New Camera Procedure

There have been a few changes to video desk operations:

1. The vMix PC now uses just one monitor. It is dedicated to recording and no longer runs LibreOffice Impress (powerpoint slides).
2. The Mac now has two monitors. It runs LibreOffice and sends slides to the PC and sanctuary monitors.
3. When church returns to Normal™ the people in the pews will see the slides on the sanctuary monitors. We now need to add blank slides to display on the monitors during the sermon and anthem.

vMix runs as it always did but camera movement can now be accomplished from within vMix using the number keypad. Ideally we'll be able to control the cameras without having to use a web browser on the Mac. It might take a few weeks to get our feet under us.

Following is an image of the shortcuts:

As you can see, the black arrows indicate the direction of camera movement. When you press one of them the camera will begin to move in that direction. It will continue moving in that direction – very slowly! – until told to stop by pressing one of the red “Stop” keys, numbers 5 or 0 on the keypad.

Camera zoom works the same way. Pressing the plus or minus keys on the keypad begin a zoom-in or zoom-out motion that continues until you press a red “Stop” key.

Nothing is ever simple so there are some caveats:

The movement commands get sent to whatever camera is displayed in the Preview Window. But as you've experienced, if the camera in the Preview window is also providing input for the Live window then we'll see movement in both places.

Multiview inputs (say, slides plus lectern) do not respond to movement commands. This means that if a multiview input is Live and you want to adjust its camera, you need to put the associated camera-only input into the Preview window and move it around there. The movement commands are sent to the camera in the Preview Window and the multiview input in the Live window reflects the adjustment that's been made to the camera view.

I experimented and liked this behavior best. I tell it to start moving and I tell it when to stop and the movement in between is smooth, not jerky. I tried setting it where one key press caused one small camera motion but that meant every camera adjustment stutter-stepped across the screen.

Let's assume the hymn uses four singers on the lectern side. Once we put up the slide with the hymn lyrics we'll need to adjust the view of the lectern to get all the singers in shot.

First, move the camera to point at the lectern and then add the slides to it:

1. Preview the Center Lectern input – The camera moves to focus on the lectern
2. Transition the Center Lectern input – The lectern is now being recorded
3. Preview the Center Slides input – We can see the slides along with the lectern
4. Transition the Center Slides input – The slides and lectern are now being recorded

Now we need to adjust the camera to get all of the singers into the shot. Load the Center Camera input into the Preview window and adjust it.

1. Preview the Center Camera input – It's viewing the lectern and we can send movement commands to it.
2. Adjust the view of the lectern as needed.
3. Because the camera is moving you'll see the change in the Live window.
4. When you're done with the slides, Transition the Center Camera input into the Live window.