Advice needed! Multi-stream recording from various inputs.

[Corbey]

Hi all,

I'm setting up some research which is all about understanding peoples behaviour while watching TV, focusing, in particular, on how they interact with other screens in the room (laptop, phone, ipad etc..) and how that affects engagement with the programmes they are watching.

We considered eye-tracking software, but decided budget would not allow, so I am wanting to come up with an alternative. Basically what I am after is a system that will allow simultaneous recording of the TV screen, the people in the room (camera on top of the TV or similar), a screen capture feed from a laptop, and (if possible) screen cap from a smart-phone as well (this may have to be separate and synched after).

It would need to be a simple system as we will be leaving it with people in their homes for a week, so they would stop and start the recording themselves. I don't mind if it has to be split in to two parts, i.e TV and room on one stream, and laptop & phone on another and then synch after. I don't want to have to do too much synchronising of clips post recording though, because we are doing this in 30 homes and I wouldn't like to be the guy that has to do that!

Quality doesn't matter, I don't mind if it's cctv/black&white/poor frame rate etc.. I just need all the video streams synched and all in one easy-to-use setup (I don't ask for much do I?!)

If anyone has any ideas on how this could be achieved then please do get back to me, any help would be really really appreciated!!

[Cornucopia]

What's your budget, and understanding of computers & video?

Scott

[Corbey]

I'd say I'm pretty tech savvy in general. I do a fair bit of filming & editing, but only really use single cameras and pretty simple edits on final cut. I've never attempted something like this though, so haven't a clue in terms of what hardware/software I need etc..

No idea about the budget - whatever it takes I guess! Maybe around £2k - £3k would cover it?

[Cornucopia]

You can go one of a couple of ways...

1. Composite analog outs to 4 inputs of Analog mixer. Do quad split wipe and output composite. Then capture that. Cheaper, easy setup, but lower quality.
2. Same thing, but digital version using SDI or HDMI connections (much more $$$$, but much better quality).
3. Multiple cap cards in a PC, and use a cascade of Stereoscopic Multiplexers (or an AVISynth script) to quad split and save the result. Will have to tweak/troubleshoot setup until you've got it down pat.
4. Suck it up (Man Up! )and do it in post...

Probably more than that, but that's a start.

Scott

[Corbey]

Thanks for this advice!

The scope of the project has changed now and I think a standard cctv-like system will do the trick for this.
Thanks for your help though, I'll remember this for next time.
John