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USB Camera Quick Start Guide

PTZOptics USB Camera Quick Start Guide

USB PTZ Camera Setup

Step 1: When you first receive your PTZOptics USB Camera, the first thing you should do is read the included manual.

Step 2: Inside your box you will find your camera, the manual, the power supply, a remote control, a USB 3.0 A to B cable, two AAA batteries and a serial connection cable used for joystick controllers.

PTZ SDI Camera Manual

Step 3: Once you have read the manual, it is helpful to select the video resolution and frame rate you would like to use with your camera. The camera’s resolution is set by a yellow dial on the back Interface board of the camera. You can reference the available frame rates in your manual or on a table printed on the bottom of your camera.

NOTE: The default dial setting is “0” which is 1080p60fps. This is ideal for sports but you may want to consider setting “6” for 1080p30fps for the classic natural video look depending your application.

Note: This camera supports simultaneous USB 3.0, HDMI and IP network streaming up to 1080p-60. The camera also supports non-simultaneous CVBS (composite video) output via 3.5mm connector when the camera resolution is set to 480i or 576i.

Step 4: Once you have set your resolution dial, you can plug in the included power supply and turn on your PTZOptics camera. If you would like to provide PoE (Power over Ethernet) power to this camera, PTZOptics has confirmed compatibility with the WiFiTexas WT-GAF-PTZOptics PoE splitter which provides power and ethernet to the camera.

Step 5: When you are first getting setup it is helpful to connect your camera to an HDMI monitor, but you can also use the USB output to view video from your camera as well.

USB Camera Power Supply or PoE

Step 6: Once your camera is powered on and connected to the network you should determine whether you will use a dynamic or static IP address. We will go more in depth later on in this video. (Step 8)

Note: A dynamic IP address can change periodically making it difficult to manage in the longer term. We suggest setting up static ip addresses with sequential IP addresses for tidy management of multiple cameras. (more…)

Posted by Paul Richards
Back to the Basics, Broadcast, How To
Quick Start Guide, USB 3 PTZ Camera Input, USB Camera Setup
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SDI Camera Setup Guide

PTZOptics SDI Camera Quick Start Guide

What is in the box SDI Camera

Step 1: When you first receive your PTZOptics SDI Camera, the first thing you should do is read the included manual.

Step 2: Inside your box you will find your camera, the manual, the power supply, a remote control, two AAA batteries and a serial connection cable used for joystick controllers.

PTZ SDI Camera Manual

Step 4: Once you have set your resolution dial, can turn on your PTZOptics camera. If your network switch provides PoE (Power over Ethernet), you will not need to use the included power supply.

NOTE: Only PTZOptics SDI and NDI cameras support PoE power. These cameras support PoE 802.3af. The camera via PoE consume between 12 – 13 Watts; but at longer cable runs can require up to 15 Watts to accommodate for voltage drop.

(more…)

Posted by Paul Richards
Back to the Basics, Camera Control, How To, IP Camera Control, Power Over Ethernet, PTZ, Videos
Camera Setup Guide, Quick Start Guide, SDI Camera Setup
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NDI Camera Setup Guide

In this video and blog post, we discuss how to setup your NDI® HX camera from start to finish. If you have any questions please reach out to our support team. We believe this video will get you started right on the best path forward. We also include technical information about IP video networking and bandwidth considerations. Finally, at the end of this blog post we also include a 30 minute webinar dedicated to answering your questions.

NDI HX PTZ Camera Opening of the Box

Step 1: When you first receive your PTZOptics NDI®| HX Enabled camera, the first thing you should do is read the included manual. A portion of this manual is dedicated to the NDI|HX Setup which you should pay specific attention to on page 45.

PTZOptics NDI Camera Manual

Step 2: Inside your box you will find your camera, the manual, the power supply, a remote control, two AAA batteries and a serial connection cable used for joystick controllers.

NDI HX Camera Whats in the Box

NDI HX Resolution Dial

NOTE: Keep in mind the camera does have a “dial priority”setting inside the IP interface. This interface supports 50HZ(PAL) and 60HZ(NTSC) and Dial Priority (see rotary dial on camera) formats. 60Hz is used for North America.

Step 4: Once you have set your resolution dial, can turn on your PTZOptics NDI® camera. If your network switch provides PoE (Power over Ethernet), you will not need to use the included power supply.

Power Over Ethernet NDI Camera Setup

NOTE: Cameras support PoE 802.3af. The camera via PoE consumes between 12 – 13 Watts; but at longer cable runs can require up to 15 Watts to accommodate for voltage drop.

Step 5: When you are first getting setup it is helpful to connect your camera to an HDMI monitor, but you can also use the SDI output to view video from your camera as well. Step 6: Once your camera is powered on and connected to the network you should determine whether you will use a dynamic or static IP address. We highly suggest assigning your camera a static IP address for long term use.

NDI Camera Resolution Options

NOTE: Most applications will require your NDI® camera and the receiving computer or device to be in the same subnet of the LAN (example – 192.168.1.123 & 192.168.1.111 belong to the same subnet; 192.168.1.123 & 192.168.0.125 do not).

Step7: Let’s put the included AAA batteries inside our remote control and take a look at the features. You can pan, tilt and zoom your camera using the up/down/left/right arrow keys on your remote. You can also, set a specific PTZ camera preset by clicking the “preset” button and than entering the number you want to set. You can try moving the camera and calling a preset quickly to test out the cameras movement operations. If you find the default camera preset movements too fast, you can always change the speed settings in the camera menu. You can access the OSD Menu which stands for (On Screen Display) for this camera by pressing the “menu” button. This is where you can navigate into the advanced features such as iris, shutter speed, gain, color balance, contrast, luminance and much more with the arrow keys.

