If you have successfully followed all the steps of the installation process then you are ready to start using BroadCam. The basic steps for setting up BroadCam are listed below. You can also view a video tutorial on how to set up BroadCam at http://www.nchsoftware.com/broadcam/tutorial.html.
Setup
Follow these steps to set up and start the server:
- Configure BroadCam's internet connection. Broadcam server automatically starts after installation finishes. If the server is offline, click the Start Server button.
If the 'Status' section (which is to the right of the 'Start Server' button) shows 'Access problem', BroadCam is not correctly configured for streaming videos. In this case, please click the Options icon on the toolbar and go to the Web Access tab to configure Broadcam's Internet connection.
Web routing test will run automatically after you click Web Access tab, and test result will show in the status section. If test fails, an error message will provide details about why the connection isn't working. For most people, many connection problems have to do with NAT routers. If your router does not support Universal Plug and Play, or UPnP, you will have to look up instructions in your router’s manual, login to your router and forward port 86 to port 86 on the BroadCam server. If you are not the person who looks after the router, ask the person who does to do this.
After manual setup finishes, click the Run Web Routing and Test Wizard button to run the test again. If Internet connection succeeds, the 'Status' section will change to 'No streams added'. That means the Internet connection is correctly set and now you can start to add video streams.
More information about routing can be found at http://www.nch.com.au/kb/10046.html, which includes tutorials for port forwarding and additional resources. - Add any cameras you wish to stream if you will be using BroadCam to stream live. On the main interface under the Live Video Streams section, click the Add button to add cameras. Each camera you add will add its video and audio device and set a default name. You can change these using the Properties button. (Note: Camera streams can also be managed from Options ~ Live)
After the camera is added, you will be asked to select streaming methods. Here you can enable YouTube Live Streaming so that camera content can be streamed to YouTube and anyone has access to YouTube can view it. - Add pre-recorded video files (for example a divx avi file or a camcorder DV video file) under the Pre-Recorded Video Files section of the main window by clicking the Add button. When you add a file it will be re-encoded 4 times, it will be converted to Flash and MP4 formats for both Broad-Band users and Dial-Up users. Please be aware this can take a while. (Note: Video streams can also be managed from Options ~ Recordings)
- Link BroadCam to your website. Click the Open Links icon from the toolbar. This will open up a browser window with a list of URLs and code you can add to your website’s code. For each stream or video added to BroadCam, you’ll see two links, one link for a local network and another for the public network. Ask your web developer for help in adding these URLs and code if you are not sure where they go.
If you plan on using the free version of BroadCam, you must also include a link to NCH Software on every page that links to BroadCam. The HTML code for the NCH Software link is found at the bottom of the links page. It must be placed accurately on your website or else BroadCam will be disabled.
Running BroadCam from the system tray
By selecting BroadCam-->Exit (Close to tray) from the BroadCam menu, you are able to leave BroadCam open and serving in the background.
The BroadCam icon will appear in the system tray while BroadCam is running in the background without cluttering up your taskbar. You can right click this icon to reopen BroadCam.