Broadcast
Selecting your camera
When you click "Broadcast", you will arrive at your broadcaster page.
First, you will see a box that allows you to select your camera.
If you are using the Sima Vivo cables, select "Syntek STK1160".
Otherwise, click the down arrow and a dropdown list of available camera will appear.
Select your camera from this list. An Adobe Flash confirmation box will then appear.
Click "Allow". This will enable Vivo to use your camera for broadcasting.
If your camera was correctly set, you will see video in your broadcast window. Also, you will see the "Microphone Level" meter moving.
If you do not see video, click the "Set Camera" button and select a different camera from the dropdown menu.
If you do not have audio, click the "Set Mic" button and select a different microphone input.
Setting broadcast quality
The quality of your live broadcast depends greatly on the speed of your internet connection. Vivo has four pre-set connection speeds that can be toggled between via the "Set Quality" slider on your broadcaster.
A speedtest is automatically run to attempt to detect your speed and select the setting that is closest to your connection. However, since connection speeds can change, you may need to manually try different settings to achieve optimal performance.
The rightmost setting on the slider, "Custom", allows you to put in your own connection settings. These settings are explained below:
Bandwidth: the maximum number of bytes per second to use for outgoing video. For an average broadband connection, this value should be set to approximately 300000. Faster connections can use higher values, up to around 1000000. Slower connections or mobile aircards can use lower values, typically around 75000 to 150000.
Quality: the picture quality level from 1 (lowest) to 100 (highest). Alternatively, use 0 to allow a varying quality based on the specified bandwidth maximum. For slower connections we recommend using 0. For higher speed connections, we recommend using 90.
FPS (Frames Per Second): the number of frames per second that are transmitted. This number should never exceed 29. For slower connections, we recommend using 15.
KF Int (Keyframe Interval): the rate that frames are transmitted in full. For example, 1 means every frame is sent in full, 5 means every 5th frame, and so on, up to 48. A lower value in this field requires more bandwidth. For low speed connections we recommend using 48. For higher speed connections, we recommend using 15-20.
Mic Rate: rate in KHz that microphone sound is captured. Typical soundcards should use 11. Low-end cards may use 8 or 11 and high-end cards may use 22 or 44.
Width and Height: dimensions of the video. Vivo is optimized for 400 width and 300 height.
During your broadcast
Viewers will be able to interact with you during your broadcast either through chat or Q&A or both, depending which settings you selected on your customize page.
Below your broadcaster window is a series of tabs which enable you to access these features. For chat and Q&A, you can delete any message, delete all messages, or obtain a printable view of your chat or Q&A questions. For chat, you can also send an official message. This message will appear with a unique icon, so visitors know the message came from you.
On the other tabs, you can send email invites or send a tweet to your Twitter account to let your friends know that you are broadcasting live.