Streaming Video Live From Classroom via Justin.tv

Tuesday, 10/4/11, we will be streaming live video from my MGMT64900, Global Marketing Management class at Purdue University, Krannert School of Management. Six teams will present their marketing plan for parent company Didmo (Stockholm, Sweden) to roll our their app-making tool, Magmito globally. The Final Exam assignment is located here: Each team will have ten minutes for their presentation and Q&A. I have divided the world up into six different regions for the teams to base their analysis on as shown in the Final Exam link.

We will be using justin.tv as a host for our streaming. The URL is http://www.justin.tv/mgmt649 . We will have the stream up around 0930 with class starting at 0950. We are in United States Timezone “Eastern,” which is GMT -4. The sum total of equipment to accomplish the streaming will be an Asus Transformer tablet running on the classroom wireless network. The Transformer has a 5 mega-pixel front camera, and Justin.TV has an Android-based app that is compatible with the Transformer’s operating system, Android 3.2.1. Note the prior link indicates compatibility through Android 2.2 but it works fine on 3.2.1. The QR for their app is shown right/below.

To stream live from the classroom, I have tried Qik.com, and Ustream.tv with various degrees of success. We ran a test on justin.tv from the classroom (Rawls 3058) last Thursday, and other than a 8-10 second delay between live action in the classroom itself and what appeared on the justin.tv stream, it appeared to be very acceptable. The audio did sound a little off, but you be the judge of that. Mulberry Telephone is picking up the feed and plans on broadcasting it live on their IPTV network as a test of the system for potential use in their streaming of local sports events.

Please join us in our MGMT64900 classroom for Final Exam presentations. BTW, all students are second year MBA students with the exception of one studying for her PhD. They come from around the world – Mexico, El Salvador, Italy via Venezuela, Ecuador via Ky, India, China, Indonesia, Hanoi Vietnam, Malaysia, Turkey, Hungry, South Korea etc. Your comments on the efficacy of the presentation, pro & con, are welcomed. Hank

Post Class Comments: Once during the presentations we lost WiFi in the classroom and thus the live transmission was dropped. One of the class members has a girlfriend in Budapest who he talked to immediately after the class via Skype. She reported the audio was low and somewhat difficult to follow but the video feed was OK. On the Justin.tv/mgmt649 link, the two (because of the drop) videos are present, but will not/do not play back. I did get audio on one of them. Looks like this needs work. I did check on an external mic for the Transformer, but couldn’t get to the  bottom of requirements in time for the class. At least I know we did stream live during the class. Why it didn’t save when previous videos have is ????

Update #2: It takes some time for the video files to download before they will start playing back. It appears that the entire file must be downloaded > video starts playing – NOT streaming per se on playback.

Update #3: I loaded Ustream.tv on the Asus Transformer, and it also had garbled audio. Thus, the “problem” seems to be not with justin.tv, but the hardware in the mike in the Transformer. I’ll play around with getting an external shotgun mike to work with it when I have time. You may view the text video at www.ustream.tv/mgmt649 – mainly of our Golden Retriever and his bone.

Mobile Monday: Startup Weekend Coming to Lafayette

Please note the callout for this years’ Startup Weekend predominately features the development of Mobile Apps. Here’s the link from the flyer Purdue Research Park recently sent me embedded below. Hank

BOBS

Skechers Shoe Company was founded by serial entrepreneur Robert Greenberg and his son Michael in 1992 after Robert had been fired from a company he founded called LA Gear.  Skechers began as a distributor of Doc Marten shoes, a British company who had been a leader of fashion footwear since the sixties.   Doc Martens were so popular overseas that even the Pope had been seen wearing them.  Robert then decided to import Doc Marten look a-likes from a Chinese manufacturer, put the Skechers brand on them, and sell them for a lower price.  Doc Marten sued Skechers for trademark infringement but that didn’t stop the Greenberg’s from continually knocking off other companies shoe designs.  They were so good at predicting which trends were hot to copy that within six years Skechers sales volume rose to $400 million.

Today if you look at Skechers website  you will find a line of shoes called BOBS (benefiting others by shoes) which look remarkably similar to TOMS shoes.   Their tag line, “For every pair of BOBS shoes sold, SKECHERS will donate a pair of shoes to a child in need”, is eerily close to TOMS;   “With every pair purchased TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need.  One for One. tm”.   The prices of the two brands are similar. BOBS styles average a few dollars less than TOMS.  Blake Mycoskie, TOMS founder, responded to the knockoff, not with a lawsuit, but instead stating that he is happy to be influencing other shoe companies to put shoes on the feet of children who need them.  Fans of TOMS shoes are critical and angry about the BOBS line.  But BOBS are selling, and they are giving a free pair to a child in need for every pair they sell.  What do you think? Beth Carroll