Need multi-cam advice... have questions

[Richard Alvarez]

Most of the NLE's have a multicam solution. Avid Liquid, and AVID XPRESS Pro will do it natively. Vegas has a plugin, as does Premiere Pro... so you have options.

[Bob Grant]

Vegas with Infiniticam can cut upto 100 cameras although I've only used it for 2. Certainly not the same as working in a linear suite, I think only something like Video Toaster which runs multiple video streams would come close to the same experience. However I found doing the job with Vegas and the plug in pretty productive

[Peter Ferling]

If your used to live-event on hardware, and now want to do it on a PC in software, the Video Toaster is the way to go. It has modules and software that mimic hardware, with the buttons and switches intuitively placed. The system comes with a hardware card that supports uncompressed and has things like real procamps, waveform monitors, etc. You can also get a hardware switcher with T-bar if you want touchy feely. Cool stuff, all on your PC. They also have a hardware input switcher, (I have the VT3 with the older SX8 input switcher). It's a very impressive setup for SD, simple event switching, and live web streaming.

VT5 is rolling out with HD support and sports an updated editor that supports all frame rates and resolutions up to HD. The beast wants heavy fire-power (i.e. dual-core opterons, etc)., so I've order a BOXX 7400 workstation.

Newtek also offers their Tricaster, a lite version of the VT in a shoebox form-factor and simplier interface for DV.

[Gary Bettan]

Some very good advice here already. Just to sumarize

Avid Xpress Pro has real-time multicam switching. you can even do it with different format (ie DV & HDV) sourse material

Avid Liquid has multicam as well. Very similar tot he Avid implementation

The new Premeire Pro 2 has multicam as well. Once again, similar style to Avid. With one of thenew Matrox realtime cards (Axio LE, RT.X2), you can do real-time multicam with mixed formats

Vegas implements multicam via affordable plug-ins. Excalibu and Ultimate S both do a great job.

For live mixing of up to 3 cams, Tri-Caster is SWEET!

Gary
Videoguys.com

[Peter Ferling]

Ditto on the Tricaster. I've rented one for a job some months ago. Had a two camera shoot and used the power-point as a third source from a video projector. I was able to record a live mix/feed of the show, editing on the fly, (cut's only) and burned a DVD at the end for archive.

[Stephen Jackson]

I purchased a Tricaster last year from Videoguys. I used it on a 24 city music tour.

The machine is good but it has a few quirks. The machine froze on us too often when we're loading the artist's video clips and lower thirds. Once we got the last upgrade that problem diminished some.

One thing that I wished I did different was to have more time to learn about the machine. We had a hard time learning how to create our own customized lower thirds and bugs.

But the end result is It was a good investment and we're using it more often.

[Matt Davis]

I'm moving into multi-cam shoots for a couple of contracts involving conference content, and will be using a Newtek Tricaster Studio (mostly for 16:9 and PPT compatibility). The intended destination is for the web.

I have a Z1 and HVX200, and can rent Z1s by the yard, but have been thinking about other options - especially considering remote cameras. The camera should be compact, good (that is, 'ideally better than a Z1') in low light, 16:9 native, able to output (not necessarily record) Standard Definition in both 4:3 and 16:9 for the Tricaster (so that's probably S-Video rather than SDI), and hopefully earn its living on single camera shoots too.

FX-1 or another Z1 is the no-brainer. Sony A1 is out as it's afraid of the dark. Canon A1 could be fun, I hear good things about it. Another HVX200 is possible, the images are lovely, but it's a camera that loves being the centre of attention rather than a team player. I really wanted an EX-1 but I'm not certain it outputs 4:3 SD on S-Video.

OTOH, what of the 'brick' cameras? Boxes with a lens w. remote controls at one end and some bracketry for a panel display at the other, in an attempt to be a junior studio camera? What of the 'roving eye' video conferencing cameras? The latter seem more expensive than the FX-1 and that's without the remote twiddler...

