multi camera live production

[fullpipe]

My Greetings
I'd like to tether three cameras via usb and use the pc as a switcher so that only the video from the selected camera is captured. Any software do that?
Bruce

[jimmalenko]

Given your other thread regarding multiple burners, IMO you're asking waaaaaaay too much of a standard PC.

[edDV]

"captured" or live broadcast?

If this will be edited later why not just record to tape and edit later? You can get much a better quality edit master and you don't need cables to a switcher-PC.

Poor man's multi-camera sync technique ... sync to flash bulbs. Hire someone to flash a camera every few minutes if you must.

[Tommyknocker]

Doesn't most USB multiports allow switching?

[fullpipe]

tommyknocker, I'm goingto try your suggestion after I recover from that avatar of yours

edDv, Live switched cameras. No time for post production editing. Capturing the event live really tends to force you to pay attention during the production. At one time (I'm dating myself here) long before tape was invented and you needed a big truck to move a vtr all tv was live. Three cameras shooting a scene and the only edits were the ones where the cameras were switched. Take 1, coming to camera two, take two, etc.
My gig requires that dvds be available at the end of the event. eveything rush rush no time for editing after the production. Makes for a nice crisp production without a lot of pointless transitions and effects..

jimmalenko. Speaking of earlier times when we were overclocking 286s and saving up for another 2mb of ram machines were indeed stretched. Today I have what would have been concieved of then as a superintergalactic timewarping impossibility of a computer, we are timid beyond belief . The gizmos have the power to do our bidding, but it is up to us to merely ask and of course figure it out.

[jimmalenko]

jimmalenko. Speaking of earlier times when we were overclocking 286s and saving up for another 2mb of ram machines were indeed stretched. Today I have what would have been concieved of then as a superintergalactic timewarping impossibility of a computer, we are timid beyond belief . The gizmos have the power to do our bidding, but it is up to us to merely ask and of course figure it out.

Don't get me wrong - all power to ya for "thinking outside the square" as we would call it. I'm certainly watching this thread (and the other one for that matter) to see what develops, but it was (and is still) my personal opinion that no one commercially available PC will be able to do this for you, that's all

Now that I think about it (and I don't know shit about TV production or anything), would it be possible to have the cameras hooked into some sort of switchable mastering deck, with it streaming the output straight into the PC via firewire or something ? Naturally this PC would be encoding on the fly, which I believe Mainconcept can do.

From the other end, could you then have say two other PCs networked via firewire, each with a couple of DVD burners on the IDE, and a couple on USB, and these burners are fed the MPEG-2 either when it's finished encoding or on the fly over the firewire LAN ?

[non-linear]

The only way I can think of you being able to do this is to have an external video switcher, not a consumer level video switch (they don't switch cleanly), but a production grade switcher. Even if you were able to switch the camera sources on the computer, I doubt it would be clean, instantaneous switching since the cameras won't be timed with each other, and I doubt any consumer grade cameras have genlocking capabilities.

You could also look for an old Video Toaster Amiga system, then do the switching from the Toaster, then feed the output to the capturing computer.

Of course, you could also look for a production mobile with a switcher, cameras, CG system, etc, but I doubt that would fit within your budget.

[fullpipe]

non-linear, thank you, There are two firewire switchers that I know of, Laird and nNovia are 4firewire in, 1 firewire out which do not require external lock but I'm hopin to find a way to switch analog and digital cameras on a laptop in a location shoot ie software.

jimmalenko. right on thinking ok whats an otpw?

[jimmalenko]

jimmalenko. right on thinking ok whats an otpw?

Off-Topic Post Whore, it's a bit of an "in" joke

[kissvid]

HI....I read your post and I can't imagine doing what you want without it really costing quite a bit. Your talking mega cables and monitors equipment. Now this isnt on doing live but it might be an alternative for you. Have you checked out multicam? Basically you tape your 3 angles and capture all 3 to your hard drive. Then bring up multicam and play all angles in real time. Just switch from 1 angle to another like a live switcher. The website is www.unitedmediainc.com I will be purchasing from them next month. I do dance recitals and theater productions. it will certainly cut my post time in half.

Marc

[Karate Media]

As non-linear said, Video Toaster is an option. It is still being manufactured by NewTek, but it's going to cost you about $6K, as far as I can tell -- check out VT4 at http://www.newtek.com/buynow/vt_products.html. You can also Google the phrase "live video switching," which will bring up articles such as
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/live_video_switching_buying_guide.htm

Also -- when you say "DVDs must be done at the end of the event" -- you mean you are going to encode and burn all the DVDs right then? How long is the event, and how long do the participants have to wait afterwards for their DVD?

[devlynh]

Another option is to find a Panasonic WJ-MX50 (MX30). These units allow connection of non synced video sources and will digitally sync them. Then run the output to a DVD Recorder.
I have done live switching with one of these, it works, however you must be prepared to commit to a decision immediatly and need a pile of equipment to monitor everything.
Just remember the eternal triangle in video, Good, fast, cheap, pick two.