Looking for a video broadcast solution

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rickryan.com

DJ Extraordinaire
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Dec 9, 2009
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Saw this and it looked interesting. https://www.guitarcenter.com/Marant...-Q8&CA_6C15C=420003230011354706#productDetail

I'm interested in being able to livestream my events, mainly for grandparents or other family members who cannot attend in person. This one is obviously more for close-up, product demonstrations. I'm thinking it might be nice to have a multi-camera setup and perhaps something that auto-switches between cameras (kinda like a security system). It would also need to work in low light situations. Is anybody up on the technology or know of any good systems?
 
The better systems would also have a full time video person, so it would be an investment of money AND time. Not sure there are pre-packaged systems that will work in the low light scenarios of most gigs.
 
Saw this and it looked interesting. https://www.guitarcenter.com/Marant...-Q8&CA_6C15C=420003230011354706#productDetail

I'm interested in being able to livestream my events, mainly for grandparents or other family members who cannot attend in person. This one is obviously more for close-up, product demonstrations. I'm thinking it might be nice to have a multi-camera setup and perhaps something that auto-switches between cameras (kinda like a security system). It would also need to work in low light situations. Is anybody up on the technology or know of any good systems?

I looked at doing something like this a few years back and at that time there were more problems than solutions the first being to do it well is labour intensive
 
The better systems would also have a full time video person, so it would be an investment of money AND time. Not sure there are pre-packaged systems that will work in the low light scenarios of most gigs.

You’re right about the video person. When I first started DJing, I planned to project video on a screen behind my booth. I was going to project music visualizations as well as slide shows and live video, and was using a video production application on a second computer to do it. I can’t remember the name of the application I was using, and I’m not at home at the moment, so I can’t look for it. In any case, while practicing to use this service, I quickly discovered that I would be WAY too busy to handle music AND video by myself.

One thing about these applications is that the good ones cost a lot of money. There are some free ones, but they are buggy and you’re pretty much on your own getting them setup and working. I needed an application that would allow me to have live video playing in one window, a slide show in another, and music visualizations in yet another, and would allow me to cleanly transition between windows and/or allow a PIP of one window inside another (to allow live video to play in a window with music visualizations playing behind). I could do it, but not when DJing at the same time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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OK... now that I’m back home, the software I used was vMix...

Live Video Streaming Software | vMix - (https://www.vmix.com/)

View: https://youtu.be/XaNp6cW7L7c


... I downloaded a free version (personal use only) a couple of years ago, but it seems they only have a free trial version now. However, as these video mixing apps go, it’s still pretty reasonable. $350 will get you everything you need.

I remember getting a quote from B&H for a PTZ camera that would work in low light situations for $999. It had a joy stick so I could mount it on my light bar and control it from my booth. I used my GoPro to experiment with the software (live video capturing/streaming), but never got around to purchasing the PTZ camera.
 
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What you're describing isn't practical or affordable for most wedding clients. At the scale you're describing people could DIY it better using a smart phone.

The ceremony itself is the only thing worthy of streaming and for that all you need is one camera. I also wouldn't stream it in live in real time, just record it and stream it later during the cocktail hour or reception. The last thing you want at a ceremony is a bunch of people with their smart phones in hand checking the stream.

I use a Roland V60-D for cameras, DSK, and live production and Barco PDS 902 for other scaling and switching. The quality of the program signal is what really matters and the stream is just a destination, not that big a deal really. It's like having one more screen unless you are multi-conferencing with multiple other sites and have both local and remote feeds, then the time delay has to be dealt with also.

A wedding ceremony is one directional, so you can stream a better quality recording after the fact, rather than live. Wide view security cameras would be very uninteresting to watch. The feed has to be high quality camera work to be anything other than junk, and that means having an experienced camera man or crew.
 
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... I'm thinking it might be nice to have a multi-camera setup and perhaps something that auto-switches between cameras (kinda like a security system)...

I remember looking at Surveillance System software that will do what you want to do. I wanted to be able to program my system to control my PTZ Camera (that I never bought), and Pan around the room in a prescribed pattern and have the ability for me to zoom in when I wanted. I can’t recall the name of the software I looked at, but I think it might have been iSpy. It’s Open Source and runs on Windows...

iSpy - Open source camera security software - (http://www.ispyconnect.com/)
 
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