Multi Room Projection for Guest Speaker??

[sllorep]

Hey all,

 

Looking for ideas, past experiences, options, opinions, etc etc:

 

Basically, in a couple weeks we have a guest speaker coming in and the head would like approx. 300 students to see it. For reasons that I cannot fathom, it has been decided NOT to use one of the 3 halls we have here that are big enough to hold this event (main hall and sorts halls). I’ve been asked to stream a live feed of the speech/demonstrations/whatever is happening from one classroom, to projectors/speakers in 15 other rooms with individual classes rather than year groups.

Ideas I have come up with so far, and equipment that I have access to right now:

 

 

• 15 Epson projectors that are all networked and capable of the Epson Network Multi-Projection
  
• USB Webcam (non-HD) with built in microphone
  
• Encoding software (using the free version of Microsoft Expression Encoder, which is not capable of encoding HD content without a licence)
  
• Some budget available for another webcam or DV-Camera, USB3 Video Encoding device, tripod, software… but not too much.
  
• The best laptop we have is an i5 with 16GB RAM… not great but there.
  
• 15 laptops, enough for one for each room if needing to connect to a media stream with VLC/WMP
  

 

I have tried viewing the webcam on a laptop, and using the Epson Network multi-projection, which works but the Audio isn’t great, plus I had to use the Microsoft Expression Encoder and connecting locally to the stream, making it full screen… which is totally convoluted and over complex.

 

Any ideas for software/hardware/etc would be most appreciated.

 

Thanks all!!

 

Ash

[pslater]

IP webcam perhaps? Used one here for 2 or 3 screen viewing and is simple to setup - essentially giving out an address and a login for the page.

[3s-gtech]

VLC works as a video streaming platform, both to send and receive. Should do what you need.

[SamanthaD]

GoToMeeting?

[mikeprice]

if you have class room management software like Impero or AB tutor could you use a camera in the room where the speaker is to get images and then slave the computers in the other rooms to the one with the camera?

 

dunno about sound though - I haven't tried a having a slave computer with sound

[sllorep]

Thank you all, some good ideas. I like the look of the VLC idea (I didn't realise that it could open a camera and stream it), but not sure the best way to set it up at the moment, only had a quick play though.

Any more ideas, please let me know :-)

[SamanthaD]

Not an idea - but something I've just been sent regarding use of digital systems in education... https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/its-official-higher-education-students-want-staff-to-be-better-with-digital-not-to-use-more-of-it-11-sep-2017

 

Point to bring out of it in this context - "students requested a better use of digital systems, not more, fearing it could be used to replace face-to-face time with staff".

 

Tell them it's not possible (bandwidth issues will crash network) and get everyone into one hall for the same experience no matter where they are!

[NB9457]

You could use YouTube live? You can make invite only streams and it's relatively foolproof.

[Alis_Klar]

I have used a private Periscope stream from an iPad. It required two twitter accounts which follow each other in periscope.

[Techie-v2]

Take a look at vMix. It can take inputs from various sources cameras, ppt's, videos etc and can stream to most streaming services. It pretty easy to use and they do a 60 day full feature free trial.

 

If it were me, I'd set this up and stream to youtube, obviously on a privite stream and then just open the youtube link in each room you need to show it in.

[sllorep]

Yes, thank you for the YouTube suggestions, it seems crazy to me that a service that I use every day is the one I forgot about! Going to try this afternoon I think.

Going to try vMix too, thank you @Techie-v2

[Meldrew]

Back in July, we were asked for something a little similar with 3 hours notice - camera in one hall, showing to a projector in a different hall, with audio. We went with twitch which worked a treat. As it happens we have a black magic intensity shuttle capture device (costing something like £100-150) which we connected to a PC running open broadcast studio which itself can stream to twitch. Then we just used the twitch website, full screen. We wanted to watch too, so had it streaming to about 5 PCs in the end.

 

HTH,

 

Meldrew

[sllorep]

Hi all,

 

Just to let you all know that the live stream went very well, so thank you all for your suggestions!

 

We went with @Techie-v2 suggestion. We installed vMix then streamed in HD to YouTube as a private stream and connected to the stream in each classroom. We had some DSLR camera's with proper external microphones connected via HDMI into a USB3 video capture device, which vMix pushed to YouTube.

 

There was about a 30 second delay from actual live (in the room with the speaker) to the YouTube-"Live", so when students clapped or laughed or whatever in the actual room, you'd hear it happen around the block a little while later, but that was fine.

 

Thanks again,

 

Ash.