Live Stream Software & Equipment

[broadld]

Good evening All,

 

We are looking into using live streaming for some events like assemblies, Guest speakers & others. I am just wondering what other people are using in terms of software / equipment for this. We were looking at using Teams lIve events for this. But not sure which camera / microphone would work well with this.

I'm sure someone will have done something similar.

[Liam]

We use live events. You need a difference license though. Works really well. We use it for whole school assemblies still.

We have a standard webcam in the heads office or other presenters use their laptops.

[broadld]

We have the correct 365 licenses. We need to use it in a big space like our main hall / sports hall. So would probably need something better than a webcam. Possibly with a wireless lapel microphone.

[jmak]

We use Huddly cameras in some large rooms with Teams live events - the built in mic seems to do quite a good job of identifying which sounds to include in the feed.

[Bompalompalomp]

Are these for external viewing, or internal only?

 

External we use Teams, internally we use MistServer, set a link to to the web view on the desktop and point people there.

 

Equipment-wise this is what we have, based on what we bought during COVID to livestream assemblies and religious services and what we already had.

 

[Alex0x7F]

OBS Studio for live streaming. If you're looking at using more than one camera, a Blackmagic ATEM Mini would give you 4 HDMI inputs and a live switcher. There's also the extreme model for 8 inputs.

 

Do some research on what cameras will suit your use case the best and make sure they have a clean HDMI output, so it doesn't output the screen's burn in data to your broadcast. You can check HDMI outputs of certain camera models here: Elgato Camera Check

 

I have a Sony A6000 as a HQ camera for projects needing depth of field and a Canon Legria HF R806 camcorder for making the most out of digital zoom.

[broadld]

Thanks everyone we have been test OBS and seems to work fine. We are also feeding our halls sound mixer that has our wireless mics into the laptop. We are looking at sorting a suitable camera out now. Like you say it's what fits best our site. We may need one for shots further away with more optical zoom. The cameras you use are they all wired into an interface box? Or is there such a thing as a wireless one?

[Zbd]

We got a PTZ optics camera like this one a year or two ago:

 

https://stagelogic.co.uk/product/ptzoptics-12x-3g-sdi-ptz-camera-white/

 

Its connected to OBS via a RTSP stream. PTZ-Optics have a plugin for OBS for basic controls & pre-sets & the zoom is good enough to get upper body shots from the other side of the hall. But it does have some lag so no good for realtime.

They do have a controller as well but we never got it. We usually either set it to capture the whole stage or have it focused on the podium. We took a feed from the mixing desk and fed it to the back of the hall and into the Camera for sound.

[Tom_M]

I work in commercial media/broadcasting. I'm not a vendor, however I can advise on the bits of kit you'd need based on your budget etc.

[Tom_M]

OBS Studio for live streaming. If you're looking at using more than one camera, a Blackmagic ATEM Mini would give you 4 HDMI inputs and a live switcher. There's also the extreme model for 8 inputs.

 

Do some research on what cameras will suit your use case the best and make sure they have a clean HDMI output, so it doesn't output the screen's burn in data to your broadcast. You can check HDMI outputs of certain camera models here: Elgato Camera Check

 

I have a Sony A6000 as a HQ camera for projects needing depth of field and a Canon Legria HF R806 camcorder for making the most out of digital zoom.

 

This is a solid suggestion. I'd also normally advocate going for the SDI version (and applicable cameras) over HDMI in most cases.

[Wired_Inside_90]

We've been using a Gh4 and Gh5, Mac Mini, Atem mini switcher ( 4 HDMI outputs which we can use with an iPad or whatever). Had we still been in lockdown I would have explored NDI with OBS and possibly more YouTube Live stuff? You can live stream to an unlisted video. Most assemblies are done on Zoom but the 40min limit is starting to affect it. Of course, OBS and an x32 producer mixer for microphones. If using multiple cameras I might also use HDMI over cat5 depending on the event.

Some of this kit is what we've had already so it wasn't a massive purchase. Just bear in mind that the more you get the more work there is. I'm often struggling to manage all of this especially if something goes wrong.

 

For the cameras, we bought second-hand off MBP ( used camera website) and some stuff from Thomann ( German music equipment site) << excellent customer service and quality but do check for Brexit-related issues.

[SamanthaD]

If at all possible SDI based solutions will give you less headaches than HDMI over long distances, as they need less conversions. SDI capture cards are available.

 

PTZ's are great if camera positions are predictable as you can program presets and recall as needed. If there's a lot of movement then manually operated cameras are the way to go.

 

OBS is easy if you have a powerful enough machine and someone confident to use it. If it's going to be unattended then a streaming device like the BlackMagic WebPresenter or ATEM Mini would be worthwhile.