There should be a Live Streamer Simulator with varying setup difficulties, from an easy, single device w/ mic, to an extreme difficulty of a very advanced set up. And you control a livestream meeting for multiple participants.
I think there is one actually. It should be "Not For Broadcast VR" but its only in vr (I don't mind it just makes the idea better!) But I don't know how good the game actually is.
One thing that a company I work with do to cut down on space is instead of using laptops they have rack mounted Mac mini’s, and instead of having a ton of monitors for each macmini, they get a few large monitors and they use the blackmagic multiview 4s and rout the computers to whatever monitor makes sense for workflow. That gives you a lot more desk room and flexibility.
We're using our pre-rigged OB Rack with Constellation 8K etc and Quicklink for callers to control how they have their setups. But of course.. that's a bit more costly compared to this setup. Very nice one indeed. :)
Nice setup! Some screen real estate to look at 😆 Have you considered running presentations locally and give remote control of the slides with something like Internet Clicker? I have had many good experiences with that and usually remote speakers thank us for an easy and hassle free speaking without worrying about screen sharing. Also that way we have always good quality slides without borders and clean feed of the speaker.
Man, I can't stop drooling, lol. This is my dream setup, sorta lol. My church setup is not even close to this but I'm a one man band at my church. I had to rig everything up so it caters to my needs for me to function. Since I have to control the in-church audio/two cameras/livestream and other tech needs, I had to make/code it nearly to a one button operation. But wow, you're setup is stellar!!! I can on dream to have all this gear. So glad UA-cam pushed your channel in my direction. Thanks for the walkthrough/mini tutorial on your setup. 😀
Very nice setup! Thanks for the video. I have read through all of these comments and noticed a lot of questions around the Zoom drone/Zoom ISO setup. I'm sure there are several of us that would love to see a dedicated video tutorial on how you accomplish this setup. I would also like to know if this is possible using MS Teams Live Events as we are a Teams shop. Thanks again for the awesome video!
This is the most honest setup and clean I like that I thought I was wrong when I thought up using all my devices in one setup I wanted to see if that was possible...
Sweet set up. Only thing I would do differently is bring in a UPS big enough to run the whole show on battery if need be. Also love how we just casually glossed over the roughly $5,00o worth of packout cases lol
I agree, i will probably look to do that in the future. In a pinch i could pull out my yeti 3000 that would power the whole setup for more then the day but I would have to run out to the car to get it so not ideal but would help save the show in a pinch. and yes the packout wall has been great for organization but also super overkill! :)
I agree. I have my production studio at work all on battery and it’s saved us so many times. 30-45 min of run time. Network is all on battery as well so we don’t lose internet either.
Epic setup! Have you considered using a single-machine setup running a zoom room? I used to pin via separate machines but found Zoom Rooms to work very well for this application.
@@liveproductionmastery ZoomISO with a Decklink Card Output ;-) - provides also isolated audio and is super controllable with companion and a streamdeck. ;-)
At first I thought this was a livestream setup for someone gaming on Twitch and was about to put you on blast 😂. This is super legit though! A lot of broadcasting things I had never known. Really cool
Appreciate the flashiness - however, couldn't 80-90% of this be executed using 1-2 vMix machines? Personally, I am a fan of reducing variables in my fully virtual and hybrid event setups, hence eliminating extraneous machines where able.
I think he mentioned that - but if you rely on 1 or 2 vMix machines for everything, everything goes also down if one crashes - with his approach you still have some more options if one component dies throughout the show. Been there - done that … both scenarios ;-)
Decreasing points of failure sounds good until it isn't. Unfortunately you don't want your stream to rely on one sole machine. In this scenario it is good to have multiple "moving parts" to increase redundancy.
Great video! Love the setup. A few questions: 1) looks like you are using a web presenter 4k? Where are you streaming to? 2) are you using decimators to convert hdmi to SDI from zoom drones and pro presenter? 3) is the customer using polling or Q/A? 4) are you managing the zoom call fully? Like muting hot zoom mics, welcoming guests and moving them to breakouts? 5) how are you sending program back to zoom breakout rooms? How does a presenter know they are live? 6) do you have redundant internet as well as the UPS power. Thanks! 🙏
1. Vimeo 2. Specifically black magic bi direction 3G converters but decimator would work too, just more expensive. 3. Yes but not through zoom, their platform handles that and we account for the delay when timing it online. 4. There is another staff member in the zoom lobby that is a co host so they do the initial tech check when joining, and on my cue push the talent/guests to the “main stage” breakout room where I fully take over talking to talent before they are live, muting it’s needed, etc. but I do a good bit in the zoom lobby as well when needed.
5. I send program feed with mic monus audio back through zoom 1 drone. That’s also how I can talk to them (talent) without main audience hearing me and count them down to being live.
No redundant internet at this location but it’s very stable. Yes on redundant and battery backup power supplies on everything including internet. If the whole town goes out then I would in a pinch switch to cellular solutions like Live U, etc but it wouldn’t be seamless.
Wow ! thanks for sharing. That's a great inspiration for us. I run a video production company since 5 years in France and we are specializing in livestream production, so we are roughly new but we are always looking for optimizing our workflow. (sorry for my english if the words are not the good ones)
When I've built stuff like that, I like to use Synergy to connect all the computers (can mix windows and mac and linux if needed) to a single keyboard and mouse. Super cool setup!
Damn I love your Commodore Pet! Is that the 8032? I remember the huge external Dual Drive that you could get (It was nearly as expensive as the computer)!I miss that computer so much. It was the first computer I ever used. I learned 650 Assembly Language on that machine and wrote a disassembler for it in Pet Basic that I used to disassemble space invaders!! That was in 1980 when I was 14! I'm now 57!
Amazing setup! But there's so much effort for something that can be done with a workstation vMix in NDI+Dante so easily and much more cost effectively, personal opinion ofc, but it's incredible to see all these videos where's there's so much equipment for these task, after all it's always a way to work differently than the easy way 😉
Vmix can be unreliable, you are relying on just 1 pc to run everything and if that fails or has any issues you are screwed. Great when it works, but awful when it doesn't. Fine for low budget stuff but when you start to get big clients, screw ups are not acceptable and you must have multiple backups in place to ensure the stream goes on no matter what.
