How to use Clear Touch RL500 camera

[drepouille]

I left town on vacation last Monday, and will not return until next week. This Sunday is our Primary Sacrament Meeting, and members have already contacted me to ensure the Zoom meeting will be available this Sunday. I left it in capable hands, using the same hardware we have been using for years.

[Mikerowaved]

From the LDS Tech Forum and various YouTube videos, I see a few challenges:

• Encoded HDMI from the A/V rack may not be acceptable as a Zoom meeting input.

Most desktop and laptop PCs don't have HDMI video capture capability. This is where the HDMI to USB-3 device saves the day. It can be used as an OBS input, capable of providing a stream for either YouTube or Zoom (or both!). It can also be used as a direct webcam input for Zoom without OBS.

• OBS audio output is not an available Zoom audio input.

This used to be an issue until products like the free VB-CABLE showed up.

• Audio sync issues may result if NDI video from the PTZ camera is mixed with audio from a Record Out jack.

Very true. Since NDI|HX can have 200mS or more of latency, it makes it difficult to sync with a near-zero latency audio feed - UNLESS you feed the audio from the sound system into the camera's 3.5mm audio-in jack. Then both the audio and video are sent to your laptop via NDI|HX with the exact same latency, so they're always in sync.

• Using NDI video and NDI audio sources while streaming to a Zoom meeting may overload the laptop's wireless adapter.

Both NDI and streaming should always be done on a wired connection. There are rare circumstances where this can't be done. In those cases, have your FM group install a LAN jack in a spot you can easily plug your laptop into.

To mitigate the above issues, I think I should:

• Use a laptop with a discrete GPU so I can use hardware acceleration.

Most Intel (since 2011) and AMD (since 2012) CPUs have a dedicated encode/decode chip onboard. This provides the hardware acceleration needed for H.264, (and later) H.265/HEVC, and AV1 encoding eliminating the need for a dedicated video card.

• Use a wired Ethernet jack, rather than wireless.

Always a good idea.

• Use a 3.5mm TRS cable from a Record Out jack to the laptop headphone jack.

Feeding audio to the camera instead of the laptop solves a lot of problems.

• Use the VB-Audio CABLE Windows Audio Driver as a Virtual Audio Cable, which is a valid audio source for Zoom.

Yep.

[drepouille]

The Sunday before I left on vacation, I asked an assistant clerk to run our Zoom meeting from the chapel, using a laptop with a webcam. I sat in the meetinghouse library, where the A/V rack is located, and tried to get a feel for how our new configuration would work with the PTZ camera over the network.

My first learning "jolt" was that the library is like Grand Central Station during Sacrament meetings -- children and parents coming to get paper and crayons, teachers making copies, etc. They all had to comment on the A/V rack, the laptop, and me. It was hard to concentrate on anything. And several complained to me about the poor audio quality in the overflow, where the FM had just replaced the entire system. They asked if I could increase the speaker volume. But the FM's engineer specifically told me that I was not worthy to tinker with his speaker tuning configuration.

I believe a combination of NDI Tools, OBS, and Zoom is what we need. The Razer Ripsaw HDMI-to-USB3 dongle that the FM provided may work, but since I already have a wired Ethernet connection to the PTZ camera, I can use NDI to grab video and audio directly from the PTZ camera, so the Ripsaw really isn't needed. (Chapel audio is fed into the Line Input jack on the camera.)

I believe there is an NDI tool that does the same thing as the VB-Audio CABLE Audio Driver. And one of the videos I watched said that the NDI connection from OBS to Zoom is always on, so I never need to remember to start the OBS Virtual Camera. I have not yet confirmed that.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I will be chained to the A/V rack, and my wife will be chained to the rostrum, since she leads the music for Sacrament meeting.

[drepouille]

"rtsp://IPAddress:554/1" (First stream)
"rtsp://IPAddress:554/2" (Second stream)
If you connect a stereo line-level audio signal to the camera's LINE INPUT jack, then the stream will also contain the audio for the meeting.

I find it very interesting that there are so many ways to capture an A/V stream from a PTZ camera.

The old school way, I believe, was to create a Media Source in OBS, turn off the Local File checkbox, and enter the rtsp settings shown above.

Another way is to use a video capture device that converts the HDMI output to a USB3 input, essentially converting the PTZ camera into a webcam.

And now we have NDI Tools, which allows us to do all of the above using nothing but an Ethernet cable and a network switch.

Amazing!

[drepouille]

My initial test using OBS, the DistroAV OBS-NDI plugin, the NDI 6 Runtime, NDI Webcam Input (from NDI Tools), and Zoom was not promising at all. My Dell laptop struggled and stuttered with the load, and I wasn't even using the PTZ camera as a source -- I was just using the integrated webcam and microphone on the laptop for testing. My Dell laptop has an i7-8550u CPU, Radeon GPU, 16GB RAM, and a 256GB SATA SSD.

I also tested using the Razer Ripsaw video capture device as a source, but all that OBS and NDI magic made the laptop buckle.

When I closed OBS and NDI Tools, and changed the Zoom mic and camera sources from NDI Webcam to the Razer Ripsaw, the laptop was very happy to send the audio and video to a Zoom meeting, with no stuttering or freezing at all.

So sad. I was really hoping to use OBS to control the PTZ presets, and switch scenes between the PTZ camera and a browser window running the church music library.

I think my next test will be to remove NDI Tools and use the VB-Audio CABLE driver to transfer the audio from OBS to Zoom. It seems like NDI Tools require more horsepower than I can provide.

[drepouille]

My devious mind will not rest. I just realized that we have two laptops, and two Ethernet jacks in the A/V rack in the library. I have seen that many "gamers" use a "gaming PC" and a "streaming PC" to share the load.

If one laptop cannot handle the processing load of OBS, NDI Tools, and Zoom, then I can use one laptop to capture the audio and video from the PTZ camera, and use NDI Tools to send the output of OBS to the second laptop, which runs the Zoom Workplace app. That actually sounds like a fun experiment.

On the other hand, I must remember that others may need to run the Zoom meeting without me, so I must have a simple "plug and play" alternative for when I am absent. Luckily, the FM sent me a Razer Ripsaw video capture dongle, which doesn't require any software or setup at all. The Zoom app sees the Ripsaw as just another webcam and microphone. So for anyone who doesn't want to mess with OBS and NDI Tools, the Ripsaw provides a much simpler alternative.

[drepouille]

I discovered last night that anyone running the NDI Tools Studio Monitor app can discover and control a PTZ camera in a chapel. I visited my stake center and used a laptop that has NDI Tools installed. I was able to discover, view, and control the PTZ camera in the chapel. This could make our next stake conference more interesting -- if I were the type of person to mess with the STS who is controlling the broadcast. But since he is installing a new printer in our FSC, I will be kind to him.