Our church is trying to improve our live stream service. Right now we are looking at the R800 for the camcorder, getting a image capture card, and a stand for the camera. However, we need something to run the program from the camera to Facebook Live. Would a surface pro be able to support this? We do not have a lot of space in the sanctuary. Thank you.
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Live Stream Setup
- Thread starter RevTMAD
- Start date
Lawrence_SoCal
Active Member
One thing I recommend considering is how many staff/volunteers you will have available (consistently) for streaming, and the training/expertise of those volunteers. I mention this, as I have a helper, but realistically, our HoW livestream needs to be a single person operation. So a NDI PTZ camera made a LOT more sense (even if slightly more expensive)
stand for camera? you mean tripod, right? be thoughtful of the ballhead if you are going to have a camera operator adjusting camera while live (so as to not have jerky pan movements)
And people will tolerate poor video much more than poor audio, so consider how you plan to integrate (and sync) audio into live stream
And, assuming your streaming PC is powerful enough to handle the encoding video feed, then do real-time video encoding for the stream, the typical approach would be to have the capture card (USB3?) plugged directly into OBS PC. And beware overloading a USB root hub (to many USB devices plugged into same motherboard USB hub... not always easy to tell which port goes to which hub; or bandwidth overload.. for example camera and USB drive, or USB Ethernet adapter, etc)
And real-time video encoding is demanding work for a PC... don't expect a low-end/low power system to be good at such. Using something low-power, like the Surface Pro or any ultrabook, will require you to get good (most likely) at optimizing OBS to minimize hardware demands of encoding (ie it can be done, but from an expectation standpoint, with an ultrabook you should probably expect to either spend a lot of time playing with settings to get something stable/reliable/watchable, or pay someone to help set up OBS for you, and probably be limited in the features you use in OBS (certainly not Studio Mode, probably not the noise filters/effects, etc). ymmv
I tried to stream a service using a 5yr old gaming laptop, with a GTX GPU with NVENC support, and I failed. With what I know now, I might have got it to work... instead we bought a new 8core/16thread business class desktop PC with Turing NVENC support, and 5yr next business day onsite support. This powerful PC should handle streaming reliably for years. Our budget wasn't so tight (after designated donations) that I had to compromise on the specs. The PC can easily handle live streaming, saving a local recording (at higher resolution), and future video editing if need be. With such a PC, my focus can be on the stream experience, vs worrying about exceeding my PCs capabilities. All depends on budget.
stand for camera? you mean tripod, right? be thoughtful of the ballhead if you are going to have a camera operator adjusting camera while live (so as to not have jerky pan movements)
And people will tolerate poor video much more than poor audio, so consider how you plan to integrate (and sync) audio into live stream
And, assuming your streaming PC is powerful enough to handle the encoding video feed, then do real-time video encoding for the stream, the typical approach would be to have the capture card (USB3?) plugged directly into OBS PC. And beware overloading a USB root hub (to many USB devices plugged into same motherboard USB hub... not always easy to tell which port goes to which hub; or bandwidth overload.. for example camera and USB drive, or USB Ethernet adapter, etc)
And real-time video encoding is demanding work for a PC... don't expect a low-end/low power system to be good at such. Using something low-power, like the Surface Pro or any ultrabook, will require you to get good (most likely) at optimizing OBS to minimize hardware demands of encoding (ie it can be done, but from an expectation standpoint, with an ultrabook you should probably expect to either spend a lot of time playing with settings to get something stable/reliable/watchable, or pay someone to help set up OBS for you, and probably be limited in the features you use in OBS (certainly not Studio Mode, probably not the noise filters/effects, etc). ymmv
I tried to stream a service using a 5yr old gaming laptop, with a GTX GPU with NVENC support, and I failed. With what I know now, I might have got it to work... instead we bought a new 8core/16thread business class desktop PC with Turing NVENC support, and 5yr next business day onsite support. This powerful PC should handle streaming reliably for years. Our budget wasn't so tight (after designated donations) that I had to compromise on the specs. The PC can easily handle live streaming, saving a local recording (at higher resolution), and future video editing if need be. With such a PC, my focus can be on the stream experience, vs worrying about exceeding my PCs capabilities. All depends on budget.
We have done a trial run where we have been able to forego obs altogether since we are using Facebook live as the producer is decent. I was hoping for a verification on whether the surface pro would be adequate to live broadcast to Facebook from the camera. We do have an Aspire X with a 16 gig ram that we would just need a monitor to control which we have looked at touch screen monitors for around $200.
Where we will be set up has a audio connect to the sound system so we will connect that directly into the R800 which does work well in picking up the sound from my mic.
Where we will be set up has a audio connect to the sound system so we will connect that directly into the R800 which does work well in picking up the sound from my mic.
Lawrence_SoCal
Active Member
Personally I wouldn't even try a Surface Pro as an OBS system, but I guess it would depend on the specific model/config (ie CPU / GPU options). [quick online check of latest specs] A Surface Pro with 10th Gen i7, then using QuickSync for x264 encoding [if that even is available??] ... sure, for low end complexity OBS setup
Sorry, but this stuff gets complex (closer to getting a rocket into outerspace than using a microwave oven) so the answer will often be ... it depends...
And I use OBS and FB Live Producer at same time (OBS for compositing stream, FB Live Producer to monitor stream and watch comments (ie digital usher), get audio/video feedback etc.. ie my focus is dedicated to running the stream... I'm not in front of the camera.. we have a priest for that ;^)
so something like a Surface Pro is an ultrabook, which is optimized for battery life, not compute performance [so about as well suited as racing a Prius in Nascar]. You might be able to get the Surface Pro, depending on exact model, and exactly what you do in OBS, to work.
Sorry, but this stuff gets complex (closer to getting a rocket into outerspace than using a microwave oven) so the answer will often be ... it depends...
And I use OBS and FB Live Producer at same time (OBS for compositing stream, FB Live Producer to monitor stream and watch comments (ie digital usher), get audio/video feedback etc.. ie my focus is dedicated to running the stream... I'm not in front of the camera.. we have a priest for that ;^)
so something like a Surface Pro is an ultrabook, which is optimized for battery life, not compute performance [so about as well suited as racing a Prius in Nascar]. You might be able to get the Surface Pro, depending on exact model, and exactly what you do in OBS, to work.