Equipment (the ingredients):
The recipe and “ingredients”
- Lab stool to climb and see the stuff above my eye level and reach the inventory on top storage shelves and to see the camera display interface while adjusted in top-down “mode”
- Camera (NOKIA ZEISS optics smartphone camera) with DroidCam OBS app for Android
- Custom adjustable camera stand – jib – rig – crane for “beauty” shots (horizontal view) and top down vertical workflows capturing and recording
- Long (at least 2 m) USB “High speed” cable to connect smartphone camera to capture and streaming PC running OBS and DroidCam OBS plug-in
- Adjustable light fixture (2-3 light sources aka “three point light setup”) ; I use LED strip with long power supply cable hanging on hard wire to prevent undesirable moving and spinning
- Adjustable microphone fold-able arm with 360° anchor rotation (“boom” stand – holder); I my case it is repurposed office lamp stand with three pivot point and firm grip base mount, with coverage area from PC desk to work and bench area.
Extras I put into mix:
- Logitech USB webcam (from 2004) with built in microphone for “host” talking directly into scene and aux IRL scene framing
- USB 2 WiiSTAR HDMI (pass through) capture (MJPG) “card” for capturing arbitrary custom PC multimedia output content
- USB 3 WiiSTAR HDMI (pass through) capture (YUYV)”card” for full high definition audio and video source
- Highly elaborate customized OBS scenes and capture sources on streaming host PC:
- background music (WinAmp player: mp3 and SID files)
- Audio visualization (MilkDrop 3)
- “Stream Overlays”
- browser and app window sources . ..
- Dedicated PC (i3 Intel CPU) and two display monitors for live stream platforms monitoring and row of pop out chats when multi-streaming (up to 6-9 target platforms), and for switchable audio monitoring between speakers or headphones of real time sound playback from streaming host workstation audio monitoring output and or other sound source that I want to have central control on this monitoring PC RIG
DIY Custom Camera Stand With Adjustable Arm
A rectangular profile long wood pole, four wall mount shelf holders for cam. stand foots, flexible plastic “spine” from swimming noodle as extension arm, custom designed for NOKIA phone seat – camera port, a handful of plastic cable binders and two pieces of string, is what it takes to build a useful portable camera “rig” that allows horizontal and vertical framing around the “Studio Lab @ ed_oga”!
Basic build video
Mega tune up for more coverage
Connecting over USB long high quality (hi speed)cable is my preference. That is why I secure the female USB connector with strong “carpentry” peg to the camera rig, to prevent cable to be puled – disconnected accidentally or by sheer weight of the USB cable.
Rehearsals, rehearsals, and more testing, is what it takes
Setting up the capture and tearing down the PC in real time requires trained team of studio crew, producer, scriptwriter at least.
Or as I do it live and hot jumping in fire, trials by fire without a script.
There are no tutorials to prepare one for managing and move around for scene framing adjustments of equipment live (while “ON AIR”) in a specific room and environment that impose (un)certain restrictions.
That is why rehears my “stage” act and performance in “LIVE” conditions. I can spot right away the factors and make a shorter format content videos about how to handler any unforeseen consequences.
Things like:
- Smartphone camera setup to work with OBS using DroidCam for OBS Android app and OBS plugin
- Preparing the OBS scene and arrangement of video sources for workbench capture.
-already have multiple tutorials online.
Recorded “Behind the scenes” and live demonstrations of “action” scenes in the studio
PC maintenance series in 4 live session
Multi part series. Featuring the resident “LabSims” (“The Sims”), simulation running.
Highly anticipated and unscheduled maintenance of a PC. A supposed to be next migration target and upgrade of current capture & streaming setup. The hard(ware)er way is better?
It did not turn out to be a streaming workstation, I gave it to my SON Number ONE!
1. Session:
Short studio-lab overview.
Demo presentation of my improvised camera “crane”.
Capturing from side view the PC disassembly.
Camera crane adjustments for capturing top-down the workbench for the rest of the maintenance.
2. Session:
Dusting off, cleaning and replacing thermal grease
Rehearsing camera movement for better studio-lab coverage.
Brushing off all PC components with clean paint brush and vacuum cleaner combo to remove dust.
Graphics card (GPU) disassembly, taking apart fan & cooler for detail cleaning, removing old dried out thermal grease.
Same with motherboard and CPU fan & cooler.
Applying new thermal grease to GPU. Reusing existing thermal pads. Mounting back on the cooler and fans onto GPU board.
Applying fresh thermal grease to CPU and assembly of cooler and fan onto motherboard.
3. Session:
Test drive before assembly
Testing: OS boot, fans operations, hardware encoder for streaming at 1080p 60fps, secondary GPU, potential upgrades of case fan to improve airflow.
Gave the PC a test run on workbench. Test of secondary GPU failed due to lack of Windows support.
I’ve downloaded the RTSP Server plugin for OBS to make sure that my hardware is supported in OBS v30. And inspected visually video quality with ultra high dynamic content from MilkDrop v3 running.
CONCLUSION: VERY SATISFYING SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT!
4. Session:
(split in three videos due too disconnection during streaming)
The assembly
During streaming of this Final session two disconnection events occurred resulting in this final episode coming out as a three parter (PT4 1of3; PT4 2of3; PT4 3of3).
Like in part 1, just the other way around with twists along the way. But, it has not yet happen.
Before closing the PC case I also added extra fan on top back to blow air out.
Old power supply was a donor for a fan, for which I made a custom but standard power cable.
Leaving SATA power and data cables outside on back side of case allows me later connectivity of external hard drive (or SSD) without opening the PC case.
Camera crane is now flexible and adoptable allowing more inclusive coverage of the whole “Studio Laboratory At ed_oga” (SL@E).
I was able to showcase some of the old pieces of hardware like ASUS PC-V3800(TV in-out), 3DFx VooDoo2 and Matrox Mystique graphics cards. And more general view of one of the storage sections.
PT4 1of3 – What takes to capture & stream servicing the PC [se5-ep17]
PT4 2of3 – What takes to capture & stream servicing the PC [se5-ep17]
PT4 3of3 – What takes to capture & stream servicing the PC [se5-ep17]
Setting up live capture HDMI out & CRT with camera
“Live streaming on a low budget capture hardware”
08-2024 update: Most interesting here was to get 3 video outputs from one video graphic card (ATI – Gygabyte 1GB RAM PCIE):
- one HDMI out (head) to WIIStar USB3 (UVC) capture and passed to HDMI TV;
- second (head) VGA (DSub) output cloned with KONIG Electronics VGA to Video Converter (model CMP-TELVIEW1) passed through to LCD monitor;
- third via RGB out of VGA to Video Converter connected to SCART on SONY Trinitron (model CRT KV-21T1D)
My workflows & process for content capture & live streaming in OBS
Breakdown of content in video:
- Live stream & capture with camera gameplay on CRT &
HDMI output at same time (including
audio content) - Use free DroidCam for NOKIA with ZEISS Optics camera
- set multiple time-zone clocks in
WINDOWS - connect HDMI USB capture “card”
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