Qik Live Streaming App is Now Available from the iPhone App Store

Just two weeks ago, Qik submitted their Qik Live app to the iPhone App store in hopes of finally getting the popular live mobile streaming application approved. Their wish came true just in time for the holidays when the app was finally approved and appeared in the App Store. Over the past few weeks, Apple has approved live video streaming apps on the iPhone in accordance to Apple’s screen capture API, with Knocking's Live mobile to mobile live video sharing application, Ustream's Live Broadcaster and Bambuser's iPhone app. Qik had been available on jailbroken iPhones for over a year, since but not as a legitimate iPhone app due to the structure of AT&T's terms of service which in fine print forbid live video streaming.

Then in July 2009, Apple launched HTTP Live Streaming standard in iPhone 3.0, which opened up the platform for streaming applications to iPhone or desktop computers, using an ordinary Web server. HTTP Live Streaming bundles RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) traffic into HTTP packets to get through most firewalls. Unlike progressive download, it streams live video by essentially breaking the overall stream into small HTTP-based file downloads, with alternate clips at various data rates to adjust to varying network bandwidth conditions. Earlier this month, Apple stated that HTTP Live Streaming is now required for for all applications which deliver streaming video. The current implementation supports H.264 Baseline Level 3.0 and AAC and MP3 stereo audio with data rates as low as 100 Kbps and as high as 1.6 Mbps to iPhone.

It was over two years ago that Qik first appeared as a private alpha in December 2007 and out

of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Visivo Communications. It became a popular live mobile streaming application for a growing list of 130+ supported handsets (including Android, iPhones (original, 3G, and 3GS - previously jailbroken only), BlackBerry, Nokia Symbian, many Windows Mobile devices, and J2ME devices. Qik launched into public beta on July 21, 2008 and now comes pre-loaded on the Nokia N97, Samsung Omnia II and other mobile devices. The new iPhone app, called Qik Live (version 4.40), works on all the iPhones (iPhone 2g, iPhone 3g, and iPhone 3gs) and on all networks (3G and WiFi) and is available from the App Store. Qik also just released a desktop app for live video sharing called, Qik-in-Touch, which is currently in private beta.

I conducted this "Qik" test of the new iPhone app on a iPhone 3G with a Nokia N95 using the newest version 1.0.25 of Qik in the following videos. While it's not a great testing environment, and may not be a fair comparison given the N95's Carl Zeiss lens and native video capability, I tried to match the subject matter and quality settings between the two devices. There is a significant difference in quality with the video frame rate and audio, with the Nokia handling both much better. There's a slight difference in color depth with the iPhone colors looking deeper. I listed the video profile below each video.

Nokia N95 video settings
Video codec: H.264, 320 x 240, Million
Audio: AAC, Mono, 44.100 kHz
Frames per second: 30 FPS 14.88 FPS (average)
Data rate: 333.45 kbits/s





iPhone 3G video settings
Video codec: H.264, 320 x 240, Million
Audio: AAC, Mono, 44.100 kHz
Frames per second: 3-12 FPS (average)
Data rate: 301.96 kbits/s

The iPhone frame rate is much lower and looks close to 3 frames per second. The audio has a narrowband quality and seems to be more compressed than the Nokia, and there's a considerable amount of latency between the audio and video, which causes a lip synch issue.

Now that Apple has opened up the floodgates to live streaming, expect to see a tremendous focus on mobile video applications over the next year. Both Qik and Ustream have already announced higher quality streams and recording capabilities, and continue to hone and integrate their products into other platforms as the currents of the live streaming grows stronger.

Follow Qik on Twitter

Friend Qik on Facebook

See my original Qik post from December 2007: It Looks Like the Revolution Will Be Televised

Stickam Joins the Fun, Introduces Mobile Application

Last week Stickam joined the ranks of the live mobile streaming services like Qik, Flixwagon and Next2Friends with it's release of Stickam mobile. I had the opportunity to test it out on a Nokia N95 that is on loan to me from Nokia/WOM World. While I couldn't get a connection through my 3G carrier ATT Media Net I was able to connect at home through my Wi-fi and it worked flawlessly. It turned out to be one of those, "Oh, I'm broadcasting?" moments because I didn't know what to expect and it worked right away and really exceeded my expectations.

I included the archived video of the live stream that was recorded and available just minutes after I stopped streaming. While it's not that exciting of a video it does give you an idea of how easy it is to use and the quality. Stickam Mobile seems to be a very stable platform and I plan to use it more. If you have a Stickam account you might want to try it to.





Here's the announcement from the Stickam Blog:

Stickam Blog » Stickam Goes Mobile!
We’ve finally release the beta version of Stickam Mobile, which will be available for all Nokia Series 60 3rd Edition platform phones. Stickam Mobile has been tested on the Nokia N95 and Nokia N80 phones but it should work on any Nokia S60 phone.

Free yourself from the wired and often clunky bondage of computers and Go Live on Stickam from your own mobile phone anywhere!

We’ve finally release the beta version of Stickam Mobile, which will be available for all Nokia Series 60 3rd Edition platform phones. Stickam Mobile has been tested on the Nokia N95 and Nokia N80 phones but it should work on any Nokia S60 phone.

