Surprise, Surprise!

Today, we learned that we are designated to film a conference to stream live on Youtube - in three days!

At first, I died of fear. Then I realised that this is a tremendous chance for us! We are supposed to take part in a live stream and learn how this is done professionally! We got our roles assigned and I was designated camera operator.

So, yeah, I was intimidated and hyped at the same time.

Our technician set about to explain to us how to go about such a live-event by leading us into the gallery and introducing us not only to five monitors, a sound mixer and a vision mixer plus heaps and heaps of cable work, but he also introduced us to a 'new' type of camera: the Panasonic P2 HD AG HPX 171 E which don't come with the usual SD-card but rather with a P2-card.

We were then introduced to the correct camera settings that we are about to use for the Youtube-live stream, which are - for videosharing - American progressive (either 30 or 60 fps), HD, a system frequency of 59.94 Hz, and - in our case - a recording setup of 720p/30p which is better for livestream since this setting takes less bandwidth due to less data which need to be transferred (standard definition is, after all, just half of high definition). We were furthermore told that we should white balance the cameras to 3.2 K on the day of the live stream. And if your battery reaches its last 20%, make sure to discreetly call for a battery swap. 20% might sound like this is well in advance, but it is really necessary.

Depending on whether you are operating the 'roaming camera' and thus deploying the OIS, whether your cable basher needs more time to get a new one or whether the other batteries still need to be charged for a bit, even 20% can sometimes turn into a close call. Notwithstanding the fact that you need to signal a battery change for the visual mixer to be prepared not to swap to your footage live until you fixed the issue.

We were then introduced to a couple of other lovely devices, such as the Edirol Roland V-440HD Multi-Format vision mixer and the Soundcraft Spirit M12 sound mixer that will be used during the live stream.

The Roland vision mixer will be used to conveniently mix the footage coming from three different cameras, fading from 'cold' (green light, signalling an offline camera prepped to go online) to 'hot' (orange light, signalling an camera being online or 'active') with the help of a lever. As you might be able to see in the image below, the device allows to discern between SD and HD video, allows for different kinds of transitions and transition times of up to 4 seconds, picture in picture function (P in P) and even allows for the (re)positioning of the picture within the picture with the help of a button.

On the back of the visual mixer, as you can see down below, are all the inputs for the heaps and heaps of analog cables, providing the visual mixer not only with the information of the colours red, blue, and green, but also with visual structure information (which are provided together with the signal for the green colour as well).

Where visuals need to be mixed, you also need to mix sound. This is highly relevant in interactions such as live events or conferences where not only moderators but also members of the audience are speaking. The audio mixer basically allows for any change to be made, though the most important function we will actually be using is the gain. Although this needs to happen with care, since it can produce ugly sound distortions if the gain is turned on on both the radio mic, the sound mixer, and the computer itself. Which is why you usually dial down the gain on most devices and only change it with the sound mixer.

To capture the best sound possible, we were introduced to the usage of radio mics that each consist of one transmitter and one receiver, the last of which will be plugged into the sound mixer. The most important part in employing radio mics is the fact that they need to be set to different radio frequencies to avoid them bashing into each others signal and distorting it. And this is where the fun part begins, since you need to officially book out radio space every time you film such events with radio mics.

Radio mics furthermore have a mute button for the actor or speaker to press so that the sound can be blocked online. Though you still need to be careful as an actor - even though your audience can't hear you live, your sound op still does. So don't badmouth your crew.

In addition to that, we furthermore learned how to mic and tape a person. While you are not supposed to let the mic touch the neck (it produces a strange sound since the mic then picks up the vibration through your skin instead of your voice directly), you should attach it to non-rustling clothing near the neck and tape it to the person under their garments by first taping it straight down to the belly with black tape, then leave a little loop and tape it fast as well to allow for greater movements and turns on the actor's part without the mic cable unplugging from the transmitter. 'Bra creak', by the way, is a real issue, since the synthetic materials used here can often create a static build-up that, in turn, may interfere with the sound recording. And if your actor or actress does have excessive body hair (no shame here!), you should first rip your tape on some fabric first before applying it onto the skin. Sticking it to some fabric first reduces a bit of the stickiness without losing it all, and you can tape it to your actor/actress without giving them an unwanted wax job.

After taking care of all that, you basically wrap up any excess cable and clip it to the back of the transmitter to be hidden anywhere in the costume. As you might have realised, to mic up a person requires the sound op to be a rather upfront and communicative person and to accept the speaker's boundaries. If you just walk up starting to mic people down, you're going to have a bad time (yes, I'm talking harassment charges).

So after a long day of getting multiple crash courses in camera settings, hand signals, vision mixing, sound mixing, and non-harassment mic taping, we are ready to go live.

Or so we hope.