[Steve Kownacki]

I have not used that particular KanexPro DA, but many of their other products and very happy with the performance. I’ll I can say is to get one and try it out before using on a real gig. The quality will be fine as it’s passing the signal from the camera chip and not any encoded format. Your recording on vmix or other recorder will most likely be in ProRes not h.264 so will actually be higher resolution than your camera recording.

Did not use automix on this one as I had a bit of a new audio op who wasn’t familiar enough with it. Not to mention we had about 5 minutes to get these folks on stage and wired up, so no time for a sound check to get things dialed in. The room sounded pretty good and the op was good with riding faders. We also record multitrack audio on the mixer so we have each individual channel to play with in post.

Steve

[Steve Kownacki]

For option 2, yes you split them – the correct term is Distribution Amp or DA. You can’t just use a “t” type connector. And you need one for each source. I doubt the ATEM has loops, that’s how they keep gear inexpensive these days.

The magewell is a great product, but you can get a card that has 4 inputs and won’t put overhead on your usb flows. The quality of the recordings will be the same.

How many sources are you talking about? How good does the video really need to be? 4K is great, but if your audience will predominantly watch live on mobile, and even watch edited versions of that on mobile, or rarely full-screen, 1080 is going to be fine. Meaning don’t make your computer work so hard to do ISO record, stream, switch, add graphics, etc. Get a 4 channel recorder like the Odyssey, it’s very reliable, to record the ISO cameras.

Here was my setup a few weeks ago – https://bit.ly/2rq1kUe 3 cameras DA’d to DataVideo switcher & Odyssey recorder. Output of switcher to Atomos recorder and Wirecast laptop. The stream only needed a bug logo, countdown screens and occasional title. No projection. I could have done it all in Wirecast, but this let me do old-school switching & recording. I know this laptop was not robust enough to handle streaming and recording.

Steve

[Steve Kownacki]

I’m a Wirecast user, and do use the ISO recording for exactly what you want to do. Obviously you need a robust computer and I suggest a RAID drive if you’re recording more than 3 cameras. I typically use ProRes and it looks great.

Yes, if all you are doing is streaming the switched show, then vmix alone is enough. But, they might be using the ATEM if they are also doing IMAG/Projection. I don’t think vmix (wirecast surely can’t) can provide low latency switching and the lag on the screen is an issue. So possible setups might be:
1) ATEM switcher with mix out to projection and vmix for encoding (with or without vmix adding other graphics, videos, titles, etc for the remote audience)
2) ATEM switcher to projection, AND all the sources looped to vmix where ISO recording is done and a separate show can be switched for the remote audience (This is more my typical setup)
3) Maybe they don’t know something like Xkeys, Streamdeck or other interfaces make for easier switching on vmix and they’re using the atem in an old-school way because of the typical switcher panel.

My big concern is always how much trust you are putting in one box. If the one computer goes down, you are literally left with nothing – no projection, no streaming, no recording. THAT”S SCARY. That’s why I use backups to the backups. Like an Odyssey 7 recorder (that’s also a switcher) to also add another level of ISO recording.

Always comes down to budget, but you have to let the customer know the risk.

Steve

[Steve Kownacki]

After you copy your media to a drive in 2 places for safety. I believe you can delete the unwanted subfolders in the CLPR and TAKR and everything still operates correctly even though the XML files may still reference deleted items.

I don’t think you can simply change a clip name because that name is associated multiple folders, clip media and XML files. You would have to update it in too many places. What about using XDcam Browser or Adobe Prelude to import the clips?

Steve

[Steve Kownacki]

Yep, it is that easy. All depends on the quality of the original recording and how well the tape held up. Old tapes can get gummy and require frequent head/roller/capstan cleaning. Do this with swabs and 90+% isopropyl alcohol head cleaner.

I use a ancient iMic USB adapter. Same results if I use my Focusrite 2i4. On my mac I usually use quicktime player for the recording and then do the cleanup in Audition. I could record straight to audition, but I just don’t.

Have fun!

Steve

[Steve Kownacki]

Hi Joshua
Welcome to the COW. Not that these are overly personal questions, but we’re a pretty tight community. How about filling out your profile so we know who you are.

I think there’s 2 items here: 1 is the entrepreneur, the other is the production field in general. Long days are the norm and one has to manage what’s important. Getting in 20 min of exercise or meditation can be tricky, but it can be done. Access to good, healthy food fast is a big one. You don’t always know when mealtime will be, so getting a quality meal with time to eat it is high on the list.

Steve

[Steve Kownacki]

You have 2 issues you are dealing with:
1) video sync with the projection screens
2) audio sync with your master output

I’m not totally familiar with the ATEM, but is there any sync adjustment within the unit via laptop?
Not sure if the A7 out is realtime, there may be delay there.
How far away are your cameras? Can you come directly in with HDMI? The convertors are adding at least 1 frame delay.
Can you run the mackie into one of the cameras and choose that camera as the main audio source?
You should be able to change the PC settings to 720 or 1080 on the graphics output and leave your cameras on a standard video setting.
How are you connected to the projectors? Those adapters add latency too.

Steve

[Steve Kownacki]

I too love my EX1s but getting costly to repair. Sending to SONY is about $800 min charge, you can buy decent ones on ebay for under $1200. Make sure it has the firmware version you need. I like https://www.macievideo.com for repairs & camera matching, solid people. I recently got some parts from https://www.videoonerepair.com who also do repairs. Also good people to deal with. I’m not sure how difficult that would be to replace the switch on your own buying the switch or a broken camera for around $400. (I have one for sale for parts BTW.)

Steve

[Steve Kownacki]

I use a VESA bracket typically used to mount a TV to speaker stand. Monitor rests on the floor and use a 12″ PVC pipe (or whatever length you need) painted black to prop them up at the desired angle. Similar to this. I can’t find the ones I have that have a quick-release plate allowing the mount to stay on the monitor, but the pipe mount quickly detaches.

Steve

[Steve Kownacki]

Can’t recommend any models, but what size are most of your originals? Legal-size flatbed are pretty reasonable. With some skill you can scan larger items in sections and stitch in photoshop. You don’t need to scan at any crazy-high rez for video, but get large enough files so you can zoom in on them with no degradation. Look at the speed of scan – cheap scanners may take 5 min to scan a 4×6 at hi rez and then do an interpolation for high resolution instead of 1200dpi native for instance. I really liked EpsonScan software (old), but fast, lots of cleanup capability, and complete custom scan modes. No need to scan everything at 8.5×11 letter size for instance. So the price of the scanner vs. your time… a more expensive scanner may be the cheaper alternative when billing by the hour. Keep in mind that if you are scanning, you are not only making them for use in your doc, but also as a new digital archive for your customer or group providing the images. Perhaps additional money can be send your way for the service and potentially capture more than only what you need.

If you have large items (and you are permitted to take them off-site), there are document services that will scan affordably (here’s one I use https://www.johnsonimaging.net/scanning).

Hope this gives you something to think about.

Steve