How would we be able to broadcast live video to multiple tvs in multiple rooms?

[WallyW]

This may be to much to hope for but you never know where you might get lucky.

My friend and his wife are getting ready to open up a tech oriented preschool for the 2010 year. I have been asked to research various tech related aspects.

How would we be able to broadcast live video content, from a professional video camera such as the Canon XL2, to multiple ( minimum of 10 ) TVs located in various rooms of an 8,000 sq ft building?

I would greatly appreciate any help that can be given on what equipment should be bought, links to reference sites or any general help in this area.

Thanks

[computer2slow]

I will see if I can find some help.

With the large building guessing you'd like to do it wireless if possible. Can you do damage to the building like drill holes and the like? You have a price range in mind?

[computer2slow]

Check you PM box.

[Head_Monkey]

If you stay with the "TV" option, then your options are limited and expensive (e.g. buying yer own mini mini transmitter / receiver to broadcast the signal to TVs.

If you head down the computer path, the options are varied, cheaper, and more flexible.
For example: Set up a wireless network within the building (802.11n is better, although 11g will work just fine). Connect the camera to a computer, and use something like VLC player to setup a streaming video server (easy to do - there's even a wizard to follow). Then setup cheapish PCs and a tv / monitor to receive the streaming content (using VLC once again on the end computer). You can also substitute the camera for a TV tuner card, which means you can stream TV to all computers on the network!

VLC Player is free, and setting up everything requires basic computer skills (just all put together). For more information, just ask away!

EDIT: I know this works as I have tried this myself. Granted I work as an IT support person, but as I said above, there is a wizard in VLC player, which is literally step-by-step.

[WallyW]

Originally Posted by computer2slow

I will see if I can find some help.

With the large building guessing you'd like to do it wireless if possible. Can you do damage to the building like drill holes and the like? You have a price range in mind?

Thanks for the suggestion but we would like to stay away from the wireless option for video broadcast. I fear it will not be stable enough to deliver the steady stream. We haven't finalized the location yet, but we will be able to remodel the building to suit our needs. We would like to have a system in mind so that we can install it during the remodel. Also since we don't yet know the materials of the building we want the confidence of a wired setup for delivery of a steady video stream. The budget for this project is quite good, $20,000 available. That hopefully will buy all necessary equipment including the flat panel 32 or 37 inch LCD TVs.

During my research on Google, the term "TV over Cat5" has popped up a few times. Is anyone familiar with this technology? This site seems to be what we are looking for
Audio Authority® - Product Details: AVM-562E
but I am unsure. I have sent the company a message through there Contact Us link and am awaiting a response.

[computer2slow]

I've never looked into trying to broadcast so I've never seen what you shown.

With what head monkey said could also be done over a cat5 or even better cat 6 could double duty serving your video and give every room internet access. With the right main computer mainly a video capture card to get the video into the computer you could also serve movies, cable music pretty much anything to the other rooms.

The monkey could answer better but If you get the wireless sorta centralized it should have no problem with coverage or bandwidth. Hew would be in the sam etype of eviroment steel cement etc. What he said is how a lot of people run their home theaters. For the computer it might be a perfect place for a netbook with a HDMI output it would connect right to the TV. Also wireless would make it easier if decide to move the layout of the rooms.

I'll keep looking for option or even better a video forum that could give answers based on 1st hand experiance.

[Head_Monkey]

I was running on the idea that you wanted to do this on the cheap / DIY. But if you have a decent budget, then I would recommend that you talk to an audio-visual installation company. These companies can tailor make (and install) the system you are after. Not sure who is in your area, but talk to a few companies to make sure you get a good deal.

You are right in that wireless may have coverage issues (r.g. concrete walls, large areas, etc). But if you make enough access points, the saturation of the signal will negate this problem.

The "TV over Cat5" seems to merely replace the standard coax (antenna) cable that you would nornall use with a cabled TV system, with cat5 (network) cable. This means that you can use existing network cabling within the building to transmit your TV signal.

[WallyW]

Allen, the man who has asked me to research this, is a very hands on/DIY guy when it comes to non technical stuff. If I can figure this out he has no problems with crawling around running cables himself.

We have a decent budget. I haven't gotten any price quotes from companies that do this type of work so I am not sure our budget is that good.

So let me think out loud for a bit I may be getting my technologies mixed up.

You would have the camera of course ( currently looking at the Canon XL2 or the Canon XH G1) They have outputs for live streams. But the next question then would be " What would I be connecting the camera to? "

A high end desktop pc/mac with special media software? A media server pc/mac perhaps? So if I go the media server route does that mean that each tv would require a computer to receive/transmit to the tv?

Maybe some stand alone box that could output/split that one source ( the video camera ) to ten tvs simply along some type of cable for the tv to receive?

Well my brain is fried right now. I'm going to take a nap. Hopefully I can make more sense of this after that.

Many thanks again for your help.

[computer2slow]

The VLC program that was talked about does both serving and the decoding. Decoding might not be the right word but all I can think of right now.

Here is kinda how I would think of how it would work.

First you'd setup a gigabyte ethernet network in the building branking out to everyroom.

The Camera room has a decent computer. It doesn't need to be the absolute top of the line but you don't want a $400 Wallyworld special. Main thing lot of memory. This computer should not be used for anything else idealy. You could either hook the camera to that computer using firewire Since you want HD I think that is the way you'd have to hook it for live streaming since composite (red, white, yellow) won't be Hd neither would s-video.

You install VLC on every computer. It's freeware and small. You setup camera computer to broadcast the camera. You set up all the other low cost computers to look at the camera computer to see the is being showing. You hook the computer to your HD tv and watch the show. The TV would essentially be a giant monitor. The other computers the main requirement would be HDMI output which most computers have now.

If done this way you wanted to and had the a fast enogh internet you could set it up to stream it to parents online. Also it can be expanded if there is ethernet a tv and computer in the room it could recive the camera be it 2 rooms or 200. If you use high end laptop for the camera computer you should be able to go to any room and do a b roacast from there to the other rooms I belive too.

Hopefully I got it right and didn't make it even more confusing. I have a habit of doing that.




EDIT
Photoshopped a picture