Tech Question: For Live In-game Plays and Maybe Singing?

[SavinDwarf]

Lets start off with a group staging a Play for an audience. I know this could be done in text. But is there anyway to have this done with a live stream audio only that would easily allow people in the audience to listen? I'm assuming that the characters are putting on a play in LOTRO but that what they are saying is being broadcast live stream audio only. The trick would be to enable people to listen while still watching within LOTRO.

The same could be done for singing (or even non-ABC music). Ideally it would need to be very simple or no one would listen. Groups do live chat all the time, but in this case it could be 5-6 people talking and maybe 40-60 listening.

Thoughts?

[thinx]

You could invite people to a discord channel and use server/channel wide mute rules (permissions/speak). You would need to unlock talk permissions for the members of your acting group then.

One problem is that most voice chat software is quite bad in streaming music, especially if there is a higher dynamic range. Parts with low volume are considered as noise and are attenuated. There might be a few settings to avoid that.

[SavinDwarf]

You could invite people to a discord channel and use server/channel wide mute rules (permissions/speak). You would need to unlock talk permissions for the members of your acting group then.

One problem is that most voice chat software is quite bad in streaming music, especially if there is a higher dynamic range. Parts with low volume are considered as noise and are attenuated. There might be a few settings to avoid that.

Great idea. I thought Discord had a 10 person limit (and maybe up that to 50 during COVID)? It would be great to be able to support 100 just in case. Of course FREE can't be chosers LOL

[StinkyGreene]

You could always spin up a mumble server, which has great quality audio. Might cost 25 cents for an evening.

[Cordovan]

I think the easiest way to do this is to broadcast both video and audio to Twitch or YouTube. You could still have an in-game audience, and they would just need to have the stream audio on. There is a small delay still, but both have gotten pretty good at low latency in recent years.

I would use Discord to get all the audio players in the same place, and use that. For music, make sure the person sending the music out does not have Discord trying to "help" with your audio enhancements like silence detection or noise reduction. That person will need to be knowledgeable with adjusting input audio levels.

[SavinDwarf]

I think the easiest way to do this is to broadcast both video and audio to Twitch or YouTube. You could still have an in-game audience, and they would just need to have the stream audio on. There is a small delay still, but both have gotten pretty good at low latency in recent years.

I would use Discord to get all the audio players in the same place, and use that. For music, make sure the person sending the music out does not have Discord trying to "help" with your audio enhancements like silence detection or noise reduction. That person will need to be knowledgeable with adjusting input audio levels.

Thanks for the suggestion. Probably easier in the end. Then the characters would just need to focus on moving and emotes in the game and staying in sync with the words. It would also allow the pre-recorded audio to have been done with a more professional recording system including the ability to do retakes when a section goes wrong. Of course sometimes the funniest things are the mess ups in a live event LOL.

Happy New Year - and let the DEV team know that the vast majority of the players wish them well - even if it doesn't seem that way sometimes

[Cordovan]

Thanks for the suggestion. Probably easier in the end. Then the characters would just need to focus on moving and emotes in the game and staying in sync with the words. It would also allow the pre-recorded audio to have been done with a more professional recording system including the ability to do retakes when a section goes wrong. Of course sometimes the funniest things are the mess ups in a live event LOL.

Happy New Year - and let the DEV team know that the vast majority of the players wish them well - even if it doesn't seem that way sometimes

I am a strong believer in improv; practice is great but DO IT LIVE .

[Druidsfire]

What Cord says in his first post is most helpful and actually how Professor Corey streams his in-game Exploring Lord of the Rings lectures and field trips to Twitch. We have a voice channel in Discord that's chock-full of dozens of listeners, everyone muted except Corey while he lectures. After the lecture, his field trip companion(s) will unmute and they'll discuss whatever location they go to in-game. People can join us in-game and hear Discord live (with Twitch muted) or simply sit back and watch on Twitch if they're not going on the field-trip in-game.

The game, his slides, and the voices on Discord are all broadcast to Twitch. By having the Twitch channel set to low latency mode, there's ~3 sec delay between in-game/Discord and folks seeing/hearing it on Twitch. Speaking as someone who streams events, test runs are amazing just to make sure stuff should presumably work on the actual date of the event. You'll want to have a separate streamer if possible, cos they'll need to make sure you have good camera angles and that the sound is good. They can also interact with the Twitch audience to get tech feedback as needed (is this too loud, too quiet, no sound?). Check Discord sound levels and adjust performers as necessary ahead of time (for example, one group I'm in, I always have to lower one person's volume cos they tend to be VERY loud compared to the rest of the group). All of this minutiae is a ton easier to accomplish if you're not having to also worry about hitting your spot, doing your emotes, and saying/singing your lines.

Best of luck with a cool event!