Networked PTZ Camera with

[Hagothsen]

While the camera has a 85mm lens, it looks like it has a smaller sensor. So it will have a greater "zoom" than your full-frame.

That was exactly it. I had forgotten to account for the crop factor.

Our Stake Center is hand-cuffed with 768Kbs upload speeds, so we won't realize the true benefit of the camera until we can clear the bandwidth hurdle.

[rl_albright]

In response to the private message sent to me from Hagothsen.

Would you please share your network topology and general AV setup with me?

We have for our main cameras 2 PTZOptics 20X-SDI cameras one of which is mounted center rear of chapel on an adjustable pole (adjustable by removing/adding varying lengths of poles), the other camera is mounted above the exit doors on the left of the chapel. The left camera gives us a good angle on the organ and conductor. The network topography is similar to what you would encounter in most buildings except I am a network engineer and have made a few changes. We still utilize and pass ALL traffic through the church firewall. I have added an additional network router within my permanent setup area that feeds all of the AV technology in the building. This is required as the PTZOptics cameras DO NOT like nor work well with a managed firewall (their web GUI interface locks up after 5 minutes).

How do you simultaneously combine video and audio, and concurrently stream to remote and local viewers? The FM Group has routed everything AV to the Library on one end of the building, but the firewall, switch and demarcation panel are in the attic on the opposite corner, at the end of the building.

In this case you run a single CAT5 cable from the network demarcation panel to the library. There problem solved. (Easier said than done in a lot of buildings, I know.)

In our case, we had an unused storage room that was above a classroom off of the stage. At one point it was used by HAM radio operators in the case of emergencies (or so I was told). I have migrated (with the permission of my FM Group) all of the AV gear to this area. As well as moved the Satellite gear to this area as well. I installed a 6.5' server cabinet that now houses all of the Satellite technology and distribution. (Which I received for free from a client.) The dedicated computer that is running everything is a custom purpose built computer that I designed just for this cause. Its specs are as follows:
i7-4790 quad core 3.6GHz processor
MSI B85-G41 Motherboard
16 GB RAM
Radeon R9 270X PCI-E Video card
256GB Solid State system drive
1TB data drive
600Watt power supply
Magewell XI006AE-PRO capture card (captures 6 analog composite sources)
Black Magic DeckLink Quad capture card (captures 4 HD-SDI sources)
Triple 23" monitors (with the right most monitor signal split to show throughout the building)

This device is a work horse and it shows. We utilize Wirecast 6.0 to run everything, and usually a laptop or two for images/lower thirds (words to hymns and speaker names).

Also with our setup I have ran several dedicated audio lines from the chapel to my area. I have 8 XLR inputs around the rostrum (2 under the pulpit, 2 on either side of the back of the rostrum, 1 at the organ and 1 at the piano), I feed all of this audio back to my area with a return channel that feeds it back forward. When running stake conference all of the microphones go through my board and then return to feed into the "pulpit" microphone input. This allows the stake presidency a little bit of control over the volume, however we work together to make sure the volume stays consistent.

*Have your eyes glossed over yet?* :

Now at the pulpit I have inputs for HDMI, VGA and composite for plugging in various items that people may bring with them (usually general authorities), this is adapted to feed into my computer, where it is just another feed for me. When the visiting GA wants to show a video during his talk, he simply starts playing it and I see and hear this, and push it out to the projectors. I have the same inputs at the stake clerk's desk in the chapel.

Now to pass everything around I use Wirecast, the video output of Monitor 3 is split from the video card, one feed goes to the monitor, another goes to the CAT5 extender for VGA (that feeds the 2 projectors one in the chapel the other in the cultural hall) and the other feed to the video distribution for channel 6 in the building. Using wirecast's virtual camera I point the webcasting software to that virtual camera and the audio output to push the stream out to other buildings.

Does any of this help? Please let me know how I can help you with your setup if necessary. I am on the advanced end of audio/video work and have been actively training others on how to use all of the equipment.

Now realize JUST because I went crazy and did all of this, does not mean that you have to as well. The MAIN reason we went fully digital is due to Electromagnetic Interference we get in our stake center. We have 3 cell towers across the street on a water tower, an AM transmission tower that is 800 yards to the west of the building (that actually bleeds into any improperly grounded equipment) and an FM transmission tower about 1/4 mile to the south (which used to feed into ALL of the speakers before church HQ installed filters into each and every speaker). We tried staying analog but we were having way too many problems with interference that is intermittent at best and annoyingly frustrating at the least. The digital solution was our only option. A well-tuned analog system can prove to be just as useful as the big systems that I utilize.

