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Activity Forums Broadcasting Video capture for live broadcast

  • Video capture for live broadcast

    Posted by Carlos Calderon on May 6, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    I’m trying to put together a solution for broadcasting an event, using multiple cameras, live to the net. I’d like some comments on my proposed setup.

    – 4 cameras connected via composite to
    – 4 BlackMagic Intensity Pro cards into Mac Pro
    – Wirecast software on Mac Pro
    – Audio Mixer to mix in live commentary over each shot

    A couple things I’m concerned about:
    1. Is there a single box/card that can capture 4 composite video signals to the computer at once? I’d like to avoid the price of a true video mixer like a Tricaster.
    2. It’d be more convenient to use a laptop rather than a desktop machine – but capturing 4 streams with a laptop seems difficult if not impossible. Any ideas to move this to a laptop-based setup?

    Jake Abramson replied 16 years, 11 months ago 5 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Bob Zelin

    May 7, 2009 at 12:18 am

    the tricaster is designed for schools, and other low end solutions. Professionals use expensive equipment. If this is too expensive for you, perhaps you should consider alternate user forums, as this is a professional forum.

    Telestream makes the wonderful Pipeline, which can injest 4 live SD cameras in real time (for use with FCP, AVID, etc), but it’s $10,000 for their encoder. You want free – you are on the wrong forum.

    If you are being hired to do a 4 camera live event for broadcast, you should charge a lot of money to do this service.

    Bob Zelin

  • Carlos Calderon

    May 7, 2009 at 12:32 am

    Thanks for the response, but no one said anything about free. I simply had a couple questions and a request for comments.

    If anyone has any advice for building a low-cost solution like described above, I’d love to hear it.

  • Devin Crane

    May 7, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    Your least expensive option is to search for a composite switcher, going into the computer with 4 feeds will end up being more expensive. Like Bob said there’s the Pipeline Quad from Telestream but it only excepts SDI feeds not Composite. The Tricaster is a professional product at best not a Broadcast switcher by any means (hence the Broadcast Forum). The Sony Anycast station or Grass Valley Indigo would do all that you are looking for, but at around $15-$20k. I think the Sony even encodes to WMV.

  • Grinner Hester

    May 10, 2009 at 1:37 am

    Hire out a better video company at a less fee and make money doing nothing.

  • Jake Abramson

    May 21, 2009 at 7:09 pm

    I regularly use a Sony AnyCast. Pricey piece of equipment, but it’s an entire studio in a box (Video, Audio, CG).

    Just wrapped up 3 High School Graduations with it using 4 cameras. Recorded to a firestore. In, Out, on the air, done.

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