For now we have 2 epiphan pearl mini in 2 seperated rooms. (a scope and camera is connected to the epiphan x2)
We want also a ‘studio’ with 2 camera’s (connected to a 3rd epiphan pearl mini?)
In the studio we want to discuss the actions in room 1 and 2.
Our main output is a stream to vimeo and is a combination of the output of epiphan 1, 2 and the studio.
The 3 rooms must can communicate with each other.
My questions:
Is the 3rd epiphan a good option
What do we use as main controller to manage the inputs from the 3 rooms
What communication system do you advise. We must controle the communication between the 3 rooms en mute/unmute them.
Hello,
Thank you for reaching out, I’ll do my best to offer suggestions! Based on what you’ve said so far I don’t believe a 3rd Pearl Mini would work for your current situation. It sounds like your setup would look something like this,
Room A - 1 scope and 1 camera into Pearl Mini A
Room B - 1 scope and 1 camera into Pearl Mini B
Studio - 2 cameras, and output from Room A, and output from Room B into Pearl Mini C
If this is correct, then unfortunately a Pearl Mini would not be sufficient to ingest quite that many signals, and you would need to upgrade to a Pearl-2 for the studio. We recommend no more than 3 video sources be ingested into the Pearl Mini simultaneously. You can read a bit more about the recommended specifications here, https://www.epiphan.com/userguides/pearl-mini/Content/startHere/pearlMini/avinputs-pm.htm.
For controlling, I’m afraid I don’t have a single device I can recommend. You could use tablets running the Epiphan Live Dashboard for each room, though that is cumbersome. I know we have customers that use Crestron devices for controlling individual Pearl units, though I’ve not heard of anyone controlling multiple Pearls simultaneously from the same device.
For communication, your best bet would be something along the lines of Zoom as a backchannel. This way you could communicate in real time, while the stream would be synced up using the better audio via the Pearl. You can watch some videos on our YouTube channel that go into a bit more detail on how you might set this up, these for instance, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkIsCeh2oFs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIIdNr4BxQU&t=3s.
I hope this helps you figure out the best path forward, please feel free to send us more questions, we’re always happy to help!
Thanks for your advise. I mad a diagram of my setup.
All the audio and video is connected to the pearls. Zoom is used te communicatie between the 2 rooms, the studio and the online speakers.
The final output of the pearl 2 is streamed to vimeo.
You are quite welcome, glad to be of some help! For the most part I think things look pretty good, although I have some questions about the setup, as well as some information about the Pearl-2.
As far as inputs go the Pearl-2 is capable of roughly double what the Pearl Mini is able to ingest. So, with the Mini we recommend no more than three physical inputs, the Pearl-2 can take in up to six. We often say physical inputs, but this generally extends to networked inputs as well, with the except of NDI. You can mix and match up to six physical and networked inputs so long as the networked inputs are RTSP or SRT. If you use NDI, they are much more performance intensive and require more resources, if you had only NDI inputs the most you could have would be four. When mixing NDI and physical inputs please be mindful of this limitation. You can almost think of a single NDI input as being equivalent to one and a half physical inputs.
I wanted to mention the above because in your diagram you are at the maximum recommended number of six inputs, and I wanted you to be aware of that recommendation. Now, I have some questions about your diagram,
You show ‘Laptop 1 Zoom’ and ‘Laptop 2 Zoom’ each going into a ‘Sound box’, what is this?
You show ‘Laptop 3 with recordings Pearl Mini 1 and 2’, what is the intent here? What is this?
What is ‘Laptop 4 Zoom with online speakers’ doing in this scenario?
How are you outputting ‘Monitor with output Pearl Mini 1/2’? Taking the SRT input into the Pearl-2 and outputting over HDMI?
It looks like the goal is to use Zoom as a backchannel for direct communication, I just wanted to reiterate that Pearls are not really designed to be used for direct real-time communication, due to the encoding delay as well as no real way to facilitate two-way communication. If you are planning on using Zoom for the actual communication between the rooms, that’s great and should work well!
You show ‘Laptop 1 Zoom’ and ‘Laptop 2 Zoom’ each going into a ‘Sound box’, what is this?
The box is so the people in the room (endoscopy 1 and 2) can hear the audio of the zoom meeting
You show ‘Laptop 3 with recordings Pearl Mini 1 and 2’, what is the intent here? What is this?
Al the surgeries are recorded with the epiphans. Laptop 3 is to play a recorded file and discuss that in the studio.
What is ‘Laptop 4 Zoom with online speakers’ doing in this scenario?
We stream to vimeo for the online viewers. But laptop 4 is with the same zoom session as LPT 1 and 2 and is to show the online speakers who can’t be in the studio.
How are you outputting ‘Monitor with output Pearl Mini 1/2’? Taking the SRT input into the Pearl-2 and outputting over HDMI? Yes
But you advise just use pearls to put audio and video in zoom and use zoom as the central point.
From zoom than stream to vimeo, correct?
Thank you for your detailed replies, this does help to clarify things! What we would normally recommend is the opposite, use the Pearl to ingest and stream the audio in higher quality, as Zoom tends to compress it, and use Zoom purely for the real time communication. This usually involves higher quality mics connected to the Pearls, and something like in-ear monitoring systems and alternative mics for the actual Zoom communication.
This does require some degree of production, to make sure that the audio is properly synced and coming through the right layouts. Although I’m not certain this type of production will work as well for your use case. Just to clarify, the ultimate goal is for all members of the production to be able to monitor what is going on in the rooms, and existing recordings, via Pearl, while communicating and commenting on this video via Zoom, and finally streaming everything out to viewers who are neither present nor in the Zoom call?
the ultimate goal is for all members of the production to be able to monitor what is going on in the rooms, and existing recordings, via Pearl, while communicating and commenting on this video via Zoom, and finally streaming everything out to viewers who are neither present nor in the Zoom call?
Indeed, We use zoom as communication for all the rooms and stream the final product to vimeo.
Your advise is to go for a professional production instead of my setup?
I think that in terms of hardware and the general layout your setup should work, but to get the highest quality video and audio out to your streaming audience you would need to make the suggested adjustments, and likely have someone playing the role of a producer, ensuring that everything is flowing smoothly during the broadcast.
You have a rather complex use case, and getting everything set up correctly can be complicated. Though once you have the system set up and working as you want it should work without issue and not require too much adjustment as time goes on. If you do require additional help during the setting up process you can always contact us via phone, chat, or email! We have a toll-free number, +1 877-599-6581, chat is available directly from our website, and our email is info@epiphan.com. We’re always happy to help!
