How to live-stream a wedding from an Oregon vineyard with no wi-fi?

July 4, 2012 5:34 AM

How can I live-stream a wedding from an Oregon vineyard where there is no wi-fi?

Is this even possible? The wedding is this weekend and a relative who desperately wants to be there cannot attend for health reasons, and we'd like to live-stream it for her to watch. The area of the grounds where the wedding will be has cell service, though spotty. We are willing to spend some money on equipment or whatever to get this done if there's a solution out there. Thanks very much for any suggestions.

posted by MelissaSimon to technology (8 answers total)

Do you have a hotspot? What carrier is your cellphone? You can put tethering or make your phone a hotspot for a pro-rated time (like for a day or two) and FaceTime or Skype.
posted by Yellow at 5:55 AM on July 4, 2012

How "spotty" is the cell service? You could set up a wireless hotspot with a phone or a dedicated device (like a MiFi) if it's not too bad. Or if the vineyard has wired internet that they would let you use you might be able to bring a wifi access point and use that (or, if you're very close to/inside a building with internet, use a cable).

But honestly I don't know that it's a great idea - it will be hard to test beforehand, and will likely go down at some point and then, what, the housebound relative will call someone at the wedding and ask them to reset it or something? Are you planning on streaming the ceremony or the reception too? Are you going to just stick a camera/laptop in the corner or is someone going to be responsible for making sure the live stream is catching interesting stuff going on (by carrying around a laptop, I guess)?

To me, a live stream that went down would be depressing and annoying. I'd rather just get a bunch of phone calls and quickly uploaded photos from people at the party (or Skype/Facetime if that's a possibility). So if you do do it, make sure there is a team of people making sure interesting stuff is getting streamed, and give the relative watching the stream opportunities to interact with people.
posted by mskyle at 6:09 AM on July 4, 2012

Log on to hippyfiasco.com and chat with Chad Galactic. these guys are musicians live streaming 24/7. They may be the worlds experts on all streaming situations. Because they are musicians, sometimes they sleep late. Ask chad for the fiasco line so you can cal him instead of webchatting.
posted by kenaldo at 6:13 AM on July 4, 2012

Could you set up a twitter/instagram solution where everyone at the wedding is asked to upload pics and captions when they see a good moment.

That way, you get more personal narrative and connection with the other guests, and can hopefully do it via cell.
posted by mercredi at 6:14 AM on July 4, 2012

Much like the MiFi wireless router, you can get moblie broadband modem, also known as a connect card or data card, plugged into your laptop. (It looks like a usb key, and uses the same data plan as your smart phone. You can get one cheap from your cell phone service provider.)

You can set up a laptop or MiFi where the cell phone signal is strong, and then run a wired or wireless webcam on a tripod as appropriate. Do a dry run early to get the bugs out (and verify that data plans work out in the country.)
posted by sebastienbailard at 7:03 AM on July 4, 2012

If the wifi service is not good enough for the above solutions and you're OK spending some significant cash on this, I'd call someone like these guys and ask what they suggest.

I just found them googling "portable satellite broadband" so you can probably find more if you want.
posted by Aizkolari at 7:37 AM on July 4, 2012

Wow, lots of creative solutions -- I was totally unaware of some of these options. I'll get busy checking them out. Also, I love the idea of having as many people as possible posting Instagram photos. Finding a solution will mean a lot to us, and I really appreciate all your responses Thank you.
posted by MelissaSimon at 8:18 AM on July 4, 2012

This is probably well out of your budget, but I'm putting it up here for future posters.
Blaze Streaming Media is great, I've worked them with before and they're totally worth it.
posted by msamye at 10:30 AM on July 4, 2012