Pit Conductor camera setup...

[Anonymous067]

I know there is lots of other threads about this, but my TD and myself have been working on trying to figure out a solution similar to Broadway setups with orchestra conductor cameras, monitors on the music stands of the instrumentalists, and some type of flat panel monitor to go on the lip of the stage.

Does anybody work for a pro show that does this with minimal lag and delay?

Specific products? We want to know how the pros do it (real equipment) so that we can try to see if it can make it to our budget...

 

[Footer]

Tube TV's still reign supreme in this world. We do this for the opera company I work for. We use 3 Sony 24" reference B&W TV's, one mounted center of the house in the FOH mix position and two more mounted in each vom going onstage. For "backstage singers" we use 2 Dell 19" LCD monitors that have composite inputs. You don't want the maestro cam to be at the lip of the stage, you want it to be where the talent is looking when they are singing. I have never seen a monitor on every music stand, that seems a little much. All signals are composite in our system.

Monitoring systems are a pretty custom job. The reason we do it is our orchestra is 10' above stage level and upstage. The singers can not see the maestro and the maestro can not see the singers, therefore we have to do monitors both directions. Where you place monitors, what kind you use, and all that fun stuff is totally dictated by the space you are in and how the orchestra is set up. Many places have monitoring systems that are 20+ years old, so what gear they tell you to get you no longer can get. If you can go CRT, do. If you have to go LCD, go with a computer monitor that has composite inputs. If you can't afford that, a LCD TV with a "game mode" would be the next best option.

 

[headcrab]

Or you could use this
For only $28.00 each when QTY 50+ purchased - RCA | S-VIDEO | VGA TO VGA Converter | Analog Video Converters
and a LCD monitor.
(No help for a true professional rig, but it would work.)

 

[epimetheus]

Or you could use this
For only $28.00 each when QTY 50+ purchased - RCA | S-VIDEO | VGA TO VGA Converter | Analog Video Converters
and a LCD monitor.
(No help for a true professional rig, but it would work.)

The lag due to a converter like this will most likely make it worthless, even in a non-professional rig. The whole point of a conductor camera is timing, lag (or lack thereof) is critical.

We use LCD TV's for feeding the conductor to the choir members in my church's Singing Christmas Tree and we don't have any lag problems. The TV's are last year's Vizio model and the video signal is composite.

 

[kiwitechgirl]

We use a little "bullet" camera, feeding a regular video splitter which then goes to CRT TVs wherever we need them - composite signal. We have a mixture of RCA and BNC plugs on the gear - it wasn't acquired all at the same time - but have very few problems. We've done it wirelessly once - the MD was playing keyboard on a truck being pushed around the stage by the cast! - and it was pretty good except that there were a couple of dead spots on the stage - push him six inches either way and it would come right.

 

[Anonymous067]

If you can't afford that, a LCD TV with a "game mode" would be the next best option.

What inputs would I use on the LCD TV...if it doesn't have composite inputs, and I'm using a security camera with BNC output? What type of converter would I need, if necessary...

 

[epimetheus]

What inputs would I use on the LCD TV...if it doesn't have composite inputs, and I'm using a security camera with BNC output? What type of converter would I need, if necessary...

What model LCD TV? I rather curious that you've found a tv that doesn't have a composite input, unless you're using a computer monitor.

 

[Anonymous067]

What model LCD TV? I rather curious that you've found a tv that doesn't have a composite input, unless you're using a computer monitor.

Sorry, computer monitor. That's what I meant to say... I have a three-monitor computer set-up at my house, and I was going to take one of those for a trial run with a camera before I invest in this project for real. I already own the camera and the monitor, so I thought I'd give it a run.

 

[mstaylor]

What type of signal is being used by the camera?

 

[Anonymous067]

What type of signal is being used by the camera?

Err...couldn't tell you. I got a lot of old security cameras from a warehouse a friend worked at that got shut down...They're still in a box, haven't looked at them. I think they're Supercircuits branded though.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Since you said that they have a BNC connector, then it most likely is sending a composite baseband video signal. What you will have to do is get a scan converter to change the type of signal into something that the computer monitor will recognize. On the consumer side of things, you could get something like this after adapting the cable from BNC to RCA. For something a little more "professional", you could try this. Remember that with every added device, you will likely add some latency in the image.

 

[museav]

Remember that with every added device, you will likely add some latency in the image.

Also remember that if you scan convert the composite video to one resolution and then the monitor has to convert that to its native resolution there may be even greater latency due to two conversions being involved. If you can get a scan converter that outputs the native resolution of the monitor and then bypass any scaling in the monitor that may minimize the latency.

At the same time, keep in mind that it may take more to convert a low resolution security camera signal to a higher resolution computer image than it would if you started with a higher resolution image. And the results may be a lower quality image than desired or expected, especially with inexpensive devices.

 

[metti]

I can definitely say that Plasma TVs are used in pretty professional applications for conductor monitors although it is still, in my experience, always with video signals staying in the analogue realm with no major conversions. I worked on a show recently where we used three 42" Panasonic Plasma TVs with one mounted on the front of the mezzanine and one on each box-boom. These were the expensive professional grade ones designed for broadcast work (this one I believe: Learn about Panasonic's TH-42PH9UK). I also know that the New York City Ballet uses an extensive selection of broadcast quality Plasma monitors for their conductor monitors.

 

[museav]

I can definitely say that Plasma TVs are used in pretty professional applications for conductor monitors although it is still, in my experience, always with video signals staying in the analogue realm with no major conversions.

This is a confusing area to many as most modern cameras are digital devices as are most modern displays. Going from a CCD camera to a plasma or LCD display using analog transmission often involves D/A conversion at the camera and A/D conversion at the display. The closer you can come to mapping a pixel on the camera directly to a pixel on the display with no processing or conversion required, the less latency and more accurate representation possible. Also keep in mind that there are differences in use between a confidence monitor and a conductor monitor.