@@nelsonzhang1369 matter of facts even atem, Sony mixers, tricaster can have problems and stuck, unfortunately there's no 100% reliability on software and Digital hardware solutions. I've been in this world for such a long time that I can guarantee nothing is infallible so the real matter there is knowing your equipment and know every kind of possible troubleshooting you might face during your production. I've always heard this sentence too many times, and quite frankly I disagree with that, 90% of the time I've seen people select one system just because they think is more reliable when it's seen from multiple users and I really can tell is not always true... anyway great set-up, I just think it can be shrink by a lot, especially looking at the tasks needed... NDI and Dante are great and reliable solutions, the real manner is knowing what you're doing with your equipment.
Old guy from 1980s live TV news here: That's very impressive, and thanks for sharing. Have to say I'd be a wet rag after a day of doing that - total concentration all the time while you're live! Good to see there's a Commodore PET (Mk2) in the corner actually running the show ;-) Serious question: I notice (I think!) that you're streaming in 4k, and you mention zooming in/out on the incoming Zoom streams - do you find some of the quality changes stick out a bit when you cut them up? I can imagine the client saying, "Fred must get his question in now!" even though the Zoom quality looks dreadful. Do you warn them or just do it? By the way, I think the dreaded 'orange dot' is only an Apple thing, to warn the user their mic/camera is live, and it'll be coming from your own laptops. Using a Windows or Linux machine instead will probably eliminate it, although I suspect it's not worth bothering about. Anyway, thanks for a really interesting and informative video.
This stream was 1080p, in terms of zoom quality the client knows what to expect, we do our best with all of the speakers in our tech check to get them looking better but if they have a crappy web cam and no lighting with a poor connection, there isn’t much we can do with that anyway. Sometimes it’s more on the presenters to put in some effort and care into how they want to present themselves. The ones that care look pretty good and it’s night and day difference even on zoom as it shows.
can u please share the diagram of all the inputs and outputs you integrated for this program that's a great setup and i want this for my event as a permanent set-up
This is demn good. Thanks for sharing your setup… I think vmix would be easier and convenient.. I’m starting my setup but in debate with myself which route to go..
Bro this setup is amazing! Literally my dream setup, but welp stuff is very expensive. I currently only use a smaller older atem for the productions needs I have, but this would be my dream. Except one thing: Building and disassembling this setup is not even remotely nice. Have you considered putting some stuff into a portable rack, maybe with wheels on it? Like you can totally put both video switches, the networking and the web presenter into a rack unit. (Also helps with cable management) I would even rack the Pcs if they weren't laptops. Otherwise a totally sick setup that is an absolute dream for everyone who is present in that industry. Also I would bring a bigger PSU because that thing won't run the show for long in case power fails. Plus is the networking power backed up as well, because otherwise backing up your setup makes no sense in such an extreme remote production setup.
It would be fun to do a stream off. Choose your software to achieve a similar desired outcome. I wonder if Ecamm and zoom iso can handle something of this complexity
first: nice song choice! I see some power strips with a power switch. Wouldn't it be more fail secure to use ones without that switch? So you can't accidentally turn them off.
Need to run zoom pro iso. Would cut down the need for a pin farm and give you individual full (transmittable) resolution video along with screen-shares and individual audio.
I am currently exploring the option of incorporating Dante audio into my rig to make audio routing easier. To do this, I use Dante Via on my computers, and I have a Midas M32C with a Dante card. This allows me to patch all of the audio in a visual format and save the routing as a preset in Dante Controller. I can, if the situation calls for it, use the audio destinations attached to the video outs from the computers as patchable Dante endpoints to go directly into the ATEM. I only feel this confident in Dante because I have been using it very demanding and complex situations for the past 7 years, and it HAS NEVER FAILED. Otherwise, I might feel a bit apprehensive. Thoughts? I am interested in hidden drawbacks/risks associated with Dante in this type of application.
The only thing I'm confused on is how you're outputting to Zoom. If the pinned presenters are on camera in Zoom and you're using your output feed as your camera (presumably from the ATEM as the webcam output), would the presenters not show up twice on everyone else's monitor (once as their original camera in Zoom and once from your output?)? How do you get a clean screen with only the presenters from your ATEM webcam output? I have a smaller but very similar show to what you displayed in this video (only one presenter at a time, per time slot) and I need a way to bring their camera feed into an ATEM mini Extreme so I can overlay a lower third on them. I can't figure out how to do this with only two laptops (possibly 3). Any help you could provide would really make this show will go off flawlessly.
Do you pull in video inputs into Propresenter for the various variations you have? or do you is Prosenter just the background image? and Atem is over laying it? I am bit confused as to how you are using propresenter and atem.
Can you please do a video on how the setup for talkback to the presenter before they go live without the other participants listening in, is that through a separate zoom room.
two things are happening. We have a main zoom call we refer to as the Lobby. then we have a breakout room off that call we refer to as Main Stage. You have to get through the lobby to get to main stage. The lobby is where talent enters and talks to our zoom receptionist to get all the tech checks and questions handled. Once we are ready, we push them to the break out room "Main stage". Here is where i am pushing a mix minus audio feed to the breakout room so they can hear my voice, the playback audio, but not the zoom call audio. I also have a channel of music that i do not route to the zoom call but the audience on vimeo can hear so i make sure to have background music while i prep the talent so there is no dead air on the stream. There is a video on my older channel about zoom mix minus and how our talkback setup works. A2Z Productions
I am super curious about the multiple zoom drones. Does each log in with a different email address? And for each one, you are pinning a different guest and then that is output to the switcher. You mention the extended display to facilitate this. Can you please elaborate on that? And finally, is everything coming out of the switcher in super source to your main client?
Hey Frances! All zoom drones do not have accounts, they are just participants on a single call with no credentials besides a guest name. And then yes each drone has at least one display out so i can full screen pin one of the participants/presenters on the call. I run the zoom drone in dual display mode from zoom so i get two zoom windows for the single call. Then i use my main window to be sent to the switcher while having my 2nd window on the laptop screen itself. After i full screen i pop out the chat, participants list and the extra participant's window so that i can drag them onto the laptop screen so they don't pop up on the main window throughout my stream. After all this is routed into the switcher i use a mix of super source embedded into the swticher and other sources like a super source from a 2nd different switcher and playback input, and cut them all in the M/E1 program feed that is then sent to vimeo (main client) for the audience to watch.
