I'm happy in general with LiveStream - only quibbles I'd have is that the HD bitrate is a bit limited and they top out at only 720p30, whereas 1080p30 is how I master it. The LiveStream iOS app has been a little flaky for me as well on previously recorded content, but still seems better than the last UStream experience I had from about a year back. Not getting hit with viewer/hour charges for 'ad free' streaming pushed me over the edge to LiveStream.
That said, the streaming is solid, and the (free) LiveStream Producer encoder is quite polished - as good or better than FMLE, which you can't use for 'new' LiveStream anyway. I'd give yourself a day or two to practice and document the end to end configuration and operation. The video and audio inputs are specified on two different pages. For video you'd use the named vMix input, which should be available to choose once you've started external output. For audio you'd be in the 'mixer' dialog in Producer, and you'd just choose 'default DirectX'. This threw me for a loop (literally) - I'd missed 'default' the first time around and used 'speakers', which has issues with audio loops. Above names from memory, but close anyway. Make sure you test, test, and test ;)
Consider using vMix's recording feature at the same time you stream. Even at 16 mbit you get a beautiful local copy of the complete program that will look much better than you'd be able to download back from LiveStream, and the added load for recording is minimal, for MPG anyway.
The combo of vMix and LiveStream works great. I just finished an 8 hour broadcast using four RTSP streaming sources at 1080p30, along with a custom-written Flash overlay for ads, news, and race informaton. Not a single hiccup throughout - take a look at:
https://new.livestream.c...CalCup14/videos/45248127There's a few places where the video breaks up 'bad satellite style', but then again these were 10 mbit and 7 mbit streams over Wi-Fi at several thousand feet. With better antenna alignment it could have been near-perfect. Good news is that the system as a whole handled flakey communications without much intervention.
As for machine requirements, I had (4) streaming cameras per above, the Flash overlay, local recording at 16 mbit, vMix's user interface and web service, and LiveStream Producer running at max bitrates and at all common resolutions, all on the one machine. It's a stock-clocked hexacore with 16 GB ram and a nice but still reasonable graphics card. CPU ran about ~50 percent throughout, and if need be I could overclock but haven't seen the need as yet.
One other thing to think about - if your broadcast is long you may want to break it into segments. LiveStream's player offers DVR functionality for both live and recorded material, but the granularity seems a bit coarse. For a really long broadcast you may have to wade through 10 minutes even with the finest of mouse clicks. In my case I just restarted at the natural breaks in the race schedule, with a target length of two hours or so for each segment. Depending on your event, placing a clock in your overlay may help viewers find the spot they're looking for.
Let me know if any other questions - I'm stoked about how it all came out and still have it all fresh in me head ;)