NDI Camera Speed Settings

Tip: You can access the OSD menu remotely using the cameras IP address in any web browser or with the IP joystick.

Tip: You can control up to 4 cameras with a single IR remote control. Use the shortcut *# and the corresponding Function key to set up unique camera IDs on your IR remote. Example *#F2 would set a camera to ID 2 on your IR remote.

Step 8: You can use DHCP to dynamically assign an IP address for your camera. This is a great way to temporarily assign an IP address to your camera. You can setup your camera with DHCP by using the IR Remote and entering “# > * > 4”. Once the camera reboots, you can use the IR remote to locate the dynamic IP address by pressing “* > # > 4”.

Control Multiple Cameras with an IR Remote

Step 9: You can assign a static IP address to your NDI® HX camera using our Windows Only IP address settings tool, or with any Mac or PC computers web browser. Let’s use a web browser. Enter the IP address of your camera into your web-browser and press enter. when prompted enter the default username and password which is “admin / admin”. You may want to consider changing this default password in the admin area.

Setup a Static IP Address

Step 10: Navigate to the “Network” tab and choose “Fixed IP Address” from the very first drop down menu. You can now enter the static IP address you wish the camera to use and press “Apply.” You can now reboot your camera by clicking the “System” tab and clicking the “Reboot” button.

Step 11: Now that your camera has a static IP address, it’s time to configure your NDI settings. By default, your NDI|HX camera has two or three preset settings (depending on your camera model) that you can choose from for a simple setup with NDI. You can choose between High / Medium / Low and click the “Apply” button and reboot the camera.

NOTE: NDI stands for “Network Device Interface” and NDI® HX stand for “High-Efficiency Network Device Interface”. NDI features a combination of high quality video with low latency transmission that is ideal for live video production. NDI|HX is ideal for broadcast professionals adding NDI sources to an existing network that has not been originally designed for video production. Here are some example networks that are ideal for NDI|HX video sources.

Types of NewTek NDI Networks

Type of Network	NDI\|HX
House of Worship	Best
Corporate Network	Best
Education	Best
Small Business	Best
Healthcare	Best
Any Network not dedicated to NDI	Best
Event Streaming	Best

Tip: NDI|HX video sources are generally one-tenth of the bandwidth of full NDI sources. Let’s take a look at a bandwidth comparison chart.

NDI HX Bandwidth Chart

NDI Mode	Bandwidth
HDI HX Low (720p60fps)	6 Mbps
NDI\|HX Medium (1080p30fps)	8 Mbps
NDI\|HX High (1080p60fps)	12 Mbps
NDI (1080p60fps)	125-200 Mbps (Nominal Range)

NDI Resolution and Bandwidth Graph Chart

Example:

NDI Device Examples (1080p60fps)	Bandwidth	Accumulated Bandwidth	Total % of Gigabit Network Switch
NDI Scan Converter on Laptop for Powerpoint slides	125 Mbps	125 Mbps	12.5%
2 x NDI Monitor for camera operators	125 Mbps / Each	375 Mbps	12.5% / Each
vMix System output in 1080p60fps	125 Mbps	500 Mbps	12.5%
NDI Monitor in Overflow Room	125 Mbps	625 Mbps	12.5%
5 x PTZOptics NDI\|HX (High)	12 Mbps / Each	685 Mbps	1.2% / Each
Suggested Headroom	250 Mbps	910 Mbps	25%
Total Usage			91%

Example NDI IP Video Bandwidth Chart

Tip: Network Bandwidth headroom recommendations can vary widely from 30% – 60% depending on what the network is utilized for. Please consult your network administrator before adding NDI sources to your local area network. Newtek suggests “NDI traffic should not take up more than 75% of the bandwidth of any network link.”.

Step 12: It’s now time to make sure you have the latest NDI tools installed on your computer. The latest drivers can be downloaded here – https://www.newtek.com/ndihx/products/. Once you have downloaded and installed the latest NDI tool pack, you should reboot your computer.

Step 13: With the latest NDI tool pack installed, it’s time to pull up your video feed and do some final testing. You can open up the NDI Studio monitor application and right click anywhere in the window to select from your available NDI sources. Select your camera and notice that you will have the ability to pan, tilt and zoom your camera.

NDI Studio Monitor with PTZ Camera

Step14: Your camera is now set up and working on your network. Remember each computer you want to use with NDI|HX sources will require the the latest NDI tool package to be installed.

Step 15: Now that your camera is all setup consider downloading the free PTZ camera applications available at http://PTZOptics.com/apps. You can quickly tweak your camera’s settings and color match multiple cameras with advanced settings. The new apps available for both Mac and PC.

