SlingStudio is a new product recently announced at the NABShow. With the popularity of Multi-Camera Live Streaming videos growing over the past year, I find this is one of the most innovative products to drop in 2017.
With the SlingStudio you can take advantage of using (ios and Android) smartphones as inexpensive wireless cameras, or use any of your professional cameras by adding their CameraLink adapter. Here's an unboxing and general setup with the brand new SlingStudio.
How it works:
The SlingStudio Hub can work off of battery power, so it's truly portable. Once you power it on, it acts as a wireless access point. Install the SlingStudio Capture app on your smart device and connect to the SlingStudio Hub (wifi network). From an iPad with the SlingStudio Console app installed, you can view all of the different video being streamed from every device connected.
You can choose to record just the program feed locally on an SDXC card, or external USB drive as your switching camera angles, or you can record each of the feeds individually to edit later. There is also a dedicated Audio line in if you're working with a mixer or even a simple wireless mic system. If you have internet access at your location, you can choose to Broadcast Live to any of the popular social networks (Facebook, YouTube, etc).
There's a number of features any multi-camera live production would need such as graphic overlays, and various transitions. When working with a Smartphone and Capture app, there's even a Tally display that tells the operator when their camera angle is being used.
Pros:
The most exciting part of SlingStudio for me is the completely wireless workflow - right down to the Hub running off battery power. Not only can you use accessible smart devices for a multi-camera production, but you can also add your professional camera systems.
Notes:
I haven't had the chance to test SlingStudio in a long project yet, but there are a few things I could already advise. If you're planning on using a smartphone, use good hardware. The better the hardware, the smoother the video will stream back to the SlingStudio hub. And if you're planning on shooting for a short while, make sure you have a charger on hand. The Wifi connection and streaming video back to the hub consumes a fair amount of battery power.
There's also a small 2 second or so delay in the video feed when viewing from the iPad. This is not something to be concerned about if you're not outputting the display to a live audience in real time. People who are watching from a Live Stream on the internet are usually delayed 30-45 seconds by providers like Facebook and YouTube anyways. The delay is also not a problem if you're planning to just record all the streams to edit later.
I'm excited to try the new SlingStudio out on a few projects, but if you have any questions or comments now, let me know. I'll try to implement those answers on my next follow up video.
Or read more about the new SlingStudio (here):
