Recording a Multi-day Event

I was asked to suggest equipment for recording a 5-day seminar.  It is estimated that about 30 hours of recording will be done in total.  This will be a pretty standard corporate knowledge sharing event - few speakers talking to a small audience while using their laptops to share slides.  I suspect there will be live coding examples, so the resolution of this part will have to be reasonably high.  Working on a whiteboard will be an option, so the camera will have to be manned.

Audio

I rely on Sennheiser G3 for recording the speaker.  Batteries (2xAA) can be swapped during the breaks for continuous recording.

For ambient audio and as a fall-back I use Sony PCM-M10 recorder. Batteries (2xAA) can be swapped during the breaks for continuous recording.  The recorder has space for more than 10 hours of recording, so the daily backup is desired.  I record in PCM16/48kHz.  The built-in 4GB flash is sufficient for 5h 45min of recording so daily backup is required.

Desktop/Slides Recording

My tried and true solution is a hardware recorder with HDMI pass-through.  External power brick is used, so no batteries to worry about.

AverMedia C285 is probably obsolete by now but it certainly does the job - it supports resolution up to 1920x1080 at 30fps.

The recorded stream is stored on the internal 2.5" SATA drive - I have a set of three such 128GB SSDs.  Each can store more than 13 hours of 1080p 30fps video/audio stream in MP4 container.

Speaker/Audience Recording

Use GH5 with 12-35 2.8 zoom lens to record speaker and audience.  4K recording recommended so that a no loss zoom-in on the speaker face can be done in post.  A single battery will comfortably power the camera for about 2 hours.  I have 4 batteries, so daily recharge of those will be required.  Camera has 2 SD card slots. Usually I record 4K 30fps in MOV container at 100 Mbps rate. Two 128GB cards should suffice for 6 hours or live video recording.  Daily backup will be required though.

Post Processing

During post processing the following tasks are performed:

• clips are synchronized;
• dynamic compression for audio is performed;
• video exposure/color adjusted ;
• content is edited to maintain tempo into clips of reasonable length - less than 45min;
• content is rendered to desired resolution (720p?  1080p?) and bitrate - YouTube guidelines recommended;
• Opening/closing credits are added.  Adding corporate branding is an option as well.

Storage Requirements Summary

For a week-long events the following storage is required:

Recorder	Built-in Storage	Storage for a week-long (30hours) event
Audio	4GB, 5 hours	20GB
Screen	120GB, 13 hours	300GB
Video	2x128GB flash, 6 hours	256GB*5 - about 1.4TB

Seems to be totally manageable.  If full time video can be avoided, those become totally trivial.

Blogger on iOS?

The app crashes and apparently was discontinued.  Mobile web GUI is barely legible.  What's going on?  What are the alternatives?  Frustrating to see a basic functionality being taken away.

What's up?

It was a while!
My free time was spent on RoboPanner.  An umbrella term for my camera motion control efforts.  Check out the web site and links from there to github.
Learned a lot (markdown rulz!) including about myself- apparently I love writing code!  And have strong opinions about doing it right. While waiting for appointment today I searched github for a code to handle button debounce/click//double click.  Plenty of code exists.  Some very primitive, some hairy with ability to add callbacks as in C.  None is expressing my thinking with reliance on C++ inheritance for callbacks.  I suspect my way of thinking about GUI can be traced back to MFC.  Not sure it is that good, but I certainly see the benefits.  Look forward to writing that code and sharing it here!

Multi-Camera Live Switching

Cheesycam has a good overview of a live streaming setup based around BlackMagic Design 4K ATEM.  Nice step up from the minimalist setup I described earlier.
Check it out!

TheaterGames Production of НЕИЗВЕСТНЫЙ С ХВОСТОМ

TheaterGames retained me to shoot this season productions with НЕИЗВЕСТНЫЙ С ХВОСТОМ being the first one.  The enthusiasm of young actors is infectious.  Professionalism of adults involved is humbling for me. Masha and Marianna can keep tabs on this chaos and manage to get fantastic results.   Ilya Dimov's original music and performance are totally awesome.  As my kids would say.  My son is singing his pieces months after hearing those for the first time.

