Page 1 of 1

Text/Image Overlay for local live webcasting

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:41 pm
by lshearing
We are interested in finding out what equipment/software would be needed to allow us to take our Stake Conference live feed and be able to periodically overlay text (speakers name, or words to music) or images (temple, prophet, etc) during the live feed that is webcast to the other buildings in our stake. In other words, we would like to be able to do what is done with General Conference, but on a local use level to live video/audio broadcast. Thanks for any information you can provide.

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 4:14 pm
by michaelfish
Here's an older LDSTech post which discusses what you're looking for: Post or Post

One way (most popular) is by using a PC and PowerPoint to superimpose hymns. For instance, you could use:
  1. Videonics MX-1 or DataVideo SE-500 video mixer with chroma-key
  2. Computer hardware using video capture cards with video overlay
  3. PC-Based Video Text Message Graphic Overlay Generator (resultion is not very good)
  4. VLC (VideoLan)
It is fairly simple to cut and paste the hymn lyrics from Church On-Line Library's First Lines and Titles and put them in a PowerPoint file (Sample PPX).

Or you could invest in a stand alone Character Generator.

There are several LDSTech posts which discuss several of these options.

For the MX-1 see Post
For computer video cards with video overlay, see Post
For VLC, see Post

Sample MX-1 overlay:
Sample overlay.jpg
(77.93 KiB) Downloaded 1014 times

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 7:48 am
by zumakyle
How do you hook the computer to the MX1? It only has composite or s-video. Do you not get resolution issues?

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 12:16 pm
by michaelfish
Some computers have composite or S-Video outputs so they're already set up (don't forget you can also use an iPad with the composite dongle).

For computers that don't have standard video, using a quality scan converter can yield very good results. Remember, composite video doesn't have more than 600x800 resolution anyway. Add to that the Videonics mixer degrades the signal somewhat and also does the process of chroma-keying, but the results are still VERY satisfactory.

The sample overlay (above) was actually much better than it actually appears and it was done using a $50 scan converter.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:40 pm
by KeithWilson
Another option to consider, if you have the budget, is the Roland VR-3 AV Mixer. This is a video and audio mixer in one.

This is the Video mixer mentioned at the LDS tech presentation for meetinghouse Webcast in Riverton, a couple months ago.
Here is the manufacturer's page:
http://www.rolandsystemsgroup.com/products/100096

A quick video review:
http://youtu.be/p1qUKjQclMI

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:46 pm
by johnshaw
We rented a Roland VR-3 for our last stake conference, it was a fantastic device, so I'll second it. The place we rented from is closed on Sunday's and we got it for $100 for the weekend. I don't know if we'll need one often, our new stake center has some minimal switching capabilities, we've shown a DVD along with a broadcast all using the equipment provided with a local building, but didn't really need to do text/image overlay.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:09 pm
by crmabbott
One other option I have come across from the twitch.tv side of things, is a piece of software called XSplit Broadcaster.. It can take your camera input and allows you to place overlays and so forth directly in the stream live. it's a subscription but is relatively cheap..

You will need the LDS MeetingHouse Webcast software, XPlit will take the camera/audio inputs, then output them into the MeetingHouse Webcast (it will show up as a camera) that you can then output a stream with overlays and the whole shot.