PTZOptics NDI cam directly into Church Webcast system?

The PTZOptics NDI https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... white.html shows that it has the option to push a signal directly out of the RJ45 port to a RTMP streaming service (church webcast or Youtube/FB etc. Has anyone purchased and utilized this feature rather than sending an NDI signal to wirecast/obs?

We're in a new stake and new stake building and there has been some desire expressed from the presidency to spend some resources obtaining gear for broadcasting. The church installed one camera in the new stake building, but one to two more is preferred. My thought was to potentially purchase a PTZOptics camera for another ward building right now and then during stake conferences, pull the camera for a second/third angle if desired.

It would be nice to potentially have a solution to use the PTZOptics NDI camera with audio ran into and mounted, then just connect remotely to the device to push the signal to the church webcast at a specific time each Sunday. No computer or additional equipment would be needed. Also, while I'm posting on here, it's shocking the church hasn't setup the FM Group with some gear for broadcasting stake conference that stakes could rent or checkout. Then we wouldn't be stuck running a PTZ camera that can only auto adjust exposure on a white wall or the dark wood leaving the speaker undesirable in exposure 100% of the time and we wouldn't need to purchase additional cameras to be used a few times per year (outside of covid).

We have two of these cameras in our stake center and push them to the Church's webcast system. As you know, you're going to need to mix the audio from one source and the video from the camera then encode it and send to the webcast servers.

In our most basic setup where we have a single active camera, we used the Vidiu encoder to do this work for us. I have this fully documented. If you want a copy, PM me. For multiple camera setups, we use a mixer board to select the camera and audio feed we want.

At a 50k ft level, the video feed comes into the Vidiu via HDMI (you use a SDI-HDMI converter for this). Then, for us, we have a line out option in the broadcast cabinet. We take that into the Analog In port on the Vidiu. You enter the Webcast credentials (RTMP and passcode) and voila they connect and go. While the Vidiu says it can do automatic configuration, so you don't have to enter the codes, it only works on the base Vidiu unit, not the Vidiu Pro which we have. We have to enter them manually each Sunday morning. Not that big of a thing for us since we're 10 minutes from the Stk Ctr but if your a significant distance away . . . . . . . .

Carlton

So will the PTZoptics not take an audio input (assuming you ran an audio cable to the camera) and mix it for the stream?

And your solution was my second option as well. In our brand new stake center they installed a discontinued ptz camera that only does SD. My thought was to hopefully use the cable and switch it over to sdi and convert it in the tech closet to HDMI. Then grab another ptz camera for the other building and plug it into our second hdmi input and Ethernet jack two run a two camera show or potentially 3 with the podium hdmi input. Then maybe get the ATEM mini pro to switch a live event and push it to the server.

diamond3 wrote:So will the PTZoptics not take an audio input (assuming you ran an audio cable to the camera) and mix it for the stream?

And your solution was my second option as well. In our brand new stake center they installed a discontinued ptz camera that only does SD. My thought was to hopefully use the cable and switch it over to sdi and convert it in the tech closet to HDMI. Then grab another ptz camera for the other building and plug it into our second hdmi input and Ethernet jack two run a two camera show or potentially 3 with the podium hdmi input. Then maybe get the ATEM mini pro to switch a live event and push it to the server.

It doesn’t look like the cameras have any audio in or out connections. So you’ll need to use something like the VidiU.

In our cabinet, we have BlackMagic Design hardware to convert input SDI (multiple cameras) to hdmi then we either feed it directly into Vidiu (single camera) or into the mixer (multiple cameras, podium laptop connection (hdmi), library connection for a remote laptop/Zoom meeting (hdmi) etc.). From there we have multiple output connections to rooms using coax / SDI so the output feed is split in half. Part goes to the Vidiu, part goes to an SDI splitter which sends the signals to all the projectors in the building. This is how we simulcast GenConf (pre Covid) as well as show StkCon speakers throughout the cultural hall, baby room, etc.

You could just use a laptop to ingest the NDI stream and mix it with audio then cast it to the webcast system using something like OBS or vMix.

Also, at that price point for the PTZ camera, you could consider other options like the Panasonic HC-X2000 which can stream (RTMP) directly to the webcast system, but does have XLR audio inputs as well providing a simpler setup. Teradeks are hard to come by right now and are somewhat expensive....nearly the price of some of these cameras.

https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Profes ... ics&sr=1-3

You could also go with the Panasonic HC-X1500 for about $500 less, although it doesn't come with the handle (you can add it later) or you can use the 3.5" mini input for audio.

https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Profes ... B083FSJ6QH

The ptz camera listed above has a line in that will mix. Obviously that would require running audio to the camera.

My thought was for a building not setup with a tech closet or any sort of video routing, we could install this in the back, run cables to it and be able to have it push directly to the church broadcast. Someone would just need to control the camera and kill the feed.