Setup for 3 Cameras

I would like to use mimoLive with 3 Consumer Cameras via HDMI but I can’t find any best practice solutions on the website. What kind of hardware do I need to connect those three cameras to a MacBook Pro? Thanks for any hint on how to do that.

Regards,
Guido

@“Guido Leifhelm” Thank you for using mimoLive!

Are you referring to the new MacBook Pro or the previous generation?

In general, you will need 3 HDMI inputs. You can use USB3 or Thunderbolt devices, or you can put a PCIe card into a Thunderbolt expansion box. There is a 4 port HDMI card by Magewell that is supposed to work and you can put that into a Sonnet Technologies Echo expansion chassis, connect it to the MBP via Thunderbolt.

Running long HDMI cables is not always practical. It might be better to use an HDMI to SDI converter at each camera and use SDI cables to connect to the Mac. Now, instead of the 4 port HDMI card, you can use a 4 port SDI card.

Which way you go depends mostly on your budget.

@“Oliver (Boinx)” Thank you for answer! I have played with a Atem Television Studio during the last few days. I have seen, that it is possible to control the Atem TS with mimoLive as well. Since we are planning a Green Screen Studio Setup with 3 cameras I did already run into the limitations with keying in the Atem TS. Yesterday I saw that you are offering an extension to control the Atem through mimoLive.

Here is my question: Can I set up different keyer settings in mimoLive for each camera connected to the Atem TS? Or, asked in another way - can I still set different settings for each connected camera in software while using a MiniRecorder?

Thanks for your help!
Regards,
Guido

@“Guido Leifhelm” You could set up multiple sources with the same device and set up a different green screen filter for each one. But to be honest, I’m not sure about how well this will perform.

@“Oliver (Boinx)” - OK, I guess I will send the Atem Switcher back to the dealer…

We plan to use 4 HDMI-Consumer Cameras, 4 HDMI2SDI-Converter as a starting point.
Can you recommend a setup to use for Green Screen Production? Would it make sense to contact the phone support?

Thanks, Guido

@“Guido Leifhelm” I recommend to use a BMD DeckLink Duo 2 card in a Sonnet Echo Enclosure to give you 4 SDI inputs on your Mac.

However, I need to caution you on the green screen for 3 or 4 Cameras. It may be just too much for the Mac to key 3 or 4 sources at the same time in Full HD. Also, it is quite a challenge to get the backdrop right for 3 different perspectives.

Hi, Guido:

As much as I love mimoLive, if you want to do 3 camera green screen, then the PC based vMix software would be a better choice.

@“Jason Jenkins” What needs to change so that you’d consider the mimoLive green screen superior to the vMix one?

Hi, Oliver:
vMix works with virtual sets, so it’s easy to set up backgrounds for three cameras.

How do they figure out the position, direction, focus of the cameras?

More info here: http://www.vmix.com/help18/
Functions similarly to a TriCaster.

@“Jason Jenkins” Seems like the virtual set feature in vMix just works with one camera. We do have something like that in the labs, which was used in this video:

http://www.digitalupgrade.de/s03e15-podcastfilm/

:slight_smile:

Hmmm. I guess I made an assumption that vMix could do 3 camera angles like the TriCaster.

@“Guido Leifhelm” @“Jason Jenkins” Hi Guido, Jason, we have put together a bit of documentation on how to do a 3 camera “virtual set” with the current mimoLive features:

http://docs.mimo.live/docs/virtual-set

Enjoy and let us know if something is missing.