Webcasting is now finally gaining ground as a legitimate global growth vehicle for any level band.

I was able to meet with two San Francisco bay area musicians – bassist Brian Vandemark and drummer Brandon Watson – both of whom have been gaining knowledge and experience using justin.tv.

They have handled the webcasting duties for their various music projects, and were gracious enough to explain what they have learned so far.

When was the first time you used Justin.tv or any online video streaming site to promote or show your music?  What was that experience like?

Brian:  My band Bacon decided to do a month of weekly webcasts in January of this year, the “Bacon Fry”.  We had some technical hurdles at first.  But each time we did it the process got better and we had more and more viewers.  Some shows at the end of January had peak viewership of 350 and 500 viewers, which was just astounding to us.  After a month, we  decided to do another webcast every 2-3 weeks, and we have kept up that pace this year.

Friday May 22 I will be coordinating the initial webcast for another band I play in – Seconds On End - from a 19th century bar in the redwood canyons between San Jose and San Francisco.  It will be a good way for people who can’t get to that show to see it live.

Brandon:  If I remember correctly, the first show I broadcast was for the band I was drumming in at the time, Left Coasting.  I used Justin.tv to cast from Jia Tella’s in Scott’s Valley, near Santa Cruz.

The experience was a little crazy because I had no idea if the venue had a reliable wi-fi connection that I could tap into.  In addition, I had just started using Adobe Media Encoder and I was still trying to dial in the settings, plus, I had a show to play at the same time.  Whoa!

Why have you decided to use Justin.tv over other options?

Brandon:  I started experimenting with Justin.tv after reading an article on SFGate.com about Adam’s Block, a Justin.tv web cam pointed at an intersection in the Tenderloin neighborhood in downtown San Francisco.  His camera became very popular because of the street scene unfolding below including drug deals, prostitution and a parade of crazy people being round up by the police.

The one thing that caught my attention was the quality of the sound and how captivating it made the whole live experience.  I immediately started pulling together the equipment needed to broadcast the bands I was playing in because it just seemed like a natural fit.

Brian:  We had a friend who worked for Justin.tv, who helped us get placement on their site as a featured artist.  Also we didn’t know of any other options that provided such a simple-to-use method of broadcasting.  This was an experiment we chose on a whim, not really well-planned.  It took on a life of its own once we started doing it.

What projects have you used it for and what exactly did you stream (i.e., show practice, live shows, etc)?

Brian:  The “Bacon Fry” is a short show, that is really just a segment of our rehearsal in our studio.  We started by doing 30 minute shows, but then learned it was better to do an hour, because viewership grew the longer we played.  We did one show that was two hours, but we found that viewership dropped in the latter half because we were competing with LOST.

Brandon:  I’ve broadcast mainly live shows for Dedicated Maniacs and Left Coasting around the Bay Area, with a couple rehearsals / jams from my apartment tossed in for good measure.

I’ve also started broadcasting a five gallon fish tank with streaming music called Aquarium Radio on Justin.tv.

How would you summarize your experience and impression with using video streaming for your music and shows, and what have you learned to do to improve the viewer experience?

Brandon:  On the whole it was really fun and a huge challenge to do the broadcasts and play on stage at the same time. There are so many variables that go into casting and it can become a distraction, however, when it goes well and you get the live feedback from friends and family all over the planet during the show it really pays off.

The main thing I try to ensure is the quality of the audio signal.  I made that the priority then focused on the video second.

Getting to the venue as early as possible to set up is key so you can get a good viewing angle and to be sure you have a clean wi-fi connection.  You’ll also have a chance to ensure that your laptop is encoding well.

Brian:  It really helped to try the same process over and over again, finding ways to improve it, and honing in on them.  For example, there were some tricks the camera person had to learn to get our simple webcam to focus properly.  It was only in the 3rd or 4th webcast where the majority of the show was properly-focused.

Another example was the sound, which was clipping, distorting at the computer’s audio input on some of the first webcasts.  We followed-up on that, and had some viewers mention the sound quality in the chat room at the start of each show (thanks Geraldine Cohen!), which helped us resolve these sound issues to make it better for everyone.

We added some props to the show like little stuffed dolls, an oscillating fan a headlamp strapped to it.  The headlamp made it look it had glowing red eyes, like a robot.  We called it “BACOR.”

We invited guests to perform with us, like Chris Zanardi of the band, Five Eyed Hand, Lance Case of the band, Open Space Project, and our good friend Diego Picetti.  The guests added a very interesting variety to the sound and energy of our performances.

What devices do you need?  What are the costs?

Brian:  For the webcast we purchased a logitech pro 9000 webcam for about $100, and we had a dual-core Dell laptop, which cost about $700 to encode the stream.  We were using direct board-feed from our studio’s Mackie sound board, which cost us about $2000 total for all equipment, cabling, headphones, etc.

Most musicians already have the sound system and a computer, so they would only need the webcam to do this.

Brandon:  I used a pretty good Dell laptop and Adobe Media Encoder. A top of the line quad-core processor would have been nice but I had to make do You can download Adobe Media Encoder 3.1, free.

I started using a Logitech webcam and it did a pretty good job, I think I paid around $40 for it.  Later on I switched to an older JVC video camera that had a firewire output.  That gave me far more control over the framing and zoom and was able to get better shots of the stage.

For sound I found that using the pre-amp of a Sony minidisc recorder and good mic captured the louder moments very well while avoiding any distortion.  I connected the Sony directly into the laptop and let Adobe Media Encoder process the signal from there.

What is some advice you have for first time users (musicians)?

Brandon:  Keep it simple, get to the venue early and test everything in advance to be sure you have the right settings for your rig.

Upgrading to the fastest computer / laptop you an get is the biggest payoff because that’s where the encoding happens before being sent to Justin.tv or Ustream.  A normal wi-fi connection should be more that enough bandwidth to handle a broadcast but your computer will need to do the heavy work to encode a watchable show.

Brian:  Make sure to test your configuration and have an external viewer on some other internet connection to test the streaming.  This really helps a lot to identify problems.

And don’t be afraid to experiment.  This is a whole new medium for a whole new world.  Its fantastic!

How successful has it been for you?  Increase in fans?

Brian:  We got a few hundred fans join on our facebook page as a direct result of the webcasts.  We also had significantly greater overall viewership, which provides recognition of our name.  This has an unknown benefit that we will discover down the road.

Brandon:  We got a lot of positive feedback from the broadcasts and our fans loved the chance to see us when they were too far away to come to a show. It was always a blast when fans from across the country or from the UK would chat back to us during a show.  In addition, it created a buzz after the shows as well, with folks coming to watch or rewatch the broadcast being archived at Justin.tv.

The one thing we had to balance, however, is how much advance notice to give regarding an upcoming broadcasts because we didn’t really want any local fans staying home to watch on the internet instead of coming to the show.  We would often begin email and texting our fanbase just moments before we went on stage.

Any other comments?

Brian:  Thanks for the interview, thanks to our cameramen, especially Steve Cambouris, who did five webcasts.  And good luck to any other webcasters out there.  Get yourself heard!

Brandon:  Good luck everyone!