Ultimate Tethered Recording Solution (So far).

K

Kholi

Section Moderator
Let me say this first: I'm tired, I'm in pain, and I'm on Vicodin. I feel terrible. But I just had this insane idea. MODS MOVE THIS TO A BETTER PLACE IF YOU CAN! SORRY!

So I've been doing that DIY Hi-Res monitoring solution thing right? And I noticed that a bunch of screens are touchscreen. I'm laying here thinking about Hydra and being tethered then it freaking hits me:

You could run a closed macbook Pro in a backpack. Run the Ethernet cable and Usb cable to the laptop in the back pack and use the touchscreen to navigate the operating System AND have an Onboard monitor at the same time!!!!

The screen would be connected via VGA from the laptop. Just DVI to VGA converter and you have it!!!

Not only that, you could do it with firewire recording to DVRack as well. You'd do the same thing, secure the firewire port in your backback, get a long cable for on the go and you'd have a portable solution that you can monitor with AND run and gun with.

The Software that comes with Touchscreen LCD's works for OS X and Windows as well, so you could move the screens, maximize, minimize all from the touchscreen AND have the benefit of recording directly to your disk.

ARG I WANT TO TRY THIS RIGHT NOW!
 
Oh and of course you'd have to carry extra batteries for the laptop. Durr. Can anyone point out any drawbacks aside from heat accumulating in the bookbag if not properly ventilated?

I could see an all mesh backpack coming in handy.
 
Maybe the constant vibration from moving shots (since I'm assuming this is not made for tripod mounted). That might cause problems on your hard drive motor. You're gonna have a lot of cables running through there and the moment one of them pop out it's stopping the take (or missed the shot if it's lived) and starting over. It just seemed like too much risks.
 
The heat in the backpack would definitely be a problem. I accidently left my MBPro in a backpack while it was sleeping, and I could hear the fans going full bore until finally the battery died. What you need to do is figure out a way to interface it with an iPhone.
 
Interesting...

I've done something similar in the past...
Instead of recording, we where streaming live video over a wireless network and then out to the internet.
I used velcro straps to mount a laptop to the back of a Steadicam vest. We controlled the laptop using VNC remote desktop software from the control room.


SteadiStreaming_Op.jpg

The camera is firewired (with a thin cable) into the laptop. There's also a USB webcam mounted to the vest for a "operator's point of view" that we could remotly cut to. The Laptop was running Windows Media Encoder with both. cameras as inputs, and was controlled remotly. The laptop was also running Skype which allowed the operator to talk back to the control-room through her headset over the Wireless LAN.


SteadiStreaming_Closeup.jpg

A closeup of the cabling carefully routed into the laptop. - The Laptop was specially purchased for this shoot, and connector locations where a key element in the buying descision. We actually got 2 identical laptops to provide charging of a 2nd battery as the event ran for about 4 hours.
Special care had to be made to strap the laptop loosly enough that when the vest was put under tension when worn; that the curve of the operator's back wouldn't snap the lapop in half. A small amount of sticky-backed velcro was used to unsure the laptop didn't slip.


SteadiStreaming_CR.jpg

The "Control Room". The laptop on the left served as the "reciver" computer with Windows Media Player fullscreened. The video was then re-captured, after a video-mixer, through firewire into a larger encoder that pushed the live stream out to the internet as a webcast controlled form the middle machine. On the laptop on the far right, you can see the encoder and Skype running on the remote desktop of the mobile laptop. Another copy of Skype is running locally on that machine providing communication through the headset on the desk.



Maybe in lieu of a touchscreen, a similar system could be built using 2 laptops (one remote control over Wifi, and the other running DV-Rack strapped to the frame of an old frame-backpack for example). Hopefully this provides some inspiration at least.

- Mikko
 
Mikko that backpack solution is NICE! That's the kinda solution needed.

Also, Barry suggested SOLID STATE HDD for such a setup. I think that could be the answer to drop-outs.

Also, the two laptops could be a bit over-weight. With the touchscreen, you'd only have one monitor to watch at all times and use. So it only really adds the backpack itself.

Something like that would dissipate the heat of the laptop very quickly and easily. Thanks for those pics!
 
jade8472 said:
Maybe the constant vibration from moving shots (since I'm assuming this is not made for tripod mounted). That might cause problems on your hard drive motor. You're gonna have a lot of cables running through there and the moment one of them pop out it's stopping the take (or missed the shot if it's lived) and starting over. It just seemed like too much risks.
Click to expand...

WEll, there's actually no more risk than just using Firewire in the first place. People always have trouble with firewire ports slipping. So you secure them.

However, the bumping around could cause problems with moving parts so that's totally viable. Mentioned above, Barry Green suggested a Solid State drive.

You could, theoretically, record straight to Express HDD's and get the same speed without the risk of drop-outs when recording.
 
Well, I'll find out for m'self. Bought a Touchscreen LCD from Xenarc. Going to double as on-board and this method if it works out well.
 
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