About to take the plunge... Livestreaming!

[Mattsong]

Lots of great music recorded on the RSM. It is now part of the living museum at the National Music Centre in Calgary.

[Mike Stranks]

Quick update....

The RGBlink Mini arrived yesterday and I gave it a workout this afternoon with two cameras and an iPad.

The built-in preview screen is good to make sure you've got a good link, but I think it would simply be too small for field work... we shall see. Today I hooked-up to a 24" TV with the HDMI output on the Mini set to 'Preview'. That was good...

So first impressions are of a versatile little unit which will do what I want... now to order some more HDMI cables...

Oh! I should add that I did my first one-camera plus mic livestream the other day. Surprisingly easy and uncomplicated through my YouTube channel. It was just a 'private' stream for proof of concept...

[Humf]

Sounds good Mike. I think we’ve chatted on this topic on t’other thread?

My one bit of advice when it comes to live-streaming, is to test, test again and when you’ve got it right, have a sleep and then test again. You get the point!

When you’ve got a setup that’s been through the above, don’t change a single thing. I’ve been caught out once or twice trying to make, what I thought were little changes, to be tripped up.

I use a variety of either audio fed back into the camera OR a frame or two or delay on my ATEM switcher. Seems to work. Mixing and matching between wireless & wired audio sources is a bit of a headache but easily solvable if not mixed together, which is often the case in my situ (eg. Wireless lavs ‘v’ a stereo pair on an organ or choir). I’ve recently purchased a zoom f6 because I’m tired of either lumping around an x32 rack or being limited to a stereo pair of xlr inputs on my camera (if a single cam is sufficient but 3 or more mics needed). An F8n or Sound Devices unit probably would’ve been my first choice but budget limited and Hugh’s review reassured me. Plus as a solo shooter (streamer?!) the concept of worrying less about incorrect gain settings means I can be confident of fixing in post. Although I realise the ‘live’ mix needs to be decent. Shame about the unbalanced 3.5mm output but otherwise it wins on features at the price. I’ve just bought a small cheeseplate which lifts the unit sufficiently to clear the chunky manfrotto head I have. So my single cam setup has just had a major upgrade. I now need to test, test, test!

[Humf]

One other thing I’ve heard about but not yet explored...

Using an audio embedder. That way the audio is sent out from the X32 via AES, into an embedder via SPDIF, and into the ATEM as HDMI, without any need for D/A & A/D conversion. Not sure if this is worth the effort but sounds interesting.

[Mattsong]

Glad to hear that the RGBlink Mini seems to be working for you. When you connected to the external monitor and set it to Preview, do you get the multiview display on the external monitor?
Most of my experience has been with the Blackmagic ATEM switchers, which have worked well, but they are pricier.

[RichardT]

Sounds good Mike. I think we’ve chatted on this topic on t’other thread?

My one bit of advice when it comes to live-streaming, is to test, test again and when you’ve got it right, have a sleep and then test again. You get the point!

When you’ve got a setup that’s been through the above, don’t change a single thing. I’ve been caught out once or twice trying to make, what I thought were little changes, to be tripped up.

I use a variety of either audio fed back into the camera OR a frame or two or delay on my ATEM switcher. Seems to work. Mixing and matching between wireless & wired audio sources is a bit of a headache but easily solvable if not mixed together, which is often the case in my situ (eg. Wireless lavs ‘v’ a stereo pair on an organ or choir). I’ve recently purchased a zoom f6 because I’m tired of either lumping around an x32 rack or being limited to a stereo pair of xlr inputs on my camera (if a single cam is sufficient but 3 or more mics needed). An F8n or Sound Devices unit probably would’ve been my first choice but budget limited and Hugh’s review reassured me. Plus as a solo shooter (streamer?!) the concept of worrying less about incorrect gain settings means I can be confident of fixing in post. Although I realise the ‘live’ mix needs to be decent. Shame about the unbalanced 3.5mm output but otherwise it wins on features at the price. I’ve just bought a small cheeseplate which lifts the unit sufficiently to clear the chunky manfrotto head I have. So my single cam setup has just had a major upgrade. I now need to test, test, test!

As NASA say: test as you fly, fly as you test.

[Mike Stranks]

Glad to hear that the RGBlink Mini seems to be working for you. When you connected to the external monitor and set it to Preview, do you get the multiview display on the external monitor?
Most of my experience has been with the Blackmagic ATEM switchers, which have worked well, but they are pricier.

I'm still exploring and experimenting...

I should also have said that another reason for choosing the RGBlink was that it can be set up and operated without any recourse to a computer at all - ie all through internal menus.

Regarding outputs... both the HDMI out and the USB 3 out can be set to show 'Preview' or 'Post'. So I'm intending to use a smallish external monitor connected to the HDMI out for previewing and the USB output set to 'Post' for streaming.

The preview output divides the screen vertically into two. Top half is a 'Preview' and 'Post' (On Air) display; bottom half shows the preview of the 4 inputs. 'Post' also has switchable indication of combined audio levels.

Audio can be the usual config of external (via the audio input on the Mini) follow the video source or lock to one video input... I haven't explored that in any detail yet.

The unit is fanless, but has a chunky heatsink on the base. Gets quite warm during operation...

[blinddrew]

Hi Mike,
does the Mini allow you to set an audio delay or would you need to set that elsewhere before routing it in?
Thanks
Drew

[Mike Stranks]

Hi Mike,
does the Mini allow you to set an audio delay or would you need to set that elsewhere before routing it in?
Thanks
Drew

Hi Drew

I've just checked and the unit itself doesn't allow that facility... I don't know about the software as I've not yet downloaded it.

I was at first going to use some form of external delay and then route the audio into the Mini... I could still do this if I use my Zoom F4 as an intermediate device.

However, my discussions with those who do far more sophisticated livestreams and have far better kit than I do has led me to the conclusion to route the audio into a camera and then lock the audio to that HDMI input via the Mini. Advice is that that will be the simplest and most effective route.

[blinddrew]

Hmmm. Makes sense.
Thanks Mike.