Here are some technicalities. What worked:

• Planning the shoot and setting exposure in advance.  I was shooting at ISO400, f4.5-f5.  As usual 24fps, 1/48sec.
• TheaterYou location is intimate and three cameras give a good coverage.  Canter one above the bleachers 12mm. I operated camera on the right.  Used 14-140mm zoom for the first time, mostly at around 35mm.  The camera on the left was fixed at its whidest zoom which is 28mm I think.
• I used two audio recorders but ended up using only one audio track, from Zoom H1 positioned just three feet from the center of the stage.
• In post: Audio: three (3!) layered compressors - first at 1:2 at -18dB, second at 10:1 at -9dB, third hard limiter at -6dB.

Still problematic.

• Not happy with my operation of focus on a new 14-140mm zoom.
• As always in the theater, setting white balance is a pain.

Thank you to TheaterGames!  Both myself and my son enjoyed it!

Modded iRig Pre + RØDE NTG1 vs Takstar SGC-598

Today I received and modified iRig Pre ($28) and decided to test it together with RØDE NTG1 ($200) against Takstar SGC-598 ($30).  Now, this is not entirely fair comparison if only because the latter should be always camera-mounted while the former can be mounted on a boom.

Nevertheless, give it a listen...

Both mics were sitting about 2 feet from my mouth.  Recording was done into Panasonic Lumix G7 with audio sensitivity at its lowest: -12dB.  In post I normalized audio and reduced audio channel level by 6dB.  No compression or equalization was added.  During normalization a gain of 9.2dB was applied to a clip with iRig Pre and a gain of 11.8dB was applied to a clip with Takstar.  But the result is a wash in my opinion.  Charming!  And yes, this is not a fair comparison.  But still....

ACM event at eBay

It all went smoothly.  I used G3 lav for speaker audio and Sony PCM-M10 to record ambient sound and questions.  HF G20 used to shoot slides, G7 with 12-35 f2.8 lens to film audience, GH4 with 35-100 f2.8 lens to film the speaker.
Here is my post workflow:

• Copy all the footage into editing workstation.
• Import the footage into Sony Vegas Pro.  Work around Sony bug of importing Panasonic footage.
• Sync all the tracks.  I do it by waveform.  HF G20 requires adding extra frame of silence between MTS files.  Sony PCM M10 is typically skewed tward faster clock so requries added silence (fraction of a sec) as well.
• Do multi-track editing.
• For all video tracks: add these filters: white balance, brightness and contrast, levels.  Set those using reference card footage I captured during production and color correction GUI.  Sometimes this does not work - e.g. G20 footage can look so different I use color match filter instead for just G20 track.
• For all audio tracks: add compression.
• Add credits, lower thirds, etc
• Render for YouTube

Now the footage is ready to be passed to customer!

Theater Production of Чиполлино

This was my first time work with this theater studio.  And the first time at this venue - Mountain View Center for The Performing Arts.  Both are fantastic!  Loved, loved, loved stage in the middle and the way lights are set up - no problems with shadows under the eyes.
I was shooting with 4 cameras.  I was positioned in the middle of the top row with G7 shooting wide (12-35 f2.8 lens used at f4.5, iso400) and GH4 shooting tele (35-100 f2.8 lens used at f2.8, iso400).  On the left I had G20 for a wide side view.  For the first time I use GoPro Hero trained at the band - piano payer to be exact.  Audio was recorded on a Sony PCM-M10 recorder suspended about 10ft above the stage.

