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Broadcasting - camcorder / procam

To use a camcorder, a semi-pro camera or a professional series camera you need to install a video capture device on the broadcast PC.

Your camera will output one of the following (in descending quality order):

SDI (digital)

Used by professional series cameras and in broadcast environments
Carries audio and video
Robust cables and connectors (standard BNC) - transmitting a good signal over long cable runs (up to 100m).
We recommend the Blackmagic Decklink Studio

DeckLink Studio

HDMI (digital)

Typically used by consumer camcorders and digital SLR cameras
Short cable runs only - should not be longer than 5m and issues with cables are common after lots of use
Carries audio and video
For PCs we recommend the Blackmagic Intensity Pro PCI capture card
For USB 3.0 laptops we recommend the Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle external capture device - check the Blackmagic Design pages to ensure compatibility with your laptop’s chipset

Thunderbolt (digital)

Successor to Firewire (see below).
Currently exclusively avaialble on Apple products - with PC due to follow in 2012.
Not yet widely used - with few devices certified. Watch this space!

Firewire (digital)

Less common these days - modern cameras no longer support Firewire output and modern computers no longer support Firewire input
Some laptops and desktops have a built in Firewire connector which connects directly to your camera

Component / Composite / S-Video (analogue)

Component is the highest quality of the analogue connectors
We recommend using the Blackmagic Intensity products mentioned above
There are also many cheaper USB / PCI capture devices available which should work fine - such as the Win TV range from Hauppagge
In reality, the quality difference between the different connectors is often hard to distinguish when broadcast at today’s bandwidth

USB-Live2

We also supply pre-configured ‘starter kits’ - including cameras and capture devices - for fixed studio (PC based) or mobile (laptop based) environments. Contact us for further details.