In the Field: Teradek Live:Air

Teradek, a company responsible for some of the biggest recent advancements in streaming technology, released the Live:Air (pronounce Live to Air) iPad app at BVE London 2015. This $99 app connects to the company’s VidiU units, while all devices are connected to a shared wireless 网work. Live:Air gives the user the ability to switch among up to four cameras while mixing in titles, 图形, 还有预先录好的b-roll. While the theoretical capabilities of such a setup are very exciting, the realities of today’s technological limitations are keeping the system from reaching its full potential.

展览厅演示

I first met Topher DeLancy of Teradek in May at 流媒体 East in New York. 在展示厅, DeLancy showed me their live demo of Live:Air, which paired several VidiU-connected camera feeds along with some pre-recorded content and titles. He switched among sources with ease, and I tried my hand at technical director for a few minutes. When asked about specifications for the system to work, he stressed that an iPad Air 2 must be used for the app to function 好吧.

测试项目

几个月后, 一个制作人, 雅各布迪安, came to me with a perfect use case to test out the whole suite. Dean had been hired to produce a 3-4 camera live concert in Knoxville. Soon I had two VidiUs and one VidiU mini in my possession along with an older iPad Mini 2 to begin pre-show testing.

设置

The first thing we noticed about using the VidiUs was the instructions, or, 好吧, 缺少指示. Although setting up the VidiU is somewhat straightforward, the tiny screen and equally tiny navigation controls make the process a bit challenging. Going to Teradek’s site reveals little more than a few basic-setup instructional videos. 尽管如此, we managed to get all of the units onto the shared WiFi 网work and connected to the Live:Air app.

The next thing noted about setup was the boot time. From power on to connected and streaming, expect to count the minutes, not seconds. The VidiUs are intended to be powered up and kept on for the duration of your shoot, not shut down during breaks. If you accidentally shut one down or have any sort of power loss, expect to wait around 15 minutes to get a unit reconnected. Even when a unit was connected to Live:Air, if there was a loss in connectivity, we sometimes had to shut down and restart everything else (all VidiUs and Live:Air) for the components to see each other again.