[Rob Duncan]

The Panasonic cameras can be controlled through a web interface anywhere on the network, though if you are using the RP-50 controller, just move it to a different location and plug it in (though you’ll need to see your shot to be any good!).

The ATEM as well can be controlled through the web interface anywhere on the network. Pass an HDMI cable down into your secondary office, attach it to your multiview, and plug in a monitor!

[Rob Duncan]

I would suggest using Zoom local or cloud recording. There are options in the ‘recording’ settings to save higher quality videos, and also to save both spotlight and grid view (as well as screen shares). These separate videos can be multi-cammed in post to create whatever you want.

We have done OBS captures as well, but it includes all the menus, clag and other bits you may not want to see.

[Rob Duncan]

This is not really a Blackmagic-specific question, but perhaps I can help you in the right direction.

It sounds as if you are attempting to chroma key the eye pattern on top of the material that the subject is viewing, which likely involves a few different parts:

1. the chroma key (i.e. removing a specific colour from the eye scan)
2. scaling the eye pattern to match the boundaries of the subject material
3. possible horizontal mirroring of the eye pattern (if the subject is looking at the left side of the screen, will your scanner readout also show that to the left?

The scalers you mention both scale the image down to composite video (yellow RCA jack). The ATEM switcher is really designed for HD-SDI and HDMI sources, not SD analog sources that these scalers output.

If the previous image quality was not an issue, I would suggest that an SD composite switcher with Luma or Chroma key capability like the Roland V-4 or Panasonic MX50 might be found cheap on EBay and suit your needs. At least one of those scalers has some zoom and positioning controls to align the pattern.

Alternately, your VGA computer outputs could be scaled up to HDMI quality and put into a ATEM (maybe they already have HDMI on the computer?) but I don’t know that you would be able to scale a keyed source. Perhaps an ATEM expert could chime in!

Best of luck.

Rob.

————–
Freaky People Productions,
Live Event Technical Production
Toronto, CANADA
https://roki.ca/me

[Rob Duncan]

SOLVED!
EDIT: Added response from Pushbullet

Well! I would never have guessed, but the the problem appears to stem from a Chrome browser plugin I use called Pushbullet.

I had all but given up and was using a separate OS user to edit on, but I recently caused a completely separate workstation to fail in a very similar way (dragging an item in Premiere or After Effects causes an immediate crash), so I went Googling again.

Found this on the Adobe forum:
https://forums.adobe.com/message/6973022#6973022

I can confirm that disabling the Pushbullet browser extension and rebooting the system removed the issue on my machine. Now I have to test it on my original setup…

This note from Pushbullet seems to confirm the issue:

We’ve found that disabling Universal copy & paste solves the problem. Something about the way that Chrome manages copy and paste (which we have to use as an extension) seems to be throwing some people’s Adobe programs for a loop. Sorry about this.

but for now, I’ll disable it entirely. *Phew*

————–
Freaky People Productions,
Live Event Technical Production
Toronto, CANADA
https://roki.ca/me

[Rob Duncan]

Turns out, I can break AE 6 on this specific user account by dragging anything anywhere in the UI (reordering a layer on the sequence, reordering an effect, dragging from the media bin, effects bin, etc)

Applying the effect from the drop-down menu works fine. So does CMD-] or CMD-{ to reorder the layers on a comp.

I’ll give it another shot to scrubbing all my Adobe preferences, but since creating a new OSX user also works, it might be less hassle to simply migrate over to a fresh one.

————–
Freaky People Productions,
Live Event Technical Production
Toronto, CANADA
https://roki.ca/me

[Rob Duncan]

An interesting thought, Walter.

If I think about it, the spinning beachball would appear as soon as I dragged the effect out of the window, before I ever had a chance to find my target on the sequence. I also managed to hang Premiere dragging an item out of the project pane to the timeline.

After removal of CS5.5 and fresh installation of CS6 (I manually removed all the info in ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/ and cleared out preferences on startup), it was still happening.

Being on a deadline, I created a new user, migrated the content over and have been editing over there for these past 2 days, without error.

So, seeing your message, I just tried booted back to my original account, and I can currently add effects by dragging and via the menu.

I’m stumped. I’ll try again this evening, but whatever the corruption is/was, maybe it corrected itself through use from a different login?

Thanks,
Rob.

————–
Freaky People Productions,
Live Event Technical Production
Toronto, CANADA
https://roki.ca/me

[Rob Duncan]

In the interest of continuing to beat a dead horse (or thread), since I was looking today, the keyboard shortcut for centering an object within the view is:

COMMAND-HOME

————–
Freaky People Productions,
Live Event Technical Production
Toronto, CANADA
https://roki.ca/me

[Rob Duncan]

What you’re describing is a feature of MS Office for PC, but I don’t think was ever possible on the Mac platform.

If you selected ‘display on 2nd monitor’, but unselected ‘use presenter view’, you can edit the slides live on Powerpoint for Windows. I don’t believe that the Mac version was ever able to keep the edit screen live while presenting on the other.

————–
Freaky People Productions,
Live Event Technical Production
Toronto, CANADA
https://roki.ca/me

[Rob Duncan]

That ‘swap display’ icon will be still be available on the 2nd screen (the one with the presenter view now on it).

Click it again, and it will flop back the way it was.

Alternately, if you have your computer set to dual screen output (mirroring off in the ‘Diplays’ Preference Panel):

1. Open Powerpoint.
2. Select ‘Slide Show’ > ‘Set Up Show…’ from the menu bar.
3. Push the button marked ‘Screen…’
4. The presenter screen will have a black highlight around it. Click the other screen.

If you do have mirroring turned on, you will only see a single screen in this dialog, and you will have to use the first option.

————–
Freaky People Productions,
Live Event Technical Production
Toronto, CANADA
https://roki.ca/me

[Rob Duncan]

If you only want to use a single monitor, you might want to look into actually buying a 32″ LCD TV with an integrated PiP function. It may not seem it, but it’s you’re best value for money over a dedicated switcher.

We bought a few consumer-level Viewsonics for a specific project that offered a PiP as well as a squished side-by-side mode. We had limited space by the stage to put multiple monitors.

As for software, there are quite a few around the ‘net. I have a lot of respect for the D’San hardware products, but think that in this instance you can likely shop around for a solution that doesn’t hit the pocket so hard.

Rob.

————–
Freaky People Productions,
Live Event Technical Production
Toronto, CANADA
https://roki.ca/me