6 or 7 3G-SDI inputs on a PC

S

Smifis

Well-known member
Hi,

I am wondering if anyone knew of a way of imputing 6 or 7 SDI inputs into a PC as i have a software mixer being developed right now and using a PC woudl give me more flexability.

I have been looking at some of Blackmagics products but am i correct in saying then each card will only accept one input at a time?

What about AJA cards? does anyone have any experience with this.

I am open to all ideas and will pass on any information to the developer.

I will require it to be capable to accept 6 HD-SDI, or 3G-SDI connections and have ONE SDI output.

Thanks,
Thomas Smith
 
Just get a Panasonic AV-HS400A, that's how much you'll end up spending on cards anyway. You'll more than likely need 7 cards, 6 for inputs and 1 for outputs if you go the PC route. Which I don't know of any mother boards that have that many PCI slots. Plus the program would have to be programed to accept the signal coming off of the card, and to put the outgoing signal on to the other card.
 
I realise the Vision mixer option would probably be best but the software route is more appealing.

Appealing in the fact that it actually going to act like a real mixer and i can use the PC for something else.

Another plus is that with it all on the pc, i can save each individual stream uncompressed while mixing without any aditional hardware, and yes, i already have a raid 3 setup.

The whole porgramming side is getting maganaged by a company who has made a vision mixer setup before but not on this scale. The company is Medialooks if anyone is interested.

Now, the motherboards, that is the reason for my question. I have found a mother board with 7 PCI Express slots which would limit me to 4 cameras. While i can do something decent with 4 cameras, it is not the most flexible by any means.
 
Oh, prices.

The Panasonic AV-HS400A is £7,963.75
Each Blackmagic card is £195.50

I would need 9 blackmagic cards which would cost (9 x 195.50) £1759.50

A saving of £6204.25 which could be in vested in other areas of production such as monitors, spare cables.
 
I think with that many card you are going to run up against the PCI Express bandwidth limit (I think it is around 8gbps).
Also there is almost no way you will be able to record 7 uncompressed streams concurrently while switching SDI sources with a computer that costs less than $7,000.
 
I'm going to build a Dual Quad-Core Nehalem Workstation processors, top of the range stuff.

I thought the bandwidth might be a bit limited but since the blackmagic cards use a single lane each, surely they wouldn't use up that much, although i am waiting fro a reply from blackmagic customer services.
 
My suggestion is try to get a sponsorship from Panasonic or nVidia or something to get most of what you need to knock down the costs. If you're streaming the thing on the internet give them "Stream Brought to you By:" rights or something like that. If you do go down this route though, please do the best you can to work with them, because I'm going to be attemping the same thing sometime shortly (with Panasonic) and don't my chances of a sponsorship messed up because somebody else screwed up. Nothing personal meant by that, just don't want a potential opportunity to be killed by somebody else.
 
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Great Idea.

But how do you get hold of them for sponsership?
I'd love to get sponsored by Panasonic, luvely cameras and screens.
 
Even with the Blackmagic cards still using one lane there will still be too much raw data coming through the 7 (or 8 really) card to go over the pci-express bus.

Also, I just want to point out that the price you will pay for the pc hardware, more than $5000, and the cost of your custom development, I can only assume that it is a hefty chunk of change. You will almost defiantly be spending more than the $7000 that it costs to buy a decent Panasonic hardware switcher and a mid-range PC to use to stream the live feed (a high-end dual core or modest quad will work fine).
 
Andrew McCarrick said:
http://www.panasonic.com/community/contact.asp
Click to expand...
This may sound needy, but i can't find any sponsorship information on panasonic uk's website. Do they even do sponsorships?

david335 said:
Even with the Blackmagic cards still using one lane there will still be too much raw data coming through the 7 (or 8 really) card to go over the pci-express bus.
Click to expand...

I'm sure if your average joe pc has 16+ lanes, and each card using less than one lane, i'm sure there would be enough and that isn't my main worry.

david335 said:
Also, I just want to point out that the price you will pay for the pc hardware, more than $5000, and the cost of your custom development, I can only assume that it is a hefty chunk of change. You will almost defiantly be spending more than the $7000 that it costs to buy a decent Panasonic hardware switcher and a mid-range PC to use to stream the live feed (a high-end dual core or modest quad will work fine).
Click to expand...

I have been pricing things out.
I already have 3 i7 workstations which i can use (pc's out of the way).
I have many monitors (them out of the way)
and all i need to pay for is the software and the blackmagic cards.
I will need 7 card at the most on one pc. (5 cameras, one playout feed, and one ouptut)
I will need one card in each of the otrher machines (playout and encoding)
so that is 9 cards.
9 x 170 = £1530
plus the pci expansion system, if needed at around about £2000
would have a total cost of £3530 which is much less than this (http://www.dsvideo.tv/panasonic_1727.php) which only has 4 sdi inputs at a much higher price of ££6,925.00.

This gives me ~£1000 extra which would go to development. and i would be left with £2530 to play about with.
 
http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/Support/Contact+us/E-Mail/544169/index.html

First drop down menu: UK
Second drop down menu: General Enquires
Third drop down menu: People Queries
Fourth drop down menu: Sponsorship

However it looks like:


"Our current sponsorship commitments, under both Panasonic and Technics brands, mean that we are unable to consider any new opportunities at this stage.

If the above information has not assisted you in finding a resolution, please complete an e-mail request, providing full details of your enquiry. We will then respond to, or re-direct, your enquiry as appropriate. Please click "send" for the e-mail request form."
 
How long until you plan on doing this event? If it's less then about 2-3 months, I'd also work on an alternative, just in case they doin't get back to you in time.
 
Oh i've got ages yet, other things to plan.

It'll in july time next year.

Put basically, it's going to be a small local festival featuring local bands who plan to make it big.
If you just happen to be in england at the time, i'm sure i coudl show you what we've ended up doing, plus a free ticket for all your help.
 
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