OT: video-connection from one room to another

Well, I want to set up a video-connection - basically I want to place a camera in Room A and a screen in Room B.

In my studio I have no direct view into my recording room, this is not a problem but I thought it could be more fun to have a video connection. I do not have any clue about video but I have seen countless studios were they used some kind of a video connection.

For what kind of gear should I go? Just a cheap HD-video-cam from the discounter put on a stand and connected via Cable to a small TV screen?! Is this possible? In my case it would be nice if the connection could be wireless… I do not know if this is possible. There are a lot of network-cams available in the security sector which can be accessed via a browser… But some kind of a good video-quality could not hurt, I fear that those wireles-lan solutions will result in very small and very bad video qualy which might be ok in the security sector…

Brandy

we got 4 cameras around the studio, 3 connected with USB (using powered extension usb cord, and/or usb to cat5 adapters), one connected with FW. all going to one computer (not the audio computer) and controlled and monitored with VidBlaster.

We using web cam HD, getting great quality.

Shauli, great info - thanks a lot!

Do you have any latency? I would fear to have a lag between sound and video (bad when recording drums, it confuses)

How long can you make those powered extension usb lines?


For just one cam it could be a good idea to just use a good security cam connected on a small LCD TV. As it seems this should work fine. But your solution is able to handle more than one cams. In my case I could use one of the zillion outdated and not used PCs which I have here…

We do not use the sound from the Cam, the sound is routed form the console. For us it is mostly for Web streaming a session or remote session through the web/skype. So no Latency issues.

You need to get powered usb extension cords, we use 3 of them in line for a total of 50 ft, no problem. longer with cat5 convert.
Web Cam HD is less than $50.

Thanks!

So, for a quick solution I ordered one HD webcam (around 50 bucks) with 2 of these powered cords - I will hook everything up on a unused dualcore Netbook.

Maybe I will go for something more dedicated later, wall-mounted screen and better cam and stuff…

I hope that the stock-stoftware will give me some kind of a full-screen real-time video.

Brandy