Video monitor for a theatre production

[BJG]

I was just accosted by the Head of Drama who asked me to arrange setting up some kind of video link so that the cast in a school musical can take their cues from a conductor who isn't in direct line of sight of the audience. They were fairly insistent that I was the person to organise this because it was "technical". I suppose I could do something with webcams or whatever. Any hardware/software suggestions for a suitable setup...?

[Fuzzz]

Why not use a camcorder and a (flatscreen-)TV?

[mjs_mjs]

Why not use a camcorder and a (flatscreen-)TV?

 

agreeded - camera though a composite camera (yellow normally) to a TV, simple. show them and thy get them to do it. they should know this sort of thing if they teach media studies and the filming module. they should know it anyway if they are asking for it!

[RinSewand]

Aye - long as you have a camera that outputs via composite.

 

As a bonus - you can also use adapters to go from composite to jack to mic cable - meaning you can have huge runs of cable without needing to buy in a load of composite stuff you'll only use once. Just convert it back at the other end and it works fine (recently did this for a live video stream onto a projector from outside into the hall)

 

RwD

[BJG]

Thanks - I'll give that a try...

[laserblazer]

I use video senders, so we can mount the camera anywhere in the hall. This usually feeds to the overhead projector and is used for playback. It's fine as long as they don't fire up the microwave in the kitchen.

[mjs_mjs]

I use video senders, so we can mount the camera anywhere in the hall. This usually feeds to the overhead projector and is used for playback. It's fine as long as they don't fire up the microwave in the kitchen.

 

LOL, that should not be happening!!! think of your brains...

[OllieC]

We used to use a video camera and a mahoosive BNC cable to a projector at the back of the hall.

 

These days it's still done with a video camera on the conductor but to a plasma mounted at the back of the hall by video senders.

 

We also have a camera mounted by the projector that goes into the technical room that I capture with the PC in there and stream out with media encoder.

[BTCC_Fan]

We went even cheaper and used B&W CCTV cameras (£40) from B&Q with some old 15" CRT teles we had that were lying around.