Tip: Consider using the 180 degree shutter speed rule which created natural-looking video settings based on your selected frame rate. For example: if you are using are using 1080p30fps you should use a shutter speed of 1/60. If you are shooting video at 60 frames per second you should use a 1/125 shutter speed

Learn more about the NewTek NDI for live streaming PTZ Cameras

Learn how to quickly set up your PTZOptics NDI camera here
Check out our guidelines for choosing the best network switch for NDI here.
How to upgrade your PTZOptics camera to support the NewTek NDI here.
More on Troubleshooting with the NewTek NDI here.
Optimizing your RTSP, RTMP and NDI settings for live streaming. Learn more here.
2018 NAB Show interview with Dr. Andrew Cross on the future of NDI here.
Check out test results from NDI Cameras with wirecast, vmix, xsplit and Livestream here.
NDI HX is the new “High Efficiency” version of the NewTek NDI. Learn more here.
Your NewTek NDI questions answered from Dr. Andrew Cross here.
20 Minutes on the NewTek NDI w/ the chief engineer here.
The world of video conferencing w/ IP Video & the NewTek NDI here.
All your questions about the NewTek NDI cameras answered live here.
PTZOptics releases four NDI compatible PTZ camera models here.
H.265 Streaming, VLC integration and the NDI plugin here.
How to add cameras to the Newtek Connect Pro App here.
How to use NDI Transmit for video conferencing with the Newtek NDI here.
Using NewTek NDI with Multicast here.
Learn how to use NDI & RTSP streaming cameras with OBS here.

Posted by Paul Richards
Back to the Basics, How To, NDI, NDI HX, Networking, NewTek, Videos
NDI Camera Setup, NDI HX Bandwidth Chart, NewTek NDI
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SONY VISCA over IP Joystick!

Our new Sony VISCA over IP PTZ joystick is here! The much anticipated third-generation PTZOptics Pan Tilt Zoom joystick controller now features complete integration with the SONY VISCA over IP protocol. PTZOptics has completely redesigned once again they’re popular IP PTZ joystick which still includes the highly requested PoE (Power Over Ethernet) Support. The new joystick now includes advanced features for Pan, Tilt, Zoom controls which includes individual speeds that match the unique settings inside PTZOptics cameras. The joystick also includes complete integration with PTZOptics cameras and functionality such as access to the on-screen display menu, focus lock and much more.

SONY VISCA Over IP Joystick Controller

The most important feature with the new third-generation IP joystick is the reduced latency. Using Sony VSCO over IP latency is effectively eliminating. This is the perfect IP-based joystick for professional video applications it also includes six camera switching hotkeys to quickly switch between multiple cameras in your video production. This joystick was designed to make PTZ camera control easy enough for volunteers and advanced enough for broadcast professionals.

The video below includes a complete setup guide and demonstrates most of the functionalities of the third generation IP joystick.

Step 1 – When you first receive your PT-JOY-G3, the first thing you should do is read the included manual.

Step 2 – Once you have read the manual, you can connect your IP joystick to your network. If your network switch provides PoE power, you should not plug in the included power supply. If the network switch is not capable of supplying PoE power than you should use the included power supply.

Gen 3 PTZOptics Joystick

Step 3 – Please NOTE: DHCP is required for initial configuration of your joystick. The joystick controller is unable to span subnets; the IP camera and joystick controller must be in the same subnet of the LAN (example – 192.168.1.123 & 192.168.1.111 belong to the same subnet; 192.168.1.123 & 192.168.0.125 do not). Step 4 – Once the joystick boot up process is complete the LCD Screen will display the controllers current IP address. Please take note of this IP address. If you would like to change the joystick language or set a static IP address for the joystick, please follow the detailed instructions in the user manual.

Step 5 – The joystick is now ready to add cameras IP addresses. The SET UP button opens a menu on the LCD screen. Press the “ENTER” button to add a camera on setting “01/05” or “Add Camera”. Set a Device ID for the corresponding camera o Input the camera’s IP address into the joystick including the “.” between octets. Example: IP = 192.168.100.88

Step 6 – Let’s quickly add two cameras to the joystick controller.

PTZ Camera Joystick with IP Control

Step 7 – Once the joystick has been configured for each of your cameras you can quickly switch between them using the “CAM 1-6” buttons.

Note: If the LCD displays “Equipment offline” for a particular camera, please check if the LAN connection to the camera is live and that the camera is powered on

Note: If the LCD displays “Username or Password Error”, please check that the added device’s user name and password have been added in that device’s configuration.

Note: Press the “ESC” key to return to the top LCD menu at any time.

Note: The “LINK” LED on rear of keyboard will illuminate green any time a camera is successfully connected to.

PTZ Joystick Controller

Step 8 – Once connected to our selected camera we can use the joystick controller for intuitive pan, tilt and zoom operation. The PTZ Speed can be adjusted by pressing the “Speed” button. You can manually adjust focus and iris using the “Focus +/-” and “Iris +/-” buttons. When taking manual control of focus and iris you will need to make sure to press the “Manual Exposure” and “Manual Focus” buttons. To return to auto focus and auto exposure simply press these corresponding buttons. Step 9 – Finally, there is a new feature on this joystick for Focus Lock. You can use this feature by pressing the “A.Focus Lock” key to lock or “A.Focus Unlock” to unlock focus. When the focus is “locked” only manual focus adjustments can be made to the current focus state. Keep in mind that if you save a preset with the camera in a manual focus state and with the focus set manually that the focus state will be saved with the preset.

Step 10 – Now it is time to setup presets. Once you are connected to your selected camera you can press the “Set” button. Once you are in set mode you can move the camera to a PTZ position, selected the number preset you want and press enter. You can continue to do this with multiple PTZ positions, saving each to their unique preset number. We highly suggest keeping a notebook or laminated piece of paper next to your joystick for reference.

TIP: To quickly set a camera preset you can simply hold down a numeric key for 3 seconds. Once the key flashes on the LCD screen you will have successfully set a camera preset.