Installing the Stickam Mobile application to your Nokia phone is easy and only takes a few minutes. Just follow this link to get started: http://www.stickam.com/member/mobile/signup.do

About Stickam:
"Launched in February of 2006, Stickam.com emerged as the first social networking website that focuses on live video streaming, reaching over a million streams viewed each day. It features embedding and social profile features for your web pages, online auctions, company web sites and blogs. The Stickam’s multimedia player can be embedded onto any website and allows members to personalize their web pages with live stream, video, music, pictures and chat. Stickam site is a destination for exiting live streams and interaction with other members. Thousands of categorized live streams can be found on Stickam 24/7." - from Crunchbase

Related:

• Stickam Adds Mobile Video Streaming to Compete With Qik, Flixwagon - Mashable
• Stickam Takes the Show on the Road - AppScout
• Stickam - How to - Stickam Mobile
• Stickam Goes Mobile to Compete with Qik | Epicenter from Wired.com
• Stickam Mobile Enables Live Video Streaming On-the-Go!

Update: Added background information on Stickam.

Seesmic Goes Mobile, New Nokia N95 Application Lets You Bring the Conversation Anywhere

The popular video conversation community now extends to the mobile network with the release of a new Seesmic client for the Nokia N95. Both the Seesmic blog and founder Loic Le Meur announced the public application release this past Friday. It had been in development for some time and almost a month ago on his blog Loic asked, Do You Have A Symbian Smartphone Nokia n95 Or The Like?, in an effort to recruit some testers.

Now you can take Seesmic with you and as the Seesmic blog says,

"Seesmic users will be able to record and watch Seesmic videos directly from their cell phones. On top of that, this application stands as the first tool in which users can reply to their friend's videos and build a threaded conversation from their cell phone. Also, true to its social software nature, the Seesmic application allows users to post a Twitter message with a link to their new videos."

Here's the official video announcement and demo:



To install the client on your N95 just go to http://m.seesmic.com from your cell phone, and follow the easy download instructions. For more information go to the Frequently Asked Questions page.

I spent some time today testing the client on the Nokia N95 that I have on load from Nokia/WOM World. I wasn't able to playback any videos due to some player configuration or network issues that I haven't yet resolved. Here's the video thread from my test.

Nokia N95 test
Thank you to Steph and the Nokia/WOM World team for sending me the loaner Nokia N95 so that I could test this new application. Look for more updates from me this next week from Streaming Media West. I'm packing my bags and heading off to San Jose in the morning.

Nokia N95 Test: Comparing Qik and N95 Video Quality

It's been two weeks since I returned the Nokia 95 to Nokia/WOM World which had been on loan as a demo trial device. I had a month to test it out and out it through it's paces. Nokia/ WOM World offers trial devices to social media users interested in participating in their trial program. The N95 8GB North American version is like the regular N95 8GB with a 5MP Carl Zeiss lens camera with auto-focus, video recording and many other features. My mobile carrier is ATT so it was easy for me to drop in my SIM card and upgrade my current plan to unlimited data to test out the applications I was really interested in, which were live mobile streaming.

My overall impression is that the N95 is a great device for video and photos and applications like Qik, Flixwagon, Kyte and Livecastr, which were ones I tested. The install and set up for each application was easy. However, the browser was a little archaic and without a QWERTY keyboard made seemingly simple feats like typing a real challenge (and a pain.) While I tried all four of the live mobile streaming applications I have to say that Qik is my favorite and it's the focus this post on comparing the quality of the Qik to the N95 video recording.

For the test my friend Rich recorded two clips of me in a studio setting with professional lighting and proper acoustics. One video was streamed live to the Qik web site (which was later archived) and the other was recorded straight onto the N95 (and not streamed live.) Both videos were recorded at the highest settings available on the N95 and Qik (640x480, high quality, highest FPS (frames per second). What's unclear in this test is the encoding mode (1 or 2-pass VBR, CBR), keyframe placement, filter settings (contrast, brightness, gamma) and how they're encoded (as MPEG-4 Part 2 or H.263 or MPEG-4 Part 10 (AVC/H.264) and I admit this is not an apples to apples comparison since the two videos were compressed at different bit rates and audio frequencies.



3gp profile
Video codec: Apple MPEG4 Decompressor, 640 x 480, Millions
AMR Narrowband, Mono, 8.000 kHz
Frames per second: 14.88 FPS (average)
Data rate: 516.57 kbits/s



In the Studio from Larry Kless on Vimeo.

mp4 profile
Video codec: Apple MPEG4 Decompressor, 640 x 480, Millions
Audio: AAC, Mono, 48.000 kHz
Frames per second: 29.22 FPS (average)
Data rate: 2056.22 kbits/s

There's a noticeable difference in detail in the Qik .3gp and the N95 .mp4 videos. The 3gp has more compression rendering less detail compared to the mp4. Compression rates also affect the audio quality. You can also really hear the difference between the 8 kHz narrowband compression of the 3gp to the 48 kHz ACC compression of the mp4. I think the n95 microphone does do a good job picking up sound even though it faces away from your shooting subject and it is possible to insert an external microphone.

The real time playback (temporal quality) of both videos holds up and there's not much motion artifacting but there's visible blockiness, fuzzyiness and noise. While there's a fair amount of color accuracy with both, neither video could actually capture the detail in the herringbone pattern of my jacket which is actually not something you should wear for video. I also should have taken a tip from myself since I always tell clients with jackets to wear a solid color (no busy patterns), fix their shirt collars, pull on their coat tails and sit on them to smooth out the shoulder line. I probably should have applied some make up too to cut out some of the shine. I'll keep those tips in mind for next time. ;-)