Synced 40-camera Micro Studio rig?

I'm interested in building a 40-cam (!) rig comprised of Micro Studio 4K G2 cameras for 3D volumetric capture. Can someone point to me to any online resource for achieving this or offer any guidance? I'm looking for the following:

-Genlock
-Remote control, start/stop of entire array
-Recording to a RAID
-Monitoring all cameras remotely

It’s not that difficult, the only real issue is scale. The Constellation 8k and a few extra DAs for sync would give you cam control, sync, and monitoring. Capturing 40 cams to a raid would be the wrong way to go, capture locally to SSD and transfer the media via network.

Good Luck

Does the Micro Studio even have sensor-sync Genlock? Are we sure it's not just synchronizing the output frames, not the sensor capture itself?

Does the Micro Studio even have sensor-sync Genlock? Are we sure it's not just synchronizing the output frames, not the sensor capture itself?

What is sensor sync genlock? Genlock syncs a cam’s output but it doesn’t do so through any floating buffer. Cameras of the same make will have the same real time offset to output. Different mfr cams will not have the same offset but if they did the signal wouldn’t be genlocked.

Good Luck

The Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 has Genlock. I saw the option.

Yes, the Micro Studio has genlock on the SDI in.

Do I really need a Constellation? Seems like overkill. So far I'm thinking that if I have two Videohub 40x40 I can use one to monitor individual feeds and a second as a DA for a sync/genlock signal.

The big questions are where to record to (locally vs. RAID) and how to control all 40 cameras at once. How would I capture locally, with individual SSDs in each camera? If I did that I would lose the ability to connect USB to Ethernet, which presumably means I couldn't control the cameras remotely or transfer data over a network.

Constellation has camera control and 4 16ch multiviewers. For a couple $K more you’ll get a lot more funtionality. Do you really want to bang thru 40 inputs to make sure everything is working? How would you know if a camera had failed?

The micros work with usbc ethernet hubs so you can record and access via ethernet at the same time, file transfer would be kind of pointless if this wasn’t supported.

Good Luck

P.S. A raid isn’t even an option unless you plan on 40 channels of capture, the cams don’t have live sync funtionality.

Capturing 40 cams to a raid would be the wrong way to go, capture locally to SSD and transfer the media via network.

Yes Howard this is the approach I'm thinking of now. And I've reduced the camera count from 40 to 24. So I could use the Constellation 4 M/E to control, sync, and monitor, but it seems I can't remotely start/stop. Any thoughts on how to record without pressing each camera button individually?

Second Generation of Micro studio cameras support networking, and full control via REST protocol. So everything that Atem can control plus record/stop… plus footage offload (already been mentioned).


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Network file transfer from local storage will require a hardware usbc-ethernet dongle. For software you can check out Bitfocus Companion, this software can press rec/stop on 24 cams as well as report status. There’s not much out of the box software available but the REST/http protocol is fairly easy to implement once you get going.

Good Luck

Bitfocus is in an interesting tool, as is Middle Control.

If I am using an ATEM Constellation 4 M/E to drive all of these cameras, would these still work for remote start/stop of the array? Or would I need individual network connections per camera?

Also, if I connected a USB-C to USB-C/ethernet dongle, could I connect an SSD and also have network control?

... could I connect an SSD and also have network control?

Yes i use this adapter to record to SSD and have network connection.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0871ZL9TG?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1



ATEM might already have a feature to trigger record. I know atem minis do trigger record cameras when you press local record, so it's possible that record control will be added to ATEM Constellation line....

[Gary Adams]

Hello Ben. Just so we don't go down a rabbit hold and get equipment that won't suit, I will offer some notes. Looking at Companion software, I don't see "direct" camera control for start/stop of record unless someone with more Companion experience sees this. Companion could do this using an ATEM Macro as suggested but the ATEM Constellations do not support remote record start/stop. Only the ATEM Mini line have this. So many "ifs" here. If you want to have individual camera control then you need an ATEM that supports as many inputs as cameras. If the sticking point is start/stop, then getting someone to put together a simple HTML REST file that will start and stop recording of the cameras. You can also get feedback from the camera that it is indeed in record if you want. Using the REST protocol would necessitate having an Ethernet adapter at each camera and all on the same network. If feeding an ATEM SDI for camera genlock, all recordings will have the same matching image content and timecode. One thing to note, when starting multiple cameras in record, the starting and stopping frames may not match from each but the recording content and timecode will exactly match. There would not be any issues syncing the files. I hope this helps.

Gary

Thanks Gary. Out of curiosity, why do Constellations not support start/stop? Seems like a fairly easy and obvious add, no? I also checked in with the makers of Middle Control (https://www.middlethings.co/product-middle-control/) and was told that remote start/stop is definitely possible with the Constellation.

Looking at Companion software, I don't see "direct" camera control for start/stop of record unless someone with more Companion experience sees this.

There are no pre-configured Rest modules for Blackmagic cams but it's fairly simple to create a camera control using the Generic HTTP module in Companion. A rec command is easy to implement and you can have feedbacks as well as alerts if a cam should stop recording.

This is a CCU interface I created for 1 camera. It's just as easy to create an interface that controls multiple cameras. You just need to create multiple connections in Companion. The second grab represents Cam 01 and Cam 24 rec control.

companion.png (245.36 KiB) Viewed 1769 times

01.24.png (250.2 KiB) Viewed 1758 times

Good Luck

[Gary Adams]

That’s right Howard. Forgot to look into that. Pretty cool. I wrote a REST app for my iPhone that does this but is a bit more complicated.

As for record control in Constellations it is certainly possible. We put these things as feature requests and see what the developers decide to do.

Gary

Very helpful as always, Howard. Thank you. I actually reached out to the Companion team as well about this. Question, are you connected over ethernet to make this work, or just SDI IN?

And Gary, please consider this an official feature request!

Rest is over ethernet. SDI control uses a different protocol and is far more challenging for an end user to develop.

Good Luck

Also wondering, is the genlock provided by the ATEM 4 M/E Constellation 4K true sensor genlock? As good as using an external sync gen?

[Gary Adams]

Hello Ben. Yes any method of genlock will provide sensor and timing accuracy. Since the Micro Studio G2 does not have an analog reference input, the SDI input video would be the only means of genlock. If not using an ATEM, make sure the SDI frame rate matches the camera frame rate to ensure lock.

Gary

Thanks again. Our test is scheduled for the week of 12/16, I'll keep you posted.

This may be a bridge too far, but are there any example .braw files online anywhere that are a synchronous pair? This would greatly help with tooling work of our post team, as all the files we have are single examples, so testing any sort of timecode/frame alignment isn't possible. It could be a recording of quite literally anything.