EX3 Live Video into MacBook Pro

[Dennis Mortemore]

I want to use my EX3 (I've had it for 2 weeks) to provide live video into a MacBook pro for a web based meeting (Megameetings.com). My recent web search indicates I need to add a capture devise (Matrox MX02) in order to do this. Is this the case or are there other alternatives? Any recommendations?

[Craig Seeman]

I've used my EX1 for live streaming.

Matrox MXO2-LE using HD-SDI in going into the Express port of MacBookPro. Soon Matrox will have Thunderbolt adaptor for new MBPs as well.

Depending on your next step and the power of your MBP you can decide to downscale in the MXO2 so MBP is only processing a Standard Def signal.

In my case I'm using all the with Telestream Wirecast to stream live.

I'm not sure what MegaMeetings will see as a source but one method might be use Matrox Vetura Capture software to display incoming video and then use CamTwist to send to the Meeting.

BTW, you could set your EX3 to HDV out of firewire and skip the MXO2 but again you'll need to get that HDV into the meeting. You could use Quicktime 7 Pro and CamTwist for that.

[Alister Chapman]

There is also the new AJA IO Express. You'll need a Macbook Pro with an express card slot, on the newer models only the 17" has this.

[Jeremy Hugues]

Hello,

I'd like to continue this post for a slightly different application. I use a Totevision 703 HD to monitor my EX3 on a EZFX jib. My problem is that the definition of the Totevision is much too soft to enable a good focus (the problem could be lighter if the Sony engineers would like to send the LENS info to the monitor output).
Therefore in the meantime before I can afford a full HD monitor, I wonder how to monitor with a MBP.
The solution I've tried is the Adobe OnLocation but it only works with HDV/firewire. Since I record in 1080, I still look for an economic solution.

Thanks in advance.

[Andrew Stone]

I am using a Teradek Cube but it is a much more expensive solution and buggy.

Craig, can you explain a bit how Telestream's Wirecast works. Their website is scant on describing the process involved.

My initial question about Wirecast is... Does the streaming happen directly from the machine operating Wirecast or is it sent out to a streaming service like Livestream.com or Ustream? If it is the former, then you are going to have bandwidth issues as soon as there is more than one stream of video going out unless you are a dedicated internet connection with high bandwidth upstreaming capabilities.

It would be great Craig if you could go into a bit of detail on the streaming end of the Wirecast technology.

[Craig Seeman]

Their website is scant on describing the process involved.

It may be because it's very open ended. It's a software switcher encoder. Theoretically you can take any number of inputs and stream to any number of places using any number of codecs and simultaneously record to your hard drive using the same or different codecs. How far you can push it depends on your computer.

On the Mac side it's compatible with Blackmagic cards with Matrox Multi coming soon.
On the Windows side it's compatible with Blackmagic cards with Osprey coming soon.
It will be compatible with Teradek Cube with the goal that it will handle multiple Cubes.
It will be compatible with LiveU such that you can send from LiveU to a Wirecast base station at some distant location.
It has titling and chroma keying capabilities.
Each "shot" can have up to 7 layers including several live picture in picture.
And each of these shots can themselves be layered up to 5 deep.
It has some IP camera support but currently just a couple of cameras.
It has a utility called Desktop Presenter which can live screen grab a computer screen or window not only on the Wirecast computer but any/all other computers on a LAN. For example you can feed a bunch of Mac and Windows computers on a network to it and it can transition between them as if it were multiple camera feeds.
You can have it encode and send to multiple CDNs and record to hard drive as well.


All streaming has to go to some means of distribution such as a CDN but if you have the money you can certainly build out your own means of distribution. You can stream to maybe 5 or 10 viewers locally as it has a built in Darwin Streaming Server but real streaming to any kind of audience is going to need some serious bandwidth.

What information is missing on the website? Everything I mentioned is more or less their on their pages and the literature. Someone new to streaming might have a hard time understanding it though. They have a blog which is more user story and practical case oriented.