Very inexpensive camera feed to green room area
- Thread starterDoowop63
- Start date
microstar
Well-Known Member
I installed one of these at the local community theatre with good results. Composite video (CV) color and b/w output. Note: needs an external infrared illuminator for true night vision; just "low light" as is. Available used on Ebay for $20-$30... that's where I bought mine. There are many different models in this series so read the descriptions carefully as to zoom size, power requirements, etc.
Doowop63
Active Member
We currently have a black and white camera with Sam but the washout is extremely bad in highlight situations. We are looking to run some type of a color camera with sound from our cat walk position to this side of the stage and from there converted to call wax to a TV monitor in our green room downstairs
Ben Stiegler
Well-Known Member
Not sure what “call wax” refers to ... but here’s an idea. Depending on view angle and distance from catwalk to stage, you might try an inexpensive webcam ... even a WiFi home security type. Link to theater WiFi, then pull the signal off to a tired old pc in the green room, which would feed your TV via its video output (use dvi to hdmi or display port to hdmi adapter). I think you might be better served with a house side wall position than catwalks.
I saw this used successfully at a regional outdoor theater in Leavenworth, WA.
Also ... taking audio from webcam isn’t optimal, and the Bosch above is video only. Take a monitor feed from your board, or just hang a tired old cardio mic over downstage center or nearby, and use a separate amp to drive backstage speakers. You can find a used 70v mixer amp pretty cheap ... this allows parallel wiring for as many transformer equipped speakers as you like, with the added bonus of a local volume control (l-pad) for each speaker.
I saw this used successfully at a regional outdoor theater in Leavenworth, WA.
Also ... taking audio from webcam isn’t optimal, and the Bosch above is video only. Take a monitor feed from your board, or just hang a tired old cardio mic over downstage center or nearby, and use a separate amp to drive backstage speakers. You can find a used 70v mixer amp pretty cheap ... this allows parallel wiring for as many transformer equipped speakers as you like, with the added bonus of a local volume control (l-pad) for each speaker.
NickVon
Well-Known Member
Basic Color HD security Cam that ouputs good old legacy Composite (NOT the ip/network kind) work great and can be had used for well under 100$. Some have built in audio, though most probably do not. and many have an auto iris for high/low light adapting. We have a couple of Sensomatic security camera's that we use for this purpose. But we feed audio to the green room via a separate mic/monitor feed and now from the Camera.
If you can find a composite video output security camera, chances are good you can use existing copper.
@Ben Stiegler suggestion of WiFi camera can be the 'easy button' or 'pull out your remaining hair' if you have IT problems.
In most spaces the expense is running Code-compliant cabling and both WiFi and using existing coax eliminate that.
@Ben Stiegler suggestion of WiFi camera can be the 'easy button' or 'pull out your remaining hair' if you have IT problems.
In most spaces the expense is running Code-compliant cabling and both WiFi and using existing coax eliminate that.
kjones9999
Member
I'll mention too -if you can get the video into a computer, you can use NDI to distribute via the network. This should be wired, but HX can work with wireless.
Is there a cost-effective dedicated NDI to HDMI hardware box out there? I spent some time looking for one at Infocomm and didn't come up with anything.
Without dedicated hardware you also need to have a computer at the other end.
kjones9999
Member
Not really... A $50 i3 is hard to beat. If they ever open it to ARMs that should change....
@microstar how did you hang it? I've been looking at mounting a similar camera here on a pipe for audio for a while now.
microstar
Well-Known Member
I did not pipe-mount mine but used a pedestal-type mount on a horizontal wood surface. The camera has a standard 1/4-20 threaded insert in the bottom so you could just bend a piece of 1/8" thick 2" wide aluminum strap into a U-shape turned 90 degrees, with a fixture C-clamp on one side and a hole for a 1/4" bolt on the other with the camera sitting in between.
