Elementary School Studio?

User Question:

Rob, I am helping my son's elementary school with spicing up their morning show. Currently they use a one camera shoot that it totally live.... no prep at all. Students are given a script of what to say and they sit and read it in front of the camera. Boring!! Haaaa. I really want to help them but don't want to go over their heads in the tech department. I am an IT person. I work on servers and build computers.  I purchased a used Panasonic MX-20 AV mixer from Craigslist for $100. What a steal, huh? Found that the bus slider isn't working, although the auto-take button works fine. It has choma and luma key and I have tested both. Chroma still leaves halos though. I have an audio mixer for them and two wireless lapel mics. I also have a green screen. I built them a computer and installed VC3. It is awesome, but I feel so stupid since I can't figure out what I need it to do for me. We are going to do a 2 cam live shoot with one cam on the green screen and one on the news anchor. I am wanting to input the cameras into the MX-20, and use VC3 for overlays in chroma mode. I have USB2 capture device for one of the camera's but when I activate it, I have to set it up to capture at a smaller resolution for it to be smooth video. Sometimes it locks up too. I guess my end question is how to do a live broadcast using VC3 without setting up a show. I really just want to use the overlays, titles and other cg features through the MX-20.

I'm going to suggest you do exactly what we did--as we too had the traditional (old, expensive) Panasonic video hardware switchers.  Dump it!  Go with a modern setup!  Think of Visual Communicator as your "command central" that will be the soul of your setup.  All your firewire cams and mics feed into computer, and out of the computer comes the finished, polished video via the TV-out jack on the video card, and the audio comes out from the soundcard.  This is a new way of thinking, as now you'd have a "software-based" setup verses the traditional "hardware based" setup.  Does it work well--you bet!  We've been using VC3 this way for live daily newscasts for over 3 years now, plus a host of other uses too that you can view in our video showcase. 

You are more than welcome to come and visit us and see our setup onsite, plus if you look at the chapters in my Training DVD Vol. 1 I explain your options on setting up a studio.  I teach workshops various times through the year, and that may help if you can attend. 

Stay away from any USB devices for live video, as you likely will experience jittery video.  Firewire is the way to go, and I now suggest the Canon ZR900 camera as the most affordable camera option.

Is there a way to broadcast live over CCTV (not internet) using VC3 for titling and graphics?

Yes, live analog video out is what we do daily.  Our building is wired CCTV and I have a modulator in my studio that sends out the signal on channel 6.  However, VC3 does have live steaming capabilities over the web or network, but I have not yet had a need to do live streaming.

Hope that helps, let us know by leaving comments below!