XA50 - Live Streaming with a projector screen

[rodimusbass]

Looking for some advice. I live stream a Rotray Club meeting every week. There is pretty much always a presenter, who will bring a powerpoint presentation. During the presentations, I frame the projector screen used for the people in the room to see, as well as the presenter at a pdium right next to the screen. The room is not well lit. I have my camera on Manual mode, and when I adjust the exposure, I pretty much have to pick between the screen being readable with the speaker almost completely blacked out, or being able to see the speaker and the projector screen being washed out. Is there anyway to even out the two? When I put the camera in Auto mode, the difference between the 2 is too much for the camera to handle. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated.

[Nick2020]

Hi rodimusbass,

Thanks for checking in with us.

I wish I could give you a camera setting that would correct for that, but sometimes you will have to make a determination about what part of the shot you want to be properly exposed. You do have some options beyond the camera settings though.

You could try to decrease the brightness of the projector or bring in some additional lights to increase the overall room ambience. Another option is to get a feed from the projector or laptop to a switcher as a separate signal that you can switch between.

Here at Canon, we don't specialize in live-streaming accessories, so you may wish to check with companies like Newtek, Matrox, and BlackmagicDesign to see if they have items that could work with your setup.

You can also check more generalized video forums to see what other professionals and video enthusiasts are using:

dvinfo.net

cinema5d.com

creativecow.net

They would be better suited to make recommendations about third-party live-streaming workflows and accessories.

[rodimusbass]

Thanks for the reply!

I didn't even think to adjust the projector brightness. That might help. I kind of assumed there wasn't a setting that would magically fix this issue, but thought I would ask and see 🙂

[mikew124]

I use a custom picture profile for environments such as these.

The Wide DR picture profile as it stands is too flat for live use. However you can create a custom Wide DR picture profile that is quite usable for live production I've discovered.

If you have the lastest XA50 firmware (1.0.1.0) you can turn on the Custom Picture Function (Setup Menu - Camera Menu 5 - CP Function ON). This gives you six instead of the default four picture profiles and they are all customisable.

Setup a new custom Picture profile (I use CP6).

- Use reset to default all settings to Wide DR

- Unprotect the profile

Then set the following three parameters.

- Master Pedestal -15

- Sharpness Level +10

- Color Matrix Gain +20

This setting works well for live streaming in high contrast environments I find.

[rodimusbass]

Ok, have it all set up, I will give it a try. Meeting is tomorrow.  I will report back with the results!

[rodimusbass]

Huge improvement! Thank you!