Datavideo DAC-70 Up/Down/Cross Converter vs Decimator MD-HX HDMI and SDI Cross Conver

[Steven Digges]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Digges
"The only way to avoid it is to edit live via a switcher. I suggest your goal needs to be avoiding or minimizing post-production. Yes it costs more but the reward can pay for itself on one gig."

Gary "It literally cannot, because the cost of the switcher is not the problem. The problem is the cost of at least one camera operator minimum, because you can't switch and follow the speaker at the same time"

These are all day gigs at the least. Corporate convention work is often multiple days and evenings in a row. They are not one man gigs. I have had many clients I call "refugies" in a joking way because they hired a "professional video operator" to shoot their event and the meeting planner got completely hosed. These gigs go in the toilet all the time by guys who do not understand the scope of the work. I make money from loyal clients who fly me around the country to avoid a catrastify at their programs. Not bad mouthing anyone. Just saying in general they are not one camera and one man gigs. My minium set up is two cameras, a PowerPoint feed, and TWO guys. The other set ups are three camera operators on broadcast cameras with studio configs, CCUs, and an engineer on the switch. I can meet any budget and quality expectation. It scares me for the inexperienced on this board to think they can book a corporate gig and walk in to a big ballroom show and think they can pull it off. If it is an average general sesion and they have never been there before most guys will go down in flames.

Most "corporate meeting events" are far from some guy with a camcorder showing up and pointing it at a guy at a podium. Maybe we are not talking about the same kind of work?

Kind Regards,

Steve

[Gary Huff]

Originally Posted by Steven Digges

Corporate convention work is often multiple days and evenings in a row.

Yes, very much so. I am doing one in Orlando next week. I did one of the same client in Las Vegas last year. Multiple days (3) and I'm hardly "off" the entire time. While I agree that these are not one man jobs in general, with me, they are. Although this year the Orlando job will have a second shooter because I film so many interviews (per speaker) that I can't get all the broll I need simply because I can't be in two places at the same time. Also, at this event I won't be filming stage presentations as the company putting on the event has that in their package (3 man crew with switcher).

While I have done a one camera out of necessity (small space, had to film interviews and a session simultaneously), that was done in UHD and then later on I did keyframing to simulate camera moves. Thankfully there wasn't much movement, though I definitely prefer the look of two cameras and have not made that a part of my workflow except in specific circumstances.

When you travel with two operators, do you fly with them as well and put them up in a room, or do you hire locally? I'm hiring locally in Orlando, but lucked out because there's a shooter who lives there that I've worked with before.

I can meet any budget and quality expectation.

I never look to meet corporate quality expectations, and I think that's what makes how I approach things differently than most.

Most "corporate meeting events" are far from some guy with a camcorder showing up and pointing it at a guy at a podium. Maybe we are not talking about the same kind of work?

We are talking about the exact same kind of work, I just have a different philosophy, approach, and I also use cameras that are ill-suited for this kind of work.

[Nate Haustein]

Originally Posted by Josh Hayes

Believe it or not Nate, I'm thinking one of the cheap little recorders might be my best option after doing a ton of research on potentially bigger purchases like the the BM Hyperdeck Mini and stuff like that to go with BlackMagic Atem HD Switcher.

I think what I'll do is take the slides feed from the house and record it via the device you mentioned. Since it works as an output as well (something a bunch of the big dogs don't do), then I can pass the output through to my switcher. At which point I can still do a live edit with the connected cameras and that slide feed and record that final Program to my Black Magic Video Assist at Apple ProRes LT quality.

My main thing was I wanted a hardware solution that recorded the slides like I needed in case something went wrong with the live edit so I didn't loose the timed slide record. And that if did it without needing a laptop as well. Also the fact that you can stick a little mic on it for sync is awesome too. And you're saying USB 3.0 works as well?

How compressed are the slides btw? Do you have any problems with the device being for lack of a better term, wonky? As I mentioned earlier in this thread I had a hell of a time getting the several cheap recorders I got to work a few years ago. Hell, theoretically I could buy a second one of these and do an H.264 capture of the final program record as well (although the Atem doesn't have an HDMI Program Out so I'd need to convert SDI to HDMI to do that. But then I'd even have a low quality backup of the entire live edit. Have you tried to capture recorded footage with it at all? I'm curious about how heavy the compression is.

The little game recorder is not a perfect solution - it would be better if you paired it with a Decimator :) Someone mentioned earlier that sometimes AV systems are set to odd resolutions depending on the projectors, and I don't know exactly what this little device would do if you fed it a non-standard size video resolution or frame rate. I can also see this being true with other options like the Video Assist or Atomos recorders.

The H264 video records at 1.5Mbps in 1080p, so quite low and really optimized for long record times and low-movement slides. That being said, I think it looks pretty good at that data rate. I am not sure if the loop-through HDMI stays uncompressed or not. The actual USB port is USB 2.0, but I used a 16GB USB 3.0 stick just fine.

I had an issue with it the other day doing a loop through via HDMI, where the audio from the Laptop didn't want to pass through the device into the house system, so I'm looking into getting a cheap HDMI doubler to eliminate the need to do a loop through connection in certain cases.

Hopefully that helps. I'm typically using this for speakers where it's not really expected by the client to have full-quality slides, so if things go south it's not the end of the world. For a big ballroom show, I would look into buying/renting more traditional, flexible equipment.

[Steven Digges]

Here is the good news for you guys. The corporate AV world is very slow to change. It was not all that long ago when almost all powerpoint came out of a laptop as an RGB signal over the 15 pin VGA port at 1024 x 768 resolution. Fortunately those days are gone.

Almost all projectors these days are native 1080P @ 60htz. That is a common standard but it changes, a lot. Today AV guys have to be ready for any device or resolution a client sets down in front of them. That includes phones and tablets, both Mac & PC. Sounds like it would be simple just to make everything output 1080P but its not that easy. All devices don't do that. Presenters also design their slides in whatever res their device happens to be running. Sometimes, if you change the resolution to something other than what they were designed in things get wonky and the slides don't look right. That's when the technician jumps in and changes input and output settings on everything until they all work well together. That is why I mentioned adaptability is so important. You never know what you are going to be dealing with. It is far better now than it used to be but keep in mind AV techs have to be prepared to handle all signal flows.

Your slide feed can come from a variety of sources in a variety of formats. I suggest at least one of the things in your kit should be a HDMI DA or splitter. Of course you will also need to be able to handle SDI feeds (decimator). Please keep in mind when you interface with AV techs they will most likely be helpful in getting you a signal but they are not responsible for making that feed compatible with your system. Preplanning with the client and the AV techs will go a long way in ensuring you have a successful shoot.

Kind Regards,

Steve