Step 11 – To recall presets you can click the “CALL” button. Using the keypad you can select the number you would like and then press enter.

TIP: To quickly recall a saved preset simply tap the numeric key to recall that preset at any time.

Step 12 – For troubleshooting your joystick please reference our user manual on page 17 which offers solutions to common troubleshooting issues.

Enjoy!

Back of SONY VISCA IP Joystick

More on PTZ Joystick Controllers

SONY VISCA Over IP makes our 3rd generation joystick even better - learn more here
New PTZ camera control functionality with our IP joystick firmware upgrade here.
Overview our RS-232 Serial PTZ Joystick controller here.
Learn how to access the OSD (On Screen Display) Menu with the PTZ Joystick Controller here.
How to use our PTZ Camera Control iPhone/iPad App here.
Skaarhoj releases new Visca over IP PTZ joysticks for PTZOptics here.
Quick tutorial on how to use the IP Joystick here.
PTZOptics IP Joystick product page here.
PTZOptics RS-232 Serial joystick product page here.
Learn more about cables from PTZOptics here.
Using SONY PTZ Joystick controllers with PTZOptics cameras here.
Hands on review of the SONY RM-BR300 SERIAL PTZ JOYSTICK here.
How to use an XBox controller for PTZ camera control here.

Posted by Paul Richards
Camera Control, IP Camera Control, Joystick, PTZ, Video Production, Videos
Gen 3 Joystick, IP Joystick, Joystick, PTZ joystick, SONY VISCA, SONY VISCA over IP, VISCA over IP
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Live Streaming a Fashion Show

The team here are PTZOptics love to get out of the office and live stream events. When we go out to produce a live video production we always bring along the best possible live streaming solutions with us from partners we know and trust. This time the PTZOptics team was tasked with live streaming a Fashion Show and Wireless cameras were a must.

Live Streaming Fashion Show Runway

In order, to make each of PTZOptics cameras wireless we used the Sling Studio and their included Cam Links to produce a high definition wireless video production. The Sling Studio Cam Links connect to the PTZOptics cameras using a Micro Type D HDMI to Full Size HDMI Adapter. These Cam Links can last for up to 3 hours on battery and provide HD transmission up to 300′. For our video production setup we also used the LiveU Solo paired with Wirecast and a Magewell capture card.

Sling Studio Setup

As you can see the Sling Studio is small enough to lift up with your hand. It’s about the size of a football. We think the Sling Studio is a perfect entry-level video production system. If you think about what you get for the $999 price tag, it includes an HDMI capture system, a Wireless Camera Link and a video production system all in one neat little box. It’s no wonder why so many people are using this device. Now, I will say that the camera links have about a 2 second delay on the video. This can make it difficult to use and you have to simply accept the fact that this device is an “entry level” video production system. It does not make sense to compare this system to an expensive NewTek Tricaster or Ross system.

Sling Studio and Wirecast

We wanted to use Wirecast for its advanced video production features and social media integration with Facebook using the Live Titler Express. This is another part of the Sling Studio that does work, but leaves something to be desired. The Sling Studio interface does have a ChromaKey feature which we tried to use. It worked, but it didn’t remove all the green screen fuzzy pixels that we can usually get rid of inside Wirecast. We also found out that the Sling Studio only supports MP4 and MOV video files at 1080p. When we rendered all of our video files they were done in 4K and they could not be scaled down to fit the Sling Studio. We also had to transfer all of the video files and graphics over with an SD card. Again, these are minor issues that the Sling Studio has. Perhaps many users who are not used to PC based live streaming software, would not find these issues interrupting to their workflow.

Sling Studio HDMI Output to Wirecast

We took the HDMI output from the Sling Studio into our computer using a Magewell HDMI to USB capture card. This allowed us to process the Sling Studio video which was controlled through our iPad. Generally, when we are using Wirecast with multiple video capture cards or PCIe devices we have access to all of our camera sources inside Wirecast. But since we are using the Sling Studio for all of our video ingestion just a single video feed is available inside Wirecast and if we want to switch cameras this is done through the iPad. I still like using Wirecast as our encoder and video production engine because it’s familar to me. But, Sling Studio now has enough features that it should suit most users. I will say that this Sling Studio unit needs to have an Ethernet port on it. I don’t see why this unit must live stream with WiFi. I understand that WiFi is getting better and perhaps one day WiFi will be good enough to live stream in 4K. But it still worries my when it comes to live stream an important video production over WiFi.

LiveU Solo Setup

Now we certainly could have used the Sling Studio to live stream over WiFi but we decided it would be best to use a hard-wired ethernet connection from our venue. Generally, the LiveU is used as a backup and during this production, it was 100% necessary. The internet provided by the venue completely dropped out and we needed to take the HDMI out of our computer (included with video and audio) into our LiveU for streaming to Facebook. Everything worked out and we look forward to creating a more in-depth review of this setup on our StreamGeeks Channel here – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjyD…

Conclusion:

PTZOPTICS AND SLING STUDIO

Live Streaming a Fashion is both fun and rewarding. There were a ton of things we would do differently next time and we plan to cover those in an upcoming video. I will link to that video below so that it will be available for those who like to learn more. In general, I think the Sling Studio is going to get a whole new generation of live streamers into the game which is a great thing. I have to admit that I am spoiled when it comes to video production gear and for many this entry level video production gear is exactly what the industry needs to keep on moving forward.

