System build for video department at a high school

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Hi Steve,

The system looks OK:
– the power supply is an overkill; 900-1100W will be more than sufficient including for future upgrades
– I’d drop the extra sound card – you’ve got the on-board sound which isn’t bad, and the BMD Decklink card which also has its own sound. Adding more just confuses everybody.

The Decklink is not a graphics card, it’s a video I/O with additional functions. You’re not running SLI either. So no worries here.

Why do you need 3 composite inputs? Do you plan to capture 3 video streams at the same time?

Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

[Steve Beck]

Hi Alex,

Thanks so much for your advice. That makes sense on the sound card. I’ll think about the power supply, maybe pull back to a 1200w. I see that you mentioned that we won’t be using SLI, I was actually thinking about it. Any thought on why not too? We will be streaming 3 live feeds. So 3 composite inputs will be needed.

Thanks again,

Steve

[Alex Gerulaitis]

SLI requires two supported graphics cards (usually the same model) which you don’t seem to be planning on. Is there some specific application you will be using that requires SLI?

I don’t believe Decklink Studio supports passing three simultaneous streams to the system; for that, you would normally need something like Decklink Quad, and then get a custom application that can encode three simultaneous streams. Bottom line, it’s not very trivial unless I’ve been living in a cave for the last few years and missed some major developments with BMD cards.

Osprey 460e on the other hand does allow independent input of up to four streams and prep them for streaming.

What software and/or service do you plan to use for streaming?

Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

[Steve Beck]

We are going to be streaming 3 live feeds at a time. 2 from cameras and 1 coming from a pc with a Youtube feed. They need to be rendering all at the same time. We’re going to be using Adobe Premeire CS6 Suite.

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Steve Beck] “We are going to be streaming 3 live feeds at a time.”

Possibly you are thinking Flash Media Live Encoder and Adobe Flash Media Server?

The standard CS6 bundles won’t help with live streaming, AFAIK.

You also might need to re-think the whole setup: generally live streaming requires a separate ingest system or device for each stream, unless I am missing something. E.g. (if I understand it right) you would use three systems each with Flash Media Live Encoder installed that capture, prepare, and send out an encoded video feed to a server. A server will in turn broadcast (stream) those feeds.

There are other ways to do this (e.g. the server can be a streaming service such as UStream or LiveStream) but on the ingest part it is usually still, a separate system or a device for each stream.

Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Alex Gerulaitis] “You also might need to re-think the whole setup: generally live streaming requires a separate ingest system or device for each stream”

One exception is Vidblaster. You would need three Decklink or Intensity cards in the system to have three live feeds though.

Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

[Steve Beck]

This is for the schools Channel 1 system. It will be fed through coaxial for the school news programs.

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Steve Beck] “This is for the schools Channel 1 system. It will be fed through coaxial for the school news programs.”

Sorry I misunderstood then, thinking of web-casting (live streaming) rather than closed circuit TV.

All three feeds simultaneously to different channels, or will one of the feeds be chosen (e.g. via a video mixer or switcher) to go straight to Channel 1?

Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

[Steve Beck]

The 3 feeds will come in and be stored on the computer. The files will then be manipulated in Premiere, then broadcast to Channel 1 as a single program.

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Great, it all falls into places now.

The only stumbling block is simultaneous recording of three cameras – won’t happen with Decklink Studio alone. Don’t believe there is any widely available COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) software that will record multiple feeds into the same computer with a Decklink Quad or multiple Decklinks in the system.

(Anyone knows of such software short of a stand-alone multi-channel disk recorder which is usually big bucks?)

How about attaching a disk recorder to each camera?
– HyperDeck Shuttle (records HDMI or SDI), $345
– Mini Converter Analog to SDI – $295
– SSD big enough to records the necessary amount of video – $100-900.

(Anyone knows if Premiere CS6 understands Avid DNxHD files recorded by HyperDeck Shuttle?)

Alternately, replace GL2s with flash camcorders (Canon XA10?).

Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Integrator
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA