Steve wrote:Thanks. PG. The diagram is GREAT! A couple of questions when you have the time.....
Not really sure I can answer the questions correctly, since I am so far removed from the tech team loop as we have gone mobile and the complexity of the set-up has grown, but I will try.
Steve wrote:What brand switcher do you use?
We have two switchers, both identical, both generously donated! We have two Videonics MX-1's. We drool over Edirol, Gras Valley and other high end brands, but we are thrilled to have what we have.
Steve wrote:What are the functions of Eric, Steve and Survailaince?
Those designations were merely to identify various camera positions; none of those are the same now. LOL "Surveillance" was a wall-mounted, fixed position camera without an operator. We decided it was pretty much a wasted shot and eliminated it.
We run a 3-camera shoot each week now, with one camera about 1/3 of the way back on the left side of the congregation, from a high angle. Camera 2 is on the congregation's right side, slightly closer than Camera 1, and at a lower angle of view. Camera 3, is about 1/4 of the way on the same side as #2, but is used often handheld and off the tripod to get reaction shots, close-ups, etc.
The video crew members wear headset-walkie-talkies so the video director van call shots and yell at them when they drift off!
Steve wrote:What kind of output jacks do you use for Presentation Computer and Video Computer? What are the functions of these two computers?
On the video side of the tech team we are all Mac, and everything gets mixed down into a firewire feed to a small "passthrough" video camera/recorder. We record the pre-mixed feed on MiniDV tape in that camera (also donated!!!) and also firewire feed that camera into one of the Macs that is logged on and streaming the service live on uStream. The tape is later edited into 00:58:30 for local TV broadcast -- we take out all the announcements, etc. and leave worship, prayer, message and inserted elements like dance/video.
So the streaming Mac laptop is one, there's a second Mac laptop (mine) from which we feed a Keynote announcement pre-loop (Turn off cell phones, sign kids in to Children's Church, don't forget baptism next Sunday...), the P&W song lyrics, and the elements of the service -- scriptures, photos used as illustrations, etc. The 3rd Mac laptop is used to feed video: a 5-minute countdown before service, video backgrounds behind lyrics, video clips used in sermon illustrations, etc. We realize that there are software solutions to combine the functions of laptops 2 and 3, but because we often mix in live video (camera shots) and other elements, we like the flexibility of our setup.
It is far from perfect, but I am extremely proud of what our guys/girls have accomplished with donated, borrowed and seat-of-the-pants-engineering.
As for connectors, I am not sure about the details. The cameras use BNC connectors, and the laptops are Firewire.