Posted by Paul Richards
Wirecast
Fashion Show, LiveU, Sling Studio, Video Production, Wirecast
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EP 2 PTZOptics Post Show: Our Podcasting Studio

Episode 2 was all about our new podcasting studio. We introduced our studio to fans during our live streaming show, and we wanted to recap our studio, the technology, and costs, as well as the potential uses. If you are considering getting into podcasting, check out how we built a high-quality studio for a fairly decent price!

The studio that we built is really flexible and relatively affordable, but at the same time, it is a high-quality podcasting studio. If you follow PTZOptics and our sister company StreamGeeks you might have noticed that we always try to be on the bleeding edge.

In this space, we already had a 10-camera broadcasting/live streaming studio and we wanted to be able to simply walk from our broadcasting studio right down the hall into our podcasting studio without cutting the stream. We are able to achieve this because all of the technology is connected over NewTek NDI.

Let’s take a look inside:

Firstly, we’ve got a gigabit network switch. For those of you out there who don’t know, that’s a giant network switch. We’ve got 48 ports on it, and we’ve got another one with 24 ports. Pretty much everything that we use today is put on the local area network. It’s an ethernet port, BOOM it’s in there. Now it’s accessible on our computers to different broadcasting systems, and each laptop becomes a connected hub and all the sources on that computer are available to all the other machines. That has allowed us to simply pop an Intel nuc in front of our studio and plug an audio mixer into it and basically make a podcasting system that’s connected directly to our broadcasting studio (we are also live streaming while we podcast as well).

Next, we have an audio mixer that is taking in four Sure SMB microphones that are really high quality. Those microphones are coming into a mixer that has four auxiliary outputs. And those auxiliary outputs are feeding our headphones. Our headphones are all receiving a mix of audio that is unique to each podcaster so that we’re not hearing ourselves back in our headphones (which can be really annoying if you’ve ever done a podcast).

Mix Minus is essentially the way that we are able to take five inputs – we have four microphones and an audio processor, our Intel nuc, sending it back into our mixer – and each headset gets its own unique mix which is all the audio, minus their microphone. It’s pretty cool. The mixer is plugged in USB to our computer, and it’s brought into our video production software so that we can pull it in during our live show during our Twitch stream. Throughout this whole process, we’re also recording our podcast on Audacity.

What are some things that we noticed when building this new setup over here that we found very helpful?

It was pretty fast, Two days to set up and put together.

Something that was really helpful was our number system. We basically just cut up little squares, little tiny squares, numbered them, and taped them to each one of the pieces of hardware. We taped each of them to the cables and each one of the pieces of hardware. So when we were plugging everything in, everything just went through smoothly, we were so organized. I couldn’t see it working with mix-minus without all that.

The other thing that helped a lot with our quality in general (and this is a podcast about podcasting) was a VST3 plug-in. But that is essentially a virtual studio technology and what that does is that allows us to do live audio processing and we are boosting our audio to sound even more radio-like than ever before. We’ve been using those plug-ins for a couple months now, and they’ve really helped the audio. We’re using three or four different ones from a company called Waves, waves.com. And I started out with a local plug-in which was $100, it came with like 6 or 7 plug-ins, and that was a great way to get started. And we found one called Renaissance X.

So What Are We Using and What Did It Cost:

An Intel nuc i7 processor: $800. Turn it on, launch up Vmix or Wirecast (we’re using a video production software) not a podcasting software.
We’re using an Xkeys (which is a USB keyboard and it just allows you to hit buttons and change things): $129/each
Four boom arms: $100/each
Four SM7Bs: $300/each
A Digi-mix mixer: $899 + USB Capture Card $189
vMix Pro 4K: about $900

Total: About $3000 for a quality podcasting studio.

Another exciting thing about our studio, is we are going to be opening it up to the public to use for $100/hour. It’s something that we’re going to do as a case study to show what businesses could do. It might only be temporary, but we will let you know what happens!

Listen to Episode 2 Now:

More on Audio, MIDI Camera Control & Digital Audio Workstation Live Streaming

Adding a Podcast to your live video production system here
Control PTZ Cameras with Ableton or any DAW here.
How to control PTZ cameras with MIDI here.
Real time audio processing with VST3 plugins and how to enhance vocals in your audio here.
Tips for live streaming a musical performance here.
Learn how to integration PTZ camera control into Avid Pro Tools here.

Posted by emily
Audio, Videos
Audio, podcast
0 Comment

PTZOptics Post Show Podcast EP 1: Optimizing Your PC

In our first “Post-Show Podcast” Episode (listen now), we wanted to talk about something that every person involved in live streaming should be thinking about which is: optimizing your live streaming computer. It sounds pretty complicated, but you might be surprised at how simple some of the solutions can be.

Why Optimize? For one, nobody likes it when their live stream starts to pixelate.

But everyone loves it when it all goes smoothly. And using some of these tips that we have, you can really get everything to go smoothly. We do an 8-camera live streaming system in our studio with a custom-built Windows computer. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, but it runs like a champ (well, it is custom built by Eastern Shore Broadcasting)

In the video production world, Windows is essentially the standard. Even products like the NewTek TriCaster and others are all running off a windows backbone. So, even some of the more advanced video production systems out there are using Windows as the core.

Our Best Tips For Optimizing your Live Streaming Computer:

Tip #1: turn off your screen savers and leave your desktop picture plain black.

Why? This is important for maintaining the resolution of all sources. Besides the minimal amount of processing power that it might take run a screen saver, if you have a complicated background in your monitors, there’s a little thing called screen burning.

