Hi all.

Next year, we are planning on upgrading our sound system at my church and at the same time would like to add video portion to it.

I am planning on building a computer for the vMix portion on our media upgrade.

Could someone tell me what hardware I need to build a computer for this project?

We are talking about between 2 and 5 cameras using HD-SDI connections.
We have yet to pick a brand for it. We would like to make the SDI port be one of the PCI slots on the motherboard.

We also want to connect the sound board to vMix so what kind of audio card do I need?

What graphic card do you recommend? What wifi card would be best? we would like to have the option to connect an Ethernet Cable to the computer to connect two PCs so we can get a desktop capture of the PowerPoints.

We were thinking of doing a Hard Drive of possibly 2TB for storage and a 250GB Solid State Drive for the primary drive to hold all the software and current files and actions and also the Operating System.

Is Windows 10 Pro a good OS?

What else do I need for this?

Any help would be appreciated!

Zach

Thank you ittadv.

We were thinking of purchasing a license of vMix HD, is that going to work with 4-5 cameras with SDI input?

@ fortsquarechurch

As with most things PC, your options are almost overwhelming so do your research well...
1st things first, establish your specific needs (which you have pretty much done) vs your wants (sometimes you can have them both, but often, budgetary restraints will force your decision).
Secondly, outline the components required to fill those needs which will determine somewhat the kind of budget you will need. This is where a lot of the important and difficult decisions need to be made. Building the "best of the best" can get very expensive very quickly, so knowing where to compromise and by how much might keep you from going over the top. Keep in mind, though, that higher end components might cost significantly more but will likely provide better performance and stability than building to the bare minimum standards.
Once you narrow down which components you are partial to, it's important to insure they are all compatible with each other (some capture cards do not get along with certain Motherboards etc.), so this is where research can really pay off. If you are up to the challenge it can be worth the effort but it's not always as straight forward as most of us would like. Building your own system may very well save you some significant coin if you know what you are doing, but it can take a lot of time and effort to "get it right" vs buying from known vMix partners who have a vested interest in seeing you succeed.
Although the vMix GO does not give a list of it's specific components, you can probably use it as a reference point for the type of costs to expect in building with mid to high end components, the important thing to remember is that there is no single solution that will fit everyone's needs and wants, and to some extent that is the beauty of vMix, you can build as you grow and even develop some of your very own unique solutions. Personnally, from my perspective, I would be looking at an i7, NVidia x70 or better with an AJA or Magewell 4 x HD-SDI capture card for starters.

Keep us all posted as to how you are progressing.


Ice

@IceStream

Is it possible to buy a Dell Precision Tower and add hardware? I know the specific series is great at adding new RAM and a second Hard Drive and is flexible in adding new PCI slots.

Should I look at that type of Dell Tower and just add parts to it?

Technically, vMixHD can be configured for 1,000. So you'll never run out of inputs.

In regards to off the shelf computers, remember that the system needs to be fairly consistent all the way through. To buy a minimal processor and add a ton of RAM and hard drives might leave you a little disappointed. Yes, upgrading RAM and hard drives are good, just make sure that the performance of all the components are fairly consistent so that you won't create performance bottlenecks.

Remember that vMix was created so that the video card does a great deal of the processing, so I wouldn't cut corners here. Make sure to check the Supported Hardware tab under Software on the vMix website.

Hope this helps a little

@fortsquarechurch

If you do look at off the shelf models, give some thought to finding out if they have a proprietary power supply. Always better to be able to put the power supply brand of your choice in if you need a replacement down the road.

There are vMix users using HP Z workstations with dual Xeon processors. Perhaps they will weigh in. On the more "consumer" oriented systems, HP puts unnecessary and annoying software on their machines as IceStream pointed out.

I disabled it through msconfig, so I don't know if can be removed entirely. If someone on the forum has successfully removed it, hopefully they will give you a definitive answer.

Yes, that is possible on YouTube. You may run into copyright issues with any music where YT mutes the audio on your replays. Also, if there are breaks in the connection, each break creates a separate YT video. I once did a 3 day/10 hours per day webcast with spotty internet connection. Ended up with about 20 different videos with some of them overlapping (go figure?). For YT video on demand, it may be better to do your own recordings and upload later after the live show.

We were thinking of possibly getting a CCLI that includes videotaping the music part of the service. Does YouTube recognize these licenses?

The normal CCLI does not include online video I don't believe. Our church had to get a separate license from CCLI that included video and worship on our podcasts, I would call you rep.

If you want more info on streaming workflow for church, feel free to give me a call or email. Our church streams every Sunday with all our sermon series and archives on YouTube. www.youtube.com/covenantinlandnw Would love to help any way I can with cameras, streaming, scripture/lyric overlays, CCLI, ect.

-Seth
208-661-0851
Seth@TheCloudMediaGroup