Help needed to organise the steaming of an event with 3 cameras

[Spinball]

Hello folks,
my first post and I hope I'm posting this thread in the correct forum.

As the 'tech guru' amongst our little circle of friends, I've been asked how to create a high definition live stream of an equipment demonstration to a potential customer. The demo would involve 3 cameras - probably two on tripods and one hand held. The guy in charge would want to switch between cameras for the live feed.
The feed needs to be available to view on the 'net by a small number of viewers (possibly just one) with a pre-shared password.

I thought maybe three consumer digital cameras with USB out, fed into a PC or laptop (which they probably already have) with some software to view the feeds and swap between them. I have a Panasonic TZ60 myself (ZS40 in the USA) and it's excellent.

My friend has a budget of a couple of grand, but I'd like to help him get the job done as cheaply as possible. This is for the cameras, cables, switchers or software needed. I imagine they will already have a computer they can use.

So my first question. Is USB the way to do this?
I.e. can cheap consumer video cameras carry 1080p output live via USB? And if so, which software do I need to mix the three USB feeds together?

Alternatively if we have to use HDMI rather than USB, could we use a £20 remote controlled HDMI switcher to choose the camera feed, and how do I get the HDMI in to the computer?

I thought maybe ustream for the streaming?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Cornucopia]

Roland V-4EX.

Scott

[Spinball]

Roland V-4EX.

Scott

Thank you Scott, but from the specification...

HDMI inputs one to three accept video resolutions up to 480p/576p and HDMI input four accepts resolutions up to 1080p

My friend needs 3 x 1080p.

[smrpix]

Then go with the tricaster mini, or some hodge-podge of blackmagic intensity shuttles.

[Spinball]

Then go with the tricaster mini, or some hodge-podge of blackmagic intensity shuttles.

The tricaster mini is twice the budget.
Will my USB idea not work?

[Cornucopia]

Just do the math.

1080p60 is 1423Mbps/178MBps (uncompressed). USB 2.0 is 480Mbps/60MBps AT BEST (rarely). That means that to even get a signal down the USB pipe, you'd have to compress it at least ~2.85:1, which is more compression than capable for truly lossless codecs to sustain. So you would have to have a camera system which allowed for live streaming via USB of a lossy-compressed version of the signal. Most cameras aren't designed to have a live compressed stream IN ADDITION TO THEIR LIVE UNCOMPRESSED STREAM. That leaves you with very few alternatives. Plus then you would need a specific driver to accept the streaming capture feed.

What would it do then? Decompress?

HDMI could do this (and does) with uncompressed video, but that was what smrpix was talking about WRT "hodge-podge of blackmagic intensity shuttles".

Then you have the bandwidth/horsepower requirements of a PC that can handle 3 or 4 streams of compressed video captured LIVE and (hopefully) in sync and maintain that sync (both visually & audibly which is another factor) and then LIVE recompress it (and/or GOP switch it).

The idea is possible, but there are hardware hurdles here you cannot ignore. Even if you ALREADY have a hefty PC and the necessary cards & drivers, those may not work with a live-switching app (particulary one that can handle long GOPs AND keep sync), so those that can actually cost something. There are FOSS apps out there, but I would be very surpised if they could handle anything more than a few SD live streams (file-based & auto-generated streams would have different requisites).

You ask why "will my USB idea not work?", but you don't really have an IDEA yet, just a tech buzzword. What's your IDEA regarding USB? Spell it out for us (in detail) how you want to get from Point A to Point Z.

1. Camera -> CamPort
2. CamPort -> Cable -> CardPort
3. CardPort -> Capture app
4. Capture app -> PC buss #1 & buffer
5. PC buss #1 and buffer -> Mixer/Switcher app (plus, what to do about longGOP compression switching)
6. Mixer/Switcher app -> PC buss #2 & buffer
7. PC buss #2 & buffer -> Streaming Encoder (hardware or software)
8. Streaming Encoder -> LAN/WAN
9. LAN/WAN -> Internet Serving Site
10. Internet Serving Site -> Client app(s)

And that's just a summary version. Everything has to be worked out correctly & sufficiently for it to work at all.

Not trying to rain on your parade, just bring you back down to Earth. That's just one reason why there are still dedicated hardware devices out there - there are greater constraints & requirements than you are thinking about when thinking about it casually.

Scott

[newpball]

If this is for a potential customer then it seems to me the best thing is to outsource the video recording, capturing and streaming. Leave it to the pros they know what they are doing.

After all you would want the customer to be focused on the product you are demonstrating not about the endless issues you will surely encounter if you have no experience.

[Bjs]

Cheapest I've seen and used is the Aten VS-482 ... cost $271.00 ... to switch source's press button 1 to 4 on device panel ... send hdmi output 1 from Aten VS-482 to pc (web streaming server) hdmi capture card port.

Thou everything must be hdmi capable ... including camera's

[Spinball]

Thanks for the replies. This is not for me or my customers. This is for a good friend who has less of a clue than me. (I don't know what most of the buzz words you are using mean). Perhaps this is best moved to the newbies forum?
My friend wants to demonstrate their equipment in action to potential customers. He's hoping to do the whole thing as cheaply as possible.
Ok so I get USB won't work because it can't carry the data fast enough.
How about feeding HDMI out from the cameras into a $15 HDMI switch (http://www.amazon.co.uk/CSL-control-intelligent-automatic-function-black/dp/B00DZIQG66...ch+with+remote) and then using an HDMI input card to bring that into the computer where it can then be streamed?