# Very inexpensive camera feed to green room area



## Doowop63 (Jan 16, 2019)

Looking for a very inexpensive way to provide video with sound from stage to green room for tv monitor. Currently have a very old b/w camera would like to move to color. Any help?


----------



## NickVon (Jan 16, 2019)

What does your current hardware and wiring consist of?


----------



## microstar (Jan 16, 2019)

I installed one of these at the local community theatre with good results. Composite video (CV) color and b/w output. Note: needs an external infrared illuminator for true night vision; just "low light" as is. Available used on Ebay for $20-$30... that's where I bought mine. There are many different models in this series so read the descriptions carefully as to zoom size, power requirements, etc.


----------



## Doowop63 (Jan 16, 2019)

We currently have a black and white camera with Sam but the washout is extremely bad in highlight situations. We are looking to run some type of a color camera with sound from our cat walk position to this side of the stage and from there converted to call wax to a TV monitor in our green room downstairs


----------



## Ben Stiegler (Jan 16, 2019)

Not sure what “call wax” refers to ... but here’s an idea. Depending on view angle and distance from catwalk to stage, you might try an inexpensive webcam ... even a WiFi home security type. Link to theater WiFi, then pull the signal off to a tired old pc in the green room, which would feed your TV via its video output (use dvi to hdmi or display port to hdmi adapter). I think you might be better served with a house side wall position than catwalks. 

I saw this used successfully at a regional outdoor theater in Leavenworth, WA.

Also ... taking audio from webcam isn’t optimal, and the Bosch above is video only. Take a monitor feed from your board, or just hang a tired old cardio mic over downstage center or nearby, and use a separate amp to drive backstage speakers. You can find a used 70v mixer amp pretty cheap ... this allows parallel wiring for as many transformer equipped speakers as you like, with the added bonus of a local volume control (l-pad) for each speaker.


----------



## NickVon (Jan 16, 2019)

Basic Color HD security Cam that ouputs good old legacy Composite (NOT the ip/network kind) work great and can be had used for well under 100$. Some have built in audio, though most probably do not. and many have an auto iris for high/low light adapting. We have a couple of Sensomatic security camera's that we use for this purpose. But we feed audio to the green room via a separate mic/monitor feed and now from the Camera.


----------



## TimMc (Jan 20, 2019)

If you can find a composite video output security camera, chances are good you can use existing copper.

@Ben Stiegler suggestion of WiFi camera can be the 'easy button' or 'pull out your remaining hair' if you have IT problems.

In most spaces the expense is running Code-compliant cabling and both WiFi and using existing coax eliminate that.


----------



## kjones9999 (Jan 26, 2019)

TimMc said:


> If you can find a composite video output security camera, chances are good you can use existing copper.
> 
> @Ben Stiegler suggestion of WiFi camera can be the 'easy button' or 'pull out your remaining hair' if you have IT problems.
> 
> In most spaces the expense is running Code-compliant cabling and both WiFi and using existing coax eliminate that.


I'll mention too -if you can get the video into a computer, you can use NDI to distribute via the network. This should be wired, but HX can work with wireless.


----------



## rwhealey (Jan 28, 2019)

kjones9999 said:


> I'll mention too -if you can get the video into a computer, you can use NDI to distribute via the network. This should be wired, but HX can work with wireless.



Is there a cost-effective dedicated NDI to HDMI hardware box out there? I spent some time looking for one at Infocomm and didn't come up with anything.

Without dedicated hardware you also need to have a computer at the other end.


----------



## kjones9999 (Jan 28, 2019)

rwhealey said:


> Is there a cost-effective dedicated NDI to HDMI hardware box out there? I spent some time looking for one at Infocomm and didn't come up with anything.
> 
> Without dedicated hardware you also need to have a computer at the other end.


Not really... A $50 i3 is hard to beat. If they ever open it to ARMs that should change....


----------



## eadler (Jan 30, 2019)

@microstar how did you hang it? I've been looking at mounting a similar camera here on a pipe for audio for a while now.


----------



## microstar (Jan 30, 2019)

eadler said:


> @microstar how did you hang it? I've been looking at mounting a similar camera here on a pipe for audio for a while now.


I did not pipe-mount mine but used a pedestal-type mount on a horizontal wood surface. The camera has a standard 1/4-20 threaded insert in the bottom so you could just bend a piece of 1/8" thick 2" wide aluminum strap into a U-shape turned 90 degrees, with a fixture C-clamp on one side and a hole for a 1/4" bolt on the other with the camera sitting in between.


----------