I am doing a three camera live event stream monthly. Still working on what audio mixer to get this guy he wants to own all the equipment. But a lot of the mirrors my own. Put everything on the back of power that doesn't have built-in backup power. Had a presenter at the end of an event these are live you know tell me that he didn't have the battery in his laptop because he doesn't believe in batteries and such .... which should've been obvious from his talk. I am so glad we didn't lose power, I would put that on the back up circuit had I known. I'm using OBS and NDI with the MEVOs keeps cabling down runs mostly everything on one system for streaming and one system for playback so I'm also responsible for the projector and announcements graphics and making sure the guest laptops works. Although we just did one where they sent their presentation ahead of time we have their own system we had no issues it was amazing. If you can get them to put their PowerPoint presentation into 16x9 and not 4x3 surprise 4x3 is square! I love the new PowerPoint 2013 does a really nice job of converting I only caught one overlap.
Nice setup, I used to travel onsite for these events prior to covid and now I have moved on. I have a question though: how do you change the super source setups on the fly like that? That's pretty cool. I have 2 x 2/ME ATEMS that I cascaded but it got really cumbersome. thx!
Any comments about required internet connection capacity? With all the Zoom connections plus the Vimeo stream, that seems to be a lot going through a single pipe. Thanks.
you could ditch all the laptops with a beefy pc running virtual machines for each zoom camera/presenter you need to capture. Even do deactivated output from discrete passed through gpu to the agem.
amazing, thanks much! one question- how do you set it up so that ZOOM doesn't have all the popups & mess onscreen when you've pinned a guest? I've tried a bunch of versions of this but we NEVER get a nice clean capture of guests without popups, notifications and zoom widgets etc... thanks for any feedback!
Good question: I always run my zooms off of a laptop with atleast one extended display. Always in dual screen mode from zoom. My laptop screen is then never seen by anyone but me. I fullscreen the zoom window onto the extended display that the switcher sees. I then pop out the gallery view of other people on the call, the chat and the participants onto the laptop screen. So that’s 3 pop outs on my screen. Then you can choose to have your second zoom window either on the laptop screen or on a third screen if you have it. The screen shares will default to second zoom window so choose wisely have you pin people. Hope that helps.
Another awesome set up 😀 Love how you just set it up for a show and then tear down again lol. Do you prefer to do that rather than have a permanent setup.
Thanks and I do prefer this method just so I can tailor the setup to the specific needs of the gig. And so I can use the same gear on other events as well so I don’t need to spend double on equipment.
So I love the setup.... is that possible with windows? I don't use Mac and never will (don't hate, it is simply preference and ease of use). I ask because I know there are some macro softwares only available on mac and such.
is this really cheaper than a pre ricked rack with a decent switcher? 8 macbooks seem like a bit much. Bu really intresting video and smarty configured!
Dissolve shoes time has passed Cuts are instant I wish you had a early 90s education experience you'd benefit 100 times more efficiently knowing how much easier you have it nowadays seeing where it evolved from. You don't need video techs anymore you need computer geeks with extreme mouse clicking abilities
Thanks for that interesting insights. At arround 9:15 you are using the stream deck + and you change pages with the rotary knob. How are you doing that? I looked for that some time ago but did not find a solution. Would be great to know that 🙏
Make sure you are on a more recent version of companion. It acts like a normal button but there is a check box you can select to activate rotary functions. Then you can specify what happens when you rotate knob left, right and click. On Left is page down, on right is page up. click does nothing. Once i get to a certain page i disable to left or right rotation so i don't move to a page that isn't setup. I just stay on the pages i want. Hope that helps!
Hi, @@liveproductionmastery . Thanks for your fast reply. I have checked the Streamdeck SW-Version. It is up to date - V 6.3.1. on my M1 MacBook Pro. I can't follow your steps: I thought, I have to select the rotary knob functions in the top right corner of the software. Then I selected System --> Hotkey ==> Moved the HotKey on a rotary knob on the left window. Now I have 4 Fields: Give it a Name. What should happen, if knob is turend left and right (as drop downs) and whta should happen, when knob is pressed (as drop down). There is no Checkbox and in the drop down menues I only can select different keyboard actions but not to control to navigate to next or previous page. Am I in the wrong place . Can you give me an more detailed hint or maybe a short screencast? Thank you so much.
Got it, I believe you are using the stream deck software and not the Bitfocus Companion Software. Bitfocus companion is a 3rd party software that can also control physical stream deck hardware. I was giving instructions for bitfocus companion, but not the native stream deck software. it is usually best to NOT try to run both software's at the same time as that can lead to problems. If you are doing production, i suggest companion. If you are doing game streaming, i suggest the stream deck native software. Hope that helps.
Yes, I have feet (stacked Velcro) on the bottom sides of my atem extreme that help give an air gap between it and what ever it is sitting on. They are meant to run hot and I have gotten them a lot hotter then what are they in this configuration so I was not worried about this one. I do tend to leave my gear on overnight and for shows. For the atem mini and extreme models, I do tend to power cycle them each day of show in the morning but the atem constellations models I tend to leave on the entire show. If it was in a close wall rack with a bunch of hyperdecks and other hot gear, I would be a little more cautious but I was not worried about heat in this particular setup based on previous experiences.
That Packout setup has me JEALOUS. Is ZoomISO still flaky? I thought Zoom bought them and poured a ton of resources into it, crazy you're still having to do manual Zoom drones in 2023.
Great answer! @samueldickes Yes zoom drones is just a different way of setting things up with different pros and cons. I would say zoom ISO is simpler and easier with the caveat of being paid and running everything with one machine meaning less backups and redundancies. I already had the laptops and can use them for other things when not live streaming so this solution just works for me. But i would recommend zoom ISO in most cases for sure.
