Connect the live, in-person event camera to a Pathable Zoom room Follow

This article will walk you through how to bring an HDMI or SDI signal from a video camera at your in-person venue into a Pathable Zoom room using a video capture device. 

Devices needed:

• One computer with Zoom installed.
• One capture device (external capture dongle or internal capture card).
• One USB 3.0 cable, and one or more HDMI cables (depending on the numbers of available video sources).
• One camera with microphone (and, optionally, additional video sources)

Process:

• For events that are only using one camera, you can use a USB video capture dongle to bring the video signal into Zoom. As shown in the flow chart below, you just connect the camera to the capture device with an HDMI cable, and then connect the capture device to your computer via a USB cable.

• For events with multiple video sources that you wish to select from or switch between, and are using a desktop computer with an available PCIe slot, a PCIe capture card is recommended. The capture card is an internal PC component that must be installed in the computer’s PCIe slot first, with the corresponding driver installed. You will need to install this type of capture card well in advance of attempting this setup. You can then connect cameras or other video sources to the card via HDMI cables, as shown below：

• Once you have logged into the green room (20 minutes before the scheduled start time) of the Zoom session, navigate to the "Video Settings" panel. You will find all available capture sources (such as USB Capture HDMI or Pro Capture Quad HDMI) in the drop-down Camera list, and if you are using a multi-channel card for multiple sources, each available channel is listed separately for you to choose from. Zoom detects the video capture devices automatically, and you can preview the source when the channel is selected for display:

• From there, navigate then to the "Audio Settings" panel. You can choose your desired speakers and microphone according to your meeting environment and needs. Audio from your capture device can be selected by choosing the device and corresponding video channel on the Microphone drop-down menu:

• Your selected source will appear on the screen. If you wish to switch to a difference source in a multi-channel configuration, click the up-pointing arrow next to the “Start/Stop Video” icon at the bottom of the page, and you can then select the source you wish to make live.

• After the above steps have been completed, you can ensure the the focus stays on the event camera for your virtual attendees. In the Zoom Webinar room, the host of the session can first select the three dots "..." on the event camera. Then, they can select "Spotlight for Everyone". By doing this, the focal point will remain on the event and not switch to the "active speaker".

Best Practices:

• Make sure that all alerts and notifications are disabled on the computer.

• Do not run other unnecessary software in the background while connected to the Zoom room.

• For best results, use an ethernet cable to hard wire the computer into the internet.