Overview

The best opportunity for creating high-quality streaming media starts at the beginning of the creative process. Someone may simply hand you a tape or DVD and say, "Stream this!" But it's better to get involved before the tape deck records the first sound or camera takes the first frame. In fact, you may even be asked to produce the whole thing from start to finish, which can be very exciting! The book doesn't have space to get into all the details of planning and preparing a production, but the text will lay out some of the basics. (To learn more about audio and video production, the author recommends Single-Camera Video Production, by Robert Musburger, published by Focal Press.)

This chapter also gives you insight into the kinds of audio and video equipment best suited to streaming production, whether you have to rent it or buy it. And the chapter will offer guidelines on building your own Windows Media capturing and editing workstation.

By the end of the chapter, you'll have a basic grasp of:

• Pre-production planning

• Audio and video inputs

• Portable audio recorder and video camera options

• Options for support equipment

• A Windows Media capturing and encoding workstation

Pre-Production Planning

Planning audio and video productions is about risk management that is, thinking ahead and reducing the potential for upsetting surprises. The following section reviews a few of the pre-production basics for any audio/visual production. These include:

• A script

• A budget

• Location scouting

• A schedule

• Connectivity

• Expecting the unexpected