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YSTV Does Hunted - Live: Difference between revisions
→Setup: Add information about static cameras
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Another large issue we had was lack of techies. Due to illness and no-shows, we had a lot fewer techies than planned which meant that the techies that were there were very stretched. | Another large issue we had was lack of techies. Due to illness and no-shows, we had a lot fewer techies than planned which meant that the techies that were there were very stretched. | ||
We were also incredibly lucky that it didn't rain on the day, otherwise we would have been completely screwed. | |||
=== Remote video feeds === | === Remote video feeds === | ||
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This tool had previously been used in productions during Covid-19, however not on the scale of this production and certainly not when we had people running around campus. | This tool had previously been used in productions during Covid-19, however not on the scale of this production and certainly not when we had people running around campus. | ||
To help get the video feed from people's phones back to the gallery, people were connected to the university's eduroam WiFi network. This did mean that due to inevitable eduroam blind spots, video feeds were at time patchy or were lost altogether. However, due to large scale of the production and people moving around campus very quicky, this was unavoidable. Fortunately, vision mixers were able to cut to other video feeds or go back to the studio or Hunter HQ when this happened. | To help get the video feed from people's phones back to the gallery, people were connected to the university's eduroam WiFi network. This did mean that due to inevitable eduroam blind spots, video feeds were at time patchy or were lost altogether. However, due to large scale of the production and people moving around campus very quicky, this was unavoidable. Fortunately, vision mixers were able to cut to other video feeds or go back to the studio or Hunter HQ when this happened. We also designed the boundaries of the game to have as few eduroam blind spots as possible. | ||
Another issue we had with [https://vdo.ninja vdo.ninja] was communications. Whilst this tool did have an option for talkback, for reasons unknown this didn't work. This meant that roaming and static camera ops had almost no communication with the gallery; we had to resort to Facebook messenger group chats to enable at least some basic communication. This was very much not ideal. | Another issue we had with [https://vdo.ninja vdo.ninja] was communications. Whilst this tool did have an option for talkback, for reasons unknown this didn't work. This meant that roaming and static camera ops had almost no communication with the gallery; we had to resort to Facebook messenger group chats to enable at least some basic communication. This was very much not ideal. | ||
Despite these technical issues, we were able to capture some really good content and get some really good video footage of the game. Although [https://vdo.ninja vdo.ninja] is a free tool, it worked really well for us, especially considering how many camera feeds were going through this service. | Despite these technical issues, we were able to capture some really good content and get some really good video footage of the game. Although [https://vdo.ninja vdo.ninja] is a free tool, it worked really well for us, especially considering how many camera feeds were going through this service. | ||
=== Static CCTV Cameras === | |||
To help provide an alternate viewing angle and a more reliable feed where eduroam would have been patchy, we planned to place five cameras around campus. These would be wired to the university network, therefore allowing a more reliable feed. These static cameras were made up using 3x AC90s and 2x C100s, along with a PC at each camera to take in the video feed using a capture card. Video feeds were sent back to the gallery using [https://vdo.ninja/ vdo.ninja]. | |||
In the weeks before the production, [[Dan Wade]] spent many hours digging out old equipment and piecing together PCs and testing DeckLinks to allow us to send the camera feeds back to the gallery. Fortunately, a few weeks before the production we were donated a load of old PCs from the Computer Science department which meant that we had enough equipment to have all five static cameras. | |||
==== Planned static camera locations ==== | |||
* 2x AC90s on Central Hall Balcony, covering Greg's Place and the area by Physics and James College | |||
* 1x AC90 outside the old Unity Health building, covering the path towards the Quiet Place | |||
* 1x C100 near URY/V-Bar, covering Vanbrugh Bowl | |||
* 1x C100 covering the Quiet Place | |||
The last two cameras had to be scrapped last-minute due to issues getting power and networking, and lack of techies to be able to figure something else out. The camera outside Unity Health almost didn't happen because we couldn't get a network connection from the Unity Health building; all network ports were dead and the wireless access point was also dead. Due to access to the old Unity Health building being awkward, we only had tested getting a wireless connection from standing outside, and assuming the network ports were working (big mistake). We had supposedly got a strong internet connection from standing outside, but on the day we found there was literally no eduroam signal available outside the building, and inside no working network ports. In hindsight, when testing, we were probably recieving an eduroam signal from elsewhere although the fact that we couldn't get a signal at all on the day suggests otherwise. However, to solve this problem, we moved the static camera closer to the Physics building, which had working networking. We did have to wait for the Vanbrugh mobile receptionist to come open P/L/006, which is where we ran our power and ethernet from, however we were lucky that they unlocked the room for us given that we didn't have a booking. For future reference, do not rely on the Unity Health building for OBs. Also, why did we decide on using Unity Health instead of Physics in the first place? Who knows. | |||
Because of the issues with the Unity Health static camera, we were unable to focus on the other static cameras which were ultimately scrapped. In an ideal world with more time and crew, these may have been possible. In hindsight, we should've placed the camera outside Physics in the first place, which would have saved us lots of hassle and stress. Oh well, too late now. | |||