Technically, it will burn into the screen but if you use just a plain black or a plain brownish-green or something-something that is dark or pleasing to the eye. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen coders, people that do video programming. It’s like they don’t want a bright white up in their eyes.

Tip #2: Set your PC to performance mode in power scenes using and turn off sleep mode.

Why? Making sure that your computer doesn’t go on sleep mode in the middle of your production may sound silly, but if you don’t disable these types of things, it will happen. You can find this option in your control panel.

Tip #3: Always run your live streaming video production software in administrator mode.

Why? This ensures your program will have unrestricted access to everything it needs including your graphics card.

Tip #4: Enable Your Graphics Card

Why? When you forget to enable your graphics card, major issues can occur with overlays like glitching.

Tip #5: Run everything you need on a solid state hard drive if possible.

Why? A lot of our computers today have two hard drives. One is solid state and one is called a spinning drive, and those are cheaper, but they’re bigger usually with more space. There’s a small SSD drive and there’s a storage drive with a couple terabytes. You don’t want to be pulling even image files or videos, anything from that slow hard drive. You want to pull everything from the solid state. And later on in our tips, there’s actually a way to optimize your solid state hard drive whether you’re using a Samsung or a SanDisk, or whatever the manufacturer of your solid state hard drive is. Generally, they have an optimization piece of software that you can use to reserve portions of your solid state hard drive specifically to speed up everything.

Tip #6: delete unwanted and unused apps in programs and apps.

Why? It’s a simple one, but it’s definitely going to save you a lot of space in your computer if those apps aren’t running in the background. So, those games you don’t use, that notepad you don’t use, anything like that gets rid of it.

Tip #7: avoid running anti-virus software

Why? If we’re talking about Windows here – I know, it’s like “I bought it,” or “It came free. I got MacAfee free with Windows” or whatever. Just get rid of it. Windows has something called Windows Defender. And they update way faster and are more protective – I mean, it’s Microsoft – than anybody else and it does a good enough job. Plus, there’s a router that usually has a firewall. Make sure that your Firewall is on. That’s a layer of protection that you can take, especially if you’re streaming, your computer will be connected to the internet. But, a lot of anti-virus software it’s running all the time and at least disable it while you’re live streaming.

Tip #8: Keep your video card drivers up to date (your graphics card)

Why? You don’t have to if everything’s good. But if you’re having issues, a lot of times something new has come out and your graphics card has been updated, but you just have to update the firmware on it. The other thing that you can do is you can monitor your CPU usage and you can check if you have an auto-throttle on. We just did that on our computer. We went into our power settings and found that we had power save mode on instead of performance mode.

Windows is built to be run on all kinds of different hardware and every computer is a unique piece of hardware usually. Or at least every model is unique, and you just got to tweak it, so it works for you.

Tip #9 Make sure you have enough processing power and bandwidth

Why? If you are experiencing pixelation, it is probably due to not enough processing power. If it looks good on your end, and it’s pixelating on YouTube or Facebook, that means that you don’t have enough bandwidth. But, there are two different options to help you with this and one is if your computer’s running above 50-75%, you can actually offload either the recording or the streaming to other computers. So, a lot of computers – in fact, the one we’re using now is an i7, but it’s an older one, there’s not a lot of RAM on it – so, it probably can’t handle streaming to Facebook and YouTube at the same time. Let alone streaming and recording in high definition at the same time.

So, what we could do is we can add the HDMI output of the computer and plug it into a recorder or what’s called an encoder which we’ll stream to Facebook and YouTube. Like the Magewell HDMI Encoder for only $299.

And then, or you could use the NewTek NDI which we’re going to be talking a lot about on this podcast which allows you to connect your computer to other computers on your local area network and simply record or stream that video.

The Next 5 Tips are taken From Maximum PC, these are things that you can do to go above and beyond the things that we just talked about.

Tip #1: Process Lasso

Why? It quickly stops processes from having excessive demands on your processors.

Tip # 2: Bootracer

Why? It manages the start-up process so that everything loads in the proper order. So, if you let Windows load up properly and nothing inserts itself in the process of starting up, you can find that everything will run a lot smoother.

Tip #3: Jetboost

Why? We are not sure if we want to recommend this one just yet, we were seeing some funny things happen with our audio… But what it does is it shuts down unnecessary services and programs that are running in the background on a temporary basis when you click the button.

Basically, anytime you hit the Jetboost button, you can have it planned so that you’re about to go live and going to access this Jetboost and turn off Chrome or whatever.

Tip #4: The Internet Accelerator

Why? Internet Accelerator 2 will optimize your internet LAN settings inside Windows and make your Windows faster.

Tip #5 Overclocking your CPU

Why? There are overclocking tools and you can make your CPU run faster than it is designed to by overclocking your PC. We do not suggest this to do this because it can harm your system. So, essentially, you can – gamers do this a lot – you can overclock your PC. The processor has a clock speed and that’s what sets the speed of every process. And if the speed was way too high, your computer would literally overheat and melt. But, some people think that the manufacturers are being too safe, and they can push it a little bit more and make their computer run faster and they are kind of living on the edge a little bit. I do believe it voids your warranty, so be careful with that. But you can find more on AMD.com/overdrive or Intel’s website as well.

And that’s it! There is one other way to tune your SSD card, your solid state hard drive beyond it’s normally set capabilities, you can push it to the maximum if you’re using a Samsung SSD, you can use Samsung Magician. But there are others for SanDisk and Crucial as well.

