Building a crazy Streaming/Meeting setup

I’m started a new position at Logitech, as Solution Engineer. In my role I need to present and “sell” the fantastic Logitech Video portfolio. In order to demonstrate the devices, I would need to be able to showcase each product from remote. As still a lot of customers like to work from remote.

…This is how it could/should look like when I’m done..well then I will just add more..

Hardware

Logitech Hardware

ItemDetails
Rally Bar MiniRally Bar Mini
Power supply
AC power cord
HDMI cable
USB cable
Remote control
Lens caps for main lens and AI Viewfinder
Rally BarRally Bar
Power supply
AC power cord
HDMI cable
USB cable
Remote control
Lens caps for main camera and AI Viewfinder
Ralley PlusRally
Rally Camera
Rally Display Hub
Rally Table Hub
Rally Speaker (x1)
Rally Mic Pod (x1)
Remote control
USB Type C to USB Type C
USB Type A to USB Type B
CAT6A Ethernet cable
HDMI Type A (x2)
A/C cables (x2)
Power Supplies (x2)
Documentation
Logitech Rally Plus
Rally Camera
Rally Display Hub
Rally Table Hub
Rally Speaker (x2)
Rally Mic Pod (x2)
Remote control
USB Type C to USB Type C
USB Type A to USB Type B
CAT6A Ethernet cable
HDMI Type A (x2)
A/C cables (x2)
Power Supplies (x2)
MeetUpMeetUp ConferenceCam
Remote control
USB cable: 16 ft (5 m)
Power supply
Wall mount and hardware
SwytchSwytch Hub
Swytch Extender
Swytch Connector with 4.9 ft / 1.5 m USB Cable
100-240v Swytch Hub Power Supply
100-240v Swytch Extender Power Supply
16.4ft/ 5 m USB 3.0 Cable
7.2 ft /2.2 m USB 3.0 Cable
6.5 ft / 2.0 m HDMI 2.0 Cable
Mounting accessories
Scribe & Scribe ButtonCamera
Share Button
Dongle Transceiver
100-240v Power Supply with International Adaptor Set
16.4 ft (5.0 m) Cat5e Cables x 2
Cable Clips x 2
Camera Installation Kit
Tap Cat5Tap Touch Controller
Cat5e Kit
- Logitech Tap Receiver
- Dongle Transceiver
- 100-240v Power Supply with International Adaptor Set
- 2.97 m Cat5e Cable
- 7.0 m Cat5e Cable
HDMI 1.4a cable 2.0 m
VESA Mounting Screws (4)
Microfiber Cloth
Tap IP - whiteTap IP Touch Controller
Room MateLogitech RoomMate
Power supply
AC cable
Mounting plate
Remote control
Tap SchedulerLogitech Tap Scheduler
Multi-surface mount (glass/drywall)
Corner mount accessory
Mullion mount
Mounting hardware

Software

Wiring

The idea behind the setup is the present the portfolio of Logitech to my customers, so I would need to be able to demonstrate the devices and capabilities. As I don’t have and don’t want to plater the wall with screens, I decided to use a HDMI Matrix and ATEM to mix all together.

Each Logitech Camera has two HDMI-out and a HDMI-in. This makes three signals to process. As I can share the content source for all cameras, I only need a HDMI-splitter function. Further I had troubles with the HDMI in on the ATEM, which seamed to loose the sync on reboot of the cameras. The ATEN (not ATEM) 8×8 Matrix works fine with the cameras, as it’s emulating EDID which fixes the sync issue (at least this is what I see/think).

On Port 1-7 I have each the two outputs of the cameras, and port 8 is the input of the PC for the desktop sharing.

From the ATEN to the ATEM, I’ve routed three cables, normally this would be screen 1, screen 2 and the content. Since I can control the Matrix and the ATEM from the StreamDeck, I can switch any camera output to screen.

ATEN 8x8 Matrix

In
OutPortATEM mini Extreme

In
Out
Rally Bar Mini 1ATEM - 31SX-10 Wall30" screen
Rally Bar Mini 2ATEM - 42SX-10 Desk43" screen
Rally Bar 1ATEM - 53ATEN - 1USB-C - PC
Rally Bar 24ATEN - 2USB-C - HDD
Rally (RoomMate) 1Rally Bar Mini - content5ATEN - 3
Rally (RoomMate) 2Rally Bar - content6AirDrop
MeetUp - RoomMate 1Rally - content7Raspberry 1
PC-ContentRoomMate - content8Raspberry 2

Control

I use a Stream-Deck XL together with the companion app to control all the gear. I have about 8 Pages with buttons configured, but since I re-use many buttons over and over again, I have used some pages to park these, and only place references to the page in question. So when I change the source button, all others change automatically.

Also many colors change based on feedback of states, so this really makes is a lot more robust and flexible to design. I have by far not reached the end of my exploration in the Companion App, but I think I’m pretty good by now 😉

Here you see an example of the Matrix I’ve built in the Companion App: 

On the button press action, I set the Matrix, and the feedback action is to change the background to the active color, red, if the input is enabled. This way I always see which input is active, regardless where I changed the Matrix.

Configuration

Raspberry Pi4

On the Rasbperry Pi4 I run the custom build from Bitfocus, this takes care of all the updates for the companion app.

Update Companion App to 2.2, which is needed for the SX10 integration

companion-update

The Raspi4 has two HDMI outputs, which I would like to use for different tasks,

  • One screen shall be used to play video content, especially together with the ATEM SouperSource feature, I can use this as animated background
  • Screen two shall be used for the top-town webcam. This way I can capture what’s on my desk, for example the Logitech-Tab

Configuration on the Raspi4:

mplayer playing on the 2nd screen in Full-HD, and rotated by 180°:

pi@raspi4:~ $ alias webcam="mplayer -fps 30 tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video1:width=1280:height=720 -xineramascreen 1 -fs -vf-add flip -vf-add mirror"

Start VLC automatically

alias vlclogi="vlc --fullscreen Raspi4/LogiBG_Colors.xspf"

nano /home/pi/.config/autostart/vlc.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=VLC
Exec=vlc --fullscreen Raspi4/LogiBG_Colors.xspf

nano /home/pi/.config/autostart/webcam.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=WEbCam
Exec=mplayer -fps 30 tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0:width=1280:height=720 -xineramascreen 1 -fs -vf-add flip -vf-add mirror

Sty tuned.. more to come 🙂