Question, the laptop on the left handles the zoom lobby, zoom drones are in a separate meeting together. How can you make these zoom drones not only see and hear eachother but also the main live stream? Thanks for the video!
So for the zoom drones, they are all joined on the same meeting and only zoom drone 1 has it's mic and camera activated in zoom. All the other zoom drones simply have their mics muted and cameras off. Therefore zoom drone 2, 3, 4 and 5 can see and hear everything happening on the single zoom call but are not adding anything to the call. They are all passive viewers in this case but they can full screen (pin) a single talent member on each computer so we can get them into the switcher. Now for Zoom 1, we are sending the Program Video into the zoom call via the USBC out of either the atem switcher or web presenter. We do not use the embedded audio from these sources because it would cause a feedback loop. Instead we use an external audio mixer to send a separate mix Minus audio feed into Zoom 1. This has the tech director's mic and playback audio in it so the talent on the zoom call can hear it when necessary. It does not have the zoom call's audio in it because everyone on the call can already hear everyone else on the same zoom call. If we did send zoom 1 audio back into the zoom call, everyone on the call would be hearing an echo or double which would be extremely annoying so we don't do that. I hope that helps and if you have more questions on how mix minus audio works, there are definitely a lot of videos explaining it including a video on my old channel that talks through all the tips and tricks for zoom production.
Thanks for the reply, really nice to have this part explained now. I have watched all your previous video's (also on your other channel) about this topic. But it is a steep learning curve sometimes ;-)
How do you eliminate the orange dot on the Zoom Drones? At least latest version of macOS displays that orange dot in external output which makes it unusable...
2 ways. Either a zoom crop so the orange dot is not seen on the live stream. Or i believe orange dot is when the camera or mic is on. But i have the camera and mic off on most of my zoom drones except zoom drone 1. so thats not really an issue for me. Also i am not sure if the dot shows up on the main screen when in dual screen mode. I think it might just show up on the second window which is not very noticeable when they do screen shares which is the only time i really use the second window in dual screen mode on zoom. Hope that helps!
It can, I wouldn’t suggest it my self for in person audiences just because you can’t ring out a mic if you have feedback problems but technically yes it can absolutely push 3 mics to speakers with volume control. Just make sure you can convert from 1/4 inch to xlr for your main PA. No XLR outs on roadcaster.
1 super source from 2 m/e constellation, a separate super source from atem SDI extreme ISO, another box look from 2nd M/E on constellation, then finally a zoomed in feed from SDI extreme ISO program feed using DVE. So I am not previewing the same SS that is already in use. I am looking at a different source entirely. Hope that makes sense! Thanks!
someone tell me the actual use-case for all of this. I think I am missing key knowledge for why you need so many computers! legit stumbled across this video randomly
- Pro presenter for playback/gfx - Microsoft PowerPoint usually for presenter slides - atem software control to control switcher - bitfocus companion with stream deck to interface with all components (the buttons to control everything)
I would think you could simplify this setup down a ton by replacing all of those laptops with a single machine running vm's. It would also grant much greater flexibility.
@@nelsonzhang1369 I use virtual machines in a production environment and I have next to no failures. I am talking 0 failures over a span of many months under 24/7 operation. Just pick a reliable base system, preferably one with redundancy and do things properly you should have a very reliable system, probably more reliable than having a 100 cables hooked up to 8 different old cheap computers. Maybe have a backup system nearby in case you need to fail over if you are that worried
Not anymore, zoom iso has gotten pretty reliable with the M1 Max chips that I don’t normally do this configuration anymore. But there was a time especially early Covid this was the best solution.
There should be a Live Streamer Simulator with varying setup difficulties, from an easy, single device w/ mic, to an extreme difficulty of a very advanced set up. And you control a livestream meeting for multiple participants.
I think there is one actually. It should be "Not For Broadcast VR" but its only in vr (I don't mind it just makes the idea better!) But I don't know how good the game actually is.
@@delautrer2480 There’s a non vr version of the game. The game is also quite fun with an interesting storyline.
One thing that a company I work with do to cut down on space is instead of using laptops they have rack mounted Mac mini’s, and instead of having a ton of monitors for each macmini, they get a few large monitors and they use the blackmagic multiview 4s and rout the computers to whatever monitor makes sense for workflow. That gives you a lot more desk room and flexibility.
Multiview is definitely nice.
We're using our pre-rigged OB Rack with Constellation 8K etc and Quicklink for callers to control how they have their setups. But of course.. that's a bit more costly compared to this setup. Very nice one indeed. :)
Crazy to see you here
Nice setup! Some screen real estate to look at 😆 Have you considered running presentations locally and give remote control of the slides with something like Internet Clicker? I have had many good experiences with that and usually remote speakers thank us for an easy and hassle free speaking without worrying about screen sharing. Also that way we have always good quality slides without borders and clean feed of the speaker.
I’m going to have to watch this one 10 times! Love it!
Awesome video Brandon! Thanks for sharing. Really good dive in to your solo-livestream setup.
Man, I can't stop drooling, lol. This is my dream setup, sorta lol. My church setup is not even close to this but I'm a one man band at my church. I had to rig everything up so it caters to my needs for me to function. Since I have to control the in-church audio/two cameras/livestream and other tech needs, I had to make/code it nearly to a one button operation. But wow, you're setup is stellar!!! I can on dream to have all this gear. So glad UA-cam pushed your channel in my direction. Thanks for the walkthrough/mini tutorial on your setup. 😀
Very nice setup! Thanks for the video. I have read through all of these comments and noticed a lot of questions around the Zoom drone/Zoom ISO setup. I'm sure there are several of us that would love to see a dedicated video tutorial on how you accomplish this setup. I would also like to know if this is possible using MS Teams Live Events as we are a Teams shop. Thanks again for the awesome video!
Outstanding, as always! I would to see you in action at an event.
This is the most honest setup and clean I like that I thought I was wrong when I thought up using all my devices in one setup I wanted to see if that was possible...
You, Sir, are a god amung men. Impressive at every level!
Sweet set up. Only thing I would do differently is bring in a UPS big enough to run the whole show on battery if need be.
