Streaming video continues to be a very hot topic among churches. To address the demand in the church, sports, corporate event, and other markets, more and more manufacturers are building turnkey solutions designed to make it easy. We're back to look at another one—this time from what is possibly the most popular streaming destination for churches, Livestream. Livestream recently released a series of products called Livestream Studio Live Production Switcher. As of this writing, there are four hardware solutions along with the stand-alone software. We received the mid-range and highly portable HD500 model for testing, although the software is consistent across the line.
Self-contained and Portable
The first thing you notice about the Studio HD500 is that it looks like a small desktop PC with a handle on top. It ships with a magical carrying bag from Tom Bihn (seriously, this bag is nice). What sets the unit apart is that it also has a 17-inch 1900x1200 LCD screen built into one side, protected by a easily removable metal cover. Weighing just 15 pounds, it's very easy to carry around, and would certainly qualify as carry-on luggage.
Inside the box is a six-core Intel Core I7 running at 3.2 GHz. An Nvidia GForce GT520 graphics card drives the built-in display, along with an external one that can be set up as a multi-viewer. There is a 2.5-inch 500 GB hard drive inside, and with seven USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, you have plenty of ways to add more storage. All of the Livestream Studio systems are built around cards from Blackmagic Design; in this case, a Decklink Quad and another Decklink Studio. The Quad gives you four HD/SD SDI inputs, and the Studio HD500 can be configured for input or output for a local live mix. In output mode, it would be easy to mix four cameras (along with internal graphics and other soft inputs) to both a stream and route local projector or video wall. As you might expect, audio can come in on the SDI inputs, or via the breakout cable on the Decklink Studio card (analog and AES are supported), or via a USB interface. The built-in audio mixer in the software allows you to mix sources or have audio follow video. Everything you need fits neatly into the carry bag, making this an ideal solution for portable churches that need video production, even if they don't want to stream. The latest software update now allows for recording of up to four video streams at once, and you can select from ISO camera feeds, and a pre-graphics "clean" or post-graphics "dirty" feed.
Full-featured Software
Rather than relying on third-party software control, Livestream built its own mixing and streaming package. It has a clean, modern interface, and is easily learned. Whenever I test systems like this, I always try to see how far I can get without looking at a manual. With this system, I had multiple inputs configured, was able to switch both a live feed and get a stream running in about 20 minutes.
For the demo, they included the Livestream Studio Keyboard—simply an Apple extended keyboard that's all decked out with custom key silk screening indicating the shortcut for every function. In no time at all, I was switching between our four cameras, adding lower thirds, and sending video to my Livestream account. I'm not exactly sure why, but the latency from the HD500 to what I saw on my laptop via my Livestream page was a matter of seconds. Most streaming appliances I've tested add a good 20-30 seconds of latency; this was more like 2-3. Setting up my account was as simple as entering my username and password, then hitting "Stream". I'm not exactly sure why, but the latency from the HD500 to what I saw on my laptop via my Livestream page was a matter of seconds. Most streaming appliances I've tested add a good 20-30 seconds of latency; with the HD500 it was more like two or three. This may not be a big deal if your viewers are at home or in another time zone. But if you want to use the stream to send video around the church campus, lower latency is a very good thing. Getting streaming started in the first place was as simple as entering my username and password, then clicking on "Stream."
Livestream Studio HD500 features a two-channel graphic engine with some pretty cool features.
Built-in Multi-viewer
While the built-in screen will display the four camera sources and contains a good-sized preview and program window, the thumbnails are too small to really judge focus and exposure. However, if you plug a VGA or HDMI monitor into the graphics card, you have a fully configurable multi-viewer at your disposal. There are quite a few screen layouts to choose from, and with a simple drag-and-drop interface, you decide what goes in which box. You can even add a clock, a stream window (to verify it's online) as well as a viewer count. Much to my delight, when I plugged the second display in, it was immediately recognized by the system and the multi-view window appeared. I had fully expected to at least re-start the software, if not the OS. In fact, this rather summarizes my experience with this box; everything works pretty much as you'd expect without a lot of fiddling on your part. You can pretty much plug in and go.
Graphic Options
Livestream Studio HD500 features a two-channel graphic engine with some pretty cool features. It's very easy to build lower thirds and full screen graphics in the editor. Where it gets interesting is the dynamic features. The graphic window offers a design mode, where as you might expect, you layout your graphics, logos and other features. Once complete, you enter data mode, which allows you to change the content of the boxes on the fly with minimal trouble. In fact, you could easily build a lower third graphic with Dynamic Text. Pre building a library of lines of text for different pastors or speakers makes it easy to change the lower thirds on the fly. Simply clicking the line makes it active. In just a few minutes, you have a full set of graphics for your staff.
Moreover, because the graphics can contain video windows, you can build complex multi-input, picture-in-picture effects that go to air with a single click. What I like about the software is that once everything is set up, it's very easy to operate, and completely visual. And while it's not hard to set up, it would take no time at all to train a volunteer to handle fairly complex graphic overlays.
Other Cool Features
A new feature called Remote Camera allows you to turn a computer desktop (via network) into an input. Right now, it's Windows-only, but they promise OS X is coming soon. This could be very handy for including sermon notes on the stream or IMAG screens. You can also pull in content from your Livestream account as another input source. I didn't get a chance to test this feature, but it may make it possible to stream from one location to another very easily (quality would be my main concern—however, the quality of the stream I sent from the HD500 was quite good). Each of the four inputs has a scaler available to it, making it easy to mix and match input formats. For my tests, I pulled in a SD-SDI feed, a 1080i output from my switcher and another 1080i camera. It converted each source to 1080i, as needed, without issue, sync'ing everything up in the process. The system can also be genlocked should you desire.
Tally is not supported directly, but a recent software update makes Studio compatible with the tally system made by MetaSetz. Tally is often forgotten with these systems, and I'm glad to see it's available. While this unit is obviously made to stream to Livestream, it's also possible to send video to UStream, YouTube Live or any RTMP-compatible server or CDN, such as Wowza Media Server, Akamai, [and] Flash Media Server. While I'm not sure how this might be used in a church, it's possible to play back any of the ISO streams without stopping recording, which gives you basic “instant replay” capability. This might be useful for certain sermon illustrations, or perhaps baptisms.
Conclusion
With an MSRP of $8,500, the HD500 isn't cheap. However, when you consider that you can walk into a venue with a bag on your shoulder and in under five minutes be fully ready to stream, switch and ISO record a service, it's a compelling option. It's very easy to use (I never once consulted a manual or help file to figure anything out), and as far as I could tell, it's very stable. We had no problems streaming a weekend, and the video quality was quite good with minimal latency. The inclusion of the built-in monitor makes it especially appealing for portable churches. Not having to lug a monitor in and out each week would be a huge benefit of this system. The system comes with a year of free phone support, a one-year warranty, and software updates are free.
Editor's Note:
*While Livestream's Studio HD500 is still available, a new version, the Studio HD510 was recently introduced. The new version twice the storage capacity (1 TB), twice the RAM (16 GB) and five HDMI inputs, compared to one on the Studio HD500. It also includes a keyboard, and much more.
