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[Justice C. Bigler]

I did a zoom meeting for my church over the weekend which was a near complete disaster. Mostly because they didn't have the right log in info for their Zoom account and the PA system for the room that we were renting wasn't set up right.

But anyway, it got me to wondering what the proper workflow is for Zoom meetings when using multiple cameras in one location.

I had my Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro, two cameras, and multiple laptops with me. We had a speaker at the front of the room with one camera, and another camera for a wide shot of the attendees. Plus we had multiple people logging in to Zoom remotely. We were projecting the Zoom session on a video screen so that everyone could see the Zoom session, and hear via the in room PA system. We also had a PowerPoint presentation which was being run remotely by one of the Zoom attendees.

So, what's the proper workflow here? Does the Zoom session and the ATEM control software AND the PowerPoint all have to run on the same laptop? How do you control the zoom session and make sure that everyone can see the power point, or the full wide camera shot with all of the main attendees versus whoever is speaking and highlighted by Zoom automatically?

Does OBS do what I want to do better?

[Dave Garoutte]

I did a zoom meeting for my church over the weekend which was a near complete disaster. Mostly because they didn't have the right log in info for their Zoom account and the PA system for the room that we were renting wasn't set up right.

But anyway, it got me to wondering what the proper workflow is for Zoom meetings when using multiple cameras in one location.

I had my Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro, two cameras, and multiple laptops with me. We had a speaker at the front of the room with one camera, and another camera for a wide shot of the attendees. Plus we had multiple people logging in to Zoom remotely. We were projecting the Zoom session on a video screen so that everyone could see the Zoom session, and hear via the in room PA system. We also had a PowerPoint presentation which was being run remotely by one of the Zoom attendees.

So, what's the proper workflow here? Does the Zoom session and the ATEM control software AND the PowerPoint all have to run on the same laptop? How do you control the zoom session and make sure that everyone can see the power point, or the full wide camera shot with all of the main attendees versus whoever is speaking and highlighted by Zoom automatically?

Does OBS do what I want to do better?

Go to Aaron Parecki's Youtube channel.  He does this stuff a lot.
Youtube is your friend for this type of thing.

[Tim McCulloch]

The ATEM Mini pro can encode the stream and feed it to your computer via USB-C to connect to the streaming service.  Use the HDMI to feed a multi-view monitor.

I'd run the Power Point on a separate machine and bring it into the ATEM Mini Pro as a camera input.  I'd not use the same machine to do more than one thing at a time.  Seriously.

Up to a point, Zoom can handle echo cancellation and it already does a mix-minus.  If you split out audio on the zoom computer to feed the PA (like 4 wire coms) you can "Use original audio" and control which features are used going back to the Zoom meeting.

[Mike Caldwell]

The ATEM Mini pro can encode the stream and feed it to your computer via USB-C to connect to the streaming service.  Use the HDMI to feed a multi-view monitor.

The Mini Pro can stream directly to streaming host URL via it's built in encoder and using the ethernet connection.
You do need to set it up using the control software connecting to the computer running the software with the USB connection.
The multi view monitor option displays all the vital information.

BMD figured out how to cram a lot of features in a small box, make it work all for a crazy price.

[Justice C. Bigler]

The ATEM Mini pro can encode the stream and feed it to your computer via USB-C to connect to the streaming service.  Use the HDMI to feed a multi-view monitor.

I'd run the Power Point on a separate machine and bring it into the ATEM Mini Pro as a camera input.  I'd not use the same machine to do more than one thing at a time.  Seriously.

Up to a point, Zoom can handle echo cancellation and it already does a mix-minus.  If you split out audio on the zoom computer to feed the PA (like 4 wire coms) you can "Use original audio" and control which features are used going back to the Zoom meeting.

Unfortunately, the PowerPoint was being run remotely by one of the Zoom attendees. I think this cause a significant amount of our problems since this person also did not maximize their presentation to full screen, so we got to see all their notes as well as the tiny PP presentation.


And the Mix Minus threw me off, because, while I had the Zoom video working relatively easily, I didn't get any audio from the zoom session until we hooked up a second laptop running a local Zoom session that was connected directly to the room PA system.

