Submitted Question:
I've finally convinced our school to move from an Mac based tv show to using Visual Communicator. Now all eyes are on me to make it work!! We want to continue to use 2 cameras and output via the school's closed circuit (analog output). So far, I've not worked out if this is possible?
Yes it's possible, VC is made to do either live TV (analog) output OR live web streaming (digital). It's perfect since you can choose whatever output you need in your situation. Right now, we are doing the live analog output method at my school. To accomplish this, I had installed a dual head video card that has a TV-out jack (s-video in my case). You just need to tell Windows to run in "extended desktop mode" and VC will know to use the 2nd output (TV) for your fullscreen live analog output. I cover this in "Presenting Live Shows" chapter 8 of my training DVD volume 1.
Also, while our new laptop has a firewire socket and Nvidia Geforce 9600 video card, I'm really confused about how to input 2 cameras into the laptop and how to get the output out! Will I need some external dual head gadget or am I just losing the plot?!! I really hope this makes sense and you can help!
In your case, sounds like your laptop has a built in firewire port for camera 1. Now if you want to add a second camera, you need to buy a firewire laptop card. Keep in mind that laptops are usually good for 1-2 camera setups, but I prefer a desktop PC for using up to 3 cameras. Each camera needs it's own firewire card though, so don't be confused when you see multiple ports on a firewire card--only use ONE at a time to avoid bandwidth issues (stuttering video). Make sense?
Good luck and let us all know here how things go by leaving comments or questions below.
