Last week, I was fortunate enough to be invited onto Fernando Goda’s YouTube channel called 1%. Although I have been invited countless times to be a live guest, in-studio or remote, either with audio-only and also audio-video, this was the first time that it really impressed me so much that it took me back to the 1980s to Ted Koppel’s first live satellite live interviews with DVEs (digital video effects) which put the participants into particular 4:3 “boxes” over a predesigned background. That was on ABC News Nightline and required satellites, uplinks, downlinks and a DVE like the ADO (Ampex Digital Optics) which (according to Bob Zellin’s recollection) cost about U$250,000 per channel for standard definition, interlaced NTSC video. Today, YouTube or other free platforms together with StreamYard (costing under U$50 per month for 1080p) allow us to do the same via the Internet. Ahead, I’ll share what equipment I used at my end and the happy surprise from StreamYard after the host lost his Internet connection for about 5 minutes during a live half hour interview.

Comparing StreamYard’s experience with the Nightline experience

Above is the 2-shot, with Fernando Goda on the left and myself (Allan Tépper) on the right. StreamYard indeed offers lower thirds, but Ferhando Goda (the host) hadn’t activated them at this point of the show. In the upper right, you can see the 1% show’s logo. His YouTube channel is here. The show was broadcast live in 1080p (1920×1080 progressive video) with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The camera used at my end cost under U$300 as detailed ahead.

Above: On June 22, 1987, in his tribute to Fred Astaire, Ted Koppel interviewed Ginger Rogers (live from Medford) and Liza Minnelli (live from New York) via satellite on ABC News Nightline. The show was broadcast live with standard definition NTSC, interlaced video with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The video cameras used at that time cost thousands of dollars each.

Equipment I used at my end

At my end, I used the following equipment:

• amaran COB 60d video light with fixed 5600º Kelvin color temperature, used as the key light at 25% brightness

• GVM Lantern Softbox Soft Light Modifier, 26 inch (shown above)
• Nanlite LumiPad 25 soft LED Panel (as backlight/hairlight, reviewed here)
• Insta360 Link 4K high-end webcam (<U$300) with ½” type sensor, AI, gestures and built-in gimbal (review pending, set to manual white balance at 5600º Kelvin)

• OTTO (palindromic) acoustic tube for IFB (shown above, plugged into the XDM-100 below)
• RØDE XDM-100 dynamic studio microphone (covered here, review pending)
• Mac Mini M1 (2020) with 16GB RAM

The unexpected but happy surprise from StreamYard

As alluded to in the introductory paragraph of this article, after a few minutes into the live 30-minute program, the host (Fernando Goda) lost his Internet connection at his end. First, his image froze and I stopped hearing his voice. Then, the StreamYard’s engineering and creative teams spectacularly showed off their philosophy of: 

The show must go on!

Even though I was not the Host and only had ordinary Guest privileges, the StreamYard interface continued to indicate that I was still EN VIVO (which translates in English as LIVE). A predetermined DVE (digital video effect) performed a squeeze zoom which removed Fernando’s frozen image and brought mine to full frame. I ad libbed for about five minutes. When Fernando regained his Internet connection and reconnected, StreamYard did the same thing in reverse: StreamYard performed a squeeze zoom to the 2-shot we had before, reducing my image to where it belonged in the 2-shot. I was very impressed by that.

Other effects

Later in the show, as I described certain historical events and figures from my book La conspiración del castellano – The Castilian Conspiracy (i.e. Francisco Franco and Andrés Bello), Fernando Goda introduced them as a third video element, as seen above. He also added the URL of my CapicúaFM show at the bottom.

Closer to the end of the show, Fernando began to introduce some of the viewers’ live comments from YouTube, including their photo or Avatar (presumably, from their Google account), as seen below. as Millie verbally applauded the conversation:

For more information

For more information on Fernando Godo’s 1% channel, click here.

For more information on StreamYard, visit StreamYard.com.

For more information on the equipment I used, look for the links above in the article.

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FTC disclosure

StreamYard is not paying for this article, nor has it so far offered any NFR to Allan Tépper for him to do a full review. Some of the manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur, BeyondPodcasting, CapicúaFM or TuSaludSecreta programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur LLC via affiliate programs. Allan Tépper’s opinions are his own. Allan Tépper is not liable for misuse or misunderstanding of information he shares.