I've been putting VMix through it's paces at a large University where we're streaming and recording events almost daily. Some of the programs are very complex, with 4 PTZs, 10 mics, tons of lower thirds, video clips, VMix calls, bunch of scripts to automate things, etc. Some are simple, like one we did yesterday with 3 ENG cams connected via SDI, a single VMix caller and a one shotgun mic for our in house moderator.
The program was with a very prominent and expensive guest, and they paid a fortune for 30 minutes of their time. Hard cut at 30 minutes was the contractual agreement. About 25 minutes into the interview VMix simply disappeared. No error message, no CPU or GPU stress or any indication of any problems - it just disappeared in an instant and I was looking at my desktop and blank output screens.
The good thing was that I reloaded VMix, loaded the project, and it instantly had everything back - including the remote caller. I'd have to say, the crash could have taken 5 years off my life - but I'd say only 1 year after the speedy recovery, and that our less than tech savvy guest didn't have to reconnect with us.
So anyway, this has happened to me twice over the past four months. The first time it happened, I was running a much more elaborate setup including broadcasting the program using Zoom on the same PC running VMix. When it happened that time, I did a little googling and from the best of what I could find people blamed it on Zoom - or simply the running of so much at once on the one system. So we stopped doing that, and now I send the program out of my graphics card's native HDMI jack to a separate PC that runs Zoom. I also stopped using NDI for my PTZs because it seems to significantly increase the CPU Load vs. using my AJA Lo 4K Plus and sticking to SDI for the video feeds. With all of the changes I've made, I've gone from where I used to use 65% to 85% of my CPU to it rarely hitting 50%.
Bottom line is that after the first disappearing act of VMix earlier this semester, I thought I must have fixed it by eliminating all other software running on the system, and connecting all cameras in such a way that I rarely see my CPU utilization reach 45%, and my GPU usage is generally in the 15% range. Then yesterday it went poof and the program was so simple in terms of connected tech. My GPU was 8-10% on average, CPU around 25-30%.
I can see the argument that for such high profile interviews I shouldn't be using VMix to begin with, I should be using some expensive rock solid hardware solution that has nearly no chance to fail. I don't think that there's anyway I could justify or charge for all of the equipment I would need, and additional people I would need to assist if I wasn't using VMix. I've made a name for myself on campus, and now I have different schools and departments seeking me out because of my ability to put on elaborate productions for reasonable fees, and that's thanks to VMix in large part.
The crashes are so infrequent, twice over probably 100 events/recordings. My problem is that some of these events simply can't afford to be one of the ones where Vmix goes poof, and unless I can determine what is causing it I'm going to have to come up with something else when the stakes are so high.
Has anyone experienced this and fixed it? Is there anyway to pull up an error log from an event where the crash has no dialog box about the crash? Thanks.
