Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Using Skype with DV cameras for JCC and GLIVE

Many of us know Skype as the software product that allows us to do a phone conversation or a chat (video or audio) session with our friends and in particular with friends abroad - all via the internet. When my friend George was overseas we used Skype for a video conference with him and some of our friends. 

Most recently, we've taken Skype to a new level - when we broadcasted JCC and then GLIVE. We've even "skyped" people for meetings and such as well.  So let me explain some basics here.  This is delving a little into the video world but you need to understand both to see how this works. 

Here's the flow:
Mixer Board (xlr) --> DV Video Camera (dv) --> Video Switcher (dv) --> dv repeater (dv into computer and dv deck*) --> Computer with Skype (audio input from Dv Deck) --> Recipient Computer with Skype

Flow for this setup is relatively simple.  But this is a much larger setup. We use the video switcher b/c we have multiple cameras and inputs coming into the switcher.  Usually we have 3 cameras and an S-Video (pro-presenter/slides).

For a single camera setup, it's similar:
Mixer Board (xlr) --> DV Video Camera (dv) --> dv repeater (dv into computer and DV deck*) --> Computer with Skype (audio input from Dv Deck) --> Recipient Computer with Skype

* the reason that we need the dv repeater and the deck is b/c Skype cannot handle the video and audio stream in the dv input.  i don't know why but it will not accept the audio input, so we need to grab the audio from another dv device, hence the repeater. I'm sure i've confused a few of you by this point.  that's b/c it is confusing.  hopefully skype will resolve this issue and then we could just plug the dv camera right into the laptop and we'll be good. 

So this is a rough presentation.  If you have more questions i can try to fill in the gaps.