Also love how we just casually glossed over the roughly $5,00o worth of packout cases lol
I agree, i will probably look to do that in the future. In a pinch i could pull out my yeti 3000 that would power the whole setup for more then the day but I would have to run out to the car to get it so not ideal but would help save the show in a pinch. and yes the packout wall has been great for organization but also super overkill! :)
I agree. I have my production studio at work all on battery and it’s saved us so many times. 30-45 min of run time. Network is all on battery as well so we don’t lose internet either.
@@liveproductionmastery Eaton has several modular expandable solutions that would be a workable solution for a mobile setup.
@@liveproductionmasteryget a small generator as well
Epic setup! Have you considered using a single-machine setup running a zoom room? I used to pin via separate machines but found Zoom Rooms to work very well for this application.
Yes I have also used zoom rooms. Works well as long as you have a machine with 3 outs into the switcher. Just takes an extra paid account as well.
@@liveproductionmastery ZoomISO with a Decklink Card Output ;-) - provides also isolated audio and is super controllable with companion and a streamdeck. ;-)
At first I thought this was a livestream setup for someone gaming on Twitch and was about to put you on blast 😂. This is super legit though! A lot of broadcasting things I had never known. Really cool
This might be overkill for a twitch streamer lol
Appreciate the flashiness - however, couldn't 80-90% of this be executed using 1-2 vMix machines?
Personally, I am a fan of reducing variables in my fully virtual and hybrid event setups, hence eliminating extraneous machines where able.
I think he mentioned that - but if you rely on 1 or 2 vMix machines for everything, everything goes also down if one crashes - with his approach you still have some more options if one component dies throughout the show. Been there - done that … both scenarios ;-)
Decreasing points of failure sounds good until it isn't. Unfortunately you don't want your stream to rely on one sole machine.
In this scenario it is good to have multiple "moving parts" to increase redundancy.
I wouldn't enlarge presentations if they are not 16x9 because you risk cutting off text. Instead use a background image and cut off the black bars.
Great video! Love the setup. A few questions:
1) looks like you are using a web presenter 4k? Where are you streaming to?
2) are you using decimators to convert hdmi to SDI from zoom drones and pro presenter?
3) is the customer using polling or Q/A?
4) are you managing the zoom call fully? Like muting hot zoom mics, welcoming guests and moving them to breakouts?
5) how are you sending program back to zoom breakout rooms? How does a presenter know they are live?
6) do you have redundant internet as well as the UPS power.
Thanks! 🙏
1. Vimeo
2. Specifically black magic bi direction 3G converters but decimator would work too, just more expensive.
3. Yes but not through zoom, their platform handles that and we account for the delay when timing it online.
4. There is another staff member in the zoom lobby that is a co host so they do the initial tech check when joining, and on my cue push the talent/guests to the “main stage” breakout room where I fully take over talking to talent before they are live, muting it’s needed, etc. but I do a good bit in the zoom lobby as well when needed.
5. I send program feed with mic monus audio back through zoom 1 drone. That’s also how I can talk to them (talent) without main audience hearing me and count them down to being live.
No redundant internet at this location but it’s very stable. Yes on redundant and battery backup power supplies on everything including internet. If the whole town goes out then I would in a pinch switch to cellular solutions like Live U, etc but it wouldn’t be seamless.
Thank man for the reply. Great setup. We are doing some similar work up in CT. Would love to collaborate at some point.
Wow ! thanks for sharing. That's a great inspiration for us. I run a video production company since 5 years in France and we are specializing in livestream production, so we are roughly new but we are always looking for optimizing our workflow.
(sorry for my english if the words are not the good ones)
Why a bunch of laptops and not ZoomISO?
May be due to heavy background processing like ram , gpu or cpu
Exactly what I was thinking.
Me too. Get and M2 Mac with tons of ram. Problem solved.
Perfect timing :) Awesome!
Bro has more screens then I have brain cells
Love to chat with you about ZoomISO this could shrink this setup and make it simpler.
I use zoom iso with vMix and pretty much any other production switcher. Love zoom iso.
This is really a nice set up
Sweet setup! Our's is NDI & Dante based, 8 people can join as panelists with 2 computers. ZoomISO or just Teams.
When I've built stuff like that, I like to use Synergy to connect all the computers (can mix windows and mac and linux if needed) to a single keyboard and mouse. Super cool setup!
As always - sweet and to the point!
Damn I love your Commodore Pet! Is that the 8032? I remember the huge external Dual Drive that you could get (It was nearly as expensive as the computer)!I miss that computer so much. It was the first computer I ever used. I learned 650 Assembly Language on that machine and wrote a disassembler for it in Pet Basic that I used to disassemble space invaders!! That was in 1980 when I was 14! I'm now 57!
ya lose me at the 8 laptops. I just cant.
Amazing setup! But there's so much effort for something that can be done with a workstation vMix in NDI+Dante so easily and much more cost effectively, personal opinion ofc, but it's incredible to see all these videos where's there's so much equipment for these task, after all it's always a way to work differently than the easy way 😉
Vmix can be unreliable, you are relying on just 1 pc to run everything and if that fails or has any issues you are screwed. Great when it works, but awful when it doesn't. Fine for low budget stuff but when you start to get big clients, screw ups are not acceptable and you must have multiple backups in place to ensure the stream goes on no matter what.
@@nelsonzhang1369 matter of facts even atem, Sony mixers, tricaster can have problems and stuck, unfortunately there's no 100% reliability on software and Digital hardware solutions. I've been in this world for such a long time that I can guarantee nothing is infallible so the real matter there is knowing your equipment and know every kind of possible troubleshooting you might face during your production. I've always heard this sentence too many times, and quite frankly I disagree with that, 90% of the time I've seen people select one system just because they think is more reliable when it's seen from multiple users and I really can tell is not always true... anyway great set-up, I just think it can be shrink by a lot, especially looking at the tasks needed... NDI and Dante are great and reliable solutions, the real manner is knowing what you're doing with your equipment.
@@nelsonzhang1369 same in this setup, no redundancy.
Looking for that table top - please tell me where you got it from?
Love the PET in the background !
Old guy from 1980s live TV news here: That's very impressive, and thanks for sharing. Have to say I'd be a wet rag after a day of doing that - total concentration all the time while you're live!