[Richard Alvarez]

I don't know how you plan to set up your system, but I often to remote shoots with a tricaster, and two 'elmos' with a third camera manned by an operator. The elmos are capable of being remote controlled either by wireless or by wired connections (With a joystick.) We use these for cable broadcasts, so it's SD and 4:3. The Elmos don't output 16:9 however, so I'm not sure they will do what you want. Do you plan on having all three cams manned? Or are you looking for a three camera, 'two man' solution?

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Richard Alvarez

two 'elmos' with a third camera manned by an operator.

This would be a three camera, one cameraman situation (so the two unmanned cameras are doing wide and reverse/Q&A). I'm not knocking on the doors of full-on multicam, in fact trying to reduce the time/cost of shooting 2 cameras onto tape and editing in the PPT after.

Had to smile at the Elmo moniker.

What do you use for an Elmo? The Sony and Polycom cameras seem prohibitively expensive...

BTW, am planning to wire up the reverse angle cam using a couple of CAT-5 converters. Anyone tried those as well?

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Matt Daviss

Had to smile at the Elmo moniker.

(slaps forehead)

And here was I thinking about the Elmo reference being a 'puppet', e.g. a remote camera. Boy, do I feel stupid. Just realised Elmo is also a brand that's all but disappeared in the UK (IIRC associated with Standard8 film projectors).

[Richard Alvarez]

Yup, ELMO is a brand of remote video cameras as well. They can run with infrared controllers, or with hard wired joystick controllers as well. And yes, I typically have one live camera operator, and two 'elmos' for a lot of shoots. The elmos can be 'preset' for six positions. So - I'll be at a conference, and put Elmo 1 on my left, Live CamOp center, and Elmo 2 on my right. I can preset Elmo 1 to get a nice wide cover shot of the table of speakers, then I can preset six 'close up' shots of each chair say. Maybe on Elmo 2 I'll have a different wide cover shot, maybe a shot of the audience say... some shots of the presentation models or charts... whatever. Each of these presets can also be adusted WHILE LIVE if you want... but they are not smooth. You can zoom, pan, focus... whatever.

http://www.touchboards.com/elmo/PTC-100S.asp



Between switching, calling shots, paging through powerpoints and presenting lower thirds, and controlling the Elmos... I'm busy as a one armed paper hanger.

BUT like I said, this is SD for cable mostly, and I don't know if Elmo makes a 16:9 cam. I doubt it.AND they are NTSC and 4:3 so they won't help you much in the UK I'm afraid.

So really, if you're down to using two small mini-dv cams that DO shoot 16:9 as your cover shots, you are more limited unless you mount them on a remote controlled HEAD... which is another option.

[Andrew McMillan]

Alright so I want to make a 3 or 4 camera system. I have a dsr 300 and an mx-50 laying around here and a jvc dvm 600 recorder (do everything machine). So I thought may I should buy more dsr 300's of ebay for about $3,500. I would also either need to upgrade the switcher with that bob rall modification or get a low end datavideo switcher. Honestly I am not a fan of the fx1 like cameras, there image quality in sd is just kinda muddy looking to me.

So should I go looking for the dsr's and mabey a pd 150/70, or should I look for some older good cameras, or look at some 1/3 cams.

I am realy looking for most picture for my buck.

I like tally alot maybe the dv camplex or the datavideo intercoms, just a thought.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Your limiting factor with the equipment you mentioned is the MX 50 which will not switch DV signal, so the best you can get is S-Video output from the cameras. If you are looking for cheap - look at decent used s-vhs or Hi-8 camera with good glass. They will pass a good signal (provided your runs are <100') and save you bucks over looking for a DV cam. If you want your cameras to do double duty, then DV is the way to go.

[Andrew McMillan]

Yeah, hense the upgrade or just get the datavideo switcher. I looking for some good quality cams, something like more dsr's or some beta sp's, or hdv. Any sujestions?