Mobile Camera Rig: Plans and Materials

General
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Hi Pinheads,

I had a lot of communication issues with the Hollyland Mars 300 Pro on the last tournament I streamed.

I’m using 3 Mars 300 Pro, one for each camera (playfield, score, and player). Everything was working perfectly during testing; I was able to move my Rig on all pinball machines in the room without any signal loose (the furthest machine in the room was, in about, 30-40 meters from receivers). All the room is open, so there were no obstacles or walls.

The event tooks place in Barcadia, Seclin, France, you can easily find photos on Google if you want to see how it looks like.

So, everything was perfect, until 120 players enter the room. When all players were playing their tournament on all pinball machines, I was loosing the signal on all Mars 300 Pro in approx. 5 meters from receivers.
I was not expecting such a signal loose on such a short distance, so, Saturday qualifications were catastrophic to stream and very difficult to watch.
For information, all my antennas are on a 2,20 meters heigh (transmitter and receiver), so higher than all the players in the room.

I don’t understand why players in the room are creating interferences like this, is it their cell phones? Or is it coils from pinball machines maybe?

Do you ever experienced a signal loose like this on such a short distance between transmitter and receivers and how did you deal with it?

I also have the feeling that Insider on Stern pinball machines is creating a lot of interferences on Wifi signals (which is used by Mars 300 Pro).
For finals, on Sunday, I asked Barcadia’s owner to disable Insider on all Stern machines and the signal was a little bit better that day on my Mars 300 Pro receivers.
I also switch off one of my receiver (the player cam) and signal was also better after this on the two remaining Mars 300 Pro. (I put a camera on a tripod directly from casting desk, plugged with a HDMI cable, and was able to show players in the room. Visually, it was very nice on stream, it changes radically from a front player cam)

All tournaments I watch on Twitch or YouTube don’t seems to have this kind of signal problem, so guys, what is your secret? :wink:

Thank you.

Soiree Flip

PS : Here is the replay of the qualifications, where a lot of conneciton issues took place : https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1921093006

243

I was never confident that you could use three of the Mars 300 Pros in the same area. This post proves that they are susceptible to regular radio interference as they seem to work when they’re on their own (I know someone else reported that they worked in a triplet).

Accsoon works with well over a hundred people in the room, through walls, doors and people. Each pair have two dedicated SSIDs (2.4/5Ghz) and the ability to manually tune channel if needed.

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Can I assume that the TNUTZ rig build using counterbores will still accomdate a widebody machine for streaming? If I understand correctly, since it is utilizing the counterbores, it can’t be made wider or narrower like some of the original versions posted. Just want to make sure it is suitable for both standard and widebody machines.

EDIT: I think I answered my own question. The upper legs have counterbores but the outer top pieces do not. They use a double anchor which uses the slot on the upper outer crossbar and the counterbores on the upper legs. I assume that gives a lot of flexibility.

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Yup as Michael notes the hollylands just don’t cut it in a Wi-Fi busy / multi camera setup - I have a box of them no one wants LOL.

Accsoon we have tested them to 6 cameras split between two rigs and they work really well. The UK open last year was I think the first big use of them and it was bullet proof. They do use a bit more power so factor that in.

Now with 175 players we need to wait and see but worst case we will use one rig but I’m pretty confident it will be ok.

Planning the Wi-Fi in the room is also important and know what the public Wi-Fi is on and any other Wi-Fi so you can avoid those channels if you need to. The holly lands just seem to random pick channels and would also use the same channel with two or three streams.

Go down with a Mac and use Wi-Fi manager to know what channels you need to avoid.

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As long as they have line of sight and are spread apart, and they are set to be two channels apart each, 3 sets work no issues.

But line of sight is imperative.

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Hi, can you explain what is exactly a line of site ?
I’m sorry, I don’t understand what it is.

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Line of sight. The transmitters cannot have anything in between them like walls or banners or people any obstructions.

So keep them up high so they don’t have anything blocking their view of one another.

If you bump up to the accusoon transmitters, you don’t have to worry about this.

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At the local arcade the topper on Scooby Doo obstructed the signal between the monoprice RX/TX pair. You can basically hold up your hand in front of them to cause interference.

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Not that bad, but if something is parked between them, they will struggle. Definitely 100x better than the monoprice blackbirds.

251

what is a decent and not too pricey camera that provides audio over HDMI. I thought i would be able to use my sony cx405 to pick up basic game play sounds but i’m learning they don’t output audio over HDMI.

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Might be cheaper to get an audio inserter.

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Thanks- i didnt know such a device existed.

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Get the cx 440. That allows audio over hdmi.

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i just assumed the cx440 had a the same limitations cx405s. I actually have a couple of the 440’s so ill give them a try. thanks for the tip.

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@kdeangelo I think you mentioned working on a new design for a more quickly deployed mobile rig and I’m just wondering if there’s any info on it. Like design concept or other info you might be willing to share. Like, is a folding design, or telescoping etc.

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It’s a folding design but I haven’t had time to work on it and in fact may change it from my initial concept. It was to be a single arm boom but after building a prototype I think it might be better to try to adapt the current rig into a folding version. All I’m trying to do is get something I can throw in the trunk of my car with most of the equipment still attached to it and have it take around 5 minutes to setup. The single arm is nice but it’s not as stable as I’d like it to be, and to make it more stable I have to increase the leg sizes which defeats the purpose of it.

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I built a single arm solution once but it was quite inconvenient. I used a turtle based mini C-stand. It worked great for what it was but sure had its limitations. I did a multi-stop trip in Europe with it.

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This is what the production looked like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfbFCXcr2Fk

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Oh I was talking a rolling extruded aluminum stand. Here’s my prototype which is just a bit too scary to use. Adding a battery on the bottom does stabilize it but not enough. The inner legs need to be longer, and they’re hinged to roll between the games.

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Folds into this with the base being quickly removable. Star knobs to lock everything in place.

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I’m planning to do more mobile on-location streaming and wanted to see how much I could get away with on a single mic stand and this worked out pretty well:

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2 of the Sony ZV-1s and a webcam all plugged into the Magewell Director Mini which will stream out directly. I had to watch comments on a separate device. Here it is folded down which should fit in my trunk without having to disconnect anything:
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I didn’t get as far as wire management so ignore that mess :slight_smile: I need to measure out and find/order the right length cables for the job.

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Tell me more about this Magewell Director Mini. Does it do arbitrary layouts with the 3 cameras, or just some presets? Can you do arbitrary overlays?