Good to see there's a Commodore PET (Mk2) in the corner actually running the show ;-)
Serious question: I notice (I think!) that you're streaming in 4k, and you mention zooming in/out on the incoming Zoom streams - do you find some of the quality changes stick out a bit when you cut them up? I can imagine the client saying, "Fred must get his question in now!" even though the Zoom quality looks dreadful. Do you warn them or just do it?
By the way, I think the dreaded 'orange dot' is only an Apple thing, to warn the user their mic/camera is live, and it'll be coming from your own laptops. Using a Windows or Linux machine instead will probably eliminate it, although I suspect it's not worth bothering about.
Anyway, thanks for a really interesting and informative video.
This stream was 1080p, in terms of zoom quality the client knows what to expect, we do our best with all of the speakers in our tech check to get them looking better but if they have a crappy web cam and no lighting with a poor connection, there isn’t much we can do with that anyway. Sometimes it’s more on the presenters to put in some effort and care into how they want to present themselves. The ones that care look pretty good and it’s night and day difference even on zoom as it shows.
bro has better setup than most youtubers
1 x Zoom Iso rig would have saved atleast 5 laptops on this setup.
Can I ask why did you choose the laptops? don't you think mac mini would do the job an less screens to focus on main screens?
Any idea what desk that is? Having such a big sit stand desk looks amazing!
i love it too! looks like they built it - i think it's 2 sit/stand desks with a custom top on it? good move.
can u please share the diagram of all the inputs and outputs you integrated for this program that's a great setup and i want this for my event as a permanent set-up
This is demn good. Thanks for sharing your setup… I think vmix would be easier and convenient.. I’m starting my setup but in debate with myself which route to go..
You always have a nice looking setup.
Buddy here is commanding the starship enterprise here and calling it a live stream set up
Bro this setup is amazing!
Literally my dream setup, but welp stuff is very expensive. I currently only use a smaller older atem for the productions needs I have, but this would be my dream. Except one thing:
Building and disassembling this setup is not even remotely nice. Have you considered putting some stuff into a portable rack, maybe with wheels on it?
Like you can totally put both video switches, the networking and the web presenter into a rack unit. (Also helps with cable management) I would even rack the Pcs if they weren't laptops. Otherwise a totally sick setup that is an absolute dream for everyone who is present in that industry.
Also I would bring a bigger PSU because that thing won't run the show for long in case power fails. Plus is the networking power backed up as well, because otherwise backing up your setup makes no sense in such an extreme remote production setup.
It would be fun to do a stream off. Choose your software to achieve a similar desired outcome. I wonder if Ecamm and zoom iso can handle something of this complexity
first: nice song choice!
I see some power strips with a power switch. Wouldn't it be more fail secure to use ones without that switch? So you can't accidentally turn them off.
Cool setup
I want 1 for my gaming/recording/streaming/paininting/music setup
Everything plugged in 😂😂
A streaming engineer...great job!
Need to run zoom pro iso. Would cut down the need for a pin farm and give you individual full (transmittable) resolution video along with screen-shares and individual audio.
you ever consider using mini pcs instead of laptops? or using laptops primarily for the dual screen into the atem?
I am currently exploring the option of incorporating Dante audio into my rig to make audio routing easier. To do this, I use Dante Via on my computers, and I have a Midas M32C with a Dante card. This allows me to patch all of the audio in a visual format and save the routing as a preset in Dante Controller. I can, if the situation calls for it, use the audio destinations attached to the video outs from the computers as patchable Dante endpoints to go directly into the ATEM. I only feel this confident in Dante because I have been using it very demanding and complex situations for the past 7 years, and it HAS NEVER FAILED. Otherwise, I might feel a bit apprehensive. Thoughts? I am interested in hidden drawbacks/risks associated with Dante in this type of application.
The only thing I'm confused on is how you're outputting to Zoom. If the pinned presenters are on camera in Zoom and you're using your output feed as your camera (presumably from the ATEM as the webcam output), would the presenters not show up twice on everyone else's monitor (once as their original camera in Zoom and once from your output?)? How do you get a clean screen with only the presenters from your ATEM webcam output?
I have a smaller but very similar show to what you displayed in this video (only one presenter at a time, per time slot) and I need a way to bring their camera feed into an ATEM mini Extreme so I can overlay a lower third on them. I can't figure out how to do this with only two laptops (possibly 3). Any help you could provide would really make this show will go off flawlessly.
Do you have a build list just for the table? I literally need all this screen room and desk space for me for productive haha
Do you pull in video inputs into Propresenter for the various variations you have? or do you is Prosenter just the background image? and Atem is over laying it? I am bit confused as to how you are using propresenter and atem.
Can you please do a video on how the setup for talkback to the presenter before they go live without the other participants listening in, is that through a separate zoom room.
two things are happening. We have a main zoom call we refer to as the Lobby. then we have a breakout room off that call we refer to as Main Stage. You have to get through the lobby to get to main stage. The lobby is where talent enters and talks to our zoom receptionist to get all the tech checks and questions handled. Once we are ready, we push them to the break out room "Main stage". Here is where i am pushing a mix minus audio feed to the breakout room so they can hear my voice, the playback audio, but not the zoom call audio. I also have a channel of music that i do not route to the zoom call but the audience on vimeo can hear so i make sure to have background music while i prep the talent so there is no dead air on the stream. There is a video on my older channel about zoom mix minus and how our talkback setup works. A2Z Productions
@@liveproductionmastery Thanks for the response,
It's a great tutorial Brandon, I know someone ask already, but how fast is your internet connection and type? Thanks!
2:40 how do you get a clean full-screen participant feed? Do you crop-in to remove the zoom interface?
🔥HELL YEAH🔥 Friggn AWESOME man 💪🏻📸🤳
I am super curious about the multiple zoom drones. Does each log in with a different email address? And for each one, you are pinning a different guest and then that is output to the switcher. You mention the extended display to facilitate this. Can you please elaborate on that? And finally, is everything coming out of the switcher in super source to your main client?
