One of the best learning experiences students can have is producing a news show for the school.
This dream Classroom News Studio uses the most recent, future proof technology that allows the kids to run wild with their creativity. A news desk is used to read the news (morning announcements, sports successes and more) and a weather corner with a green screen background is a lot of fun. With the new machine learning based Background Removal filter in mimoLive 6.1, the classroom doesn’t even have to have a green screen background to do green screening.
There are many possible roles that students can play. Due to the flexibility of the Remote Control Surface, more than one student can operate mimoLive. For example, one student could be in charge of switching cameras and scenes from their iPad, while another is in charge of graphics and yet another is in charge of sound effects.
The Layout
A desk in the classroom will be used as a news desk with two presenters with wireless microphones. To keep things simple, there will be one camera capturing the action. If you wish, you can add a green screen as a background and close-up cameras to focus on one anchor, with some space for an over-the-shoulder graphic.
A separate area is used for the weather presenter, who wears a wireless microphone so they can move around freely. They stand in front of a blank wall or color curtain and there is a camera that shoots at the widest possible angle to allow the presenter to walk around in front of the weather map. A confidence monitor shows them where they are pointing.
The Technology
Video signals are transmitted using NDI® over the network. There are many benefits to NDI technology but the biggest one is that you do not need capture device(s) on the computer. If you do not have cameras yet, there is a good choice of NDI enabled cameras, for example, the PTZOptics Studio Pro, and if you have cameras, there are HDMI to NDI converters available. In this setup we assume that you use a couple of PTZOptics Studio Pro cameras connect them via NDI to mimoLive®.
Note how few cables are required for this setup.
Audio is using more traditional XLR cabling because the new digital audio signals require a much more complex networking.
To mix it all together in FullHD 1080p30, a Mac with mimoLive is used.
Parts List
3x Røde Wireless Go 1️⃣
1x Røde Rødecaster Pro II Audio Mixer 2️⃣
3x Audio adapter cables
1x Headset
2x PTZOptics Studio Pro 3️⃣
Or
2x Magewell Pro Convert HDMI TX (if you already have 2 HDMI Cameras)
2x Tripod
1x PoE+ Network switch with 4 or 8 PoE+ ports (Consult with your IT department) 4️⃣
3x Cat 6 Ethernet cables up to 300 feet
1x Cat 6 Ethernet cable
1x Mac Studio Max or Ultra 5️⃣
1x Wide Screen Display for mimoLive and Multiview
1x Confidence Monitor 6️⃣
1x Magewell Pro Convert NDI to HDMI 7️⃣
1x iPad as a Remote Control Surface 8️⃣
Other Things to Consider
Lights – Classroom lighting is usually pretty bright and diffuse and will work fine for a school news show and morning announcements broadcast. However, if you want to take it up a step, using special lighting helps to achieve an even more professional look. But since this topic isn’t specific to mimoLive and very complex, please refer to the various lighting tutorials on the internet for more info.
Playout to school – If you want to broadcast inside the school, there are many ways to do it. Your school might already have a broadcast network or you might want to use the computer network for this. In any case, it is best to consult with the appropriate department of your school. mimoLive has many ways to create video/audio output suitable for ingest into the distribution system, but you might want to budget for playout devices if required.
Questions?
- If you need more specific advice or a quick start into mimoLive, you can book a One-on-One consultation with a mimoLive expert.
- Join the discussion on the Classroom News Studio on the Boinx Forum.