Stream to Youtube

1

Will the Theta Z1 stream to youtube for around 8 hours as long as it has power and wifi internet connection?

2

The wireless live streaming plug-in may overheat at 4K. Streaming at 2K seems to be fine. Also, I don’t know if there are limitations with YouTube itself.

Do you know if YouTube allows 8 hours streaming? If so, and the limitation is the camera, it’s not 100% certain that the Wireless Live streaming Plug-in can stream at 4K for 8 hours. I have not been able to test it for that long.

Greater chance of success with the USB cable and a laptop with the proper USB port power.

3

Thanks for the response, I will test the stream quality based on what speed WIFI we have available. Basically we will use the Theta Z1 at horse auctions and stream them to youtube.
Can I use a USB power brick? Like plug it into a wall outlet?

4

Will this work If I plug it into power outlet or extension cord?

5

It’s similar to what I have. I have an Anker hub. Mine has less ports and was cheaper. The key feature is BC 1.2 Charging.
image

If you’re okay with paying a little extra for the unused ports, the 10-port hub will likely work. (I can’t guarantee as I don’t have that exact hub, but the specifications indicate it as BC 1.2 charging)

You also need:

  • Windows 10 driver (free)
  • newest Z1 firmware (free)

More information here:
THETA Z1 Firmware Upgrade Improves Live Streaming Continuous Operation - #15 by craig

There’s a playlist here:

My suggestions:

  • focus on USB cable connection techniques
  • run OBS on your laptop and then connect your laptop to the Internet with either Wi-Fi or Ethernet
  • stream at 4K if you have close to 15Mbps upstream bandwidth

Relevant videos:

It is more popular to stream to YouTube, which I think it better for the horse buyers. However, you can also stream to Facebook if there is a Facebook Group for horse buyers that you want to reach.

6

Using the youtube streaming plugin I dont need to have the camera connected to a PC, I can just have it plugged into powered usb hub right?

Using this guide:

7

If you use the USB power brick, it will block the USB-C port of the camera. This will force the use of the the Wireless Live Streaming plug-in, which may not work for the horse auction at 4K.

Although it is more equipment, a better solution is to use the powered hub you posted below and plug your laptop USB port into the same hub. The port with BC 1.2 needs to go to the Z1 USB-C port on the camera.

If you cannot have a laptop at the auction site and need to use the wireless live streaming plug-in, then have a normal household fan ready to blow directly on the Z1 just in case.

Actually, even with the USB, you may want to have a fan from your house in your car ready to use just in case. However, in my tests, the heat is fine at 4K with the new firmware 1.80

8

That is correct. However, the camera may overheat if you stream at 4K for several hours. The Wi-Fi chipset generates additional heat.

It may work, but it may overheat. If you use the plug-in, then test it prior to the auction, possibly in a room with limited airflow so you can prepare for a worst-case scenario.

The wireless live streaming plug-in will likely work for a long time at 2K.

If you already have a Z1, you can download the plug-in and test it overnight. The plug-in is free.

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9

Hi! @Glennk68 , camera body is metal and absorbs heat quite good, to make it short, environment temperature may also help. A clip on fans directed to camera may also help a lot to make it run longer and keep it mobile, or using heat sinks you can make it also work longer. I’m also working on some improvements that may help to keep z1 work longer and stay mobile and small, free of cables and without need for notebook/laptop… Will post to this community if I’m able to make it work.

https://www.amazon.com/SkyGenius-Battery-Operated-Clip-Black/dp/B01FFWG0I8

Regards,
Laszlo

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10

@Glennk68 , you should check out the FlowTours system from @biviel

I think it would be great for horse auctions when he releases it for testing.

A single multi-port charger could supply USB power to both the fan and the camera.

Glenn should still test the 8 hour stream with a fan prior to using it at the horse auction.

I don’t have enough bandwidth on my Internet to test a 4K stream up to YouTube.

I still hope to perform endurance heat testing on my local network.

11

I will not be streaming in 4k. I don’t think the Wifi will be that great. Will test what resolutions works best.

Thanks for all the help, I will get a USB fan to help with the heat issue.
The camera will be here on Wednesday, I will start testing and let you know!

Thanks!

12

It would be helpful if you provided your results. The streaming is difficult for us to test as it requires bandwidth and a long test period, such as 8 hours.

Also, @jcasman and I are interested in pictures of your horse auction site out of curiosity. I think jesse used to ride horses in New Mexico in his youth, even went on a date on a horse. He was really excited about the horse auction.

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13

Can confirm, first date ever was on a horse. I rode mine, she rode hers. We met for a picnic. It worked out pretty well!

Definitely interested in pictures from the horse auction, if possible!

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14

Hi,

regarding bandwidth requirement, at least about 14-16mbps upload bandwidth is necessary for the wireless plugin available currently. Anything below this will provide bad quality…If mobile network is used it can drop below during the stream, wifi is more reliable, but also if you go far from the router it may be an issue. So you will be limited on the range too, I refer to distance between z1 and wifi router. In theory wifi roaming may also work but you need a mesh network for that and configuration may get complex. Regardin wifi roaming between meshes is a different story. I built my own software to replace wpa supplicant tool in linux, to make it roam optimized for live streaming: high bandwidth requirement, need to switch earlier and can cut maximum bandwidth a bit sooner than by default.

I would really love to help you to use the plugin I built for Z1, but it will take a bit more for it to make it availalbe on Ricoh Store for download. Also I started to migrate an USB network service into it, not sure if it will be included yet or not. It is supposed to lower heat issue a bit.

Laszlo

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15

Sorry, Jesse, Craig,
I missed the main target in my previous post about Jesse having date on horse… :slight_smile:

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16

You’re all business, Lazlo! That’s a good thing. :slight_smile:

17

My wife would disagree with you, for sure. For both… :slight_smile:

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18

How close to the Wi-Fi router does the Z1 need to be? Is something like 5 meters away okay?

19

Depends on how many walls are between router and Z1, but calculating with 1 wall, it works for ~8-10 meters (~30 ft) with 16 Mbps upload speed. But depends on router strength too. Anyway 2.4 GHz WiFi provides longer distance for sure compared to 5 GHz. If there is no wall 2.4 GHz works for 15 meters or more if no collision ( no other nearby router on similar channel, so no interference).

Why Z1 is superiod compared to other cameras is that it can roam between routesrs setup in mesh without interruption. BUT unfortunately the library used for RTMP encoding is not handling well these switches at all. I spent a few weeks on this: covering a large area with wireless mesh network, to provide smooth switch , fast roaming between multiple routers. At the end I could modify the streaming plugin to initiate switch, to make sure it will work smoothly… But at the end I decided to do the fast roaming in raspberry pi 4. And I used USB cable to pull internet and stream via raspberry pi as a gateway, which used its inbuilt wifi to connect to wireless mesh network. I pushing now to include this functionality in my plugin. I will write a mail to you with some details ASAP.

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20

hello theta community,
first of all thank you very much this forum has been a big help and inspiration so far… but since i am stuck now i will try to share my story:
for an robotic art object (weibelmaschine.net) i need to implement a 24/7 wireless livestream directly from the Z1 to youtube. my problem so far is that the wireless live streaming plugin outputs at 4k 3840x1920 but youtube expects me to deliver 3840x2160p. the same proble occurs when i choose a 2k resolution… it doesn’t fit the recommended resolution settings and i get a warning from youtube that the resolution is not correct. in the end it will only show the stream at low quality.
maybe you guys have an idea how to fix this?
thx
frank