will also be discussing our Get-Out-The-Vote plans and volunteer opportunities for the upcoming fall election campaign.   What:        Naperville Democrats Cocktail Party to Honor Hiram Wurf When:       Friday, July 25, starting at 7:30 pm Where:      The Home of Tom and Colleen Wronski, 1181 Banyon Court, Naperville, IL 60540 [map]   PLEASE RSVP VIA E-MAIL TO tom@napervilledemocrats.org

I hope you can join the fun!   Take care,    Steve Kierstead
Vice-Chair, Naperville Township Democrats
steve@napervilledemocrats.org
http://www.napervilledemocrats.org   Other Recent Blog Headlines:  

• News Hour: Gore Aims High on Renewable Energy Goal for U.S.
• WurfWhile: Obama Leads in Polls, Can Still Catch Up
• Mego, Naperville Sun: Election Commission Challenged to Explain Voting Machine Accuracy
• EJ Dionne on the Lasting Conservative Courts
• Political Animal: Underinsured
• Political Animal: Obama's Words
• WurfWhile: Biggert Calls Vote “Hard To Explain” - Challenger Harper Calls It “Out Of Touch”
• Democratic Strategist: Winning the Energy Security Debate
• Bush Offshore Drilling Proposal "Worse Than a Dumb Idea"
• Veracifier - Short Nightly Campaign Videos from TPM Media
• Biggert, Kirk, Roskam Oppose Extending Unemployment Benefits for 190,000 Out-of-Work Illinoisans
• TPM Election Central: McCain Campaign Tries to Generate Outrage at Imagined "Attacks" on Cindy McCain

For those of you who are new to the list (or who would just like a reminder), let me explain what's here.  Immediately above you see a collection of links to recent postings from our (Naperville Democrats) weblog, and underneath here I've pasted in a copy of the online calendar from our web site,.  You can read all of those things online, as I post them, any time between email blasts.  (Here's the blog, and here's the calendar).  Finally, previous mailings are archived here.

  Naperville Democrats - The Heart of Naperville Township Upcoming Events (NTDO calendar)
• Thu, 07/24/2008 - 19:30 - July Community Forum - Green Earth Institute
• Fri, 07/25/2008 - 19:30 - Naperville Democrats Cocktail Party
• Mon, 08/25/2008 - 19:00 - Fri, 08/29/2008 - 21:00 - Democratic National Convention Phone Bank
• Fri, 08/29/2008 - 12:00 - Mon, 09/01/2008 - 22:00 - Naperville Last Fling Democratic Party Booth
• Mon, 09/01/2008 - 09:00 - Labor Day Parade - Dianne McGuire/Naperville Democrats Combined Entry