Hi to all the Mac Studio users out there! I have just received mine and am migrating over having enjoyed linux for over 20 years. On my linux I had a very easy setup coming out of the linux to my broadcast monitor and then to a streaming box that converted my broadcast feed into an input for Zoom, Teams etc etc. In remote sessions I want my clients to only see the broadcast feed and not my GUI as I am moving around from Flame, Photoshop, AE etc.
How do you guys set your remote feeds up when running Mac Studio to allow broadcast only to be fed into your clienst chosen video platform?
Yes I am just looking into what I would need for get SDI out of the Mac Studio. Am I right that a little magic box like this is all I would need to go HDMI out of the Mac converted to SDI for the web broadcaster?
I use this for client sessions. You only need 2 x BMD Ultrastudio mini’s (Recorder & Monitor). They are still in beta so you can request access for free. Bit of a lag but your streaming 10bit with audio straight out of your Mac Studio
Looks interesting but I am already using the BMD Web presenter which takes and SDI signal and pipes it back into the Mac as a web cam feed. There is barely any lag (maybe 1/2 second), colour is very acceptable. I just need to figure out the best way to get the SDI signal from the MAC Studio which I am guessing is using the box I posted above? I’m also unsure how workable it will be to run Zoom on the Mac Studio while also running Flame. I suspect its probably best to just use my MacBookPro for that purpose.
To get the broadcast signal output you either need to get something like the Blackmagic UltraStudio or you can use a 2nd HDMI out set to being a broadcast signal and buy a HDMI to SDI converter like you mentioned. Get a 12G model (in both cases) if you want to do anything above HD.
I have seen noise in broadcast HDMI outputs before but if you are streaming then that won’t be an issue. I also seem to remember a couple of people having issues when using a 2nd HDMI output as a broadcast monitor on Mac Studio. Not sure if that was rectified or particular to their system.
In my MacStudio setup I use a BMD Ultrastudio and an ATEM mini pro. HDMI goes to my client 55inch LG monitor and the SDI to my Sony broadcast trimaster.
When I do client remote sessions via teams zoom etc I use the atem out via thunderbolt to the mac so that zoom can see it as a webcam.
If you dont want to use a web presenter or atem you can use an NDI solution.
I also ran flame in HDMI mode on it too. So thats a cheap 4k solution. For me I prefer to use the BMD solution although its HD I think the colour is more accurate.
So after a bit of testing I wondered if a dual monitor setup would be a simple solution for a screen share and it seems to work perfectly. Let me know if I am nuts doing it this way:
1st monitor via USB-C
2nd monitor via HDMI (will be vis USB-C once I upgrade to a new monitor)
Zoom/Teams/Meets now allows screen sharing of “Display 2” which shares only the broadcast feed, no GUI which is running on Display 01.
What I like about this setup is that there is no need for external signal converters or anything like the BMD Web Presenter or ATEM. I can use my existing Lumina Web Cam and Yeti Mic to improve the presentation side of things. Additionally I like that my MacBookPro would be setup the exact same way either for redundancy or for offsite sessions and could even be used with the internal web cam and mic. I have yet to test if I could use an iPadPro as the broadcast display via SideCar which I hoping will not have conflicting ports with Stone+Wire but this will be awesome if it works.
What perhaps I could be missing are the features that the ATEM has such as Picture-In-Picture and the more professional transitions between video feeds but the ATEM will not allow me to use my Lumina Web Cam as a video feed without additional costs involved in converting a USB-C webcam feed to HDMI. My solution (I think) is to instead add a Stream Deck into the equation to allow a customizable hub for use when in video session with my clients.
I am running my trusty Eizo CG277 as my GUI. Next up is to choose the right monitor as my second display for broadcast because right now I am using an rather heavy and cumbersome HD Barco which I would like to upgrade for 4k (all recommendations welcome - I need colour accuracy for grading).
Coming from Linux and back into the Mac world I feel I have been overthinking the entire setup until now and the idea above seems to work perfectly well. I feel I must be missing something obvious as this feels too easy? Let me know if I am having another “Senior Moment”! lol
I would use matching monitors if possible (i.e. two Eizo CG27) otherwise the minor inconsistencies will drive you nuts.
If you wanted to endeavor on better camera integration, I’d replace the webcam with a small camcorder that has HDMI or SDI (can be older model of eBay to keep budget low). That will be a nice improvement across the board.
What you have described is how I’m working at the moment. Having zoom on the main computer allows you to quickly show your client GUI mode. I use that a lot because my clients get bored just watching broadcast out and they like seeing me dive into difference modules. If you do this make sure you tick the box in zoom to optimise picture and sound. It’s on the screen when you select which window to share. Ticking the optimise reduces lag.
Thanks @johnag . I have actually been doing some extensive testing wth this screen sharing setup over the weekend and I am finding the lag unacceptable actually. It’s not the worst but the audio is not synced and I am experiencing a lot of dropped frames and this is just with one viewers and myself on the Zoom link. I a led to understand that this lag and dropped frames will increase with more viewers on the Zoom session. I. have a great internet connection and it is all being run off my new Mac Studio Ultra so processing power is not an issue. I have ordered a BMD 12G Bi-Directional SDI-HDMI converter which I will use to pull the video from my second monitor (broadcast display) and pipe into my existing Web Presenter which has always worked seamlessly in the past. I’ll report back here once it arrives in a few days.
