Guam Video Studio for Production & Live Streaming
Contents
Studio
Resources
- Great Live Streaming intro webinar, and the resources list is especially helpful: https://www.adventistchurchconnect.com/help/knowledge-base/live-streaming
- A guide to building an in-house corporate video production studio: https://www.epiphan.com/blog/corporate-video-production-studio/
- A look at Brightcove's in-house video studio equipment: https://www.brightcove.com/en/blog/2019/06/look-brightcoves-house-video-studio-equipment
- The Best Live Streaming Encoders: https://www.joelwsmith.com/live-streaming-encoders
Our Setup
- Camera 1: Sony A6400 with lense
- Camera 2: Sony A6400
- Camera 3: Repurposed LifeSize Icon 600 10x zoom conference room camera for behind the scenes studio shot
- Lense (1): Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS Lens
- Tripods (2): Magnus VT-4000 Tripod System with Fluid Head
- Tripod Dolly (2): Magnus DWF-2 Universal Tripod Dolly
- Switcher: ATEM Mini Pro feeding into OBS via USB.
- Atem handles 3 cameras and 1 laptop input for slides
- OBS handles pre-recorded content playback, chroma key (greenscreen) when needed, lower thirds graphics, additional Zoom laptop sources and streaming to YouTube.
- Facebook "webcam" streaming using the OBS virtual camera for video and virtual audio cable for sound.
- Microphone: Rode Wireless Go with Rode Lavalier Mic feeding into one of the Sony a6400 cameras.
Results
Quality Low Budget Church Streaming
- Switcher: OBS Studio (free) with GStreamer plugin for RTSP sources (details here: Low Latency RTSP Source in OBS)
- Primary Cameras: Sunba PTZ 20X Optical Zoom (405-D20X ECO Edition, under $200 here)
- Warning: due to security concerns, especially around the phone home cloud services, it would be best to block Internet access for these cameras and/or place them on a separate VLAN: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/10/naming-shaming-web-polluters-xiongmai/
- Camera PTZ Controller: LEFTEK ONVIF network based controller (under $200 here)
- Although these can control multiple cameras, the Sunba camera feed in OBS freezes when switching the controller to a new camera so it is smoother and easier to purchase 1 controller per camera.
- Logitech C920 webcam for wide shot
- Stream destination: Zoom / YouTube / Facebook (no recurring costs, besides Zoom subscription)
History
I have documented my work on the Collegedale Community Church Webcast over the years, but have also done some lower budget live steaming in Guam since moving to the island in 2010. Our initial workflows used Wirecast streaming to YouTube with an old Canon XH A1 video camera connected to a computer via firewire, a Logitech webcam as the second source, and XLR audio from the sound board connected to the Canon camera.
Eventually we started experimenting with OBS, but it would not recognize our Canon video camera via firewire. After doing some research we purchased an analog HD component dongle for the camera, an HDMI converter, and an HDMI capture card and never looked back at the firewire cables. We also added a newer Sony A6000 HDMI source, and have used remote iPhone cameras connected to Google Hangouts On Air to live stream 5k/7k Fun Run events.
More recently during the 2020 pandemic I have gotten back into church streaming with a new low budget workflow, and I have also helped set up a mid range studio for both pre-recorded and live production at the end of 2020.
