Vidmover Mini vs Teradek VidiU

If you're searching for a hardware based encoder for Live Streaming, either in a fixed location, or when you need to be mobile, you've probably discovered that camera-mounted encoders can be both expensive, and underpowered.  NOT ANY MORE!  Compare The Vidmover Mini and it's WiFi-capable (and battery powered) cousin and see how their specs stack up against the Teradek VidiU.  With Vidmover, you can stream to 4 times as many endpoints with a single encoder at less than HALF the price of the market-leading box.  And the Vidmover Mini supports up to 32 Mbps upstream, more than SIX TIMES as much bandwidth as the VidiU.  You have nothing to risk with our 30-day money back guarantee.  

VidiU™

$699

WiFi with 1 Hr. Battery

Feature

Teredek Vidiu (*)

Product

10-0245

Video Inputs

HDMI Type A

Bonding

None

Supported Resolutions

1080p 23.98/24/25/29.97/30

1080i 50/59.94/60

720p 50/59.94/60

576i/p

480i/p

Video Compression

H.264 Baseline, Main

Supported Video Bitrate

250 Kbps to 5 Mbps

Rate Control

UNKNOWN

Video Pre-Processing

De-Interlacing, Scaler

Network Protocols

TCP/IP, UDP, HTTP, DHCP, NTP, SSL, IGMP

Supported Video Transport Protocols

RTMP

Software or Platform Integration

Ustream, YouTube Live, Facebook and Livestream

Number of concurrent streams supported

1

Total Latency from HDMI to Ethernet

UNKNOWN

Audio Compression

AAC-LC

Supported Audio Bitrates (Kbps)

256, 192, 128, 96, 48

Audio Sampling Rate

UNKNOWN

Sampling Precision

UNKNOWN

Audio Input

Embedded Audio in HDMI, Analog 3.5mm 2 Channel

Headphone Output

3.5mm 2 Channel, adjustable volume

Ethernet

10/100 BASE-T

Wireless

Dual Band MIMO 802.11 a/b/g/n

WiFi Fallback SSID's

UNKNOWN

Cellular Network

USB 3G/4G modem support (NOT INCLUDED)

Web Interface

Web and App

Configuration Interface

OLED Display with Joystick, On/Off/Reset

Power Input

6-12V DC

Battery

Internal Rechargeable Lithium-ion

Battery Life

1 Hour

Power Consumption

3W to 10W (charging)

Size

76.2x101.6x25.4mm

Hot Shoe Mount

Included

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How much upstream bandwidth is needed to live stream?

During a recent discussion in a church technology Facebook group, the question came up about upgrading the Internet speed for a better live streaming experience.   I provided a similar response to the group as you’ll see here.  The inquisitor wanted to know if 5 Mbps upstream was good enough and while most people answered “no”, few of them asked any questions about where he was sending the stream, what resolution and bitrate he was trying to deliver, or any other pertinent information.  These things matter.

Most folks think rightly that more bandwidth is better, but they may not also be thinking that unless their network is properly configured the teens in the Youth Group could be sending Instagram, Periscope and Facebook live streams and dominating all that new bandwidth you’re paying for.

The most important consideration here is that you want to have QoS configured so that you have protected bandwidth that is dedicated from your encoder to the internet. This usually involves creating a private VLAN for video on your managed switch/router (or using port-based QoS) and throttling the “business” and “guest” VLANs so that they will not impinge on the dedicated upstream for your Streaming VLAN. This is possible on most business-class managed routers from Cisco, Huawei, Brocade, and others.

Another big consideration is using cloud-based transcoding and distribution. If your Online Video Platform or CDN supports it (as Vidmover does), you would be best served to send them a single high-rate mezzanine bitrate and allow them to create the lower resolution/bitrate derivatives while also re-transmitting your stream to the various streaming providers (Facebook, YouTube, Roku, Apple TV, etc.). When using a configuration like this, you can even build in redundancy (a backup stream from a second encoder to a separate cloud endpoint) without using as much upstream as you would just trying to shotgun your stream to the 3 or 4 usual suspects.

The amount of upstream you need for a good mezzanine bitrate should be based on the following rough formula.

(Video bitrate + Audio Bitrate) * 1.5-2.0 = safe upstream bandwidth.

So that works out like this:

Video Bandwidth = 8,000 Kbps
Audio Bandwidth = 320 Kbps

8320 * 2.0 = 16,640 Kbps

If you’re dead set on sending 4K 30fps, I recommend 25+ Mbps per channel -protected, but I don’t recommend sending 4K unless you have a broadcast engineer on staff. In fact, for most content, 720p60 looks amazing (even on connected TVs), costs less and is more reliable. You can always record locally in 2K or 4K and upload VOD later, but for streaming, it’s a lot of effort.

In summary, 5 Mbps upstream is on the margins for safe bandwidth unless it’s dedicated and protected. 15-20 Mbps is probably the sweet spot for reliable streaming for most churches.

Contributed by

Bo Kelleher