Hey Frances! All zoom drones do not have accounts, they are just participants on a single call with no credentials besides a guest name. And then yes each drone has at least one display out so i can full screen pin one of the participants/presenters on the call. I run the zoom drone in dual display mode from zoom so i get two zoom windows for the single call. Then i use my main window to be sent to the switcher while having my 2nd window on the laptop screen itself. After i full screen i pop out the chat, participants list and the extra participant's window so that i can drag them onto the laptop screen so they don't pop up on the main window throughout my stream. After all this is routed into the switcher i use a mix of super source embedded into the swticher and other sources like a super source from a 2nd different switcher and playback input, and cut them all in the M/E1 program feed that is then sent to vimeo (main client) for the audience to watch.
Breathtaking. Thank you. I am still hoping to have visit Cambridge, MA to help with studio setup some day. I'm super patient. :)
I am doing a three camera live event stream monthly. Still working on what audio mixer to get this guy he wants to own all the equipment. But a lot of the mirrors my own. Put everything on the back of power that doesn't have built-in backup power. Had a presenter at the end of an event these are live you know tell me that he didn't have the battery in his laptop because he doesn't believe in batteries and such .... which should've been obvious from his talk. I am so glad we didn't lose power, I would put that on the back up circuit had I known. I'm using OBS and NDI with the MEVOs keeps cabling down runs mostly everything on one system for streaming and one system for playback so I'm also responsible for the projector and announcements graphics and making sure the guest laptops works. Although we just did one where they sent their presentation ahead of time we have their own system we had no issues it was amazing. If you can get them to put their PowerPoint presentation into 16x9 and not 4x3 surprise 4x3 is square! I love the new PowerPoint 2013 does a really nice job of converting I only caught one overlap.
Two super sources!
2ME and Extreme 😊👍
Nice setup, I used to travel onsite for these events prior to covid and now I have moved on. I have a question though: how do you change the super source setups on the fly like that? That's pretty cool. I have 2 x 2/ME ATEMS that I cascaded but it got really cumbersome. thx!
I think he's using the Macros from A2Z Productions - MixEffects (it's an App for the iPad) can also do that …
Any comments about required internet connection capacity? With all the Zoom connections plus the Vimeo stream, that seems to be a lot going through a single pipe. Thanks.
Quite the production.
you could ditch all the laptops with a beefy pc running virtual machines for each zoom camera/presenter you need to capture. Even do deactivated output from discrete passed through gpu to the agem.
How can I use the Atem Software Control WITHOUT any board (Atem mini/mini pro etc.)?
Oh god, you made the zoom events on steroids 👍
amazing, thanks much! one question- how do you set it up so that ZOOM doesn't have all the popups & mess onscreen when you've pinned a guest? I've tried a bunch of versions of this but we NEVER get a nice clean capture of guests without popups, notifications and zoom widgets etc... thanks for any feedback!
Good question: I always run my zooms off of a laptop with atleast one extended display. Always in dual screen mode from zoom. My laptop screen is then never seen by anyone but me. I fullscreen the zoom window onto the extended display that the switcher sees. I then pop out the gallery view of other people on the call, the chat and the participants onto the laptop screen. So that’s 3 pop outs on my screen. Then you can choose to have your second zoom window either on the laptop screen or on a third screen if you have it. The screen shares will default to second zoom window so choose wisely have you pin people. Hope that helps.
@@liveproductionmastery a follow up please good sir!: your ZOOM drones - are they CO-HOSTS or just 'guests'?
where can i buy the desk
Is there an advantage to this setup compared to a Tricaster setup ?
Another awesome set up 😀 Love how you just set it up for a show and then tear down again lol. Do you prefer to do that rather than have a permanent setup.
Thanks and I do prefer this method just so I can tailor the setup to the specific needs of the gig. And so I can use the same gear on other events as well so I don’t need to spend double on equipment.
@@liveproductionmastery yeah nice man 👍 makes total sense 😀 I look forward to the next setup 😉
So I love the setup.... is that possible with windows? I don't use Mac and never will (don't hate, it is simply preference and ease of use). I ask because I know there are some macro softwares only available on mac and such.
is this really cheaper than a pre ricked rack with a decent switcher? 8 macbooks seem like a bit much. Bu really intresting video and smarty configured!
Dissolve shoes time has passed
Cuts are instant
I wish you had a early 90s education experience you'd benefit 100 times more efficiently knowing how much easier you have it nowadays seeing where it evolved from. You don't need video techs anymore you need computer geeks with extreme mouse clicking abilities
Couldn't you just virtualize all of the zoom clients into one computer instead of having multiple laptops?
No because u have got to take the inputs... But in weeks in going to can do it with vmix 27. Just for windows
Thanks for that interesting insights. At arround 9:15 you are using the stream deck + and you change pages with the rotary knob.
How are you doing that? I looked for that some time ago but did not find a solution. Would be great to know that 🙏
Make sure you are on a more recent version of companion. It acts like a normal button but there is a check box you can select to activate rotary functions. Then you can specify what happens when you rotate knob left, right and click. On Left is page down, on right is page up. click does nothing. Once i get to a certain page i disable to left or right rotation so i don't move to a page that isn't setup. I just stay on the pages i want. Hope that helps!
Hi, @@liveproductionmastery . Thanks for your fast reply. I have checked the Streamdeck SW-Version. It is up to date - V 6.3.1. on my M1 MacBook Pro.
I can't follow your steps: I thought, I have to select the rotary knob functions in the top right corner of the software.
Then I selected System --> Hotkey ==> Moved the HotKey on a rotary knob on the left window.
Now I have 4 Fields: Give it a Name. What should happen, if knob is turend left and right (as drop downs) and whta should happen, when knob is pressed (as drop down).
There is no Checkbox and in the drop down menues I only can select different keyboard actions but not to control to navigate to next or previous page.
Am I in the wrong place .
Can you give me an more detailed hint or maybe a short screencast?
Thank you so much.
Got it, I believe you are using the stream deck software and not the Bitfocus Companion Software. Bitfocus companion is a 3rd party software that can also control physical stream deck hardware. I was giving instructions for bitfocus companion, but not the native stream deck software. it is usually best to NOT try to run both software's at the same time as that can lead to problems. If you are doing production, i suggest companion. If you are doing game streaming, i suggest the stream deck native software. Hope that helps.
what desk/table are you using there?