I hope this answers your questions on how we do everything, but if not let me know. Look under my name and look at my other posts to see some pictures of my areas.

[russellhltn]

Now at the pulpit I have inputs for HDMI, VGA and composite for plugging in various items that people may bring with them (usually general authorities),

I hope you let them know this is unusual. I'm concerned that some GAs get a false idea of what a normal stake's capability is. That makes it harder for the rest of us when we stick to "church standard".

[Hagothsen]

*Have your eyes glossed over yet?* :

Nope, but the drool flowing on to my keyboard may cause a problem.

Lacking your professional credentials, I seriously doubt I can convince the powers that be to let me even attempt something remotely that complicated. Additionally, it's probably not prudent to use funds (Stake, FM Group or otherwise) since we rarely if ever combine with other units. For our initial run, I'll just use the analog out and run the tried (but not so true) method used in the past. I think however, I'll work to get the key areas of our building, cat6 cable runs. Streaming in general, especially IP, has advanced dramatically in the past 18 months. I'm thinking a combination of Open Broadcaster and VLC might work. Still, there are many weak links in our broadcast chain, so I can't put the horse before the cart. Thank you for sharing your awesome setup!

I hope you let them know this is unusual. I'm concerned that some GAs get a false idea of what a normal stake's capability is. That makes it harder for the rest of us when we stick to "church standard".

I hope they see how wonderful it is, and work to make a simpler version at least optional for other Stakes to use.

[russellhltn]

I hope you let them know this is unusual. I'm concerned that some GAs get a false idea of what a normal stake's capability is. That makes it harder for the rest of us when we stick to "church standard".

I hope they see how wonderful it is, and work to make a simpler version at least optional for other Stakes to use.

If they understand the standard and will push for improving it, that would be great.

[rl_albright]

I hope you let them know this is unusual. I'm concerned that some GAs get a false idea of what a normal stake's capability is. That makes it harder for the rest of us when we stick to "church standard".

I hope they see how wonderful it is, and work to make a simpler version at least optional for other Stakes to use.

If they understand the standard and will push for improving it, that would be great.

Yes, we clearly tell visiting GAs that this is not a normal setup. We have gone pretty far off the "reservation." But again, the reason for the digital is due to the interference our stake center gets. Before the upgrades watching the video camera was painful as it had rolling diagonal bars through the image that varied in intensity and would usually only show up on Sunday session morning (never during testing, or at least intermittently).

From my talks with some people at GS, it would seem the church is moving towards this direction, albeit slowly. The church is a house of order, and waits for technologies to mature before deployment. I find this comforting in a lot of things.

[russellhltn]

And I thought I had problems with RFI. We used to have the Omega station whose tones would get into most audio equipment. Our city had TV/FM transmitters IN the city. Much of that's gone away now, but I don't think I ever had it as bad as you've got it.

[rl_albright]

And I thought I had problems with RFI. We used to have the Omega station whose tones would get into most audio equipment. Our city had TV/FM transmitters IN the city. Much of that's gone away now, but I don't think I ever had it as bad as you've got it.

The really annoying thing is if ANYTHING in the line has a bad connection or the shield is not 100% intact and done correctly through the audio system, BOOM we are listening to mariachi music. It is very annoying, but forces me to ensure that quality of all connections is at 100% all the time. And even more annoying is during rain storms (which usually happen a lot in western Washington) the ground for the building goes weird and some of the mariachi music makes it into the system regardless of what we do.

[russellhltn]

And even more annoying is during rain storms (which usually happen a lot in western Washington) the ground for the building goes weird and some of the mariachi music makes it into the system regardless of what we do.

Interesting. I can only guess you have more than one ground rod and it's causing the signal to travel though the grounding system.

[rl_albright]

And even more annoying is during rain storms (which usually happen a lot in western Washington) the ground for the building goes weird and some of the mariachi music makes it into the system regardless of what we do.

Interesting. I can only guess you have more than one ground rod and it's causing the signal to travel though the grounding system.

Not a clue. It is a mystery to the three AV Integration firms that I have had out to the building to try and help us fix it. Each one has scratched their head at to the cause. We just say now "The Gremlins are acting up." or "Apparently we are doing something right, because Satan is trying to sabotage the meeting."