Club Video System

[Ed Wujciak]

My club, Gold Coast Woodturners (Ft Lauderdale). wants to upgrade the video system we use for demos and meetings. I am trying to assemble information to make recommendations for what to buy. We've investigated security camera systems, but they don't seem well-suited to the task. The AAW has some "Best Practices" publications available on the website, but the most recent is 2009. Does anyone have any up-to-date recommendations for cameras, switchers etc? any help will be appreciated.

 

[Robert Puetz]

Camera equipment update!

If you are looking to update your video equipment the twin cities chapter recently updated everything they had in video and audio equipment with a small budget. If you need help email me and I would be happy to help.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Nowadays, almost every digital camera can shoot video. The trick would be to see which, if any, support streaming video. At the higher end, most of the digital SLR cameras shoot video now in various formats including full 1080P HD. Some can be used with a WI-Fi link to get streaming video to a PC and displayed in real time. The DSLR solution is probably more than you would like to pay, but I would look for something that is beyond security and web-cams. The quality from those just isn't very useful for shooting woodturning programs because of image size, frame rate, resolution, noise, and fuzzy images.

 

[hockenbery]

Ed,
Use the Florida chapters email list.
Several chapters have recently redone their video systems
They are glad to share

Al

 

[Rick Meier]

There may be information you can use in the June 2012 issue of the Journal. There is an article on the video/shield set-up used at the AAW symposiums.

 

[Steve Worcester]

The big trick is switching between high def (read HDMI) inputs. You either need a real nice home theater receiver that buffers, or a computer based card. Without HDMI, I don't think you will get the experience you are looking for

 

[AlanZ]

Steve,

Another approach to switching hi def quickly is to have an HDMI to VGA adapter on each camera. Feed the VGA cables into a VGA switch, and send the switched VGA out to the monitor/projector. This eliminates the hdmi handshaking that causes the delay.

 

[Jerry Chandler]

Here's what my chapter did

A couple of years ago Chattahoochee Woodturners upgraded our system by adding a Canon Vixia HFM300 HD video camera ($350) and a 50" plasma HD TV (about $600). This is the largest TV we could use due to our 8' ceiling height. Camera and TV models have changed and prices have come down some since then. We connect the camera to the TV using an HDMI cable. We get excellent picture quality with this vs using the regular type of cabling. We are now looking at adding a second camera to be mounted overhead and a switcher to allow us to send the signal from either camera to the TV. We are also looking at some type of frame, floor mounted or hanging from the ceiling, similar to the one in the June 2012 American Woodturner article. We did find out that the camera mounts used on the frame at this year's symposium came from a company called HunterCam. When we're done we'll probably post the results on this forum for the benefit of other clubs. Let us know what you come up with, too.

 

[Steve Worcester]

We are looking into a video capture card that allows multiple camera inputs and switched outputs. But it isn't real cheap.

 

[AlanZ]

The switched VGA solution that I mentioned is quite cost effective, and doesn't require a computer. Any solution likely has a VGA input so the demonstrator can display slide shows or other material.

 

[Steve Worcester]

The switched VGA solution that I mentioned is quite cost effective, and doesn't require a computer. Any solution likely has a VGA input so the demonstrator can display slide shows or other material.

Typically, VGA is 640x480, can we still output 1080 from that?

 

[AlanZ]

640x480 was a very early (and standard)VGA resolution carried via the D-sub connector. When folks refer to VGA these days, it includes svga, xvga etc, all carried through the same cable.

VGA can go up to 2048x1536px @85 Hz (388 MHz)

When folks hook their notebook computer up to a projector through the VGA port, they are sending a high resolution signal to the projector, typically only limited by the projector or monitor's resolution, not that of the graphics card.

An hdmi to VGA adapter typically provides either a 720p or. 1080p signal, depending on the source.

In Tampa, I used an hdmi to VGA adapter to connect the hdmi output of an Apple TV to the venue's projector that did not have a native hdmi input, but did have vga in.