I’m shopping for a 360 camera and I’ve heard great things about Ricoh. However I’m using the camera for a focus group environment, and I need to stream images longer distances (and securely) so I’m thinking of investing in the livestream producer. That box seems to take an HDMI signal – so I’m wondering if I could simply do HDMI out to this box, and if so, does it output a stitched image or dual fish eye?
Also, since I’m new to this, if there are any steps I’m missing or easier ways to live stream, I’d love to hear them.
The THETA V does not have HDMI output for live streaming. You would need some type of USB to HDMI converter. I do not have a good recommendation.
The THETA S does have HDMI output, but it is lower resolution.
The RICOH R Dev Kit does output HDMI. See the article below. However, it is lower resolution than the THETA V. Suggest you send a note to Ricoh and ask if they plan on updating the RICOH R Dev kit to the higher resolution.
Do you need the 4K live streaming for the focus group? Or is the 2K sufficient? Also note that there’s some hefty bandwidth requirements for 4K live streaming. Are you streaming to something like YouTube or Facebook?
Thanks for the response. So no, I would just need really 1080, not high bitrate, only for the live stream, but higher res for the recording. Given that, what do you think my easiest bath forward would be?
As of now, in my mind I’d use Livestream’s cloud and Apple TV app, and use an Apple TV on the other side to receive/decode.
Basically I just need a way to get it out of the camera and to a TV, a few rooms away.
It seems that your firm has budget for some specialized equipment. If you take this route, seems like the RICOH R Dev Kit might be easier for your team.
This is what the rig looks like with a portable battery and using WiFi for live streaming.
The Teradek VidiU (the rectangular box in the picture below) is streaming directly to the Internet. No computer is used.
Note that the Ricoh R Dev Kit is a dedicated live streaming camera and cannot take still images. If you’re only using the camera for live streaming in a professional environment, then you may want to ask Ricoh if there’s any plans for an updated Ricoh R Dev Kit with 4K. If you are okay with 2K, maybe the current Ricoh R Dev Kit meets your requirements? Note that the Ricoh R Dev Kit only records at 2K as well, not 4K. The Ricoh R Dev Kit can record the video to a removable microSD card. 2k only.
Couple of other points.
THETA V is new and have been frequent software upgrades since launch:
firmware upgrades
mobile app upgrades
desktop software upgrades
THETA V is more future-proof. It has the ability to handle plug-ins inside the camera. It will be very flexible in the future. but, as of today, there is only one plugin.
THETA V has 4K live streaming and 4K video. This is a big point
THETA V cannot output HDMI and thus you’d need a device that can accept USB, which may not be easy in your workflow
Thanks so much for the help. What I was actually looking at buying was livestream broadcaster, which is a piece of hardware, but i’m really happy you sent through your rig with the Teradek VidiU. That seems like it might be more helpful to me since it’s not linked to one piece of software. Also, I have a little bit of Teradek experience already. 2K is no problem in this application.
Tell me, when you’ve used VidiU what are you doing with the end video? What platform are you watching the output on? In this situation I’ll need a private viewing setup, quite the opposite of most user’s need to stream to facebook/periscope/youtube.
I’m only using it with YouTube or Facebook live 360 events. You can make a private event. When using YouTube or FB, there is several seconds delay from when the person moves to when you see it. There are also bandwidth issues. Note that I’m not familiar with Livestream Producer.
Be aware of a couple of things:
The output of the video is equirectangular. It looks like this:
It’s going to be a sphere that is flattened out. The above screenshot is from OBS. With a USB cable, you can stream from the THETA V (or S or Ricoh R Dev Kit) to a normal Mac/Windows computer. If you’re trying to capture audience reaction, equirectangular might be suitable.
If you want a VR view that is viewable in a headset, you need some type of viewer. Most people use Facebook or YouTube as the mechanism to get the audience to view the video in a headset/cardboard.
There are other ways to accomplish this, such as Unity. The video stream below was made with a THETA S.
If you have the following, then the Ricoh R Dev Kit and YouTube private event might meet your requirement:
a latency of several seconds (maybe 5 seconds) is okay between the time the person moves and the audience sees it
2K resolution is suffient
NOTE: that in a 2K resolution 360 video, you are only seeing about 1/3 of the video at any given time. Thus, the resolution will appear to be around 480p. If you go online at YouTube, you can probably find examples of 360 video at different resolutions, to give you an idea.
