Ask HN: what tools to use for livestreaming a rocket launch
Copenhagen Suborbitals is a non-profit organisation that is working on launching a human into space and bringing him back safely. They already hold a number of records (largest amateur rocket, first controlled mid-flight abort of an amateur rocket, largest amateur engine, etc.) and are steadily progressing towards the goal. Noone is getting paid, and the only income is through donations (currently around $10.000 a month)

This summer there will be five rocket launches from the Baltic sea.

The first launchwindow is 22. - 24. of june where the space capsule Tycho Deep Space will be launched with the abort engine Big LES. The other four tests are smaller rockets to test telemetry, recovery, etc. All rockets will be fired from the floating launchplatform Sputnik that will be sailing to the launch site from the Danish island Bornholm (30 km.) on the launch dates. The launches will all be sealaunches east of Bornholm in an area controlled by the Danish navy.

My job is to make sure there's a livestream of all the launches on the Internet so that everyone who wants to can follow it live. Here's the setup we have:

There are a number of cameras, one on the Sputnik launch platform (x-y-z and zoom controlled from the Internet), one on the rocket, one on a dinghy in the water 300 meters from the launchsite, one on the support boat 2 kilometers away, and possibly a few more. On top of this we have one or more audio channels consisting of launch commands VHF. All of these streams are sent via wi-fi to the supportship where they will be compressed (h.264) and sent the 30 km. via directional antennas over wi-fi to Bornholm. Here the audio and video streams are mixed to a single channel that is broadcasted to the Internet. In Copenhagen there will be a producer that chooses which video and audio stream to send to the livechannel, and a speaker that can comment on the events as they unfold. Furthermore there are a number of prerecorded clips that the producer can choose to put up on the livestream. (rocket launches are terrible television; 2 hours of waiting and 5 seconds of action. So you need some interesting content to keep things flowing)

So here's the question:

what software/hardware do you use to livemix a number of audio and video feeds? We have the following criteria:

- Incoming video streams are h.264 encoded (can be something different if needs be, but must be compressed and sent via HTTP)

- We need to be able to remote control the setup over the Internet; The producer will be in Copenhagen and the livemix setup will be in Bornholm. The producer must be able to view thumbnails or a mosaiq of all available videofeeds and choose which one is broadcasted to the livechannel.

- We need to be able to mix audio channels in the same way; There are a number of audio channels from the launch site, and an audio channel of the speaker in Copenhagen.

- We need to be able to overlay text, preferably like the rolling bands in the bottom of the screen that many TV stations have.

I haven't been able to find anything that fits our (nonexisting) budget.

Any good suggestions?

Links:

Copenhagen Suborbitals homepage: www.copenhagensuborbitals.com

Tycho Deep space astronaut capsule: http://www.copenhagensuborbitals.com/tychodeepspace.php

Big LES engine: http://www.copenhagensuborbitals.com/bigles.php

Video of last years launch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmGmymAWI4E&feature=related

Recording of a livevideo of a static engine test we made to test the technical setup (one camera only): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVp3JHYqRyA (engine fires at 4:12:07 ;-))