Computer Hardware: February 2009 Archives

Submitted Question:

Is your morning show broadcasted live to televisions in the all the classrooms?  If yes, how do integrate VC3 into your cable TV broadcast system?  I'm eager to upgrade and integrate VC but not sure how to go about doing this with our current system.

Yes we broadcast live via analog closed circuit TV to every classroom.  Our district had wired the buildings years ago with RF television cable, and they have equipment (RF modulators) that allows us to choose which channels we use.  They provided me with a modulator that accepts a (yellow) composite video cable, and an audio (white) mono input.  I simply plug into the modulator from the TV-out jack on my computer's video card.  The sound is sent from the soundcard (where you'd connect speakers).

Of course every school is different, so my brands/models may differ from what your school might have available.  Since many schools have the Channel One system, or simply ability to plugin a camcorder or VCR and send out a feed to the school, that's all that is necessary.  Many of the schools I've consulted with already had a camcorder plugged into the wall jack, now they simply plug in the cable from the computer and can use Visual Communicator like we do.

I do have details on this in chapter 8 "presenting Live Shows" on my training DVD volume 1.  It's a commonly asked question I see alot.

Now if your school doesn't have wired RF television cable like we do, then I'd suggest looking at the live web-streaming capability of Visual Communicator for your live newscasts.

If live isn't a requirement, the easy and cheap way is to record and publish your shows to WMV, and then upload (free) to SchoolTube.com  Then your teachers would play the show at their choosing during homeroom, etc.

Hope that helps get you started, let me know using the comments area below!

Submitted Question:

I have had great success using VC3 over the last few months, but only as a recording tool. We record our shows on a PC then broadcast the recording via Windows Media Player the next day. The show is saved to an external hard drive pieced together using Movie Maker then saved as a Windows Media Audio/Video file. The laptop audio runs through our sound board and the video goes through an AVerKey which goes to a VCR then through a coax cable to the media center. It has to go to the media center's channel 10 VCR to go out to the school. It really isn't all that bad of quality. As complicated as this seems it works well. However, I would love to skip a few steps and just do this show live. Any suggestions?

Wow, that is quite a complex workflow, but if it works that's great!  Sure you can go live with VC3, this would be known as live analog output (because there is live digital streaming capability over the web or network too).

For live analog output, your computer needs to have a TV-out jack (s-video usually or sometimes composite).  This type of video card is known as "dual-head" and can be purchased for under $100.  See video card specs here.

Then you would enable the extended desktop mode within Windows, and tell VC3 to use the extended desktop for the fullscreen live output.  I cover this in detail in chapter 8 of my Training DVD Volume 1.  Note that the live fullscreen output can also be a VGA monitor, Projector, or TV set too.

If you end up wanting to connect multiple TV sets (like we have) then a video Distribution Amplifier (video D/A) would be needed, these are under $100 and I like the Kramer brand.

Hope that helps, let us know below with comments or questions.

Submitted Question:

I finally purchased a new laptop, and I went with a new MacBook Pro.
Using Boot Camp, I installed Windows XP and so far so good. I
installed VC3 and that went fine. However, I notice that not all the
available templates are available to me when the wizard starts. Could
this be because I purchased the educator version (I am a graduate
student so I qualified for the discount). Should I buy the retail
version instead?

Nope, there is no version difference at all besides pricing.  You must have bypassed the part during the install where VC asks you if you'd like to install the "additional content" and if yes it prompts you to specify where the additional content is located.  The install disc has it all, you just need to say yes at that point during the install, and choose the same install disc.  Reason Adobe did this was to make the free trial download size smaller.  Go back and do the install again and I believe you can choose to install the additional content without any issues.

I also ordered the Canon ZR900 online tonight after going to four
stores today with no luck. They are hard to find now that the ZR960
has been released. I also ordered the lapel microphone you
recommended. I ordered an inexpensive tripod as well. I picked up some
green felt fabric from Walmart that I am going to try to use as a
green background. I've spend so much at once that I am trying to save
a few dollars on this.  Soon, I hope to be up and running! 
Thanks for all of your support! You have been very very helpful to me.

Always glad to help a fellow VC user!  Any other questions or comments please leave below, thanks! 

Submitted Question:

"I've been asked to design an inexpensive approach to a morning show for one of our elementary schools. They are hoping to stream their broadcast live using Adobe Communicator as a "studio in a box" so-to-speak and I was wondering what you are using to perform multiple camera broadcasts?"

We use two live firewire cameras in our setup, and Visual Communicator can handle up to 3 simultaneous live cameras.  The software does all the switching internally, so hardware is no longer required.  The trick is ensuring each camera has it's OWN separate firewire card, as this prevents any bandwidth sharing issues.  Newegg.com usually carries a firewire card (Syba brand I think?) for under $10 that has only one 6-pin firewire port, this is perfect for VC3 use since you never want to plug in more than one camera per card anyways.  That advice is for desktop PC's, if using a laptop see my advice on my SchoolTVmadeEasy.com website here.

Hope that helps, let me know below by leaving comments or related questions, thanks!