When you have done Internet Radio for a while (I did it for 3 years before moving on, but it doesn’t need to be that long if you are ready) the next step is to look at Video Streams. If you haven’t already done so for audio broadcasts, you really will need to join a station for video streaming such as QuadV, LO3, pwnage, Gamefire or ESL TV as the expense of setting up and running video is far more costly than simple audio casting. That said, if you have the technical know how and a few friends with servers, you could do it yourself and whilst I am no technical god, I know enough to know it costs a small fortune and its technically challenging to do it right.
You may recall I mentioned how different commentating on video was when I started, moving from audio only so let’s take a brief look at some of the reasons for this.
For starters, the viewers (not listeners now) can see what you can see, which means you don’t have to commentate the same way as you did on radio. You can get away with talking about other things on video more so than on radio, just don’t miss that amazing frag and talk over the top of it with some useless fill information. You won’t need to describe the action nearly so much on video either, where as on radio you would be very descriptive. Here is a simple example of the differences.
Radio: Fred is moving down the long corridor with the red rose flooring and going left into the curtained hallway with the hole in the floor and then takes a shot at his opponent with the rail gun from long range, right across the map where Bob is trying to hide in the shadows of the archway.
Video: Nice shot from Fred there on Bob who was trying to hide in the shadows.
It would seem obvious perhaps, but you really don’t need to bring the level of detail you did when casting on radio. In terms of percentages, when covering a match on audio, you would probably spend around 90% of your time talking about what is happening and 10% colouring the match. Colouring is simply adding relevant and factual information to the match commentary (think Andy Gray rather than John Motson). On video however, the ratio moves to around 60% action and 40% colour. Again, for those who watch other sports on TV, you can learn an awful lot from the commentators on how they cope with descriptive action over colour commentary and when its appropriate to use either.
