How to Put Together a Cost-Effective Portable Streaming Kit (UPDATED)

关于 18 months ago, my company was hired to capture and stream the 世界拉丁舞杯. For that job I needed to bring a full switching system plus cameras in a carry-on bag. It was quite challenging because typical switchers and broadcast-style cameras are too big for a carry-on.

I replaced the broadcast cameras with relatively compact Sony EX1s and EX1Rs, was able to put together a desktop system based on Telestream Wirecast Pro and the Matrox VS4 card. Not only was this a low-cost solution--roughly $4,500.00--but it allowed me two capture multiple camera feeds with the VS4, and switch them in the desktop system using Wirecast Pro. And it enabled me to pack that up, put all the cameras inside a carry-on bag, and fly from L.A. to the location in Florida and stream a full event with a minimal crew.

After that event, I thought, “Hey, look, the tools are there. 我怎样才能轻装上阵呢?” And so I’m going to introduce you to a range of devices that helped me trying to put together a kit that’s more affordable and much more agile.

建立自己的系统

When assembling your own 可移植的 streaming solution, one of the key components that you should look at is the software. In addition to working with conventional switchers and mixers and standalone hardware encoders, there are built-in software and hardware encoders that deliver many of the same
capabilities in a desktop or laptop system, eliminating the need to travel with additional hardware.

Telestream Wirecast Pro

Telestream Wirecast Pro 5 (下面的图1) is a powerful and versatile application that runs on both a Mac and PC. The new version features x264 encoding with improved H.264播放和流延迟.

图1. Telestream Wirecast Pro 5.

Wirecast is especially helpful for making your kit more versatile and agile for three reasons:

• 它可以适应不同的平台.
• 您可以围绕它创建定制的解决方案.
• You can build your own boxes based on the size and type of the hardware you want to deploy.

简而言之，你可以混搭. But you need to be mindful of several technical aspects of component integration when building a custom system around your software of choice. If you don’t have the time and the wherewithal to customize or simply don’t want to tinker, 有一些预先构建的解决方案可用, 我将在本文后面讨论这个问题.

Matrox VS4

I addition to Wirecast, I recommend looking into a card called the Matrox VS4 (下面的图2), which was instrumental in my company's production of the World Cup Dance event. 安装Matrox VS4后, 标准pc可以同时有四个SDI输入, 并同时输出ISO记录, 在那里你可以隔离(因此?, ISO) the individual feeds and record them to a local disk. 在VS4可用之前, we hadn't seen hardware and software integration available for capturing video from multiple sources and switching, 记录, 以及从标准PC上传输数据. There wasn’t a solution that offered the multiple camera inputs and the software integration to switch between four different sources, 记录一个单独的线切割, and then also output independent 记录s of all the different streams.

图2. matrix VS4.

The ability to record each stream becomes quite in a live event if you find yourself overextended and run out of SD, SxS的, 或者P2卡，当你记录它们的时候. 当这种事发生在我的公司时, because we had recorded the ISOs on the Matrox VS4 to a local disk, we were able to capture the whole event without any issues whatsoever.

黑魔法设计甲板链接四方

It’s worth noting that although Wirecast Pro is a cross-platform application, Matrox VS4卡目前仅支持pc. Another card that delivers some of the same capabilities I'm describing here is the 黑魔法设计甲板链接四方 (下面的图3). The DeckLink Quad is a Mac- and PC-compatible card that offers HD-SDI I/O for four separate streams.

图3. 黑魔法设计甲板链接四方.

The DeckLink Quad t doesn’t allow ISO records like the Matrox VS4 does, but you can send the output out to various recorders, such as the Atomos Samurai or the Blackmagic HyperDeck Shuttle. But basically this is a switching card that will interface with the Wirecast software. DeckLink also supports other applications such as vMix for switching between the different SDI camera inputs.