[Justice C. Bigler]

The Mini Pro can stream directly to streaming host URL via it's built in encoder and using the ethernet connection.
You do need to set it up using the control software connecting to the computer running the software with the USB connection.
The multi view monitor option displays all the vital information.

BMD figured out how to cram a lot of features in a small box, make it work all for a crazy price.

The ATEM Mini Pro only streams via Facebook, Youtube, and Twitch, Twitter. It won't stream to Zoom. For Zoom you have to use the USB connection as a webcam on a computer that is running Zoom. I think this is what threw me the most, trying to figure out the routing out of the ATEM and into Zoom. It's the two-way communication through Zoom that I think causes the most difficulties. Trying to figure out how to project a large screen Zoom window so that the attendees in the large room can see and hear it, while also controlling which camera the switcher sends to the Zoom session, seemed to be the difficult part of the whole operation for me.

You have the ATEM Mini Pro connected to a computer by USB to fake the webcam connection into Zoom. Then you have an output from...the Mini Pro? Or the Computer for the Zoom session on the large screen? 

So really, you have to run the Atem control software on the same computer that you run Zoom on...I think? Regardless of where the PowerPoint is coming from.

And then to complicate things even more, I had an external mixer feeding the Atem  Mini Pro audio inputs so that we could have more than just two mics going into the Atem Mini Pro/Zoom.


I guess, I'm trying to figure out where the best place is to feed a large screen/projector for the main room and how to do so? As a second display from the laptop? Or as an output from the ATEM Mini Pro? Or from a Second laptop that isn't connected to anything else except the Zoom session (which means we need two Zoom accounts then)?

[Nils Erickson]

I think it is easiest to have the Zoom Client on one laptop.  A second laptop can control the ATEM software; I think this is easiest since you don't have to constantly toggle between apps.  I have the USB out of the ATEM feed the webcam input on the Zoom meeting.  Then I use the HDMI out of the Zoom laptop to feed the large screen.  I use the ATEM HDMI out to feed a multi view screen.

I think Tim's idea is good to have another machine run the PowerPoint.  Or, you can run it on the Zoom laptop if you are the host of the Zoom meeting. Then you can be in charge of screen sharing so that it happens correctly.  But, again, it is a lot of toggling between apps to make all of that work on one machine smoothly.

Sounds like you are on the right track!

Cheers,
Nils

[Helge A Bentsen]

Nearly OT, but if you're doing these meetings with a small number of people in the room, drop the PA and use small speakers.
Cleans up the  audio for all involved and generally makes for a better meeting.
I've done dozens of these meetings the last year using small speakers distributed around the room.
Also, decide what's the most important audio destination and run that through your console master bus for more accurate meters and ease of operation. If the meeting audio is most important, it goes there and other destinations off auxes/matrixes. If the room audio is most important, I run the room off L/R from a set of matrixes and the meeting from whatever easiest.
(Not saying you should ignore those other mixes, but set up your console to match what people prioritize).

[Mike Caldwell]

The ATEM Mini Pro only streams via Facebook, Youtube, and Twitch, Twitter. It won't stream to Zoom. For Zoom you have to use the USB connection as a webcam on a computer that is running Zoom.


So really, you have to run the Atem control software on the same computer that you run Zoom on...I think? Regardless of where the PowerPoint is coming from.

I forgot that Zoom wants a "webcam" connection.


Yes and no on the control software....unless your using some of the enhanced ATEM functions that are only available with the control software opened once you set it up the software can be closed and kind of forgotten about.
You can also control the ATEM with an ethernet connection to another computer if you do need the control software during the presentation.

[Scott Helmke]

Letting people run their own Zoom session like a casual meeting is like handing somebody a wireless lav and expecting them to clip it on correctly and then remember to turn the pack on.  At some level of professionalism you have to turn it into a real production, which is a new thing for most of us since it's a lot of video. 

There's a Chicago-based company that does mostly high-end online meetings, and they go to the extreme of having a separate Zoom (or similar) session for each major participant.  Think of a rack (or a room) full of computers, each one doing the local end of a one-person meeting.  The video and audio then goes to a big switching and mixing matrix (they use a PM7 for the audio portion) and it's run like a big live sales meeting.

That's the extreme, of course. But it's good to think in those terms, like having separate computers for playback, etc.

[ProSoundWeb Community]