Livestream setup - Question

Hi everybody,

I have a pretty simple question. Is there a possibility to mobilize my current setup, which is:

- Tower PC
- Intel Xeon E3-1230
- Nvidia Quadro P2000
- 1x Decklink Duo 2
- 3x Decklink Mini Recorder HDMI/SDI

I'm streaming up to 5 720p streams at a time to Youtube, so that customers can switch the channels on their own.

Is their any Blackmagic Product to get more than 1 video output at a time into a laptop/mobile workstation.

Am I correct, that using any ATEM Television Studio, I can only get one Video Output into the laptop and do just the switching using the ATEM?

Thanks.
Marco

Most of Blackmagic's external video capture devices are in the UltraStudio line. Unfortunately, none of the UltraStudio devices allow for capturing more than a single video input signal at a time.

You can, however, use one of the multi-channel DeckLink cards (DeckLink Duo, DeckLink Quad, or DeckLink 8K) in an external Thunderbolt PCI Express card enclosure. In that way it is possible to capture multiple video sources simultaneously into a Thunderbolt-enabled laptop.

Keep in mind though that the processors and GPUs used in laptops tend to be lower powered and as a result lower performance than an equivalent desktop or server processor.

So even though you may be able to input multiple video channels into a laptop, you might not be able to handle the processing and encoding of as many simultaneous video streams on a laptop as you would on a more powerful desktop or server machine.

The point about a laptop coping with several uncompressed full HD streams is a good one. You would need a powerful laptop to cope with three or more.
Given that you’re streaming at 720, then you might be happy with the pre-compressed outputs from either the ATEM mini (if you can get one) or the, older, web presenter. Both of these offer more manageable outputs over humble USB. Not sure if the ATEM Mini requires USB 3, but you can certainly use USB2 for the Web Presenter.
The ATEM mini is cheaper however! It might seem like a little overkill to have four ATEM minis (or Web Presenters) for one [input] signal each, but if you had four, say, then you should easily manage for USB inputs and not need too much computing capacity to deal with them!
Another slightly more creative solution is to send four inputs into a Multiview 4 HD and take a [single] output into an Ultrastudio (thunderbolt or USB 3) into your laptop. If you’re using OBS or Wirecast you can then crop the UHD quad-view frame into four HD frames containing in each of your original four inputs and send each one, independently, to YouTube. With two 2x2 MultiViewers you could get 8 HD frames into your laptop but using only two ports. (NB I have never used this setup — but I think it will work, perhaps someone who has could chip in)?
Bottom line, if you’re going to go from seven full HDSDI inputs on a Desktop class machine to a portable laptop setup you’re going to have to make some compromises.

Thanks for the input. I thought about a pretty powerful one with a dedicated Quadro graphics card.

I went through several threads the last days and I thinks I'm going to try the external thunderbolt 3 case(s) with the Duo2 and a Mini Recorder.

Yes I'm using Wirecast for the streams. I know that I won't achieve the exact same power, as the desktop pc - but even with streaming 5 720p or even 1080p streams, I "only" have like up to 60% CPU and 50% gpu used.

I don’t see any way to make this work without mains power. A laptop isn’t going to last more than an hour under that load. What about the enclosures? Cables, drives, power strips, adapters, yuck.

Build a small portable machine that does what you need. Rack it up with wheels, or go Pelican.

I’ll often use a single laptop to control multiple larger more powerful machines, I’d do the same in this instance.

Good Luck

Yes we builded normaln PC into pelican CASE .. Decklink card .. Small Yamaha mix and liliput HDMI display .. Its portable encoder (linux bassed with ffmpeg) .. Working great ..