That’s our first podcast, but we have a really fun one coming up soon on adding video to your podcast, so be sure to follow us, PTZOptics, on Soundcloud, iTunes, as well as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram to see the real deal.

Or, listen to the podcast here:

Learning about live streaming and video production:

10 Ways to optimize your live streaming computers performance and make it faster here
Learn how to get the perfect exposure with your PTZ camera here
Learn how to optimize your camera settings for live streaming in low light here.
Learn how to color match and grade multiple cameras here.
2nd annual brief history of live streaming panel w/ Top industry experts here.
Q&A on the history and future of live streaming w/ top industry experts here.
NewTek NDI for beginners here.
How to build an audience response system for live streaming here.
An executive producer's job in the live streaming world here.
Tips from 7 of the industries top live streaming professionals here.
Here are some tips for setting up PTZ cameras in a portable live streaming setup.

Posted by emily
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Live Streaming your Podcast

In today’s blog post and video, we’re talking about how to add video to your podcast. We have just finished outfitting our podcasting studio with all new equipment we’re connecting it to work existing broadcast studio. This is a great opportunity for organizations who already have broadcasting it live streaming studios add a podcasting system into the mix. For us it allows us to host a regular live streaming show about Facebook and YouTube and seamlessly transition into a live podcast which is recorded and uploaded to podcasting sites such as iTunes and Stitcher radio.

Live Streaming your Podcast

Podcasting is fun at least news from around the world are moving from radio a traditional television Internet-based media such as podcast and live video. podcasting is fun at least news from around the world are moving from radio international television Internet-based media such as podcasts and live video. Shirt at our office in West Chester Pennsylvania we have a multi-camera video production studio running vMix at our office in West Chester Pennsylvania we have a multi-camera video production studio running vMix. We also have multiple smaller video production and video conferencing areas that are all connected over our local area network using a gigabit switch. Using a new technology called the NewTek NDI we are able to connect all of our video production systems together including our do podcasting studio.

Live streaming your podcast from Paul Richards

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Posted by Paul Richards
Back to the Basics, How To, Live Streaming, Networking, Video Production, vMix
audio production, live streaming a podcast, podcast, podcasting
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Optimize your Live Streaming Computer and Make it run Faster

Have you ever had issues with your live streaming video production software? If you are using your old Windows or Mac computer issue have something to do with your computer set up. In this video presentation at blog post, we will discuss 10 ways to optimize your Windows-based live streaming computer.

Optimize your Live Streaming Computer and Make it run Faster

Tips for Optimizing your Live Streaming Computer Performance

10 tips for optimizing your live streaming computer and making it run faster from Paul Richards

Optimizing your video production workflow

The first thing you wanna think about what optimizing your live streaming computer is your video production workflow. Following the best practices, we have outlined this blog post will help you optimize the outcomes of your video production live streaming. What’s you’re of optimized your workflow it’s that time start tuning your hardware and software.

Optimizing your video production workflow

When it comes to optimizing your video production workflow one of the most important things to consider is video resolution. You should make sure that all video sources coming into your computer or at the same resolution. If you are using video sources at different resolutions that you were streaming and recording it will require your computer to do upscaling or downscaling. For example, if you have one camera coming in at 720p but you were live streaming in 1080p your computer will have to upscale 720p video signal into 1080p. You can avoid this excess computer processing by simply keeping all video resolution is the same throughout your video production chain.

Optimizing your Video Production with live streaming hardware

optimizing your video production live streaming hardware

When it comes to optimizing your video production live streaming hardware it’s important to understand an update your hardware’s firmware. Manufactures often issue an updated firmware to increase functionality and performance of live streaming gear. What is the most important pieces of hardware inside your computer is the graphics card. Graphics cards are crucial to optimizing your computer’s performance for video gaming and live streaming. You should first check to make sure that your graphics card is enabled in the software that you were using. It’s considered best practice to run your life streaming or video production software in administrator mode using windows. This can be done by right-clicking the application and selecting run in administrator mode. Often times graphics card manufactures include a software package that you can use to optimize performance. In our live streaming computer, we have an NVIDIA graphics card which allows you to select the applications that you would like to use the graphics card with in windows.

When you were setting up your video production software for live streaming it’s important to keep all your applications and video assets on a solid-state hard drive. Just like your graphics card solid-state hard drive’s can be optimized tune for optimal performance. Solid-state hard drive manufactures usually include a software package for optimizing performance that you can download.

And an important aspect of the windows operating system to understand is that windows was made to run but all types of different hardware. Therefore when you were building a live streaming computer it is your job to customize the windows operating system to work for live streaming with the hardware you have selected. One computer performance bottle neck in the windows operating system that you can improve upon is found in the power scenes settings inside your control panel. By default Windows operating systems are generally set to a power savings mode that can be restricting your computers processing power. If you’re using your computer for live streaming you should set your powers settings to performance mode and turn off any sleep modes that may be on. We also suggest turning off any screensavers leaving your desktop picture plain black to avoid screen burning and optimize your computers performance .

It’s also considered a best practice to start with a clean windows installation and delete any unwanted or unused apps in your programs and apps area . It’s common knowledge that running into virus software can eat up valuable computer resources. Consider uninstalling your antivirus software and rely on Windows defender. Since your computer will be connected to the Internet make sure using a router with an included far wall for protection from the outside world . Always check for windows updates that come every second Tuesday of the month . Be prepared for these windows updates as they can cause delays right before your next live streaming event.

