Recording Multi-Cam Live Event Direct To PC
 

Last week I shot a multi-cam event for a school administration fall communication update to the parents.

I decided to try something new on what woudl be a relatively stable and completely uninspiring shoot.

I brought out the alienware and the shuttle computers and recorded live direct to the PC using Vegas, as well as recording to tape (just in case).

There were only two problems with the shoot....

1) The stupid "getting audio from venue PA system into cam with out the hum & hiss" problem
and
2) Accidentally moving the alienware and bumping loose the 1394 cable interrupting the stream for a few seconds.

But like I said.... we ran tape "just in case" and the in case happened. The event also started a few minutes before I was able to set up my capture computer, so we had to capture tape for 15 minutes for the rear cam (GL2) only. The other cam (GS320) recorded flawlessly to the PC.

My post in the "Now Hear This" forum will go over the audio issue.

But this was to indicate my very positive experience with live capture to HD. THe only real issue is needing a monitor, PC, table, surge protector / outlet tree, and room for a mouse / KBD for the shuttle computer. My alienware mobile desktop is much friendlier to this setup but still needs a stand and an additional power outlet.

Skipped a lot of wasted time in tape capture, though probably spent an hour packing up the two newest PCs in the office and all the related bits and pieces.

So the take home lesson...... it works quite well and can speed up POST, but if you have to disassemble your office systems to do it... not such a big time saver and a big risk to the office system(s) that need to get disassembled and transported in your vehicle (I'm sure car insurance won't cover replacement edit system if you get totaled driving over).

One reason to do this might be if IMMEDIATE delivery were part of the contract (like some sort of sports event production, or musical festival contest where DVDs needed to be available at the end of the day). It would be handy to just capture direct to PC, link PCs by gigabit, and have a third system to combine tracks and run a quick trip through with a multicam tool of choice then render out..... but then I'd be more inclined to use a SD analog live event mixer and record THAT footage direct to computer and skip the whole multicam in post step (yes there would be a massive quality hit by recording s-video instead of DV)

We do something similar every Sunday at church. We have multiple cameras running to a video switcher. The switcher then runs to our DV deck which, in turn, is connected to the PC. We capture the service with all camera switches live into the computer. Editing of the 1 hour service can often be completed within 30 to 45 minutes after the end of the service.

What kind of switcher are you using? Is the switcher switching in DV or is it analog and then you take an s-video out into your DV deck to capture in digital? I've been toying with getting more into the live event production side of things than weddings and have been digging around for good equipment ideas.

Right now it's a videonics unit. We'd like to upgrade to something newer but it's worked well for us.

Here's our path:

multiple cameras -> s-video -> switcher -> s-video -> deck -> firewire -> computer

We also get direct sound from our sound board. We record on tape in the deck as an emergency backup but no longer have any tapes in the cameras.