It's showtime…so where are the cameras & microphones?
August 31, 2015 7:14 PM Subscribe
Solutions for on-the-fly video streaming and recording of science conference in academic setting??
This week the science non-profit I work for is staging an academic conference-type event. There will be 100 or so attendees with approximately 15 presentations over 2 days.
Members now want the event to be streamed and the proceedings to be captured for posterity.
Mefi, is there any quick & dirty solutions (GoPro? iPhone? Periscope? YouTube?) that can be plugged in to stream and capture the broadcast? With decent live video and sound quality?
My major consideration is sound quality. Mics to soundboard into...?
We have solid internet and there is some sort of sound system we can plug into.
Help, oh mighty hivemind, you're my only hope!
This week the science non-profit I work for is staging an academic conference-type event. There will be 100 or so attendees with approximately 15 presentations over 2 days.
Members now want the event to be streamed and the proceedings to be captured for posterity.
Mefi, is there any quick & dirty solutions (GoPro? iPhone? Periscope? YouTube?) that can be plugged in to stream and capture the broadcast? With decent live video and sound quality?
My major consideration is sound quality. Mics to soundboard into...?
We have solid internet and there is some sort of sound system we can plug into.
Help, oh mighty hivemind, you're my only hope!
Best answer: Doing this right is not cheap. You can sort of do this for a semi-reasonable budget if you already have equipment, but don't expect wonderful results.
If all presenters are already using mics, the sound part is easy. You just need to connect your mixer to a laptop. Presumably, someone is handling the audio - they should be able to help you with this; all it takes is the right cable.
Video is harder to do well. Unless you have the budget and manpower to do it right, you are pretty much just going to be hooking a webcam up to your laptop and placing it in front of your presenter. Make sure you turn the mic on the laptop off. If you don't have any stage lighting for your presenter, it will help to direct as much light as possible towards them. Try not to rely exclusively on overhead lighting. Doing any better than this will be expensive and require technical skill.
Make sure you record as well as stream so that you don't lose anything when the stream stops working.
Speaking as someone who has done a lot of bootstrapped low-budget event tech for non-profits: 1) set expectations low and treat this as a last-minute experiment (which it is) and 2) do not be afraid to advocate for spending money on equipment to make things actually work (nothing worse than spending hours of staff time to put something together with duct tape and baling twine that will sort of, maybe work when the real solution is less than $100).
posted by ssg at 8:13 PM on August 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
If all presenters are already using mics, the sound part is easy. You just need to connect your mixer to a laptop. Presumably, someone is handling the audio - they should be able to help you with this; all it takes is the right cable.
Video is harder to do well. Unless you have the budget and manpower to do it right, you are pretty much just going to be hooking a webcam up to your laptop and placing it in front of your presenter. Make sure you turn the mic on the laptop off. If you don't have any stage lighting for your presenter, it will help to direct as much light as possible towards them. Try not to rely exclusively on overhead lighting. Doing any better than this will be expensive and require technical skill.
Make sure you record as well as stream so that you don't lose anything when the stream stops working.
Speaking as someone who has done a lot of bootstrapped low-budget event tech for non-profits: 1) set expectations low and treat this as a last-minute experiment (which it is) and 2) do not be afraid to advocate for spending money on equipment to make things actually work (nothing worse than spending hours of staff time to put something together with duct tape and baling twine that will sort of, maybe work when the real solution is less than $100).
posted by ssg at 8:13 PM on August 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
A sub-group of the non-profit I work for had a similar desire. Their event only had approximately 35 attendees, but they were able to use an iPad and someone sitting up close to the stage to stream and record the event. They streamed directly to YouTube.
I've never done it myself, though, so I can't give more detail than that.
posted by tacodave at 3:12 PM on September 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've never done it myself, though, so I can't give more detail than that.
posted by tacodave at 3:12 PM on September 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by mhoye at 7:19 PM on August 31, 2015