Camera Switching Delay

Is anyone else noticing a camera frame drop when switching cameras? It’s about 1-2 frames. This occurs when switching cameras in picture / picture as an example, the camera will go blank before loading in the feed.

Here is a video of the delay we are talking about.

Mimo Error from Nordic Filmworks on Vimeo.

The problem with this is that mimoLive will shut down a camera if its not used in any layer for performance reasons. Once you switch on a layer the camera needs to be fired up again which may take a while.

A workaround is to have a “Placer” layer on top of the layer stack that uses the camera but draws it offscreen (switch the layer from “Fullscreen” to “Custom Mode” to be able to move the image out of the way). This will keep alive the camera even if you switch off the other PiP layer.

Does this solve your problem?

Okay. We did figure that out, also by putting the switcher layer and having all cameras assigned there.

We are noticing huge performance issues with Boinx… Frame lag now. We only have 3 cameras and 2-3 graphic layers. System Activity is about 5% on CPU of our system and RAM is even less. We are on 2014 Mac Pro with 64gb ram.

@“Nordic Media” I’m sorry that you are experiencing issues. What cameras and capture devices are you using? What kind of Frame lag are you experiencing?

The low load info of the Mac seems to indicate that it should not be a problem…

There is a row of dots in the status display to the right of the document name. If you click on those, the render performance monitor comes up. Could you post a video of that monitor?

Sure. I’ll do a test next week and record for you guys.

We are using 3 x Blackmagic Thunderbolt. 2 x Canon C100s and 1 x Canon C500. 30 frames @ 1080p.

@“Nordic Media” Thank you for reporting back. In our experience, this setup should really not present any problems.

Hello Mimo,

This is a MacPro I’m running off of. Essentially, I’m running just one camera and a video layer in for this test. It’s red lining a fair bit. Adding in more cameras and trying to more technical layers results in drop / loss.

I’ve recorded a video here:

Mimo Error from Nordic Filmworks on Vimeo.

Quick tip: EL capitan have a lot of better performance than Yosemite

@“Nordic Media” What kind of videos are you playing back in the PIP layers? Resolution, FPS, Encoding?

We recommend to use macOS Sierra for best performance.

The PiP layers are:

Setup #1

  • Camera Feed (1080p / 30fps)
  • Video Files (720p / 30fps)
  • JPG background
  • Lower Third png

Setup #2

  • Camera Feed (1080p)
  • Camera Feed (1080p)
  • JPG background
  • Lower Third png

I will update OS to Sierra see if that solves some problems.

We did switch to Wirecast last night for our latest show. It’s more of the tradition Preview —send----> Program setup. What I like about Wirecast is that it waits for the video feed to be fully rendered before sending it out. You get about 1/4 second delay, which is not bad at all. With Mimo you essentially have blank / empty / nothing.

Also, layer building in Mimo is exactly like the old BoinxTV. I was hoping there could be group folders, which would simplify switching on complex workflows like ours.