Sanity check - camcorder and PC live video production

Hi everyone,

I'm a new member to this board and would like to ask for a 'sanity check' for a BlackMagic-based workflow I'm looking at, for live video production and recording of conferences and training sessions.

I've put together a schematic to indicate the signal flow and types of equipment I have in mind:

BlackMagic HD video production schematic - sanity check.png (660.18 KiB) Viewed 2872 times

Please note that:

1. I'm not sure what proportion of laptops will likely read the ATEM's EDID properly and then output YUV over HDMI at 1920x1080s/50p - any comments on that one?
2. Should I be figuring in some kind of video convertor/dongle to ensure any laptop can connect successfuly to the ATEM, or simply provide a known-working laptop for all (PowerPoint) presentations to be loaded onto?
3. The cameras are currently a pair of Panasonic camcorders (HC-V160) popular with vloggers, as they have a clean HDMI live-feed. We plan to get better cameras in future as our budget permits.
4. We're planning on adding the Web Presenter at a later date. For now, I just need to check that the TV Studio HD and Video Assist will work with the other equipment listed, before committing to this significant spend (well, it's significant for our charity/non-profit!)
5. I am not a video guy, but have years of exerience in pro-audio, and am willing to learn

Thanks in advance for your help!

Andrew.

I'm going to answer my own questions in case it helps others in future, because a combination of the Christmas holidays and the need for all my initial posts to be moderated has delayed the appearance of this post beyond the point where I received the equipment and have tested it all together!

Setup:

• 2 x Panasonic HC-V180 camcorders outputting HDMI at 1080p50, one of which can be located at distance by using the...
• 1 x BMD HDMI-SDI microconvertor (with a 23m/75' SDI cable)
• 1 x laptop (for presentations) outputting HDMI at 1080p50 (I tried an HP Probook 450 G3 and it output the right res and frame rate and YUV colour the first time it was connected)
• 1 x audio mixer outputting line-level balanced audio (via XLR leads)
• 1 x BMD Television Studio HD (aka TVS HD) receiving and mixing those sources, and providing the AUX output (copy of the presentation) to go to projection, as well as PGM output for recording on...
• 1 x BMD Video Assist (5"), recording 1080p50 on a 128GB Samsung Evo Plus micro SDXC (model MB-MC128GA) using ProResPR, for a total record length of >3 hours

I'm going to have a proper test-run this weekend at an event, but my office setup has been really easy and I've not found any showstoppers (yet).

Hi everyone,

I'm a new member to this board and would like to ask for a 'sanity check' for a BlackMagic-based workflow I'm looking at, for live video production and recording of conferences and training sessions.

I've put together a schematic to indicate the signal flow and types of equipment I have in mind:

BlackMagic HD video production schematic - sanity check.png

Please note that:

1. I'm not sure what proportion of laptops will likely read the ATEM's EDID properly and then output YUV over HDMI at 1920x1080s/50p - any comments on that one?
2. Should I be figuring in some kind of video convertor/dongle to ensure any laptop can connect successfuly to the ATEM, or simply provide a known-working laptop for all (PowerPoint) presentations to be loaded onto?
3. The cameras are currently a pair of Panasonic camcorders (HC-V160) popular with vloggers, as they have a clean HDMI live-feed. We plan to get better cameras in future as our budget permits.
4. We're planning on adding the Web Presenter at a later date. For now, I just need to check that the TV Studio HD and Video Assist will work with the other equipment listed, before committing to this significant spend (well, it's significant for our charity/non-profit!)
5. I am not a video guy, but have years of exerience in pro-audio, and am willing to learn

Thanks in advance for your help!

Andrew.

I would connect the Web Presenter directly to one of the ATEM SDI outs above the inputs - they are all PGM feeds. Looping through gear that way is tempting fate, imo.

Connecting the PC should be possible, but I like to have a scaler on hand to avoid issues, especially if it's just a slideshow. Decimator Design MD-HX is very popular for this purpose.

If you don't need the monitor, I would probably use a HyperDeck Studio Mini instead of the Video Assist.

Looks like you've done your homework.

Connecting the PC usually works but like Jack Fairley said, a scaler helps.

Blackmagic design has this UpDownCross that works perfectly at a great price. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... ss_hd.html.

If you have a computer that doesn't connect, this converter will make it happen.

I also use this converter with a Hyperdeck Mini to record H264. Very affordable especially if you need multiple units for iso recording.

The Teradek VidiuPro is great for live streaming and will also record H264.

Have you thought about Lower Thirds? You can use PowerPoint and the SimpleSupers.com app for Windows that generates an alpha channel. It retains PowerPoint animations and transparency giving a key and fill signal from your computers displays. You can use it with the ATEM DSK just like a traditional character generator.

Good luck. kc

I would connect the Web Presenter directly to one of the ATEM SDI outs above the inputs - they are all PGM feeds. Looping through gear that way is tempting fate, imo.

Connecting the PC should be possible, but I like to have a scaler on hand to avoid issues, especially if it's just a slideshow. Decimator Design MD-HX is very popular for this purpose.

If you don't need the monitor, I would probably use a HyperDeck Studio Mini instead of the Video Assist.

Yes, good point about avoiding loop-throughs. Since making that schematic I've discovered all the SDI outputs carry the PGM signal, so I'll be feeding the Web Presenter from one of those (once we've bought it)!

For now I think we'll take a known-working laptop with us for preentation duties (these are our conferences/training sessions we're recording, so we can insist on using it!), then add a suitable scaler as budget permits.

I figured the VA would be useful in other roles; we might also do some on-location promos for events using a DSLR (contributors framed close-up, etc), for which its relatively large screen and focus/exposure tools would be great. We might go for the HyperDeck Studio Mini as and when we need to capture UltraHD - we seriously considered it as an alternative to the VA.

Thanks for contributing to the conversation.

Looks like you've done your homework.

Connecting the PC usually works but like Jack Fairley said, a scaler helps.

Blackmagic design has this UpDownCross that works perfectly at a great price. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... ss_hd.html.

If you have a computer that doesn't connect, this converter will make it happen.

I also use this converter with a Hyperdeck Mini to record H264. Very affordable especially if you need multiple units for iso recording.

The Teradek VidiuPro is great for live streaming and will also record H264.

Have you thought about Lower Thirds? You can use PowerPoint and the SimpleSupers.com app for Windows that generates an alpha channel. It retains PowerPoint animations and transparency giving a key and fill signal from your computers displays. You can use it with the ATEM DSK just like a traditional character generator.

Good luck. kc

I hadn't seen the UpDownCross unit before, that's a great suggestion, thanks. I don't think we'll need it as long as we insist on presenters using our known-working laptop, but that's a good solution and cheaper than other scalers (like the Decimators).

As mentioned, I am a raw beginner at video production, and only just getting my head into graphics, keying, etc, but am excited about the possibilities in the TVS HD. Thanks for the pointer to SimpleSupers.com - I can see us using that in future too!

Hey andrewc-gb, hope you will see this post. I want to build a setup kinda like yours. And I'm wondering about the Panasonic hc v180. Do they run only on AC and continuously without shutting off, if they are not recording?