My needs are simple. Small cash strapped community theatre, I need a one camera feed from the booth (mounted on wall outside of booth) just static on a wide shot of the stage. Feed needs to go to box office, two lobby monitors, and two dressing rooms. I was hoping to find a wi-fi solution that people could access from their smart devices, but I’ll take simple video-only distribution at this point. Not looking for production quality, more just a way for folks to see what’s going on. Ideas?
In-lobby/dressing room video monitor
- Thread starterCoop165
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techieman33
Well-Known Member
Cheapest would probably be to setup something like a youtube live stream. I'm pretty sure you can setup a private invite only stream, or you could leave it unlisted so only people with the link could view it. Another option would be a security camera system, a lot of them are wifi enabled these days.
Wi-fi is going to have more or less (noticeable) latency, and YouTube more. Whether or not that's a problem for your particular situation is not something I can say. Digital wired connections also can have some latency, but I suspect generally less than wireless systems.
As a general thing, wired connections are harder to install but rather more reliable and subject to much less random wonkiness than wireless connections. Particularly with protocols and frequency ranges used by consumer devices (i.e. WiFi and Bluetooth), what works beautifully when tested in an empty venue might not work so well when a hundred patrons with a hundred smart phones file in and take their seats.
As a general thing, wired connections are harder to install but rather more reliable and subject to much less random wonkiness than wireless connections. Particularly with protocols and frequency ranges used by consumer devices (i.e. WiFi and Bluetooth), what works beautifully when tested in an empty venue might not work so well when a hundred patrons with a hundred smart phones file in and take their seats.
BillConnerFASTC
Well-Known Member
We use a pretty standard internal CCTV security system for his sort of thing. Wired analogue for the main camera feed, so low latency, this feeds the monitors on stage (analogue latency is low enough to use for cueing) and in the dressing rooms and in the public areas, as well as the booth. The IR on the camera is useful in blackout, and we can snap the IR filter in and out under DMX control. The feed is also fed to the the bar and foyer monitors, and these have a switch (under lighting desk control) to swap the view between the stage and rolling powerpoint for upcoming shows etc. The booth also has a picture in picture display of all of the cameras around the theatre, so we can tell if the bar and other public areas are making their way to their seats before the FOH staff call through to use to give us clearance.
Ben Stiegler
Well-Known Member
What camera has dmx control of IR or you built something?
BillConnerFASTC
Well-Known Member
Dionysus
Well-Known Member
My primary venue has a GoPro fed into a scaler, sent to a Q-Sys that routes the video and audio various places. Easy enough to do without the Q-Sys and essentially use any number of other ways to "spread it around".
IP Cameras over a network like IP security cameras again can be spread around a number of ways such as small tablet computers or a single computer with an output that goes to a bunch of screens.
I have a venue that uses a crappy security camera fed into a scaler that outputs to a few monitors directly and a few more monitors on VGA video extenders.
IP Cameras over a network like IP security cameras again can be spread around a number of ways such as small tablet computers or a single computer with an output that goes to a bunch of screens.
I have a venue that uses a crappy security camera fed into a scaler that outputs to a few monitors directly and a few more monitors on VGA video extenders.
Dan Fischer
Active Member
This is exactly what we do too. We use a CCTV DVR that doesn't have a hard disk in it (saved money that way). We have FOH cam in the lighting catwalks, SL, SR and a conductor/pit cam for when its a musical. SM has a multiplexed view of all 4 shots and the cams have IR so they work in blackouts. We split the feed off of the DVR to a monitor for SM, another for ASM, one for lighting booth, both dressing rooms and green room. It works great and if you put the DVR on the network you can use an app or a secure website to view them remotely like put an iPad in the pit with the conductor.
Here is a pic of our SM station with the cam shots.
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Having the camera views available on your phone is definitely useful occasionally. We also have a pair of monitors mounted facing the stage - these are used when we do musicals because we don't have pit space, so the orchestra is out of view of the stage, and vice versa. The MD has a video feed of the stage and the stage gets a video feed of the MD. Works surprisingly well.
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