Live Streaming Computer Troubleshooting

Let’s discuss some troubleshooting techniques to help fix a computer that may be having issues with live streaming video production. An easy way to reduce your computers CPU usage is to offload either the recording or streaming to another hardware device. Generally, you do not want your live streaming computer to have a CPU usage over 50 to 75% . If your computer is having trouble recording and live streaming your video production at the same time you can consider using a hardware in encoder or recorder. Hey hardware video encoder can except an HDMI video and audio signal from your computer and record in high definition. This is an easy way to offload the CPU usage from video recording onto an external device. You can also use an X ternal encoder which will except an HDMI video and audio signal and just live stream that content to your favorite CDN. We highly suggest the video encoders from Magewell. These video encoders will except an HDMI video and put in Livestream to both Facebook and YouTube at the same time.

Still looking for ways to maximize your live streaming computers performance and make it run faster? We have seven new applications that we found on maxim PC magazine to help improve your life streaming computers performance. If you have applications inside windows that are using too much of your computers resources try using process lasso by bitsum. This application will quickly stop processes that are making excessive demands on your computer processor. You can optimize the windows start up process by using an application called bootracer. Racer will manage the windows start up process to make sure that the windows operating system is optimized no random applications are inserting himself into the Bootup process. A very interesting new windows optimization application is called jet boost . Jetboost will quickly shut down unnecesary applications and services only on a temporary basis with a single button. You might be surprised how many backgrounds services are running on your Windows based computer . By shutting down all of the services in applications running on your windows computer you can optimize performance for your video production software alone . If you’re having Internet bandwidth issues consider using the Internet Excelerator to which optimizes your Internet land settings inside windows . You can make your entire computer processing unit run faster than it was designed by overclocking your PC . We generally do not suggest that you overclock your PC because it can harm your system but you can find tools from AMD and Intel for doing so at your own risk . finally as we mentioned earlier you can tune your solid-state hard drive with application such as the Samsung magician . Similar tools are available from SanDisk and crucial which will tweak the performance of your solid-state hard drive to improve speed and reliability .

You can download are a complete live streaming checklist and computer optimization guide at PTZoptics.com/checklist . We hope that this blog post and video is helpful for live streamers and video production experts around the world . Don’t forget to reach out to us on Facebook at PTZoptics .

Learning about live streaming and video production:
10 Ways to optimize your live streaming computers performance and make it faster here
Learn how to get the perfect exposure with your PTZ camera here
Learn how to optimize your camera settings for live streaming in low light here.
Learn how to color match and grade multiple cameras here.
2nd annual brief history of live streaming panel w/ Top industry experts here.
Q&A on the history and future of live streaming w/ top industry experts here.
NewTek NDI for beginners here.
How to build an audience response system for live streaming here.
An executive producer's job in the live streaming world here.
Tips from 7 of the industries top live streaming professionals here.
Here are some tips for setting up PTZ cameras in a portable live streaming setup.

Posted by Paul Richards
Back to the Basics, Broadcast, How To, Magewell, NDI HX, Video Production
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Church Technology Giveaway & Testimonials

You can now enter to win a complete church streaming system for your church located inside the USA. This transformational technology giveaway is brought to you by PTZOptics to help one lucky church get started with a high-quality live streaming system to help broadcast their message of God.

What are churches saying about their live streaming systems? Check out some of the comments from Facebook below:

Live Streaming Church Service to Facebook

“We started live streaming one year ago, and we have already had real life results from it. On Facebook we’re seeing 20x the results of YouTube. One recent stream got over a 1,000 views on FB with many comments and dozens of shares.” – Doug Josep, Christian Apostolic Church Shreveport, Louisiana

Live Streaming to Shutins

“Yes, we have folks check us out online long before they ever cross our doors. We also have shut-ins who will watch our services when they can not make it to church.” – Scott Cundiff Clear Lake Nazarene Webster, TX

Web Streaming a Church Service

“We have the best opportunity for the farthest reach with the Gospel via web streaming. We have members and non members that view live or archived services.” – Roger Conant

Live Streaming Church Leadership Roles

“Yes, we stream our Chapel services at High Point University to allow parents from around the country and world to see their children take leadership roles in our services.” – Don Moore

Introducing Churches online using Facebook Live

“It helps to introduce new people to the church, those members who are unable to attend services because of work, shutin members, members who are studying abroad, members who are out of the local area on business.” – Samuel Nelson St. Bess

These are just some of the churches using live streaming technology to have the best opportunity for the farthest reach via web streaming. Learn more and enter this giveaway at https://ptzoptics.com/church-makeover

More on Live Streaming Systems for Churches

What’s next for Church Streaming? Thoughts from an expert here.
Check out how this church uses Ableton Live, Blackmagic, ProPresentor and TouchOSC to create an amazing video production system here
Watch this case study and testimonial for a live streaming church system in New York here.
Learn tips from this easy church live streaming system here.
Streaming Media Magazine review PTZOptics camera for use in churches here.
Live streaming tips for churches and houses of worship here.
Top live streaming services for Houses of Worship here.
Take our free church streaming course here.
Easy Church Streaming System with Wirecast case study here.
Interviews from WFX 2016, the world’s largest church technology expo here.
Free virtual sets for houses of worship and churches here.
15 Tips for Church Streaming here.
Read more about simple church streaming system setup in East Orange, NJ here.