live stream/ wireless or wifi????

[flyweed]

Hey guys, I am trying to replace our OLD, nonworking, coaxial cable tv monitors in our theatre. We have a tv monitor in our booth, in our green room, dressing room and downstairs in our dance studio.

I am looking for a camera that is Wireless or "Wifi" that could broadcast a LIVE feed to NEW "Smart" tv's in all of those locations. (so no more cables)

We do have WiFi throughout the facility, so I am hoping there is something out there where I can set the camera up in the Theatre, and it can sent it's signal wirelessly TO our WiFi, and then then TV's can pull the signals off via Wifi as well

I just can't seem to find what I am looking for. Hoping someone here has been through this, and can point me to some equipment that'll do just this!

Thanks
Dan

 

[robartsd]

If low latency and high reliablity are high priorities, you will be disappointed in any wifi-based solution (even if you can get reasonable picture quality on the bandwidth available). Most likely a solution will entail a "server" that streams the camera feed to the TV's

 

[AlexDonkle]

What's wrong with continuing to use coax and just upgrading the equipment? Most TVs of any age have tuners built into them, and video over coax is still works great. WiFi is going to add latency, decrease reliability, and cost a lot more.

If your equipment's outdated, you may want to upgrade to a QAM modular for the camera, and use TV's with QAM tuners (most TV's made since ~2006 have this built-in) which replaced the old analog NTSC tuners. Can easily get digital, full HD video to all displays at very low latency using this method.

 

[flyweed]

I just figured a LIVE wireless stream from the auditorium to those remote tv positions would be relatively easy. Kind of like chromecasting from my Android phone or laptop to my tv's at home..it works great, is HD, and I have NO lag at all. I just figured there would be a fairly simple solution to send a live feed wirelessly to those other "rooms" in the facility.

 

[FMEng]

A smart TV won't have an app to play a private, live stream, and there is no way to install an app that isn't pushed from the mothership. I also suspect a wi-fi link won't have enough bandwidth to support more than a couple of video streams, and each TV is going to count as a dedicated stream.

If HD resolution is the goal there are a couple of ways to distribute it. Take the camera's HDMI output to an HDMI distro amp, then use a pair of HDMI over Cat 5 converters for each TV.

Or convert from the camera to serial digital (SDI) and put that into an SD DA. SD then goes over coax to each TV, where you'll need an SD to HDMI converter. The catch is the coax has to be of known, high quality for SD to work. I did a variation on this by starting with a security camera which natively outputs SDI. But, those are getting rare as the CCTV industry is moving to their own standard.

 

[flyweed]

my goal isn't HD....just want a good clear picture our our stage, so when dance troupes, casts, etc are waiting in the dressing rooms, green room, or dance studio, they can see what is going on onstage.

 

[sk8rsdad]

If you already have the coax installed then replace the old monitors with any TV that has a QAM tuner and pick up a ZeeVee. The Zv810 will do 1080P.

 

[flyweed]

yeah coax (RG6) is at all the current "BOX" tv locations mounted on each wall. SO I just need the convert box like the ZVpro820? so a camera just plugs into the ZV, and then coax out to the tv's???

 

[sk8rsdad]

yeah coax (RG6) is at all the current "BOX" tv locations mounted on each wall. SO I just need the convert box like the ZVpro820? so a camera just plugs into the ZV, and then coax out to the tv's???

Yup. You only need the 820 if you need 2 separate channels. We use the Zv810 for a view of the stage and it provides a secondary channel for an advertising loop.

 

[flyweed]

I can't find the 810 on their website. Got a link? What camera are you using to plug into the 810? So, if I put a flat screen at each location, do I then need a converter(decoder)
box at each tv to change the coax signal back to HDMI plug for plugging into TV?

 

[sk8rsdad]

http://www.zeevee.com/products/zvpro/zvpro-820-zvpro-810 It's the one on the left.

 

[flyweed]

what do you guys use for your camera?

 

[sk8rsdad]

I don't think our camera is available any longer. It's an Orion Images WHDC-21BHC Camera. Google "HDMI security camera" to find something that's still being made.