Simple video archiving and streaming for a theater

June 21, 2010 7:47 PM

I'm looking for a DIY live video archiving/local-streaming solution for a small theater.

My boyfriend works for a small theater. They don't currently record all of their shows, but would like to start doing so. In particular, they want their setup to involve capturing video with a cheap-ish HD camera, and sending it the following places:

* A computer, for archiving.
* An HD TV in the lobby, so late-comers know when to come in (maybe 20-30 feet away from the camera)
* One or more not-necessarily-HD displays backstage and elsewhere, for crew (potentially more than 100 feet from the camera)

My first thought was that the camera captures the video straight from the camera, writes it uncompressed to disk, and on-the-fly streams it over a network to the other displays with some sort of network-streaming contraptions at the end points connected to displays (maybe something like the WD TV Live or similar), but I have no idea what combination of software would do it, other than something cludgy involving VLC or some such, and something more permanent/less hacky/easier to use would be good. I'd also love suggestions for alternative topologies (maybe the camera connects straight to the TVs?). Mac-friendly things would be slick, followed by Linux, with Windows as a last resort.

posted by andrewpendleton to Technology (3 answers total)

Best answer: Are you averse to installing coax throughout the theatre? It may make sense to run some coax backstage for your SD signals. Depending upon the configuration of your theatre, this may actually be quite simple to do, adheres to the KISS principle, and will cost you very little. You'll need an RF modulator to take the video output from your camera and pipe it into the coax. Relying on streaming is asking for headaches. Don't. Do. It.

Run HDMI straight from the camera to the TV in the lobby. You'll need a splitter from the camera ($35 at Amazon for a unit of questionable quality). You could be fancy, and route the video through the computer, which would also potentially let you put up a nice graphic on the TV in the lobby before and after the performance, and also skip the splitter.

Monoprice sell HDMI cables up to 100ft, so this shouldn't pose a huge problem. (100ft is pushing the limits of HDMI. Go shorter if you can)

At the computer, you'll need something to capture the video. BlackMagic's capture boards are the gold standard, and not too expensive for an HDMI capture device. If you're splurging on your camera, and it has SDI outputs, they also sell a surprisingly affordable board to capture that.

You'll also want a Windows PC to do the capture. I love macs, but you won't find one within your price range that will also accept a PCIe capture board for HDMI. Linux is asking for headaches. If you're going to be doing any editing (unlikely with a 1-camera setup), I'd recommend a mac and Final Cut, although I don't believe this is the case for you.

Some of these steps were a bit generic. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away. There are other ways of accomplishing this -- I think this may be the best route for you, considering your budget.
posted by schmod at 8:42 PM on June 21, 2010

Response by poster: Great tips, to be sure. Any particular software recommendations? I leaned towards Macs in large measure because they're already using another Mac running QLab to do show control stuff, and the staff are familiar, but it's certainly not a hard-and-fast requirement.
posted by andrewpendleton at 9:21 PM on June 21, 2010

If you don't want to go down the video capture route, you could just save the video to the camera's internal storage mechanism (usually SD cards these days).

If you want to capture HD, you'll need a computer with a PCIe slot -- either a cheap windows PC, or a Mac Pro.
posted by schmod at 7:22 AM on June 22, 2010