Two other options to consider other than the H.264 wifi HDMI Video Encoder. I assume you are using cameras that have both Firewire and HDMI outputs.

You could still get SDI capture cards but also buy two HDMI to SDI converters such as the AJA HA5. That would move you away from HDMI cabling to more reliable BNC connectors found on HD/SDI, and continue to use your current cameras.

Or you could use one of your current cameras with an HDMI over CAT5/6 extender. KanexPro has HDBaseT extenders, 4K UHD HDBaseT 70 meter or 100 meter extenders that work well. There are other brands also that will do the job. An extender would allow you to have one of your cameras much farther away from your control point.

As with every upgrade, it depends how much money you can spend.

I watched part of your basketball game. It looked good. What model cameras are you using?

I'm using HDMI H264 encoders, similar devices like in your proposal, to ingest cameras into a laptop. Not via wifi, by cable. Switch infrastructure is 1GBit.

Example (highlight reel from the game, full game is not public available on Youtube because of rights):


Three cameras were used (one Canon XA35 and two GoPro Hero 3) and HDMI is converted to RTSP streams. Latency is about 200-300ms. CPU load depends on the bitrate and is between 8% to 15% per stream (...added later by me...). See this topic for more information: http://forums.vmix.com/d....aspx?g=posts&t=6172

Hope this information helps.

Regards,
Patrick

You connect the camera with a HDMI cable to the encoder. At the same time, the encoder is connected to your common ip network (where your vMix PC is). Also network switches inside the network are allowed. The encoder transcodes the camera signal into a RTSP h264 stream. This RTSP stream can be used as input in vMix. No capture card required for this setup.

If your concern is for the load placed on the Vmix PC...
Most encoders h264 output can be decoded by VLC. As VLC has a plugin available to make it NDI compatible...

Maybe Run VLC on a second PC / laptop and send its output to Vmix via NDI.

I'd also suggest buying a couple high gain antennas to replace the STD. ones for better WiFi coverage.

A.

SDI would be the cheapest and most reliable method if your ok being retained to a 250ft cable, which remember you'll have tail along behind if on the move, unless you have a friend or colleague to work "cable caddy"

If the moneys there and within your budget, and you really want to do this untethered over RF you might consider a teradec bolt. Models are priced on coverage 300 --> 2000ft. Or by using 3/4g look into the teradec bond.

The new gen. models now output over USB (as well as SDI/HDMI) so you can plug directly in via USB3 and capture as a Vmix feed.

Theres cheaper.. the paralinx arrow or the Nyrius ARIES Pro, you don't get the distance or the build / production quality, but as mathijs wrote above ..... Choose the right solution and pay once.

A.

A BMD TVS is cheaper, yes. But not the same at all. If you want to record you will need a recorder, if you want to stream you will need a encoder, if you want playout, you need a playout system, you want CG, you need a CG system.
If you buy/build all that you will spend more money than the vMix setup, and you have to get it all connected together to get a nice workflow. Also, playout/cg will take inputs. GC with alpha channel will take 2 inputs. So with playout and CG, you will have 3 inputs left.
With a BMD TVS you can mix sources and that's it. Everything needs to be in the same format.

vMix will blow it away when it comes to possibilities, ease to work with, etc.
I know that for sure, as I came from an ATEM 1ME setup to vMix. I have lots of spare converters, scalers and other problem solvers left from that, which can be handy now, but which I would have not bought if I would have gone with vMix straight away.
In my ATEM rig I had 3 PC's, and building a show was a lot of work. If clients would change things last minute, it gave me headaches, now I just get around something like that within a minute, make them happy and be happy about it myself.

You can build everything to be able to grow with you. Get a good mainboard with a i5/i7 processor that has the same IGP as the vMix U, together with the decklink quad 2.
You can get a vMix HD basic license for 60 bucks. and for that you would have a 3 camera system with scoreboard.
You do a few jobs and upgrade that to a vMix HD license.
You can also skip that, get the vmix free 60 day trial and use those 60 days to generate money to get yourself the HD license.
You can use all of your SDI inputs for camera's, as everything else can be done within vMix itself.
If you want to expand beyond the capabilities of the system, you can buy a nice Geforce 1070 and even a second decklink quad 2 after that.
You want more from vMix, you can upgrade it to 4K or PRO after that.
When on a budget, don't only look at cheap and 'will get the job done for now'. It's best to spend your money smart by looking at the complete picture. Where are you now and where do you want to be in the future.

No, read again. I suggest building a system that can be upgraded with time.

OK
I agree