ACM SFBAY Event at HP

I still can't avoid surprises! This time it was audio.  I use the same brand/model as the venue's PA system, so I did not need to provide my lav.  My receiver was "automagically" getting the signal.  Only in post I realized the quality was sub-par.  See, the venue provided two hand-helds and two lavs and all of them were on.  The good thing is you can easily hear the audience.  The bad thing is - you can easily hear the audience.  

Theater You Production of Две Дамочки

I am pleased to have an opportunity to work on another production of this theater.  Taking notes during the previous shoots paid off - I was totally ready and as a result color matching between GH4 and G7 is satisfactory.  Canon G20 camcorder looked way too different for its footage to be incorporated though.
This time the least polished is audio - unfortunately I am not in control of AC which is noticeable during the entire performance.  I should dig deeper to find a way to diminish the impact in post.  Simple high pass filter does not help - that I did try.

Wired vs Wireless Lav. Which Gives the Best Sound Quality and is Least Likely to Fail?

Client just asked this question.  And now I am thinking.  Where do I even begin...

I will start with a wired option.  No doubt it will give you the best bang for your budget buck.  I have and highly recommend Sony PCM-M10 recorder and use it with JK® MIC-J 044 lavalier.  For under $250 you can have an audio recording which may pass for a professional.

Pros:

• Budget friendly: Relatively affordable, much cheaper than wireless solution.
• Simplicity: you need to set one recording level and press one record button.  That's it!
• Ease of maintenance: ensure that just one set of batteries is fully charged.  Sony recorder is using 2xAA batteries and have a terrific running time.  I stick with Eneloop rechargeables since my photography days.  I have so many spares with me at all times I can switch those in under 10sec.  Practice makes perfect.

Cons:

• No realtime feedback.  Is that recording still on?  Is level ok?  You have no idea what's going on until too late.
• Usability: The recorders are not designed to be used while being carried in a pocket.  User can accidentally shift the recording level or even stop the recording completely.  And you will never know until too late.  To somewhat mitigate this, I used cell phone pouch/belt clip.
• Need to synchronize audio. Not a big deal in my opinion.  I learned to do it manually by just looking at waveform.  Also I hear Pluraleyes is really good.  Many NLEs have this capability built-in.  Not Sony Vegas though.

For wireless lavalier setup I use Sennheiser G3.  Check out this Wireless Mic Shootout and this Teardown.  That sealed it for me.

Pros:

• Built like a tank.  Works always.  
• No interference with RF/cellular.  Outstanding range.
• Good quality audio

Cons:

• Professional equipment comes with a high price tag.  
• Usability: You need to set the level of amplification in transceiver, then receiver, then recording equipment.  Workaround: do it once, do not change the components, retain settings.
• Usability: switching a channel is not intuitive.
• Usability: You need to keep an eye on two sets of 2xAA batteries.

Summary: Lack of the real time status for wired into the recorder solution kills it for me.  When on a budget it might be ok.  For payed jobs though a radio lav is a must-have.  It is expensive though.  Plus you need to know your equipment and its settings. And be able to change those if need be.

TheaterYou production of «Трудные Люди»

Happy to work on another production of this wonderful theater.

This is an intimate hall with spectators sitting on the bleachers very close to the stage. The last row of bleachers is only 19 feet away from the stage.   The bleachers are a bit shaky though and I decided to not attach camera to those.

I used three cameras.

On-camera Shotgun Mics - AudioTechnica AT8024 vs Takstar SGC-598

What's in My Video Event Bag

Here is an abbreviated summary of my video bag contents:

• I carry my cameras in Pro Photo Studio Padded Bag.  I spray painted over the labels - like to keep it low key. 
  External dimensions: 30" x 10" x 13" (76cm long x 26cm wide  32cm deep).
  Internal dimensions: 70cm long x 23cm wide x 29cm deep.
• Takstar SGC 598 is very much adequate.  Do not expect high quality audio because of the poor (on-camera) microphone placement.
• Sennheiser G3 lavalier microphone.  Expensive but must have!
• Sennheiser HD 280 PRO Headphones.  Very nice!
• Audio-Technica ATR-3350.  Cheap adequate wired lavalier mics
• JK® MIC-J 044.  Marginally better wired lavalier mic.
• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GH4KBODY. Love it!
• Fhugen Honu GH4 Cage. Love it!
• Fotasy FF4B Pro Follow Focus V4.  It works and is priced moderately.
• Panasonic DMC-G7KK.  Color profile compatible with GH4!  But lacks weatherproofing, recording duration limited to 30min.
• PhotoVision 14 Inch Pocket One Shot Digital Calibration Target. Must have!
• X-Rite MSCCPP ColorChecker Passport
• Sony PCM-M10 Recorder. Love it! 
• Tiffen 58mm Variable ND Filter
• Canon Mini Hot to Universal Shoe Adapter
• Case for Small Accessories
• Memory Card Case

Panasonic GH4 and G7 Video Settings

Here are newly-found must-reads for any GH4 shooter:

The three most misunderstood GH4 settings – PART 1: Luminance Levels
The three most misunderstood GH4 settings – PART 2: Master Pedestal
The three most misunderstood GH4 settings – PART 3: Highlight & Shadow
Why Cine-D Sucks

This, especially master pedestal finding, contradicts Andrew Reid, but it does make sense.  Thus here are my new settings for both GH4 and G7:

Profile: Natural
Contrast: -5
Sharpness: 0
Noise Reduction: -5
Saturation: -5

Shadow: +1
Highlight: -1
Master Pedestal: 0

I like it!

Closing Bescor MP-101 Head

This is a follow up to the post where I opened up the Bescor PT head with intent of modifying it for operation with an external DIY controller.  And here is the development of this effort in pictures!
I used the components:  RJ45 breakout board and double-sided prototype PCB to replace the board electronics.  In short, I just connected PAN and TILT motors (see the referenced post on how to identify those) to RJ45 pins 4/5 and 3/6.  With a little encouragement from Mr.Dremmel the RJ45 connector is now protruding through the faceplate.

GoPro Hero4 Black as an Event Camera

My latest toy tool is GoPro Hero4 Black.  I plan to use it for capturing ambiance and the event audience.  Unfortunately out of the box the camera is not particularly suitable for this task.  Main culprit is a short battery life.  I need at least 2 hours of uninterruptible operation.  I think by now I have a package which should deliver on my requirements:

• Regular battery - no changes.
• Border frame housing.  Better yet the one with a hood!
• Tripod mount.
• Power supply cable.  This pretty much precludes use of waterproof housing.  Even some open frame housings may require modification.  Here is why you would want to pay $20 for this cable instead of using the miniUSB charge cable you already have..... When fully charged the camera will stop drawing power from the power supply.  If an external battery is used (like I do) this will force the external battery to electronically disconnect.  Hence charge cable is not good enough.
• 4x Sanyo 3.7V 2600MAH UR18650ZY 18650 rechargeable batteries.
• 18650 Battery Case with charger circuitry. 
• 64GB Micro SDXC card.  UHS-1.  I will try this one. 

With the above setup I expect to be able to perform 2 hours uninterrupted video recording!
Not to forget!  This gadget proved to be a must-have while troubleshooting the setup. It just shows USB power voltage and current.  And, finally, do not forget to set your camera with a Protune flat color profile. I use it in 4K 24fps mode.

PS: To remove barrel distortion so prominent in 4K I successfully used Sony Vegas deform filter.  Does the job!

Event: Vit Gutkin Concert @Samovar

Let me make sure I get it right.  A fantastic musician who grew up in Moscow, Russia, and now lives in Jerusalem, Israel, signs samba in Portuguese to a mostly Russian audience in the heart of Silicon Valley, California.  God, I love this country!  The developed clips after jump....

Event: Happy Birthday ACM

ACMSFBAY: future of connected car

Panel of experts talking about this fast moving subject!

And here is a published clip: