Need advise on setup for K-12 education

[stevenpaulr]

I don’t know if I’m in the right place or not. First, I’ll explain my current setup.

I’ve got a pair of screens with projectors enclosed in boxes in the ceiling of our Gym. I have VGA cable running up to them. In a server closet, I have a computer that feeds those. I have extra cable going to that computer which I could push an SVideo signal over. As of right now, I can play power point or whatever and display it on those screens. I would like to be able to display video from cameras positioned in the gym for the basketball games.

I’m looking for an inexpensive way for that computer to recieve multiple inputs and toggle between them. The computer does not have a capture card in it at all right now. I do have a dazzle thing that I could throw in there for a single input pretty easily. I don’t have a large budget. What would be a cheap solution that I could use?

[Rob]

Are you going to be showing edited video from the computer to the projector or will the video be live so that students can clearly see, lets say, a speaker who came to the school?

If it is edited video. VGA would be fine. You could play the edited videos on QuickTime player and view it in full-screen mode.

If it is live video, you may need a switcher.

This isn’t really my area of expertise, so I don’t know if there are other solutions for live video. My instict tells me you’d need a switcher though, and probably cameras with timecode and genlock.

Good Luck

[stevenpaulr]

It’s going to be live video. The main purpose is going to be basketball games.

[stevenpaulr]

Is there a cheap switcher out there that would be a good solution?

[birdcat]

I looked into live video streaming a few years ago – It was very expensive then and don’t know if that’s still the case.

Back then, the two things I looked at were the Video Brick and Window Meda Server.

[videoguys]

check out the newtek tricaster. it is a portable computer with liveswitching of 3 cameras plus fantastic graphics and other great stuff. http://www.videoguys.com/tricaster.html

gary

[stevenpaulr]

I think for right now I’m going to stick to one camera going into a dazzle, and then out to the screen from the PC. I know it’s a dumbed down solution, but I won’t have to purchase anything for it. Then depending on how budgets go I can try to get a tricaster or something similar.

[EarlC]

Check Google for anybody with an old Panasonic MX12 mixer. Works well with two camera feed, switching back and forth. Videonics (I think they still go by that name) also has some comparatively inexpensive units in the mixer areana.

I am surprised that someone here would suggest NewTek’s Trimaster. Sure, it’s a wonderful piece of equipment, but did they not grasp that you were looking for a “budget” approach. And Rob, you really need to read a post before offering up questions instead of answers. The first post said: “I would like to be able to display video from cameras positioned in the gym for the basketball games.” Pretty clear what he wanted to accomplish. Right?

[stevenpaulr]

Earl, thank you much! That is what I was looking for. I have an idea now of what direction I need to be heading. I may have found a line on someone willing to donate some older equipment, so I’m going to see if that pans out before I start the process of purchasing anything.

I think videoguys was suggesting the tricaster because they sell it.

[fegalevac]

Thanks for the advices

[Author]

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