教程:COVID-19时代的远程现场制作

我们现在处于一个远程生产的时代. I've used many kits for shoots where I bring my gear to a venue, 设置, 并进行现场制作和流媒体直播. 用我的滴灌机, we deploy cameras in a room with hundreds of people and we produce live a show. 在我写这篇文章的时候，这是不可能的. 在这个远程生产时代, 我们的研究对象都在家里, 或者他们自己去一个小办公室. I capture them remotely from my own home studio using their camera, and they become part of my show.

有很多不同的方法可以做到这一点, and a number of different pieces of software offer ways to bring in remote callers. 很明显, 还有像Zoom这样的商务会议解决方案, Skype, 网讯, 牛仔裤的, 还有其他几个, which allow multiple people to come together and have discussions. What they don't do on their own is allow you to create produced shows for a larger audience. Applications like Zoom Meeting and Zoom Webinar allow you to assemble a panel that presents to an audience, 观众可以提问, 闲谈，聊天, 对民意调查做出回应, 这非常有用.

But there are times when you want to produce show for a larger audience on Facebook or YouTube or via a private CDN. You want to be able to add more production value and have more control of what is seen and heard. For that you need to leave the business meeting apps behind, 回到现场视频制作工具. Tricaster, vMix, Wirecast, OBS, Mimo Live, Livestream Studio, 等.

我为客户做的远程制作, vMix is my tool of choice specifically because of its capability for bringing multiple remote guests into the production. Vmix calls this feature vMix Call, but it's not a phone call. 这是一个从互联网传来的远程摄像头. vMix是一个基于pc的应用程序, that lets you build or buy the hardware you need to suit your level of production.

Unlike Skype or Zoom, in vMix there's not a central hub that everybody is "calling" into. Each caller comes into my control room, into my computer, as a separate source. 这样我就可以随意放置它们了, 与pictures-in-pictures, 隔着两三道, or make them appear full screen as if they were individual cameras. Because that's what they are: Each person is speaking to an individual camera in front of them, 他们有耳机麦克风, 或者他们在用桌上麦克风. Effectively, everyone has their own mic and camera, and I'm producing the show via vMix.

For the remote production work I've been doing, I use the setup shown below in 图1. I run vMix on a high-end gaming laptop connected to three monitors. 我用第二台笔记本电脑来评估信息流. My vMix machine has a built-in camera, but I've added a second camera on top. 我在它下面放了一个冷却器来帮助它保持凉爽. When I'm producing a show and I have several video sources coming coming in and out, 流式压缩, 记录, 等, processing all that video can make the computer get hot. 即使你在桌面系统上运行vMix, you should make sure that the desktop has proper cooling and space around it.

图1. 我的远程生产流设置

我的装备还包括一个埃尔加托溪牌(下面的图2), which gives me a control surface that I can use to control the show without clicking on the keys and mousing around as much as I really need to.

图2. 埃尔加托河甲板

建筑显示在vMix

The vMix application enables me to 设置 different shows and build shows for specific clients. For example, I recently streamed a lunch talk with three people at noon (图3，顶部), and then at six o'clock the same day I did a book launch (图3底部). 这些节目使用了完全不同的媒体, 完全不同的通话方式, 完全不同的设置, 但每个都是在vMix中构建和定制的.

图3. 同一天，两个客户，两个安排

vMix是一个随用随建的应用程序. 其他的解决方案, 比如NewTek TriCaster, use more pre-built configurations – you have an A bus and a B bus 设置 before you start creating your show. That's not how vMix or Wirecast or some other software-based live production tools work. 我用TriCaster为客户做很多工作, but it's not my solution for this type of remote production because it doesn't allow as many remote call-ins as I need. 做这样的一个节目，用的是一台TriCaster, I would need to 设置 a remote computer for each call-in, 然后使用NDI导入所有这些饲料, and then somehow work out the complex task of getting audio back to each person. Vmix也有一个很好的解决方案.

当你启动vMix时，你会看到一个空白模板(下面的图4). You've got two blank inputs, a preview and a program bus.

图4. 启动vMix时看到的空白模板. 单击图像以查看其全尺寸.

在UI的左上角，如图 图5(下面), clicking on the Open button to reveal a drop-down list of presets built for previous projects. If I click on the PIXL Vook Event preset at the top of the list, 从我最近的书的预设负载启动负载.

图5. 打开预设下拉