How to edit live multicam on PC?
 

Ok, I hope that this isn’t a stupid question....

I once saw documentary footage of the making of an awards ceremony. They had several cameras set up, and I caught a glimpse of the editors screen. It seemed to show all the camera feeds in their separate windows (like Multicam software, but it was all linear and live) He looked to be doing it on a regular PC, that he had set up on location.

Does anyone have any insight?

Hope that made sense…

It might be video toaster.

http://www.newtek.com/products/vt/info/switcher.html

Nice find Glenn!


I've been looking for something like this, thats PC based, and has everything with it. By the looks of things you can run it off any number of firewire cards in your computer. How amazing is that!

Time to dig behind the sofa...

here is another option...

http://www.unitedmediainc.com/multicam/

Miguel, Multi-cam software is great but that's after the fact. Richard, I think the best word to use is switch instead of edit. Richard is looking for something to do it live. I don't know if I would trust computers just yet for live switching. When it freezes or crashes, ..........

Ohh you're right, sorry about that, I guess that I was speed reading again and with all the hurricanes in this area in the last month, sleep has not been a luxury!

I've heard of the Videonics MX-1 (old analog mixer) shutting off every once in a while.

Thanks for the "Toaster" link, thats exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

The morning afer I posted this thread, my computer got a boot virus, and I had to start from the beginning (reload the OS) :( That'll teach me to keep Norton updated.

Ahh well, I'm back up and running now, It's a good job that my editing suite is isolated :)

Thnx for the posts..

Globecaster
 

There is a system called Globecaster that switches live video sources.

www.globalstreams.com

FYI, I use a Toaster based system (VT3) for live switching at work. It simply rocks. Yes, it has messed up a time or two, but that's very seldom considering I've used it for several years now. I looked at the Globecast system before making the purchase. Newtek's Video Toaster kills the Globecaster hands down. There is a huge online community dedicated to the Toaster system and is just as informative as this site.

Bobby, how do you manage when there are big distances between host and cameras? Are you using DV or an analog signal?

I'm curious because a friend is currently looking into a solution where he will try and build a series of small mini-itx systems (1 per camera) and go cam->firewire->mini-itx->ethernet->fast switch->final host.

Combined with some custom software on the host to switch and manage the EDL as such.

Aaron

I use three Sonys on individual P/T systems in our courtroom, and the maximum cable run is only around 80 feet or so. We're just using composite connections, no DV involved. I believe with the SX-8 (BOB for the Toaster), there's no need for additional GenLock devices as everything is synced. on input.

It is possible to use firewire as a source on the switcher, which I've done to an extent, but I've heard it's usually a no-no due to the latency involved. There's a good 3-5 frame delay between live and switched with any analog connection to the BOB, but firewire had an additonal delay which made it (to me) nearly non-usable when mixed with analog and digital sources. If all sources were firewire connections, it might work fine, not sure, depends on your routing.

What is mini-itx? Seems like a lot of steps for that video to go through to get to your switcher.

mini-itx is just a small form factor PC motherboard - and there is now nano-itx which are about 6 inches or so square. His idea was to basically build VERY small PC's with firewire and transfer that over a network, synced on a master machine. Might not work at all, but it could be a lower cost way as those mini-itx systems are pretty cheap.

Aaron

Gotcha. If he wants keep the video digital, he could also look at firewire repeaters. Could be cheaper than a pc for each connection. I don't know what length of distances he wants to send the video, but analog connections can look really good, are cheaper and sometimes more reliable.