M2 Mac Mini, 16GB, 9 Logitech C920s

[User0001]

Hi,

I'm planning on trying to connect 9 Logitech C920s to an M2 Mac Mini. Does anyone have any suggestions? I only need 5 of the cameras to run at a time (they're all set up in different places, one scene uses 4, the other 5).

The Mac Mini has 2 USB-C Thunderbolt ports, and two USB3 USB-A ports. It would be great to find some kind of powered USB hub that could go into the thunderbolt ports.

I don't need to be able to watch more than 2 live at a time, but if I could watch all of them live it would be great. Any other suggestions would be welcome.

 

[Tangential]

I have an m2Pro mini that I use OBS on. I also use a Logitech c920 (only 1) on it. I have several TB devices that give me extra USB ports so you can increase your port count pretty easily via the TB ports. The one thing I do not know is if macOS will support simultaneous use of 2 c920s on the same USB hub. In your case, I wouldn't have worries about 4 cameras: 1 on each USB port (I'm assuming they are each on separate internal hubs) and 1 coming in via each TB port. I don't know if you could run 2 identical devices on at the same time on the same hub. I guess its easy enough to find out once you have the webcams. Worst case, you could use 2 different types of webcam and that would let you double on each port.

 

[User0001]

Can you recommend any TB hubs with multiple usb-a ports? I’d be surprised if i can’t run more than one camera on the same hub. Really it’s about bandwidth on the port. If i can get four on each TB port i think it’ll work out.

 

[Tangential]

Can you recommend any TB hubs with multiple usb-a ports? I’d be surprised if i can’t run more than one camera on the same hub. Really it’s about bandwidth on the port. If i can get four on each TB port i think it’ll work out.

I think it’s less about bandwidth and more about the OS being able to support multiple identical devices on the same USB hub. Only way to know for sure is to plug 2 identical cameras into a hub on the same port and see if the both work at the same time.

 

[User0001]

I just want to update anyone who might see this: we tested various hubs, both on the USB3 ports and on the thunderbolt ports, and none could keep up with the bandwidth to even have 4 cameras at 720p. In the end we returned the Mac Mini and are beefing up a PC that has handled four cameras already with USB PCI express cards.