Video presentation for recitals

[Clavecin]

My church is about to install a projector and screen system, we are still in the planning stage.

I give a monthly organ recital and would like to have a couple of cameras on the console to display an image on the screen, as many churches and cathedrals do for their organ recitals.

The company we're going to use for the installation are quoting silly money for 2 cameras, interfaces to a laptop and the necessary software to provide a split-screen image. I had thought that 2 basis webcams would do the job and that a standard windows laptop would already have the necessary software onboard.

I've been asked to look into this and am hoping that someone who has experience of this sort of thing at their church or cathedral can offer some advice.

Thanks in anticipation.

Clavecin

[SteveBarker77]

Look into OBS software - it's free, and I think capable of what you're wanting to do.  I'm currently using it on my MacBook with an iPhone and an iPad as the video sources to stream our services but we're also putting the output onto a screen in church to mix in remote readers or preachers, and so people can see more clearly.  To see what we've achieved for next to no cost, take a look at some of the recent live streams on here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8EzRFqM9LTo4kruuf4qd_w 

[Martin Cooke]

17 hours ago, SteveBarker77 said:

Look into OBS software - it's free, and I think capable of what you're wanting to do.  I'm currently using it on my MacBook with an iPhone and an iPad as the video sources to stream our services but we're also putting the output onto a screen in church to mix in remote readers or preachers, and so people can see more clearly.  To see what we've achieved for next to no cost, take a look at some of the recent live streams on here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8EzRFqM9LTo4kruuf4qd_w 

That was most useful, Steve, thank you. Could a small set up like this be of any use as a CCTV system between organist and conductor or is there a delay? 

[Tony Newnham]

Hi

Don't forget when comparing prices that the professional suppliers have to factor in the cost of installation, cables etc, plus any troubleshooting or hand-holding that may be required by users in the first few months.  If you go down the DIY route you have to do all that yourself.

Any digital system will have a degree of latency - how much and if it will be a problem is down to the usage.  I've not tried to set up a CCTV system to see a conductor since analogue days!

Every Blessing

Tony

[Dafydd y Garreg Wen]

1 hour ago, Tony Newnham said:

Any digital system will have a degree of latency - how much and if it will be a problem is down to the usage.  I've not tried to set up a CCTV system to see a conductor since analogue days!

Indeed. For that reason I’m not in a hurry to recommend replacing the analogue system here. The snag is that we really could do with a third camera, but I’ve had no luck sourcing a suitable second-hand one.

[SteveBarker77]

10 hours ago, Martin Cooke said:

That was most useful, Steve, thank you. Could a small set up like this be of any use as a CCTV system between organist and conductor or is there a delay? 

On the system I've been using, there isn't any delay that is noticeable - there's only about three foot of cable between the camera and the computer, although the projector system sends the HDMI signal about 20m.  There is a way to send the camera signal via wifi or wired network, but this does introduce some delay - how much I'm not sure... it's on my list of things to play around with at some point!

[Clavecin]

The OBS software looks extremely comprehensive.

There are a couple of churches where I occasionally play which set up a camera and projector but they've been doing this sort of thing for quite a while and use very basic equipment, which works perfectly well.

I was aware that using wifi for any part of the process was likely to introduce latency, mind you, the action on our church organ is so slow that this would probably put the images and sound heard by the audience in perfect sync!

There are very many people posting Youtube videos with 2 or 3 cameras running on their consoles, I'm sure they're not using expensive cameras.

[Dafydd y Garreg Wen]

Because of the way digital images are produced latency is an inherent problem. WiFi may exacerbate it, but (essentially) it will always be there. Whether it would be serious enough to cause difficulties, however, is another question (depends on the particular equipment you use and the purpose you’re using it for).