HDMI Video Village

When we built the studio, a kitchen was designed right off the studio.  The location has 2 primary benefits, one to prepare food or coffee and the other is to create a meeting place for clients.  They can set up a computer, layouts or snack.  The production benefit is less people in the shooting area.

The concept of the video village is the same, locate the client and extra personnel off set a bit.  This however has been a challenge for DSLR shooters.  For small to mid size projects, we have a solution that allows on camera preview with histograms, a 19” monitor next to the camera for Director and DP and a 42” monitor for clients and AE’s up to 50’ away.

Connection starts at camera with a mini HDMI - HDMI cable into a Rocketfish splitter. This unit sends 2 signals out simultaneously. From here, there is a short HDMI cable to the monitor next to the camera and a 50’ to the area setup for the client.

The setup costs for cables and splitter is under $200.  Note that HDMI is fragile and having a zip tie or similar for strain relief is a must for your camera and cables.

Setup on Canon 5D3 and 1DC require HDMI frame rate to be set to 24p for some consumer TVs to sync and both need mirroring turned on.  If you don’t, the camera LCD goes black.  We use the camera LCD for data, histograms and control and the 19” monitor for focus and composition.

If you have a larger production, consider a HDMI-> SDI converter for longer runs and connectivity to production gear.

More on this shoot in a few days, enjoy. Paul