Portable, Non-Proprietary Streaming Hardware? 44
bandini asks: "My job occasionally has me running encoders for live webcasts in locations that demand a high degree of portability and flexibility. It's usually required that we provide redundant encoders, so my current setup consists of two rack-mounted WinXP machines and a KVM tray/switch in a very large, heavy, awkward case. In this age of powerful, small-form-factor computers, what kind of new configuration can I seek to relieve myself of some of the headaches of hauling around this giant case?"
"I would use a pair of laptops but we want to keep using the Osprey capture cards that we've invested in, which will take multiple A/V inputs, including XLR balanced audio. We want to keep the setup as modular as possible so that the input devices, monitor, KVM switch, either computer or either card can fail without causing a catastrophe. We want to avoid the highly integrated and very expensive dedicated machines on the market. Ideally, the whole setup would break down into a couple of carry-on sized bags, and any one component could be replaced with readily available parts. Also, I've been looking for a good online community dedicated to live streaming issues, but haven't found anything yet. Any constructive input will be deeply appreciated."
Non-Proprietary hardware (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, you probably only care about the software interface being open, not the design of the hardware. Carry on.
Re:Non-Proprietary hardware (Score:2)
Examples of non-proprietary hardware (Score:2)
Shuttle (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Shuttle (Score:2)
Re:Shuttle (Score:1)
Do you think an Osprey would fit in this [ibm.com] or this [ibm.com]?
Add some external RAID [cdw.com] and you should be good to go.
You must be new here (Score:2, Funny)
Ha. I predict a suggestion of a pair of linux powered toasters at some point.
Re:You must be new here (Score:5, Funny)
I, for one, suggest a pair of Linux powered toasters. Of course, you could always go with BSD powered blenders...
Re:You must be new here (Score:1)
I seriously recommend carting around all of these Linux powered toasters and BSD powered blenders with a Amiga powered SUV.
Re:You must be new here (Score:1)
Re:You must be new here (Score:1)
Ha. I predict a suggestion of a pair of linux powered toasters at some point.
Or one AMD dual-crust powered toaster.
On-camera high-end mics and DV/USB - encoder (Score:5, Insightful)
I think before you change your hardware you're going to need to change your mindset. The Osprey cards are fantastic (ESPECIALLY their XLR input capability) but anything requiring such a large PCI card wil almost mandate a deep-chassis 2u form factor. I recently broadcast a friend's wedding and had the same problem - it's difficult to get good audio/video with standard laptop hardware. I settled on a good DV camera with an add-on quality microphone connected to a USB ATI TV-Wonder and was VERY happy with the results. At only a few hundred K/second (church broadband), the encoding was the clear bottleneck in the A/V quality. On top of that, I was taping using the DV cam the whole time so I had a very high quality copy of the action for later post-processing and packaging for the bride and groom.
For the professional? A good DV cam (maybe PTZ, audio inputs required though) ouputting raw DV to two sources - a high-capacity DV recorder and a beefy laptop acting as the encoder. The recorder is there to prevent the encoder from seeing the akward minute-long outages you encounter when switching tapes (I ran into this problem last month).
Re:On-camera high-end mics and DV/USB - encoder (Score:5, Informative)
My suggestion (and I've seen a relative who does DV do this) is to get an SKB rackmount case [skbcases.com] with wheels ( you know the ones you see the roadees use at concerts) and put your rackmounts in there. That way you can wheel it around if need be and it won't get too banged up when you travel with it.
Laptops won't really do well for ecoding on the fly.
Re:On-camera high-end mics and DV/USB - encoder (Score:2)
What is the latency like for the USB ATI TV-Wonder? I haven't tried it.
Laptops (Score:2)
Get a couple of Dell laptops...
...with hot swappable components...
Make sure they have firewire...
Don't forget to get one with a burner...
Of course, I'll probably draw some fire for these suggestions....
Huh? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
really, you almost only need 4U of space. 1x 1U Rack display/keyboard, 1x 1U KVM, 2x 1U Server cases. Keeping the height to a minimum will possibly allow the depth of the equipment to be increased.
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/?typ
Quality? (Score:1)
As a side topic, for average quality (ie. webclip quality) for in-car video (perhaps with front and rear view so 2 cams required), what software is available? I've been looking for something similar for this, and haven't turned up much. It has to be able to process at least 30fps and encode live, so I'm guessing for 2 cams, the CPU is unlikely to be able to hold up and a hardw
Some good hardware is out there (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Some good hardware is out there (Score:1)
Unfortunately, h.264 based encoders are still ridiculously expensive, so I didn't bother to research them further. When it comes to video devices
Re:Some good hardware is out there - Prices? (Score:1)
Can someone please post some links or prices, particularly for the WM version?
Re:Some good hardware is out there - Prices? (Score:2)
I don't have access to a price list right now, but a mpeg4 single channel encoder is about $4500, MPEG2 is $6500, WM is less.
Re:Some good hardware is out there - Prices? (Score:1)
Re:Some good hardware is out there - Prices? (Score:2)
A rack-mount shelf is available, it's 2U high, holds 2 Vbrick appliances (4 encoder/decoders total).
Re:Some good hardware is out there - Prices? (Score:1)
Thanks again for your help.
Re:Some good hardware is out there (Score:2)
Oh, and can you imagine a beowulf cluster of these?
vBricks work, but expensive- see also StarValley (Score:3, Informative)
The big problem was getting systems on the other side of our firewall to see the stream properly. The best MPEG4 player is Quicktime, and it couldn't find the stream.
Support the Open Graphics Project (Score:3, Informative)
If you like this sort of thing, you might consider getting involved with the project.
Trying to find streaming SOFTware... (Score:1)
I've been racking my brain (and the Internet) over the past week, trying to get a simple Linux streaming solution working. It should take a live video stream from a Firewire IEEE1394 consumer camcorder, encode it on a laptop, and send it to a streaming server for mass broadcast.
I've found several interesting F/OSS programs and utilties (like MPEG4IP and GStreamer), and have kept a list of all software combinations [jsharkey.org] I've tried. Right now it's pretty detailed, so hopefully it can help others. E-mail me if
thanks + more info - reqs and specs (Score:1)
Re:thanks + more info - reqs and specs (Score:1)
Cube form factor beyond Shuttle (Score:1, Interesting)
As long as you're considering the Shuttle based on form factor, you may find the Chenming MATX-118 [chenmingusa.com] interesting. You asked to stay away from proprietary hardware and while Shuttles are standard PCs, they use proprietary motherboards and power supplies.
The MATX solves those problems while trying to stay as compact as possible. They take the Micro-ATX form factor motherboard, widely available today. With space for 3 internal hard drives plus 3 external-facing bays, there's plenty of room for storage. There's
Re:thanks + more info - reqs and specs (Score:2)
They don't do real media streams, Windows media is good though. You can buy an appliance with a built in hard d
Re:thanks + more info - reqs and specs (Score:1)
They have a product line that allows an external PCI card to be attached to a notebook.
Some compatability testing is required because not all cards will work properly.
Globe WCT Fiji (Score:1)
We had extra PCs around we could use as backups if it failed, too -- this is obviously a fairly harsh environment (sun, sand, surf, seaspray, and of course theres always the risk of it just falling off the tower in the first place).
This is probably not so much help for your specific requirements, but the system *was* s
intel Macs? (Score:2)
I've recently switched from Windows back to Mac, and it has been a transforming experience. Everything Just Works. There was very little setup to do, and it runs rock solid. It'
Cappuccinopc, again (Score:2)