The table where did you get it?
don't the Atems get hot standing on top of each other? is my biggest fear when designing this kind of video broadcasting system
Yes, I have feet (stacked Velcro) on the bottom sides of my atem extreme that help give an air gap between it and what ever it is sitting on. They are meant to run hot and I have gotten them a lot hotter then what are they in this configuration so I was not worried about this one. I do tend to leave my gear on overnight and for shows. For the atem mini and extreme models, I do tend to power cycle them each day of show in the morning but the atem constellations models I tend to leave on the entire show. If it was in a close wall rack with a bunch of hyperdecks and other hot gear, I would be a little more cautious but I was not worried about heat in this particular setup based on previous experiences.
That Packout setup has me JEALOUS. Is ZoomISO still flaky? I thought Zoom bought them and poured a ton of resources into it, crazy you're still having to do manual Zoom drones in 2023.
Zoom ISO is rock solid since more than a year now. Zoom drones is another philosophy, more hardware, more work, but even more flexibility.
Great answer! @samueldickes
Yes zoom drones is just a different way of setting things up with different pros and cons. I would say zoom ISO is simpler and easier with the caveat of being paid and running everything with one machine meaning less backups and redundancies. I already had the laptops and can use them for other things when not live streaming so this solution just works for me. But i would recommend zoom ISO in most cases for sure.
this is great but i feel like its over kill, Vmix would elimate the other systems crashing at any moment
What is generating the clock and timer?
Question, the laptop on the left handles the zoom lobby, zoom drones are in a separate meeting together. How can you make these zoom drones not only see and hear eachother but also the main live stream? Thanks for the video!
So for the zoom drones, they are all joined on the same meeting and only zoom drone 1 has it's mic and camera activated in zoom. All the other zoom drones simply have their mics muted and cameras off. Therefore zoom drone 2, 3, 4 and 5 can see and hear everything happening on the single zoom call but are not adding anything to the call. They are all passive viewers in this case but they can full screen (pin) a single talent member on each computer so we can get them into the switcher.
Now for Zoom 1, we are sending the Program Video into the zoom call via the USBC out of either the atem switcher or web presenter. We do not use the embedded audio from these sources because it would cause a feedback loop. Instead we use an external audio mixer to send a separate mix Minus audio feed into Zoom 1. This has the tech director's mic and playback audio in it so the talent on the zoom call can hear it when necessary. It does not have the zoom call's audio in it because everyone on the call can already hear everyone else on the same zoom call. If we did send zoom 1 audio back into the zoom call, everyone on the call would be hearing an echo or double which would be extremely annoying so we don't do that. I hope that helps and if you have more questions on how mix minus audio works, there are definitely a lot of videos explaining it including a video on my old channel that talks through all the tips and tricks for zoom production.
Thanks for the reply, really nice to have this part explained now. I have watched all your previous video's (also on your other channel) about this topic. But it is a steep learning curve sometimes ;-)
How do you eliminate the orange dot on the Zoom Drones? At least latest version of macOS displays that orange dot in external output which makes it unusable...
2 ways. Either a zoom crop so the orange dot is not seen on the live stream. Or i believe orange dot is when the camera or mic is on. But i have the camera and mic off on most of my zoom drones except zoom drone 1. so thats not really an issue for me. Also i am not sure if the dot shows up on the main screen when in dual screen mode. I think it might just show up on the second window which is not very noticeable when they do screen shares which is the only time i really use the second window in dual screen mode on zoom. Hope that helps!
Use a PC for the screen share, no orange dot.
Is rodecaster pro 2 works for live events like (3 mics + 4 big speakers for audience)?
It can, I wouldn’t suggest it my self for in person audiences just because you can’t ring out a mic if you have feedback problems but technically yes it can absolutely push 3 mics to speakers with volume control. Just make sure you can convert from 1/4 inch to xlr for your main PA. No XLR outs on roadcaster.
@@liveproductionmastery thanks for sharing your experience, Is feedback problem can be solved by any method?
Great work!
where the heck is the sunblock?
Nice setup. How are you able to preview multiple super sources?
1 super source from 2 m/e constellation, a separate super source from atem SDI extreme ISO, another box look from 2nd M/E on constellation, then finally a zoomed in feed from SDI extreme ISO program feed using DVE. So I am not previewing the same SS that is already in use. I am looking at a different source entirely. Hope that makes sense! Thanks!
What type of desk is that???
why not use vms for the drones?
What’s the screen size for the LG monitors? What type of monitor arms are they on?
LG monitors are 43” and I found some heavy duty arms on Amazon. I’ll find the link for you.
someone tell me the actual use-case for all of this. I think I am missing key knowledge for why you need so many computers! legit stumbled across this video randomly
Dude has more macs then I do in my collection of broken macs.
Love it
What software(s) do you use? (apart from zoom)
- Pro presenter for playback/gfx
- Microsoft PowerPoint usually for presenter slides
- atem software control to control switcher
- bitfocus companion with stream deck to interface with all components (the buttons to control everything)
I would think you could simplify this setup down a ton by replacing all of those laptops with a single machine running vm's. It would also grant much greater flexibility.
But a lot more risk and unreliable operations. 1 PC or Hardware unit per operation is best.
@@nelsonzhang1369 I use virtual machines in a production environment and I have next to no failures. I am talking 0 failures over a span of many months under 24/7 operation. Just pick a reliable base system, preferably one with redundancy and do things properly you should have a very reliable system, probably more reliable than having a 100 cables hooked up to 8 different old cheap computers. Maybe have a backup system nearby in case you need to fail over if you are that worried
You need some cheap zoom PCs to host all those zoom calls.
Jesus, I’ve worked in live broadcast galleries with less kit than that 😂
I rate this 6/10. Needs more macbooks
Something tells me he likes displays
Looks like more $ in Milwaukee Packout than tech
WoW!
Okay, but is 9 MacBooks really neccessary?
Not anymore, zoom iso has gotten pretty reliable with the M1 Max chips that I don’t normally do this configuration anymore. But there was a time especially early Covid this was the best solution.
@@liveproductionmastery Sure, that makes sense.