Building 4K Multi Camera Streaming Studio

[etceter4]

I bought a Panasonic G7, a GoPro Hero 9, a GoPro Max, and a DJI Osmo to shoot short films and conversations with multiple participants. The idea: shoot from numerous angles simultaneously with no crew. With this setup, syncing the audio/video sources are a nightmare. Recently, the idea evolved a bit: livestream four camera angles simultaneously; I've been researching the hardware and software required to bring this setup to life…to learn, 3/4 cameras will not be able to participate.

The chief requirements are the ability to access four separate 4k cameras (w. the potential to add more as a bonus) simultaneously and singly with complete control of their layout in the streaming software, run Ableton Live for audio processing, and Blender or similar audio/visual software for screen sharing. I currently have an M1 MacBook Air (8-core CPU/GPU / 16GB RAM) with the intention of upgrading to an M1 Ultra Mac Studio (20-core CPU/64-core GPU / 128GB RAM) soon.

The plan: use a Blackmagic DeckLink Quad HDMI Recorder [https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/decklink/techspecs/W-DLK-36] housed in an Echo Express SE I [https://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo-express-se1-tb3/overview.html] to get four 4k DSLR HDMI feeds into OBS.

Should the computer be taxed with its regular duties AND streaming? Or would streaming via the Blackmagic Web Presenter 4k (https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicwebpresenter) be advisable?
Am I missing anything glaring? Better suggestions?

Thanks for the help, folks!

 

[Babs Johnson]

I bought a Panasonic G7, a GoPro Hero 9, a GoPro Max, and a DJI Osmo to shoot short films and conversations with multiple participants. The idea: shoot from numerous angles simultaneously with no crew. With this setup, syncing the audio/video sources are a nightmare. Recently, the idea evolved a bit: livestream four camera angles simultaneously; I've been researching the hardware and software required to bring this setup to life…to learn, 3/4 cameras will not be able to participate.

The chief requirements are the ability to access four separate 4k cameras (w. the potential to add more as a bonus) simultaneously and singly with complete control of their layout in the streaming software, run Ableton Live for audio processing, and Blender or similar audio/visual software for screen sharing. I currently have an M1 MacBook Air (8-core CPU/GPU / 16GB RAM) with the intention of upgrading to an M1 Ultra Mac Studio (20-core CPU/64-core GPU / 128GB RAM) soon.

The plan: use a Blackmagic DeckLink Quad HDMI Recorder [https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/decklink/techspecs/W-DLK-36] housed in an Echo Express SE I [https://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo-express-se1-tb3/overview.html] to get four 4k DSLR HDMI feeds into OBS.

Should the computer be taxed with its regular duties AND streaming? Or would streaming via the Blackmagic Web Presenter 4k (https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicwebpresenter) be advisable?
Am I missing anything glaring? Better suggestions?

Thanks for the help, folks!

I have a similar setup using the same Macbook Pro M1 14", Echo Express SE 3 and Blackmagic DeckLink Quad SDI. Cameras are 2x Studio camera 4K and 2x Micro studio camera 4K. They M1 seem to handle the streams good considering I was streaming over 4G on three occasions now, my output are set at 1280 x 720 for the stream. The M1 gets warm but not hot and CPU usage was 20% max at a time. I must also mention I quit all other applications that are not needed to free up resources on the system.
But for your use case, recording or streaming at 4K would put a lot of strain on the system being M1 MacBook Air, let alone running Ableton and Blender. The M1 Ultra Mac Studio would be ideal for that kind of heavy duty workflow, and streaming via Blackmagic Web Presenter 4k be advisable. For post production you can do ISO recording for each feed/source to an external SSD, 1TB of more is advisable depending on the length on the stream.