[PLUG-AV] Quick update

[Tim Bowden]

On Tue, 2011-05-17 at 19:50 +0800, James Bromberger wrote:
> On 17/05/2011 6:45 PM, Tim Bowden wrote: 
> > Note for future reference (will we need a wiki at some point?):
> We have a wiki! The PLUG web site; there is a section for our project,
> just set the "path" of the documents you create to something "under"
> the path "projects/video", for example, "projects/video/hdmi".  Make
> an account on the web site and we'll add editing rights for the entire
> site. Add any docs you want to it.

Cool, I'll go and have a looky.

> 
> > "standard" cat1 hdmi cables can be up to 5m.  High quality cat1 HDMI
> > cables can be up to 25 metres.  Might give us room to play a bit.
> > Prolly significantly more expensive though.  Would that make something
> > like the bm shuttle a goer?
> I think HDMI would be used just as firewire is now, not hugely more
> flexible.
> > Camera -> 25m HDMI cable -> shuttle -> 3m USB3 cable -> USB3 port on
> > mixing box?
> > 
> > Might have to look into "real world" sustained USB3 transfer rate.  Be
> > nice to be able to play with one before we spend any dollars.  Oh well.
> 
> I suspect USB3 may be a requirement; I see PCI-E cards for $22 and $17
> on deal extreme. But that does then rule out laptops and rule in SFF
> desktops (most nettops don't have PCI/PCI-E).

If it can be passed through a USB3 port on the shuttle fast enough (ie,
as fast as the shuttle HDMI input gets the stream), then there is no
need for a camera PC at all.  The shuttle device would replace that.
The only PC in the whole setup would be the mixing box.  Downside is
we're limited on the maximum distance of cameras from the mixing box "as
the cable runs" to 25m.  Probably a bit short as the max distance from
the mixing box, but then why can't the mixer sit at a second low powered
box (even in another room/annex?) and remote login to the full powered
headless mixing box that could sit anywhere suitable for the cameras?
That way the maximum distance between any two cameras could be up to 50m
(theoretically).

Tim