Zoom high fidelity music upgrade

[David Bland]

Zoom's September 1 upgrade contains an option for high fidelity music.  If you're interested, one of our folks is on top of this issue so if you want to connect with him let me know.

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201361953-New-Updates-for-Windows

and some more info here https://cdm.link/2020/09/zoom-high-fidelity-audio-mode/

[David Bland]

Hi Everyone:

We had our first hybrid platform Sunday, in-person + Zoom.  We were outside in Joe Chuman's backyard where we limited attendance to 25 max, nicely spaced (we actually had 17 people).  We had over 40 on Zoom.  See the picture below taken from behind the speaker.

We required people to register in advance via a Google Form.  We also offered pre-set lemonade and cookies at two separate stations afterward in lieu of coffee as a hot drink would have to be poured.

Perry Stein - the force behind our Ethical Brew folk music series - really did all the A/V work and can give you details but assuming I don't get too much wrong here's what we had and keep in mind that Perry already had all this equipment and software:

• A mic going into a mixer (I believe we could have up to 4 mics)
• Camera going into a high-performance computer running OBS software.  I believe we could have up to 4 cameras
• The OBS mixed everything and became a Zoom client.  Had their been more cameras, for example, one pointed at the audience, OBS could have done a split-screen or picture in picture
• We had speakers mounted in the yard so the audience could hear

It was pretty successful but a lot of work.  Eventually, when we are back in our building, we hope to continue with the hybrid model and have a large, flat screen TV mounted on the wall so in-person attendees can see who's on Zoom and we'd have a camera pointing at the audience.  

David

[Perry Stein]

David, 

Pretty much spot on. For anyone trying to replicate here it is in more detail. I am open to helping out with questions if needed.

Suggest a hardwired (Ethernet) connection for internet. I am using a router into a switch to Compter and Mixer and the wireless from the router to run an Android tablet.

Video camera hdmi out to video capture card to convert to USB3 into computer. It also gives you HDMI out for a large screen TV or whatever. I spent around $200 on router, switch, video capture card and various cables. I went with cheap card as a test using an older camera we had around. If doing a from scratch suggest a better video card and camera. (internal PCI bus card for less lag and Hero 9 camera)

Audio to Mixer.  I am using a Beringer X-Air 18 with as name suggests 18 input channels. It is a digital mixer with USB out and infinitely programmable routing making it particularly well suited for streaming/recording/live. Audio software is X-Air Pro very nice program runs under Windows/Mac and Android or iPad tablets wirelessly which is very helpful in live situations. Using the USB out to the computer for stream and XLR for the live PA. Goes for about $600

OBS (Online Broadcast Software) is open source free -- runs Windows/Mac/Linux supports up to 4 cameras. It is very flexible but you have to work at it. It will stream directly to YouTube,Twitch and a bunch more. Unfortunately, it doesn't directly support Zoom so you have to do that custom. I'm running the Windows version heard the Mac flavor is kind of buggy. Sure Linux is solid as a rock most things linux are.

Path is Audio to Xair software mix is then ported to OBS and combined with Video which is then sent into Zoom. 

The inbound sound from Zoom audience goes from computer audio out into an extra channel on the mixer for the PA. 

Perry