The new vMix Call opens up a whole world of possibilities for remote guests, remote halftime shows or even having co-hosts in different studios as Tom showed us by being a guest host on the PTZOptics weekly show.

I had a thought about how this could be used as a base for another new feature for vMix. One that could offer a great solution to an all too common problem for those of us trying to do multi camera productions. Camera operator talkback or communications. Yes there are off the shelf solutions now but they are very expensive and out of reach for most streamers.

What I'm envisioning is basically adding up to 4 crew camera "calls" where the camera operators use small tablets with headsets to see what the director wants them to see, broadcast output, selected camera feed, text, even a tally light instead of video feed could be possible. Using USB or Bluetooth headsets the camera operator could talk to the director and other operators on one of the non broadcast audio channels. I had thought that the crew calls should only work over the local lan however there is also value to having a remote crew member being able to stay in communication during the production too. Example would be the remote camera operator / producer at the sports bar with the halftime show commentators. Being able to communicate with the director before, during and after their segments would help the productions go smoothly.

Crew audio feeds are not to be broadcast but part of the operations allowing non talent crew members a way to communicate all within the same mobile system. It would also be cool if the crew audio could be recorded into a separate file with broadcast video but crew audio instead of the talents for training.

This feature would be invaluable to me as I'm heading into semi-pro football season and have minor league basketball in the fall. Now we use our phones but this would offer a much better solution. I do know that I could get the Pro version and dedicate 4 of the 8 calls to crew. However I'd love to see vMix add additional calls that are already setup for crew operations. Would open up a new world to a lot of folks.

I tried few crew communication systems..One was professional and expensive but it need cable from operator to camera and its two way communication.
Second was walkie talkie (I bought it) but its quite tough to work with because you need to pick up talkie and push PTT to talk, and also they are too cheap so quality is not so good. (in another way whem you look its ok solution whem you need to communicate to cameras, it was very useful to me in some events that we streamed)

The best one I had tried was on my production for TV station of two soccer games. Its not expensive solution and it works great. The only negative part is that cameras cant talk to the operator but in this situation they don't need to talk (if we look cheap but nice solution).

Its radio transmitter and recievers. I was thinking to buy this before I tried it because I didn't know that we will use it in this production. Just buy some small power transmitter and cheap recievers, set up some frequency that, will not go far away, and you got cheap but nice solution for crew communication.

I saw on ebay transmitters for 50-100$

best regards

+1

I like the idea. We sometimes hire cameramen who ask for a return feed, so they can see what is on the program. I can imagine in sports you want cameramen to watch the game, but in some occasions, like for example a show with interviews outside the venue, it's super handy the interviewer and cameraman can follow the program until they are on air, and have communication with the crew in the meanwhile. With a powerful seperate wifi network (which will not always work in every enviroment, but in some it does), or an ethernet cable, this could be a handy feature.

If it could be integrated in the web interface, that would be a great step forward. This way Tally, intercom and return feed are all available over the local network.

I'll +1 this also but, If you using tablets, mobiles, PCs etc. have a look at zello. Works on almost any platform. You can create an unlimited amount of groups either open or closed (access by password) We use it all the time and have groups for camera guys, audio guys, front o house, backstage etc. Also has a plug in module to interface to rf for cross over into radio comms, you can monitor separate groups (switch groups on or off) on the same device use independent volume levels It has even spilled over into other hobbies / groups / friends / communications..