Flash Media Encoder with multiple cameras?

Hi,

Ok, I didn't realise you were looking for fade in style transitions.

If you have a MAC then the obvious choice is CamCamx

http://b-l-a-c-k-o-p.com/CamCamX.html

But not cheap.

For the PC check out:

http://www.avtake.com/cutfour.asp

This app can take 4 cameras and has Live Streaming ability for the web.

If none of these suit then hit google and look for:

Live Streaming Video Mixers

Hope this helps.

Hi,

Yes, you are clear.

What you are looking to do is have the ability to switch cameras live during a session.

There is no straight forward method to do this however......

Check out WebCamMax.

http://www.webcammax.com/

This very clever software allows you to connect sevral cameras on the computer and during a live broadcast will allow you to switch cameras in WebCamMax. You can even switch live to pre recorded movies, images etc....

WebCamMax can be used a WebCam source, just like your webcams. It can even do Picture in Picture (PnP) with several Cameras. Just make sure you have plenty of RAM even using more than 2 cameras.

So when you have WebcamMax installed, You start up one instance of Flash Media Encoder and choose "WebCamMax" as your Camera.

You then use WebCam Max as your "Control Centre", Whatever Camera you switch to in WebCamMax will be streamed live through Flash Media Encoder. I use it to sewitch between Cameras, and it also allows you to switch to your desktop to show applications etc...

I hope this makes sense.

Hi,
As JayCharles explained to me, you run two instances of Flash Media Encoder on the Computer. I was running 1 camera on just one computer and so used 3 computers instead of using just the one computer.

In my new case, I had 2 Cameras on the one machine.

When you launch Flash Media Encoder it will detect any cameras you have on that computer, you will get a dropdown box so you can choose which camera you want to use in this instance.

Choose the camera you want.

In the FMS URL box type the rtmp path to your Flash Media server directory you want to stream this video to using either the ip address or web address of the FMS server followed by the correct path to where the file will be streamed to for example:

rtmp://192.168.1.10/vob/live

In the Stream Box type the name of the video file without the .FLV tag, ie:

livevideo

Click the Connect button to connect the Video to the FMS server.

When ready click the Start Button to start the stream.

So far you are streaming the video, but no one can see it.

Open a Dreamwaver page for example and go to:
Insert/Media/Flash Video (CS3)
or
Insert/Media/FLV (CS4)

Change the Video Type to Streaming Video

In the Server URI box type or paste in the rtmp address you set:

rtmp://192.168.1.10/vob/live

In the Stream Name Box type in the Stream name you set in Flash Media Encoder:

livevideo

The Skin type must be HALO, (Dont understand why you get no choice)

Set the width and height of the Video on the page

Tick the Autoplay to play a pre recorded file, or tick Live video feed if it is live.

Click ok.

If everything is correct then when you lauch the page the video feed should be playing.

Lets assume it is, to add a second camera you just repeat the same steps.

Open another instance of Flash Media Encoder on the Computer you already have a feed running.

It might complain that the camera is already in use, as it might try to connect to the same camera on the running application.

Open the Camera source dropdown and now choose the other camera that should be available.

Put in the same info for the Server URI as you will also stream to the same folder.

Chnage the Stream name now to:

livevideo2

Click Connect and also Start.

Open the Dreamweaver page you created for the first video.

Follow the same steps as before to create the Video on the page

changing the name this time to livestream2.

You should now have 2 live video feeds on the same page using two different cameras.

hope this helps.

Keep in mind that you'll want to run some tests on your hardware to see how much processor time and memory 4 instances of FME will consume. I've used two instances on one machine with great success, but I don't know if capturing 4 cams and publishing 4 streams will kill your processor or not.

About the green screen thing... I've never tried that, but my gut tells me no. To make that happen, you'd need to feed FME with a video source that contains a transparent alpha channel, and I don't know if that's something that can be done or not (I don't know if a live stream can have an alpha channel transparency or not).

I'd look into some of the webcam emulator programs that support chroma key and overlays. I've had good experiences with WebcamMax, but someone else on the forum mentioned that it didn't work well for them, so I suppose you'd need to try it out for yourself.

You can use more than one camera at a time, but you need to run separate instances of FME for each of them