I went to Mountain Jam last weekend, and got to see Railroad Earth, Umphrey’s McGee, Gov’t Mule, and Gomez. Oh, and I didn’t have to leave my living room.

iClips.net – the same folks who broadcast last year’s Rothbury Festival, and the ones who are lining up to do it again this year – hooked me up with access to their premium live feed for last weekend’s Mountain Jam.

I tried out the feed on 3 separate platforms – a Windows Vista desktop, a Playstation 3, and a laptop running Ubuntu (a Linux OS). The feed looked great on all 3, with a little stuttering on the laptop… though that thing is really an old piece of junk, so I wasn’t expecting much.

I did most of my watching on the Playstation, mostly because it was hooked up to the TV and the stereo. Looked great, and sounded even better. The video was blocky only during times of quick movement, but was mostly consistent. Picture quality was similar to, and slightly better than, the kind of streaming I see on popular TV site hulu.com. Camera shots were great – looked like they had 5 or 6 set up. Audio sounded straight off the soundboard, and was clear and well-mixed.

My friend Dave also checked out what iClips had to offer, and has this much more in-depth analysis:

I’m new to the whole “streaming concert” scene, so I don’t really have any other services to compare iClips to, nor am I certain any other comparable services even exist. Regardless, I can tell you this: if you’re a die-hard festival/concert-goer, and you can’t make it to a show you really want to see, iClips is very likely the next best thing. The site is extremely easy to navigate, even for me, a first-timer. A big “watch live” button took me to a big “enter code” prompt–I entered my code, and the stream popped up immediately. I tuned in just in time to start my iClips experience with Umphrey’s Mcgee’s “Mantis.”

From a technical standpoint, iClips is spot-on. An extensive multi-camera setup is obviously necessary, but means little if your crew doesn’t have the skills to back it up. I’ve gotta say, the iClips crew did not disappoint. The director was either familiar enough with the specific songs, or familiar enough with song structure to know what to put on camera and when, and was never late to the “money shots”, which can be incredibly frustrating to the viewer. No on-camera gaffs either, which can take a viewer lost in a beautiful sequence of shots and mentally slam them into a brick wall.

Onto a Stones cover: “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’” with Warren Haynes. Certainly a good time to talk about resolution and audiovisual sync. Nothing but good things to say. Like I said before, I don’t really have any services to compare the resolution to, but I would certainly rank it as “good enough.” The sync between video and sound was dead on. No delays or dropouts or anything of the sort. The sound quality also scored on the high end of “good enough.” In theory I suppose it could have been better, but at no time did I think it NEEDED to be better. High marks all around.

Obviously nothing can compare to being at a show live, but if you can’t make it, and still want to experience the live show, iClips is probably your best bet. At around $30 for a weekend festival, I’d say that the iClips experience is best enjoyed with 3 things: A computer with a large monitor (or routed into a large television) hooked up to a good sound system, several like-minded friends, and room to dance.