Attendees:

Garth Frantze, Jacob Clayman (MIVS), John Dell (MIVS), Justin Aquadro (MS/VRChat), Kat Pawlowski (MIVS), Matt Lepage (IndArc), Matt Stoldal (Broadcast), Nathan Mattingly (IndArc), Kyle Magocs (IndArc)

Host: Matt Stoldal:

Goal is to talk through the tech chain

• used OBS/SLABS (stream labs) to stream to twitch
• limited source based production (one cam, one game, few overlays)

Feed - a "source" from something (cam, remote)

Vision Mixer - a person saying which feed to use

Producing a live event

• what sources/feeds
• VP - video packages
• video tape / pre-recorded
• mkvs/mp4s
• ready to go content
• Remote Feeds
• they use OBS to connect to our OBS
• skype / discord / zoom / google meet
• Local Sources
• cameras / local capture cards

Need to figure out which type the next feed is

• start building the run down
• the master tracking document
• everyone is looking at this for the stream.
• every minute is planned out
• it's a living doc that is wrangled by the "Show Caller"
• Matt will provide a sanitized copy of the West Run Down **
• don't reuse content numbers.
• burn it if not approved

Once we know what the feeds are, we can figure out what tech is needed

• one computer that's doing all this?
• are different people doing this?
• do people remote into this one computer?
• West was hosted in Baltimore and people remoted into it
• Do we break this up by Dept, or is one strike force running this?
• they would be the Broadcast Ops (recommended)
• if not bunkered, would need identical tech chains
• need a location with really good internet as the central hub
• decent 8 core with a current graphics card
• important to know where content is coming from.

Ok we know where the content is coming from and where/how

Now we look at core software

OBS:

• free and flexible
• some pre-built packages
• not designed for video playback
• how much time left (biggest fail on OBS)
• Dont use OBS to play video
• recommends playing videos through VLC as the playback engine
• there is tech NDI that is used to connect VLC to OBS
• designed for video (Better than RTMP)
• wired into most production software (royality free)
• new tech is the company behind it
• tell VLC to output via NDI
• in OBS, select NDI source and name VLC Player
• select VLC source and use default options
• in VLC add some source files
• two displays are recommended for wrangling all this info/windows
• VLC gives us a timer and better control
• you have to press VLC play button and OBS play button (control tech will be discussed later)
• OBS / VLC are web controllable
• when VLC is not playing, OBS will see a green screen
• need to be ready to transition

Sources:

• need to normalize video / audio
• do we need to adjust the audio for a pre-recorded video?
• make sure landscape sources
• may need to re-encode portrait videos or have them re-created
• 1080p / 720p
• will need to clean files
• upscale to whatever the source should be (1080p, frame rate, encoding, etc).
• worth spending time cleaning up videos

Local Cameras:

• one camera is easy (web cam)
• two cameras gets complicated
• plan on OBS crashes
• do we get rental to get a physical video mixer
• and use OBS to get feed from it

Remote Feeds:

• Skype
• skype still exists and does good remote video
• NDI supported in Skype
• each caller is then a source in OBS
• audio is mixed together
• Screencapture of screen is ok
• but tiles move on discord, meet, zoom
• For West, they used skype / zoom (licensing is pro for HD)
• Skype is well supported on most platforms
• allows for keeping sources in their screen positions
• 2 up interview and people's feeds stayed
• Skype calls are just easy to wrangle
• In Skype, host meeting / start meeting
• top corner is NDI
• regenerate the skype call once a day
• and invite person an hour or so before
• don't keep regenerating the skype call
• broadcast ops would be in the call too
• this broadcast ops person can be hidden since controlling the sources for output

ZEN NDI Router / Switcher

• http://www.zenvideo.co.uk/ndi.htm
• multiple inputs on bottom
• outputs on the right side
• adding sources to OBS on the fly is cranky
• OBS always gets 8 inputs from this router
• and even if we don't have a source running, OBS doesn't care
• we can then quickly change the source and OBS doesn't crash
• Allows for the layout to be configured ahead of time and not rebuilt all the time
• And their NO AUDIO METER

RTMP Server

• worth a 30/month license called RTMPMiniServer for NewTek NDI
• give people rtmp server address and key
• then using the router we can manage sources
• needs to be restarted at least once a day
• call into a "phone line"
• 6/MBits per channel/source
• and need some software behind it
• change stream keys every morning
• RTMP latency is a few seconds

SRT - new protocol to replace RTMP

• FEC - forward error correction
• bleeding edge dev
• latency is < 1 sec

Recommended:

• Skype and RTMP Mini Server

Team:

• Broadcast Engineer:
• between the segments, cut to host,
• One Person Managing Files
• Managing Remote Feeds
• this is easier with a team of a few people doing various roles
• just playing videos back to back could be one person

Restarting

• once a day
• twitch has a 40 hour limit

Gets complicated / expensive with additional local feeds