回顾:Epiphan网络广播X2

每年的东西方流媒体大会, while our able streaming partners from Mobeon capture our conference program and stream from our keynote rooms, my primary role is filming interviews with key speakers and other industry thought leaders in the 流媒体 booth in the exhibit hall. 多年来, 我们称之为“红毯采访”,” which (for reasons I can’t recall) morphed into “Almost Live from 流媒体” a few years back. 考虑到我们名字的第一个词是“流媒体”,这个标题引出了这个问题, “为什么不放弃‘几乎’，直接开始生活呢??”

Since I shoot these interviews with two cameras—a two-shot on the interviewer and interviewee, and a one-shot on the interviewee—my first inclination was to duplicate the setup I use for live-switching and streaming conference sessions (minus the Powerpoint feed), with my two Sony PXW-X70 cameras connected to my laptop’s USB ports via a capture device like the Epiphan AV.io或Magewell USB捕获HDMI或SDI, 并使用Telestream Wirecast或vMix切换和流传输节目.

鉴于我们的展位空间有限, 然而, 我发现，在为人才分配了两把椅子的空间之后, 两个三脚, and two lightstands alongside our magazine display doesn’t leave a lot of room for switching on a laptop. So I settled on a two-pronged approach: delivering a single-camera (two-shot) live stream to Facebook Live on site, 然后剪掉了双摄像头版本.

幸运的是, 紧凑的编码和无占用空间流的盒子比比皆是, whether mounted on-camera like the first unit of this type I tested 4 years back (the Livestream Broadcaster), or the LiveU Solo or Teradek VidiU Pro we’ve deployed successfully for the booth interview streams at 流媒体 East and West, 分别, in 2017.

进入Epiphan网络广播X2

今年的流媒体东部, 5月8日至9日在纽约举行的, I cast my eye on an intriguing new entry in this space: the Epiphan Webcaster X2. I’ve worked with a handful of different Epiphan offerings in the past, including the AV.io devices mentioned earlier and the Pearl streaming appliance (since eclipsed by the Pearl 2) I 综述了 2016年3月.

webcasterx2吸引我的眼球有几个原因. 首先是价格. At $299, it was the first device in this space to debut at that price (although it now has company with the NAB-week announcement of the Magewell Ultra Stream HDMI). The other was its HDMI out connection to a confidence monitor that also, 通过USB鼠标或迷你键盘, 作为X2的控制屏幕. (Webcaster X2确实有一个“上线”按钮, 但是当你连接显示器时，会发生更有趣的事情.) Having encountered difficulties with phone or tablet-based WiFi control of streaming devices in the past (when I stream a conference keynote, I’m on dedicated ether网 so I don’t have to share bandwidth with attendees; if my phone and streaming device can’t see each other, 我沉没), 而且经常对双键的局限性失去耐心, 小盒子上的单线LED接口, 这个有线选项听起来是个不错的折衷方案, 即使它把我的装置带出了无足迹区.

网络广播X2提供流媒体到最流行的平台, 包括YouTube, 抽搐, 和Facebook Live, my platform of choice for delivering the 流媒体 East interviews. 我去开会的前一周, I connected the X2 to a Blackmagic Design VideoAssist 4K and a USB mouse, and paired it with the 流媒体 Facebook account without difficulty (下面的图1).

图1. Epiphan supplies a code to pair the Webcaster X2 with your Facebook account.

你可以看到 图2(下面), the Webcaster X2 interface makes it easy for me to click Publishing Destination and choose among any of the Facebook conference and magazine pages I manage after the initial pairing is in place. On the Stream Details page where you choose your Facebook Page or YouTube channel, you can also type in a title and description for your video (using a mouse-enabled on-screen keyboard or attached mini-keyboard) and set your streaming bitrate and resolution. 我选择了2000Kbps和1280x720.

图2. 选择要流式传输的页面

您还可以启用或禁用显示注释, which allows you to see comments as they come in on your attached monitor in a split-screen configuration (下面的图3). 图3还显示了, 就在监视器屏幕下面, 开始按钮, 你点击哪个来启动一个流.

图3. 评论出现在右边的面板中. 单击图像以查看其全尺寸.